We agree that we cannot create a curriculum that meets their needs, much less their cultural needs, if we don’t first get to know them as human beings.ĭiscussions about the following questions have helped me to refine my thinking about classroom assessments: Why do we/I assess?Īs a teacher, I assess students to find out what students have learned, to hold them accountable, and to help guide and set the pace for the classroom. When talking with other teachers about assessment, we understand the importance of getting to know our students. We harp on the positive and negative effects that assessments can have on students in schools. The question is: to which culture is it currently oriented?” -Gloria Ladson-BillingsĪssessment is one of the first words that you hear during your time as a student, as a student teacher, and as a classroom teacher. “All instruction is culturally responsive. I began by identifying areas and insights into what I know about culturally relevant teaching. Instead of griping about these assessments, I wanted to find ways to connect culturally relevant assessments with traditional assessments. My students were bogged down by standardized testing via benchmarks and end-of-the-year state assessments. The dyad experience was my first introduction and launch into changing assessments in my classroom. Culturally relevant means of assessment give insights about the kinds of assessments that lead and front students’ cultural strengths and curiosities and nurture and extend literacies. The dyad provided an opportunity to suggest culturally relevant approaches for assessing students that get at what they know rather than concealing what they know. This question was posed during my work with the Professional Dyad about culturally relevant assessments. What can you learn from culturally relevant assessment in comparison to what you learn from conventional assessments? In a mutual mentorship, teacher educators and teachers work together to explore and delve deeper into culturally relevant pedagogies. The space was created to support educators who teach children of color, children who are emerging bi- and multilinguals, and children from low-income households. This blog post was written by NCTE member Valente’ Gibson.Ī few years ago, I was given the opportunity to be a member of the Professional Dyads of Culturally Relevant Teaching, a project of NCTE’s Early Childhood Education Assembly. From the NCTE Standing Committee on Literacy Assessment
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