Assessing the Level of Cultural Responsiveness in Your Teaching
Angela Harden
Walden University

Dr. Mary Beth Crum
Enhance Learning thru Linguistics and Culture (Educ-665OR-1) February 15, 2015

Assessing the Level of Cultural Responsiveness in Your Teaching In this week’s assignment we had to meditate on the resources and use them to reflect on our own teaching, I reviewed the CREDE Standards and Dr. Garcia’s 5Rs and 1T and while looking at them learned many things. In this paper I will also analyze and summarize my use of the standards. One standard that I feel I utilized throughout my lesson was the standard that says teachers and students work together. (Laureate Education, n.d.a). In my lesson I work with my students to make sure they understand the skill I am trying to teach. I also make sure I use vocabulary on their grade level and use many strategies to aid them in the mastering of the topic being taught. I have made it a practice of utilizing techniques where it is a requirement that teachers like me connect students’ everyday activities and experiences with school. By doing this I practice contextualization. I actually tried this by giving my students an activity that reflects their real-life experiences so that they can apply these experiences in class so it can have an impact on the effectiveness of their learning. According to Cox, “experiences make students learn faster rather than giving those activities they have never come across in their entire lives. (Cox 2011). Although I haven’t experienced it in my own classroom, I have observed the language development standard being utilized in other classrooms. The teacher actually encouraged students to communicate in their native language along with English. The teacher also provided them with reading materials in their native language along with that same reading material in English to help them understand what they are reading. I also try to respond to the parents of my students and address their concerns about the progress of their child. This not only helps with ELL students but with all students. Keeping the lines of communication open can help the parents be aware of the progress their child is making academically. This will help them keep track and offer assistance when needed. As I taught this lesson and teach other lessons, I respect my students and try to be reasonable with them by understanding that they need time to figure out new things in life. That is why I make sure that they can relate their class work with their prior knowledge before I can build upon that knowledge. I also allow the students to ask questions about the topic. Reed and Railsback said “that students are more likely to be interested in a topic if they are able to say what they already know about the topic and start with their own questions” (Railsback and Reed, 2003). One adjustment that I would make to my teaching to better reflect the CREDE Standards and Dr. Garcia’s 5Rs and 1T is I would engage my students in more challenging activities so that they are able to use high-order thinking instead of looking at what’s only in front of them. I would also encourage my students to have a more open and engaging conversations within their groups. As I walk around and listen to these conversations I can understand how they reason and what better ways I would use to give them a clear guide in achieving academic success. I would also ensure that all the students participate in the discussion so that their views and opinions are shared. I would also try to be more responsible for my students’ academic success by utilizing as many resources as possible to help not only my ELL students by all of my students succeed. This assignment has really made me take a closer look at my teaching strategies. It has also given me resources and ideas I can use from now on. I am really happy I had a chance to look at these standards and compare them to the standards I already use.