How to Tweak Your Lessons To Be Culturally Relevant and Responsive

04/14/24

By: Krystal Swoboda

I was born and raised in a predominantly Caucasian Christian community. I was exposed to books with only Caucasian characters such as, Judie B. Jones and Amelia Bedelia. Throughout my childhood we went to social gatherings and events that were surrounded in a very un-diverse population. Now, don't get me wrong those books were great and my experiences brought me wonderful memories, but I can't help but think how much I was missing out, by not being taught more about the world around me at a younger age. If I wanted to learn about other cultures I had to look in the small "World Section" of the library which provided a total of 20 books about various different cultures. The sad thing is that I had to actively seek these books. None of the curriculum provided time for students to learn about these cultures.

If only this was immersed in my education, I wonder how different it could have been. It wasn't until high school when I realized how closed off I really was. I hadn't had a full conversation with someone from another ethnicity, until I was nearly 14 years old! It is because of my background, that I decided that I needed to take steps in my life to become more culturally aware. I began to have a passion for learning more about people and why they do the things they do. I wanted to know how our experiences impact our beliefs and how those beliefs can ultimately impact our decision making. Through this journey I learned more about the people around me, and while doing so I also learned more about myself.

Now here I am, an ELL Director, teaching others on how to open there minds to the world around them. There is so much more that the world can give if you are willing to receive it.

Curriculum Modifications:

Skill building vs. Fluency when Choosing Resources

- Make sure you know where your students are at academically before choosing a lesson

-Make sure you can modify lesson based on what skills the students already possess

It's because of lack of global competency, that I realized how many minority groups are not getting proper representation. We often focus on fluency, instead of skill building and this type of educational approach does a massive disservice to the students that may have the abilities to be fluent but are missing the fundamental skills in order to be successful. Many times fluency is something they already possess. Another tension that arises due to the differences in teaching styles, is the underrepresented opinions of the African American teachers. Many of these teachers feel as though they are not being listened to. That when they choose to teach skills before fluency, they are not following acceptable approaches. In many of these cases teachers are so adamant about teaching fluency because they have not had the opportunity to realize the fluency that the students already possess. 

Click HERE for a link to my Language Acquisition and Differentiation Tool Slides

Appreciation of Cultural Otherness:

Incorporating Strategies Appropriate for ALL the Students:

The solution to this is to allow them to progress, we must insist on skills with the context of critical and creative thinking. We must try to understand the views of minority colleagues. To understand the variety of meanings available for any human interaction, and to never assume that what one minority student/colleague rationale, does not represent the voices of all. We must incorporate strategies that are appropriate for all the students depending on their individual needs.

1. GAMIFY IT.

Games are the power strategy for culturally-grounded learning because they get the brain’s attention and require active processing. Attention is the first step in learning. We cannot learn, remember, or understand what we don’t first pay attention to. Call and response is just a way to get the brain’s attention. Most games employ a lot of the cultural tools you’d find in oral traditions – repetition, solving a puzzle, making connections between things that don’t seem to be related (Ever play Taboo or Apples to Apples?).

2. MAKE IT SOCIAL.

Organizing learning so that students rely on each other will build on diverse students’ communal orientation. This communal orientation can be summed up in the African proverb, “I am because we are.” Even making learning slightly competitive in a good-natured way increases students’ level of attention and engagement. It’s why the T.V. show Survivor has been around for so many years; it’s a social-based game.

3. STORIFY IT.

The brain is wired to remember stories and to use the story structure to make sense of the world. That’s why every culture has creation stories. In oral traditions, stories play a bigger role in teaching lessons about manners, morality, or simply what plants to eat or not eat in the wilderness because it’s the way content is remembered. Diverse students (and all students, really) learn content more effectively if they can create a coherent narrative about the topic or process presented. That’s the brain’s way of weaving it all together. (Bonus: It also offers a great way to check for understanding and correct misconceptions.)

Social Justice Learning/Action

Decide what type of Instruction would work best!

Staff/ administration response to culturally diverse students with Parent Involvement:

Unfortunately, we often times do not approach the subjects taking into account the student’s point of view or cultural background. They instead give consequences based on the actions of the students without having a full understanding of the students rationale. In many circumstances, throughout my teaching career, African American students would not respond to indirect requests, and after the teachers had asked them several times to follow the directions, to no avail, students would not respond and then disciplinary action would be put in place. The solution to this situation is to involve the parents. Get the parents perspectives on how they deal with this issue at home. In response, the parents say that they give their children  explicit instruction. By getting the parents input, this immediately helped the teachers understand how to approach these situations. 

Cultural Identity Development:

Culturally Diverse Students are Assets in your Classroom!

We need to encourage teachers to develop connections to the home lives of students, by connecting with the families and communities which the students came from. “ To do that, it is vital that teachers and teacher educators explore their own beliefs and attitudes about non white and non-middle class people.” (Delpit, p.188) Having knowledge of my students cultural backgrounds and experiences has greatly increased my ability to teach my students effectively. Additionally, when presenting lessons that are not culturally relevant, we unintentionally isolate the students of different races and cultures because they cannot relate to the material. It is our job as educators to include culturally relevant materials and involve the perspectives of our culturally diverse students to provide them with an equal learning opportunity.

What are your thoughts? How can you tweak lessons to make them more culturally diverse?