Robert: When my students enter our classroom, they know they are loved and that they are an integral part of our community because I greet each child with words, a handshake, and a gentle touch on the shoulder. Physically creating a bond through touch ensures that each child knows—indeed feels—that his presence is recognized by me and that she is valued by our community. We honor the community we have created as we begin each day in community circle. Children greet one another by name, using their home languages. We celebrate our diversity by singing our good morning song in the languages represented by the students, taught to us by the children or by family members. Moreover, my children know they always have opportunities to shine because I use rotations for special jobs, equity sticks in place of raising hands, and structured language and response protocols that access the various communication preferences of my students.

Lhisa: I establish an atmosphere of inclusion in my classroom primarily through cooperative learning groups. Each student in the group is assigned a role: scribe, messenger or quality controller. They can then rotate positions and help each other with the content and daily activities. In my World History class during the Feudalism unit, I had each student choose a social status out of a hat; this mirrored how people were born into a certain class (nobility, clergy, peasantry, etc.) and could not change it. If someone needed anything, be it a bathroom pass or a question with the content, he or she had to follow the feudalistic chain. The students took their responsibilities seriously and really tried to have the best group, or fiefdom, in the kingdom! These kinds of activities differentiate instruction and give all students the opportunity to succeed while maintaining the rigor of the course.

Robert: I strive to create the kind of classroom where every child’s individual strengths are known well and used well by me in the service of culturally responsive, differentiated instruction. The degree to which I am successful in adapting my instruction depends upon the relationships I develop and the extent to which I recognize my students as individuals located within their particular contexts. Therefore, I strive to create opportunities to know each of my students better. For example, during the first weeks of school I have individual story time wherein each child chooses a short book to read and discuss with me; in this way, we establish a connection through literacy. Home visits provide the chance for me to establish a trusting relationship and to learn more about my students’ traditions, values, histories, and languages. When I am invited into a student’s home, the purpose is not so much to become informed as it is to experience—if ever so briefly—what it is like to be my student, in his or her context. With these experiences I am better able to be the kind of teacher that each child needs me to be for his or her specific needs.

Lhisa: It’s important for teachers not to lose sight of the fact that teachers service people, not products or test scores. In remembering each student’s humanity, we need to connect the purpose or objectives that we teach to students’ ways of viewing the world. Instead of seeing this diversity as an obstacle, choose to see it as a rich resource to use, just as we would a teacher’s edition. Making connections and dialogue is the gateway to understanding.

Robert: Just as each student is unique, so too is her family; therefore, no single approach to partnership-creation prevails in my racially, linguistically, and socio-economically diverse classroom. With an open and friendly relationship established, I can honor my families as experts on not only their children but also their home cultures through invitations, for example, to help us learn our Good Morning Song in their home languages. A culturally responsive teacher creates opportunities to ensure that the expertise of a family is highlighted in the classroom.

Lhisa: Parents are involved in culturally responsive teaching through helping explain, when possible, how they “do things” or what the family may be used to. One of the greatest challenges in teaching continues to be parental involvement. I like to make phone calls to all the families at the beginning of the year to touch base; this way, the families know and understand my philosophy. I, too, can gain an understanding of the home life a little more to enable me to better serve the individual needs of my students. For teachers who serve 200 plus students, this is more difficult. I like to have several separate meetings a year with my parents, called a Parent Leadership Council. The students can showcase their work and we can provide important information to the parents, while showing them that they are encouraged to participate in the school and their child’s education.

Robert: I know that I am being a successful culturally relevant teacher when I observe the blossoming of a true “community” amongst my young students. With the scaffolding that I provide, students become the builders of their classroom community as well as its caretakers. Framing “community” as “people who respect one another as they work together”—and relating this concept to what they already understand best: their families—my students begin to understand that people are interdependent. Starting each day in community circle, greeting one another by name using the languages spoken at home, allowing a “student-of-the-day” to read a daily affirmation that the community repeats and discusses briefly are powerful ways to build trust and commitment to one another. The trust that we create becomes manifest in the ability to discuss topics with one another according to the protocols that we developed for having a respectful conversation at school.

Lhisa: The evidence includes observation, graduation rates, and academic achievement as quantitative measurements. As qualitative or anecdotal evidence, students often return and tell me how they are living their lives or how they encountered a situation and because of a lesson they learned in my class, they were able to handle it in a productive way. The best evidence is when I see how more senior students help and mentor newer students. My bottom line for the students is and will always be that they become productive, responsible people who are able to balance the best from the people they meet, represent themselves as cultural ambassadors to help educate people through their example, and remember to validate the human dignity in all people.