Culturally Responsive Teaching & Differentiation

Definition

Differentiation in the classroom is adapting instruction to fit the needs of all learners in the classrooms. As a teacher, you will have students who have a different ethnic background, who have a disability, who are identified as gifted and talented, who are of different genders, etc. Acknowledging these diverse components in the classroom and adapting lesson plans and instruction is differentiation. Culturally Responsive Teaching ties together with differentiation. It is an approach to teaching that focuses on cultural knowledge, prior experience, performance styles, and frames of reference to make learning outcomes effective in the classroom.

Resource & Application

The resource that I found is an article titled What is Differentiated Instruction? Examples of How to Differentiate Instruction in the Classroom. The article starts by defining differentiated instruction and giving a history of it. "In 1975, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), ensuring that children with disabilities had equal access to public education. To reach this student population, many educators used differentiated instruction strategies. Then came the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2000, which further encouraged differentiated and skill-based instruction—and that’s because it works (Weselby, 2017)."

The majority of this article focused on four ways to differentiate instruction, which I found to be very helpful when applying this to my future classroom. I can use these ways when I am making lesson plans, and I can keep these in mind when I have to adapt those lesson plans to fit the needs of all learners. This article will also help me be a good culturally responsive teacher. This article causes me to think about the different learners that I will have in my classroom, and how I will help them meet learning outcomes. 

1. Content: Differentiate the content by creating activities that cover a variety of learning levels.
2. Process: Provide different resources for students based on the type of learner they are.
3. Product: Have students create a product that tests their mastery for the content by allowing them to creatively develop something. Do not always create a paper-pencil test.
4. Learning environment: Make sure the learning environment is flexible.

References

Quotes about classroom Instruction. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.quotemaster.org/classroom instruction

Weselby, C. (2017, November 20). What is Differentiated Instruction? Examples of Strategies. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/examples-of-differentiated-instruction/

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Differentiation

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Differentiation                     By: Corey Taylor

“Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning” (Ladson-Billings,1994).

Culturally responsive teaching and differentiation work together to enable each student to relate course content to his or her cultural context. This approach to teaching students from diverse backgrounds supports the characteristics of students and builds upon who students are and the qualities they bring with them to school. It builds on cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them (Cooper 210). Differentiated instruction and assessment is a framework for effective teaching that involves providing different students with different paths to learning. Differentiation helps students process, construct, and making sense of ideas; Regardless of differences in ability, it involves developing teaching materials and assessments that all students in the classroom can effectively learn from.

Resource

Characteristics of culturally responsive teaching:

1.Positive perspectives on parents and families
2.Communication of high expectations
3.Learning within the context of culture
4.Student-centered instruction
5.Culturally mediated instruction
6.Reshaping the curriculum
7.Teacher as facilitator

References

Brown University. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from             https://www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/teaching-diverse-      learners/strategies-0/culturally-responsive-teaching-0

Cooper, J. M. (2011). Classroom teaching skills (10th ed.). Belmonte, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage                   Learning.

(n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from      https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=differentiation%2Bin%2Bteaching&FORM=HD       RSC2

PLCs and C-Teaching

PLC’s and Co-Teaching                                                              By: Corey Taylor

PLC’s are communities of teachers, parents, administrators, counselors, and students who work together to ensure that students are reaching their maximum potential. Professional Learning Communities create a doorway for collaboration that helps educators work to meet the needs of individual learners and reach targeted learning objectives. PLCs enable educators to continually learn from one another and share different strategies and plans, and in-depth examination of what does and doesn’t work to boost student success. Co-Teaching is when two teachers work together in teaching and collaborate in the planning, organization, delivery, and assessment of instruction. In co-teaching, the classroom typically has a general education teacher and a special education teacher who share the teaching responsibilities. Types of Co-Teaching include: parallel teaching, team teaching, one teaches one drift, station or center teaching, and alternative teaching.

