Culturally Responsive Teaching: Finding your Identity
August 2013, I Lisa McDonald, eagerly waited in my first classroom for my twenty two new students that I would be teaching for the next 180 days. Being fresh out of college, I thought I was prepared for this new endeavor. I passed all my classes, completed my student teaching, and thought I had been taught everything I needed to know. Boy was I wrong! I understood that some of the students in front of me came from bilingual homes and varied in their language development. What I was unprepared for was the social emotional and disconnect that these students feel sitting in a classroom. Day after day, I witnessed disengagement, anxiousness, and hesitancy to speak and participate. Questions swirled around in my mind, “was it something wrong with me as a teacher”, “were my students bored and being disrespectful”, “was education not important?” I think the hardest part was I couldn’t completely relate. I feared not being able to connect and build relationships with my MLL students. It has taken years of experience and going back for my Masters in TESOL to realize the issues run deeper. MLL students care very deeply about their education, but often they feel lost in belonging. Who they are is not always represented, celebrated, or valued. I changed my mindset to begin thinking, “how could I, someone who came from a very different background, use my resources and new teachings, to build a classroom community where my MLL students feel safe, acknowledged, heard, respected, and most importantly have pride in themselves and who they are, their identity.
I, Elena D’Arezzo, was that student. Italian was the primary language spoken in my household. I was the one who had to translate for my parents at parent-teacher conferences or complete my homework without my mom’s help because she couldn’t read in English. I sat in the classroom feeling lost, out of place, and didn’t know how to express my feelings. I experienced anxiety, not being a part of the classroom, and my identity was lost. Unfortunately, at that time , my culture and language barrier felt not welcomed or valued. My language wasn’t seen as an asset . For these reasons I stayed silent. Now as an educator, I understand the pain and lack of acknowledgment my students feel in the classroom. I can relate to being embarrassed of the language barrier and not having a voice. I recognize that these students want their identity and culture to be celebrated and embraced in the classroom. I want my students to experience an identity-safe classroom so that it fosters learning, power, and advocacy for their future. By immersing myself in the TESOL Masters Program and teaching in an MLL classroom for 12 years, I have the tools and knowledge to make a difference in these students' educational journey. Establishing a positive learning community in the classroom where students feel comfortable and accepted is done through, “practicing inclusive and non-judgmental discussions, reflection, and engagement strategies.” (Howard, 2007, p.18)
In his TED Talk, Sir Ken Robinson said it best, “Humans are naturally different and diverse.” Education is grounded in collective diversity, curiosity, and creativity. All students are unique and deserve to feel important and relevant in the classroom. This is our why. This is our belief as we continue our journey educating Multi-Language Learners. Students learn when they feel that their identities are acknowledged, seen, and heard in the classroom. Students learn when they show respect for other cultural and peer identities in the classroom. Students become engaged and invested in the learning process when they can make connections and identify with the content being taught to them. Students are more willinging to take risks in their learning when they feel safe, loved, and secure in their learning space (environment/classroom is welcoming) Students learn when they are able to build upon their background language (translanguaging/experiences/knowledge). Students learn when the content is relevant to themselves. As expressed by Wesch, “Asking questions, taking chances, making connections took us down from the trees and took us to the moon. We want our MLL students to know that who you are matters. You are important! You are valued!
So here is the big question….how? How do we enhance our classroom community to incorporate the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and identities of our MLL population? After much
thought and discussion, we discerned that we want to bring culturally responsive teaching into our classrooms. We want to use this pedagogy (that uses students’ cultures, customs, characteristics, experiences, perspectives, etc.) as tools for a better educational experience. We want our students to see themselves and their communities as belonging in the academic space. “The emergent bilingual student adds immeasurable richness to a classroom. When they are valued for what they bring to the conversation and their prior language experiences are leveraged, these students are able to bring themselves—their whole selves—to class.” (Withycombe, 2021).
