How To Use Habits Of Mind For Culturally Responsive Teaching
Educators work hard to cultivate a classroom culture that is supportive, inclusive, and safe for all students. Whether that includes the signs and signals in the classroom space or the routines you’ve spent months practicing with your students, you may wonder whether your efforts are inclusive of the rich variety of identities represented in your class. How you take this a step further? How can you ensure that lessons are being delivered in the most effective way for your students to identify with? Dedicating some time to more culturally responsive teaching methods might be your answer.
What is Culturally Responsive Teaching? Culturally responsive teaching means using students’ unique experiences and perspectives as tools for better classroom instruction.
For example, encourage your students to tell their own culturally rich stories. They can use such habits as Thinking Flexibly, Listening with Understanding and Empathy, and Responding with Wonderment and Awe as tools for students to connect to each other’s perspectives.
Thinking Flexibly - Giving students the opportunity to think flexibly can be as simple as showing examples of how different holidays are celebrated around the world, or as complex as facilitating a conversation about their favorite stories and why they like them. Inviting differences of opinion enriches the learning experience.
We recommend using our Habits of Mind instructional animations on “Thinking Flexibly” to help model what thinking flexibly can look like.
Listening with Understanding and Empathy - As students begin to develop informed opinions of their own, guiding them toward healthy communication habits means helping them understand how to listen with understanding and empathy. The easiest way to do this is to practice it yourself! Encourage students of all backgrounds to contribute in class discussions, and provide space for alternative perspectives to present themselves. Practicing listening with understanding and empathy can help students appreciate and respect one another.
Responding With Wonderment and Awe - One of the most exciting aspects of culturally responsive teaching can be the wealth of new information for both yourself and your students! Whether it be finding culturally relevant historic references, exploring art from cultures other than the dominant culture in the classroom, or simply a student sharing their experiences from their home culture, learning new things can inspire Wonderment and Awe!
In addition to the resources available with WonderGrove Learn, we recommend using this Culturally Responsive Teaching Checklist from The UCLA Institute for Immigration, Globalization, & Education.
Anu Watts, M.A. Teaching
Wonder Media Project Coordinator