Being culturally responsive in my teaching practices is something for me that takes a conscious effort. With classrooms becoming more and more diverse, it is important to take all factors into consideration when planning lessons. At the beginning of the year I do take an interest inventory of my students. This is helpful in getting to know my students and what types of things they are interested in. It also helps when helping students find books they are interested in to read. I think it's important to keep variety in lessons with lots of hands on and inquiry. To me the more hands on lessons are the better they hold students attention and the more they retain. With our IB units we do summative assessments at the end of each unit. We always give choice in these assesments. Right now we are working on a writing unit. Each student is writing an "All About" book. They are taking a subject they know about and researching to find out more. We are using Gail Gibbons books as our mentor text. The final product will be a book written by each student on a topic of their choice. There is a lot of creative leeway and they are loving it.
One thing I need to do better is finding ways to do incorporate more hands on in social studies. It's easy in math and science and even reading, but social studies becomes a little more difficult. I do bring in inquiry with pictures and carousel activities and we also do some group activities and projects, but I feel like I still do too much lecturing in this subject day to day.
To change this I would like to look into doing more role playing in social studies. I think the students would love this and they would really have to listen to gain the information they would need to be able to do the role playing activities. I also saw a tableau activity on a visit to Heritage Elementary that I would like to try. As with so many things I think there are lots of ideas out there, I just need to sit down and do some research.
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