Excellent Article on Culturally-Relevant Teaching!

In the article “Culturally Relevant Science Stories,” the authors take a look at implementing culturally-responsive teaching in the middle school science classroom. In this case-study approa... See More

In the article “Culturally Relevant Science Stories,” the authors take a look at implementing culturally-responsive teaching in the middle school science classroom. In this case-study approach, the authors take 25 middle school students who are all children of Mexican immigrant farmers who have had an interruption in their education. They decided to study soil biology with the students since that is a part of their family background. Through the course of the unit, the students did everything from testing soil in the science lab to creating and writing short stories that incorporate the content. This is an interdisciplinary approach, as the teachers included things such as reading fiction and non-fiction material, designing and carrying out investigations, and creating storyboards to tell a story. The students were required to do a daily reflection of their learning in a science journal. This article was ultimately very interesting and helpful. It shows the impact that culturally-responsive teaching can have in the science classroom. This approach, which focuses on having the students engaged based on connecting to their cultural background, has been seen to be an effective method of engaging all students. I teach roughly 150 students, all with varying cultural backgrounds and interests. Even so, using this approach can engage students who would otherwise not be engaged in science learning. This article was especially helpful as it provides a real unit plan that was used with results and documentation to show its effectiveness. Others may be able to use this information in the same way that I can! It is one thing to know what culturally-responsive teaching is, but it is a different thing to know how to implement it. This article gives insight on how to implement similar pedagogy. Because this idea of culturally-relevant teaching is a hot-button teaching concept, the information provided in this article is relevant to all teachers, regardless of the content area that they teach. One of the ways that I can use the information discussed in the article is to dig deeper into the backgrounds and interests of my students to find a topic that they are interested in. This will also help develop and/or strengthen the bonds between teacher and student. By selecting something that is culturally-relevant to my students, I can then connect with teachers of other disciplines to help develop a cohesive unit plan for my students.