What question guided your inquiry and action plan? (HMW?)
My HMW question went through many versions that started as: ‘How might we include previously silenced or overlooked voices/people in our classrooms every day to ensure all students feel represented and seen in discussions and topics within the classroom?’
It ended as ‘How might we include previously silenced and overlooked voices and people in our math classrooms every day to ensure all students feel represented and seen in discussions and topics within the classroom?’
What did you do and what impact did it have?
I began by creating a Padlet of resources to share with teachers in my school. I recognized that there was a need to support math instruction with a DEIJ lens as it does seem to be an area that is often overlooked when it comes to culturally relevant teaching.
To focus on this question, I have begun working with our middle school math teacher to reimagine what math instruction will look/sound/be like next year. These meetings are an important next step in ensuring that the vision I have to support all students moves beyond a vision, and instead becomes routine practice in classroom instruction.
What did you learn in the process? (Link to any resources)
My goal for my HMW question was to create a list of accessible checklists that teachers could use based on research to ensure that their lessons are culturally relevant and inclusive. The most important resources and summaries I wrote are included in the Padlet I created.
What is your big takeaway and what questions do you still have?
The biggest takeaway from my research is that culturally relevant and inclusive teaching practices are just good teaching practices. These practices take some introspective thought and minor readjustments based on your students, their lived experiences, and their interests. It also involves minor changes to your curriculum every year in order to tailor your units for the students that you have, not who you want them or expect them to be.
An additional takeaway has been that teachers seem to struggle to bring DEIJ into their math classrooms, particularly in the middle school as there are not as many opportunities to include DEIJ approaches in an ‘easy’ way. Culturally relevant and inclusive teaching involves time and effort which we have to be willing to put into our students and their learning.
Two questions I am left with are:
- How do we get resistant teachers on board?
- How do I distribute the information I have gathered in a way that is meaningful and helpful for teachers?
Sources Used in Research for Padlet:
https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/Formative-Summative-Assessments
https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/simple-assessment-strategies/
https://www.unbtls.ca/teachingtips/varietyinassessmentmethods.html
https://www.nciea.org/blog/classroom-assessment/culturally-responsive-classroom-assessment-framework