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| Students sharing artifacts from their culture! |
Within the past two years, we have seen the development and importance of technology in education. Being thrown into distance learning, we had to reinvent how we teach, relate and 
build relationships with our students. As noted in her article, Boyd expresses her belief that technology will forever play an increasing important role in our society. Technology in the classrooms is not going away. Teachers will not teach or engage their students the same way they did years ago. So now the essential question becomes, “ how do we effectively use it to incorporate culturally responsive teaching?” The first step was to truly sit back and reflect on ourselves and our involvement and understanding of technology. Using Scott Noon’s 4 Tier Model of Teaching, Training, and Technology, we, Lisa McDonald and Elena D’Arezzo, identify as Techno-traditionalists. This means we feel competent and confident incorporating technology to accomplish transitional classroom tasks. Examples include Google Classroom, digital slides, powerpoints, e-mails, grade books, and classroom planning. As technology continues to evolve, it is imperative and important for us to continue to push out of our comfort zones, much like we ask our students to do every day. This means we are 
inspired to move towards becoming Techno-constructivists, where we effectively use technology and media to transform our instruction so that students can build on their own experiences, construct their own meanings, build projects, and solve problems successfully. (McKenzie, 2000)
As we want to bring our students along on this journey, we have put together an engaging, interacting, and personal beginning of the year “Who Am I: My Identity” Unit. The culmination project for this unit has 
the students utilizing the online technology program Write Reader. WriteReader is a research based online book creating and learning tool to increase student's motivation and literacy skills in the classroom. This resource is exceptional for MLL students, WIDA Proficiency Level Beginning - Bridging (2-6), to use and apply their writing, reading , and speaking skills. Students can create a book with illustrations from google or take real photos and record their voices to read the text. The students’ books are displayed on a shelf for their peers to enjoy. This tool will allow students to showcase themselves, their values, and their culture. Students include information about who they are, their culture, their migration journey, why they came to America, and their hopes for the future. These identity books will help students feel a sense of belonging, a connection to the classroom community, and see the classroom as a safe zone where they can feel comfortable taking risks in their learning.
By having our students use Write Reader, they are becoming 
Techno-Constructivists as they go from learners who consume to learners who create. As students embark on this wondrous journey of teaching, learning, and sharing who they are (identity), as teachers we take on Sugata Mitra’s “Method of the Grandma”, which gives an emphasis on reinforcing language. “Reinforcing language is also about admiring children’s efforts. It’s amazing that such a simple practice of admiring children’s thinking, behavior, and growth can be such a powerful learning tool.” (Wood, 2010). As teachers we can employ this method by once again taking a step back and prompt learning by asking, “why, how, tell me more, wow
that is amazing, etc. The key now to all of this is for us to provide our students with the encouragement and confidence to move forward in their own journeys as we sit back and watch proudly as they take learning into their own hands and find their sense of belonging, their value, and most importantly their identity.
Before taking this course we didn't realize the importance of technology as a learning tool. We’ve used it in our classrooms, but more as an individual tool for kids to research and state facts. This course showed us that technology creates critical thinking and communication among students. Students and teachers can work collaboratively using technology and lessons should be student-centered focusing on their talents and strengths. Technology does not always equate to being alone, or disconnected from people and the community. We have learned that technology can be a driving force that opens and encourages true and authentic dialogue which is how learning becomes real and more meaningful in the lives of our students. According to Pedagogy of the Oppressed, written by Paulo Freire, “without dialogue there is no communication, and without communication there can be no true education.” (2018) This is our journey!!
Next Steps:
I am hoping to bring my project into my classroom this fall. We will start by talking about, "What is identity" and together we will brainstorm what makes an identity (culture, family, traditions, language, personality, etc.) Students will then work on making their own identity through brainstorming with myself and peers. Once students have a handle on their "identity" and begin to see how special, different, and unique they are I will introduce them to Write Reader. Then they will be able to go in and create their story. After writing their story, they are able to go back and add pictures (or take them) and voice. One great part of using Write Reader is that they will be able to record themselves reading in any language. This will give my MLL students the opportunity to showcase their L1 and how that is an important part of who they are. Then we will take time to present these to the class. This will help to build our classroom community and set the tone of culturally responsive teaching throughout the rest of the year. These will also be on display during open house and our Multi-Cultural School night!
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| Homepage to Create a Class for Write Reader. Students will use that code to sign in to be able to begin. |
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| Template of book choices |
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| Helpful Guides |
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| Example of Identity Book |
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| Students can eventually have their own library |
Resource Links:
References and Resources:
Boyd, D. It’s Complicated. (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2014)
Howard, G.R., (2007). As diversity grows so must we. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 16-22.
Freire, P. (1968). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Penguin Classics.
Howard, G.R., (2007). As diversity grows so must we. Educational Leadership, 64(6), 18.
Mitra, S. (2013). [Video] “A School in the Cloud.”
https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud
McKenzie, W. (2000). “Are You a Techno-Constructivist?” Retrieved on July 2, 2022 from https://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech005.shtml.
Noon, S. “ 4-Tier Model of Teacher Training in Technology”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lgDAuLNDXvd_fu0nCPtLarttFR4YbHDLSkZfSfg-Olk/edit
Robinson, K. (2013). [Video] “How to escape education's death valley”. https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_how_to_escape_education_s_death_valley?language=en
Wesch, M. (2016). [Video] “What Baby George Taught Me About Learning”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP7dbl0rJS0
Withycombe, A. (2021) . “2 Simple Ways to Build Equity in Your Classroom for Emergent Bilingual Students.” Teach. Learn. Grow. https://www.nwea.org/blog/2021/2-simple-ways-to-build-equity-in-your-classroom-for-emergent-bilingual-students/.
Wood, Chip (2010). “The Method of Grandmother.” Responsive Classroom https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/the-method-of-grandmother/.
