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Creating a Supportive Learning Environment Western Governors University D 186 Task 1 Learning as a Science Task 1 2 Culturally Responsive Classroom Learning Expectations. Learner expectations are one of the essential aspects of a responsive classroom. Learning expectations help the students care about their learning and help them respect the work that they do. With kindergarten being some of the students' first school experiences, creating expectations for them can be challenging in the first few weeks. When some things are hard, I put a positive spin on them so students can change their mindset. For example, when learning to hold a pencil or cut with scissors, I tell my students that if their hands hurt, they build their muscles to grow strong. Another example is if something is hard and I am challenging them, I tell them that I believe in them, which will help their brain muscles. I constantly encourage them and tell them I know they can do this because they are all so bright. This helps create a culture of high expectations that my students can achieve. The article “Why Teacher Expectations are Important for Student Achievement” states, "it does, however, mean that you spur all your students on to do their best,
and you do not accept less from a student you know can perform better. This may mean allowing them to redo a test or task because you know they can achieve more.” (Amaro, 2016) Creating that expectation for the students will help them deeply understand expectations. Emotional Safety, Belonging. Emotion safety is essential for a child's development. Students could have a home life that is less than ideal, could be bullied, etc. It is the educator's responsibility to ensure that the students feel safe in their classroom. Students need to be able to trust their teacher. Trust could take some time. "Positive adult relationships can support student development and welfare, especially when culturally sensitive and responsive
Sciences, “a supportive environment promotes strong attachments and relationships, a sense of safety and belonging, and relational trust." (Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B., & Osher, D., 2019) Respectful Relationships. A way that my grade level has implemented this year is bucket filling. Bucket Filling has worked so well in the kindergarten class in terms of building respectful relationships. We read "Fill a Bucket" and "Bucket Filling: A to Z" at the beginning of the year. We even have individual buckets for the students to have a visual. When reading and explaining how to be a bucket filler, we review different examples of how doing nice things can make a difference. When they do not do great things, it can affect the person they did it to and them. During the first few weeks, we celebrated any kindness and respectfulness with a button to put in their bucket. Respectful relationships are essential when the teacher wants the students to be able to collaborate. The article “Learning for Justice” states, “When educators create an intellectually braver space, students develop the ability to share their stories and learn from other perspectives. Students can also take risks in their learning.” (Learning for Justice, n.d.) Little learning will occur if students do not feel comfortable sharing stories or ideas. When students talk to each other, I will discuss how to be respectful and remind students that just because someone else thinks differently does not mean you have to be disrespectful. Instructional Strategies. Morning meetings are one of the strategies to help implement a culturally responsive classroom. Morning meetings help students open up to each other and help the students have a good outlook on the day ahead. It can also show students that they might be the same as their peers regarding their experiences. According to Digital Promise’s image, “social interaction can be powerful learning experiences because they encourage deeper
processing and engage the ‘social brain.’” (Digital Promise, n.d) Sharing experiences will help students develop relationships with each other and feel comfortable around one another. We need to be able to interact with one another to have a positive culture in the class. I also incorporate a stuffed animal as a talking stick to ensure the students are using active listening skills and being respectful. Keith Sawyer said, " Many of today's schools are not teaching the deep knowledge that underlies innovative activity. However, it is not just a matter of asking teachers to teach a different curriculum because the structural configurations of the standard model make it very hard to create learning environments that result in deeper understanding." (Sawyer, R. K.,n.d. ) Another instructional strategy goes along with the quote prior. The strategy is to connect the curriculum to the students' lives. When the curriculum connects to prior knowledge and can be reinforced in the student's lives outside of the classroom, it can result in a deeper meaning and understanding of the curriculum. According to the quote, this could mean that teachers might have to look to supplement the curriculum to make sure they are creating a culturally responsive lesson. Both strategies can be part of a collaborative learning environment. Learning is a social process where learners can learn from one another. Physical safety. “Students need a sense of physical and psychological safety for learning to occur since fear and anxiety undermine the cognitive capacity and short circuit the learning process." (Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B., & Osher, D.,2019). This plays into physical and emotional safety as well. It ties into physical safety because children do not need to feel unsafe in your classroom. This can go for you, but also for other peers. Nothing will be accomplished when students are afraid of coming to school or even scared of
tables instead of individual seats. I would arrange the furniture in a way that is more inviting for my students to collaborate with each other. I would also mix the students up to ensure the conversations would be diverse. This helps with collaborating and building peer relationships. For example, putting high, medium-high, medium-low, and low achieving student at a table so they can learn from each other. This would be using some cooperative learning structures to get the students to talk and learn from each other. The classroom furniture needs to be comfortable for the students. Students will not focus on learning when they are uncomfortable. I will ensure that all of the furniture in my classroom fits the student’s needs and is learner centered. Learning resources can have an impact as well. Teachers must ensure they do not assume all children know the same things from their backgrounds. For example, I have an ELL student this year from Jordan. I have posted things on the walls to label things in Arabic in the classroom. I also make sure to translate anything to help the student in Arabic. Educators must remember that their curriculum might not be culturally responsive, so they must fill those gaps. Students are inquisitive and love to learn new topics about the world around them. To connect with our ELL students, we learn about how they celebrate the holidays around Christmas time. This helps the other students see their background and connect with them on another level. The article " How People Learn " states, " One way to integrate culture as a resource is the cultural modeling approach to classroom instruction (Lee et al., 2003). This model is designed to engage students from nondominant backgrounds by guiding them to see connections between their own cultural experiences and the disciplinary ideas and ways of thinking being taught." (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering. and Medicine U.S.,2018). Learning about the ELL student's culture can help see similarities between the two cultures.
