English Language Learner KnowledgeBase for Administrators & Teachers

Top 5 Techniques for Culturally Responsive Teaching

This September 2018 article from The EdVocate.orglists five practical techniques to avoid those common pitfalls and become a culturally responsive teacher in an era where this is a necessity.  Further, the author states given the wealth of diversity in our nation’s public schools, it is no wonder that instructional theory is advocating a shift toward a pedagogy that emphasizes a comfortable and academically enriching environment for students of all ethnicities, races, beliefs, and creeds. Culturally responsive pedagogy is a student-centered approach to teaching in which the students’ unique cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about the student’s cultural place in the world.

Developing Culturally Responsive Approaches to Serving DIverse Populations : A Resource Guide for Community-Based Organizations

This March 2017 resource guide from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families was designed to help Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) serve the needs of their diverse populations.  The first goal of this resource guide is to help community-based service programs more easily find and access available resources on cultural competency in order to better serve their targeted populations. Second, the resource guide aims to help CBOs attract funders who often require evidence of culturally competent programs. This guide is not intended to serve as a training resource for frontline service providers. Rather, it directs users to an existing array of valuable tools and resources that they can consult, use, and adapt to strengthen their capacity to provide more culturally competent service delivery programs. The resource guide is also intended to help support CBOs in developing high-quality and successful applications in response to funding announcements.

Culturally Responsive Teaching from Edutopia

This Edutopia.org website locates and shares resources  which explore strategies to engage students by connecting to and honoring their cultures, experiences, and backgrounds.

Resources for Addressing Multicultural and Diversity Issues in Your Classroom

The National Educational Association (NEA) has established this page to help educators integrate multicultural and diversity education into the K - 12 classroom experience. The following resources consist of NEA Web pages with information about multicultural and diversity education, books for multicultural educators, and web sites containing multicultural education curriculum.

The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME)

The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) is a non-profit organization that advances and advocates for equity and social justice through multicultural education. On NAME's website, you will find information about the organization, resources available to assist you in your efforts to diversify education, and opportunities to learn more about all aspects of education that is multicultural.

Culturally Responsive Teaching Matters

This Equity Alliance report explains how teachers play a critical role in mediating the social and academic curriculum. While acknowledging what students already know, teachers connect it to frameworks and models for thinking and organizing knowledge that are embedded within disciplines such as literacy, mathematics, social studies, and the sciences. Culturally responsive teachers realize that mastering academic knowledge involves understanding that content maps can provide multiple avenues to understand and access information.

A Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching

This ASCD website archives the September 1995 (Volume 53) Educational Leadership article focusing on A Framework for Culturally Responsive Teaching.  This article states that research has shown that no one teaching strategy will consistently engage all learners. The key is helping students relate lesson content to their own backgrounds.

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practice

This NCCREST.org website is a resource for teachers on how to create a culturally responsive classroom environment.