Culturally Responsive Teaching

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) - You keep hearing about it, you've sat through professional development about it, and you've likely tried applying various practices here and there to your own teaching and interactions with students and families. Did you know that one major aspect of applying culturally responsive practices is understanding the way all brains process information and leveraging this science for your instruction? I didn't! Zaretta Hammond so perfectly articulates this science and practical applications in her text, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain - Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigot Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. If you aren't familiar with this read, I highly encourage you to take a look or consider adding it to your list.

The Student Services department in SDW recently completed a book study with this text and we had many rich discussions around the implications from each chapter. Hammond breaks down the science of information processing and CRT in digestible chunks, which are appropriately applied to the art of teaching. The book is organized into three primary units: 1) Building awareness and knowledge, 2) Building learning partnerships, and 3) Building intellective capacity. I guarantee, upon reading these chapters, you will begin to frame a different way of understanding, viewing, and approaching intellectual differences within your classroom as they relate to unique cultural and linguistic diversities. As Hammond states, "When we are able to recognize and name a student's learning moves and not mistake culturally different ways of learning and making meaning for intellectual deficits, we are better able to match those moves with a powerful teaching response."