15 Culturally-Responsive Teaching Strategies and Examples + Downloadable List (2023)

Conditions for Creating a Culturally-Responsive Classroom

• Establish Inclusion -- This starts by highlighting how the topic you’re teaching may relate or apply to students. For example, many societies and cultures have fireworks festivals. While such a festival runs, you could teach how to calculate speed using fireworks in sample questions. Establishing inclusion also involves regularly grouping students with different classmates, encouraging discussion to solve problems. In doing so, they can share unique perspectives.

• Develop Positive Attitudes -- This further focuses on relating content to students. A popular method is allowing them to choose between activities and assessments that let them showcase their values, strengths and experiences. For example, while providing clear learning goals and evaluation criteria, encourage students to submit their own project ideas.

• Enhance Meaning -- You can bolster lesson content by drawing connections with real-world issues, asking students to use opinions and existing knowledge to address them. For example, when teaching about government, you could contextualize concepts through municipal political issues. When appropriate, use student jargon to clarify these issues or improve communication in general.

• Foster Confidence -- Make the assessment process less intimidating by offering different ways to demonstrate skills and understanding. For example, avoid handing out quizzes that are purely multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank. Among other question types, mix in problems that involve writing short- and long-form answers. After, give students time to assess their own progress and performance, helping them focus on growth.

15 Culturally-Responsive Teaching Strategies and Examples

1. Learn About Your Students

• Distributing questionnaires, asking about interests

• Handing out surveys, gathering information about learning styles

• Holding open discussions, allowing students to talk about positive experiences from past classes

2. Interview Students

• Hobbies
• Their favourite lessons and activities
• Which kinds of exercises help them remember lessons and improve skills

3. Integrate Relevant Word Problems

• Including student names to make subject matter relatable

• Linking to student interests, such as by measuring the shot distance of a famous soccer player

• Referencing diverse cultures, such as by determining the diameter of a specific ethnic food platter

4. Present New Concepts by Using Student Vocabulary

Andrea Pirlo is an eagle on the pitch, armed with vision sharp enough to detect the smallest openings and recognize opportunities his opposition can’t.

5. Bring in Guest Speakers

6. Deliver Different Forms of Content through Learning Stations

• Playing a game
• Creating artwork
• Watching a video
• Reading an article
• Completing puzzles
• Listening to you teach

7. Gamify Lessons

• Offering rewards, such as badges, for completing specific tasks or achieving certain scores

• Setting a clearlearning goalfor the lesson, charting progress throughout the class to motivate students

• Creating an "instruction manual" for a project, which contains the rubric and best practices for earning a high grade

8. Call on Each Student

• Encouraging the sharing of personal perspectives, when a question allows for it

• Calling on students without their hands up, acclimatizing them to speaking amongst peers

• Asking a question after each new point or thought, having a student teach back the concept you just spoke about

9. Use Media that Positively Depict a Range of Cultures

10. Offer Different Types of Free Study Time

• Provide audiobooks, which play material relevant to your lessons

• Create a station for group games that teach curriculum-aligned skills

• Keep a dedicated quiet space for students to take notes and complete work

• Allow some students to work in groups while taking notes and completing work, away from the dedicated quiet space

11. Encourage Students to Propose Ideas for Projects

12. Experiment with Peer Teaching

• Jigsaw activities
• Reading buddy sessions
• Using educational software in pairs

13. Establish Cooperative Base Groups

• Review lessons
• Take on guided research
• Address each other’s questions
• Complete in-class assessments

14. Run Problem-Based Learning Scenarios

• Encouraging students to take historical, sociological and anthropological viewpoints

• Framing the problem using ethnic events -- for instance, solving logistical challenges of running a heritage festival -- in the area

15. Involve Parents by Using Take-Home Letters

Downloadable List of Culturally-Responsive Teaching Strategies and Examples

Interested in other teaching strategies to deploy in your classroom?

• Active learning strategiesempower, engage, and stimulate your students as theyput them at the center of the learning process.
• In contrast to traditional learning activities,experiential learningactivitiesaimto develop knowledge and skills through direct, firsthand experience.
• Project-based learninginvolves an open-ended approach that sees students workalone or collectivelytowork on an engaging, intricate curriculum-related questions or challengse.
• Inquiry-based learningis broken down into four categories,all of whichemphasize student questions, ideas and analyses.
• Adaptivelearningfocuses on changing -- or "adapting" -- content for each student on an individual basis, especially with the help of technology.

Final Thoughts about Culturally-Relevant Pedagogy