Regarding community expectations, some parents are very involved in helping teachers and their children whenever possible. Learning should be intertwined with the students' home lives. To do this, I will make sure I have clear communication with all of my students' families. At the beginning of the year, I ask the parents questions about their children so I can get to know them better. I ask them how they learn best and what motivates them. This tells the parents that I care about their children's learning. I send positive notes home, so there is a good rapport. I make sure to tell my parents that they can message me with any questions. I will send a weekly newsletter about everything we do in class. "This holistic approach must necessarily connect with family and community contexts: developing strong, respectful partnerships to understand and build on children's experiences and as needed, strengthening any aspects of the developmental system where there are challenges to children's health and wellbeing." (Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B., & Osher, D.,2019. ) This quote explains that if the teacher and parents have a good relationship, the students will ultimately have a good relationship with the teacher. The parents will respect the teacher, want to care about the education, and help have an open mind if there are any concerns in the future. Community expectations do not just include the families. It can connect with the city and community helpers. For example, my school is considered a STEM school, so once a year, we like to invite people from the city who work in a STEM job or any job where they would use math or science. This helps students think about their learning and invest more in it because they will use it in the future. We also have helpers for the students to learn about, like firefighters, police officers, nurses, and waste management, to come and talk to the students. “When teachers tap into the community's resources by inviting parents and
Unconscious Biases. An unconscious bias that teachers can have is gender bias, sometimes with students and parents. For example, I usually do not communicate with the father, only the mother. This is because I can get intimidated by men and sometimes assume the mother is the only one caring about education. This can negatively impact the child, especially if the father is the sole caregiver. This has led me in the past not to have a great relationship with the child or the caregiver just because I was intimidated to talk to the father. This could lead to more stress for the student or a lack of support for the child's education. To help with this, I would try to be more open-minded and mindful of modern outlooks on gender roles. I will try to engage in conversations with male figures in the children’s lives at conferences, after-school activities, and through online communication. With students, I tend to favor one sex to the other. Most of the time, I favor girls because I am a female. I also catch myself getting onto boys more for being more active when I want them to sit down. This has led me to get more easily frustrated at boys than I do with girls. I need to remember that they are five years old, and boys need to be able to be active in the classroom. I have been implementing several brain breaks and movement breaks throughout the day. To help myself with the gender bias, my grade level and I went to professional development about brain differences, which specifically touched on the difference between boy and girl brains and how they are wired differently. This has led me to give more grace when dealing with my male students this year. This has allowed me to have closer relationships with the boys of my class. Another unconscious bias is racial bias. It is hard to say that this is still a problem today. Some teachers might think that students from another race cannot achieve or not have a good relationship because they do not relate to each other. This could impact the student thinking that their teacher does not care about them, so they should not try in school. This will lead to lower
academic and poor relationships with the child and teacher. Teachers can evaluate biases by being honest with themselves and reflecting on their teaching. Teachers can ensure they understand these biases and challenge them head-on. Teachers must promote a positive learning environment so their students can achieve. One thing that teachers can do is talk about it with their students. To mitigate this, as an educator, I need to have a more open mind and find things to have in common with all students. I have activities for the students and me to play so we can see how alike we are with each other. I need to ensure I have a good relationship with all my students, regardless of race. This will give me a positive outlook on the class because the students will trust me and want to have a respectful relationship with me. If this does not happen, this could lead to a hostile environment for the students. This will eventually lead to bad relationships and low-achieving students. A way to mitigate bias is reading kid-appropriate literature that focuses on bias and is more culturally responsive. Showing students that people are different can help students open their minds. For example, "The Amazing Eric" can teach students about students with disabilities. Mitigating biases for me and the students will help affect the responsiveness of my classroom by having everyone able to trust and be comfortable with each other. If we all trust and respect each other, this will lead to openness to collaboration and learning. Another example would be "The Name Jar." This book can show students that people have different backgrounds. These books will lead to meaningful conversations with students about how to treat others respectfully. Focusing on being a classroom family makes children feel safe in their school environment. Make sure to celebrate the positive things, like being a bucket filler that happens in the classroom.
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