Introduction to Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms

INTRODUCTION

This module will take 30 minutes if you read and watch all the videos. The optional material will take longer.

Welcome to this training on Understand Muslim Culture.

The goal of this training is to provide Mainstream American** Teachers with an introduction to some selected themes on immigrant and refugee students from Muslim families. We will cover issues dealing with Islamophobia and Ramadan. The training videos provide teachers with content to facilitate consideration of individual differences when preparing lesson plans.

**Mainstream Americans are the people who have grown up in America their whole lives Mainstream Americans are aware of the norms of U.S. culture, whether they choose to abide by it or not.

How to use these Modules

These modules are designed to provide some introductory information about teaching immigrant or refugee students from Muslim family backgrounds.

We suggest teachers to read and watch a module on their own and reflect on them first.

Then a group discussion at a staff meeting about your observations and reflections can help deepen your understanding of the ideas and consider how you might apply them in your own classroom work.

We also propose teachers to volunteer to facilitate discussions concerning their responses to a particular module.

Some questions you might use to provoke a discussion are:

1. What was new and interesting to you? How did you react to the information?

2. Do you have other examples like the ones you saw in the video?

3. How does this information fit with what is going on in our school?

4. How do you think you might use this information in your classroom?

Culturally Responsive Classrooms and Cultural Competence

Let's start by watching this video that provides a brief overview of what cultural competence in teaching entails.

watch this video now

Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher (5 min) Links to an external site.

The Danger of a Single Story

Many a times the media portrays Muslims as a single unified community. We will learn more about Muslim cultural diversity from the upcoming Modules. Meanwhile, view the 19-minute video below to learn more about the problem with a single story.

watch this video now.png

(19 min)

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If you want to go deeper (Optional)

Specific Techniques Culturally Responsive Teaching

Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning.flv Links to an external site.

The method creates classroom culture that all students share rather than emphasizing international culture. By using a text rich environment, practiced classroom norms and expectations (call & response, classroom movement, groups) the teacher makes it possible for any student of any level of English proficiency to buy into the classroom mindset and participate as part of the group. Another way she created classroom culture is by giving the students ownership of the space by filling it with their own work & representations of their home cultures (but not in a way that isolates students). The tools she used purposefully removed cultural bias from the classroom, creating an inclusive classroom.

Additional Resources for a Deeper Dive