Culturally Responsive Classroom

“Gay (2000) defines culturally responsive teaching as using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, and performance styles of diverse students to make learning more appropriate and effective for them: it teaches to and through the strengths of these students.” I found this definition to be very effective and a great summary of the overall topic being covered. It hit on many of the different points and aspects of having a culturally responsive classroom and also how to be a culturally responsive teacher. This is very important in culturally diverse classrooms and all other classrooms no matter what sort of diversity is present. Many things can be taken from the short quote of Gay’s about culturally responsive teaching and the classroom setting. He first talks about the importance of using the student’s culture in the classroom. This requires the teacher to have knowledge about the background and the culture of the students. They
The story from the chapter about truth that sticks out in my mind is the story about Iktomi and the ducks. Iktomi lies to the ducks and kills them each one at a time. The ducks were gullible and listened to Iktomi, even though he was not telling the truth. Being trustworthy and telling the truth in my classroom will go a long way. Depending on the age level I end up teaching, there are different ways this can show up. I currently work in a daycare and many times the children try to lie to me and tell me they washed their hands when they actually didn’t. The students quickly figured out it was best to wash them instead of lie. I would smell their hands and see if they actually washed them. If they lied to me, they would end up having to sit out of some play time to get them washed and learn that telling the truth is the best option. This is just an example, but teaching telling the truth is a value that will continue into my classrooms in the