Resource

http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues61.html
In education, learning communities have become dynamic and are being used to extend classroom practice, bring the community into the school, and improve the curriculum and learning objectives for students. While including students, teachers, and administrators simultaneously in learning, PLC’s/Co-Teaching enhance educator’s effectiveness so that students benefit in the classroom.
Characteristics of PLC’s/Co-Teaching:
1.supportive and shared leadership,
2.collective creativity,
3.shared values and vision,
4.supportive conditions, and
5.shared personal practice

References

Professional Learning Communities: What Are They And Why Are They Important?Introduction. (n.d.). Retrieved February 19, 2018, from    http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues61.html

Cooper, J. M. (2011). Classroom teaching skills (10th ed.). Belmonte, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage                   Learning.

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Differentiation

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Differentiation

Culturally responsive teaching and differentiation work hand in hand. Culturally responsive teaching is a term describing an approach to teaching and learning that builds on the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them. Differentiated instruction can be varied approaches to what students need to learn, how they will learn it, and/or how they can express what they have learned, intended to increase the likelihood that each student will learn as much and as efficiently as possible. When a teacher is culturally aware it is easier to differentiate your instruction.

Resource

https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching/ 

This resource has the top fifteen things a teacher can do in order for their instruction to be differentiated and culturally responsive. There are examples and strategies as well. 

Sources

Guido, M. (2017, September 13). 15 Culturally-Responsive Teaching Strategies | Prodigy. Retrieved February 19, 2018, from https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/culturally-responsive-teaching/

Cooper, J. M. (2011). Classroom teaching skills (10th ed.). Belmonte, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

Co-Teaching & PLCs

Definition: PLCs and Co-Teaching

PLCs stand for Professional Learning Communities. This is a team within the school comprised of teachers, school counselors, administrators, and most importantly, the students. The goal of a PLC is to ensure and improve students' learning. It is an effective way of teachers being able to collaborate with each other. Co-Teaching can often times stem from a PLC. This is when 2 teachers work together in the classroom. They collaborate with each other on the planning, organization, instruction, strategies they will use, etc.

Resource

"True collaborative teams embrace student learning as their primary purpose, and sometimes teams must go through difficult conversations in order to make this a reality (Bayewitz, 2015)."

PLCs and Co-teaching are great ideas in theory. However, it would be naive to believe that PLCs and Co-Teaching are without conflict. To dig deeper into conflict among PLCs and Co-Teaching, I discovered an article titled Dealing With Conflict on Collaborative Teams. The article was written by Michael Bayewitz, and he states that although conflict will be present in PLCs and other collaborative strategies, it is important to embrace the conflict, not ignore it.

Bayewitz lists some strategies for conflict in collaboration with other teachers:

1. Q-TIP (Quit Taking It Personally)
2. Invite healthy conflict.
3. Monitor nonverbal communication.
4. Vary your approach.

Find the article here: http://www.allthingsplc.info/blog/view/315/dealing-with-conflict-on-collaborative-teams

Application in the Classroom

I think this article is a great resource for the classroom. It is important to remember these strategies when I am involved in a PLC in the future or when I co-teach with another educator. Conflict is something that is unavoidable, and I will not agree with everyone that I work with. It's important to remember that all effective teachers have the same outcome in mind: student learning. 

References

Bayewitz, M. (2015, October 28). Dealing With Conflict on Collaborative Teams. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from http://www.allthingsplc.info/blog/view/315/dealing-with-conflict-on-collaborative-teams

PLC and CoTeaching

PLC and Co-Teaching

Mary Katherine Elmore

                               A PLC is a professional learning community. This is a team that collaborates well together and helps design curriculum. This team is usually comprised of a teacher, administrators, students, counselors, and parents. PLC's are excellent tools to ensure that students are learning, to create a culture of collaboration, and to focus on results. Co-Teaching can help with creating new ideas, lowers student to teacher ratio, and can help with one on one time with students. There are five types of Co-Teaching, one teaching, one support, parallel teaching, station teaching, alternative teaching, and team teaching. In the video below it gives examples of each type of Co-Teaching.

                                          

http://faculty.virginia.edu/coteaching/video_5formats.html

Cooper, J. M. (2011). Classroom teaching skills (10th ed.). Belmonte, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage       Learning.

Alexander, C. (2012). Curry School of Education. Retrieved February 16, 2018, from                     http://faculty.virginia.edu/coteaching/video_5formats.html