Scan barcode
kokie's review
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
This is a great basis/framework for working with dependent learners. This book provides great science to back up good practice.
alundeberg's review
5.0
I so so so appreciate Zaretta Hammond's "Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain". If you are a teacher and your goal is to have your students actually learn and be successful in higher-order critical thinking skills so they can be successful in life, you need to read this book. If you teach Black and Brown students, you especially need to read this book, and even more so if you are White. Hammond combines neuroscience research to explain how the brain learns and why it doesn't to show how culturally responsive teaching (CRT) helps the brain grow and retain learning. She also explains how CRT is not a checklist of strategies to use, but a way to be. She applies the brain science to teachers to show how their different cultural beliefs cause them to be reactive rather than responsive in the classroom and shut down learning opportunities.
Through developing a teacher's self-awareness about different cultures, by which she means understanding if a culture is individualistic or collectivistic, a teacher can create a safe space for learning while also becoming her students' ally and partner in learning. This allows for students to have authentic information processing and a classroom environment that promotes and sustains learning. Once teachers build that trust and allyship (just because you call yourself an ally doesn't necessarily mean that you are), they can become "warm demanders"-- caring teachers who provide support and hold students accountable for reaching high levels of learning. A CRT understands that respect and trust have to be earned from the student by putting the student's needs first.
This book is very important today because of the impact of systemic racism on school policies. Because our Black and Brown families often live in less well-to-do areas that receive less property taxes, they go to schools with less resources and less-equipped teachers. They are given less learning experiences and more watered down curriculum that does not grow their brain or critical thinking skills. As they continue school, they fall farther and farther behind and begin to internalize that there is something wrong with them. This is then seen by the greater society that they are not smart and that they are lazy and troublesome. But they are not failures; the system failed them. While we cannot tear down the system that put this in place over night, teachers can prevent their students from this learning loss. We need to address the system where we can and give our students the equitable education they deserve, but first, teachers need to be open and culturally aware.
Hammond does not provide a step-by-step guide on what to do; however, she does give strategies to use in the classroom, and at the end of every chapter she has an "Invitation to Inquiry" to reflect on your own teaching practices and a list of further readings. It is really about making the changes in ourselves to bring about the changes we want to see in our students.
Through developing a teacher's self-awareness about different cultures, by which she means understanding if a culture is individualistic or collectivistic, a teacher can create a safe space for learning while also becoming her students' ally and partner in learning. This allows for students to have authentic information processing and a classroom environment that promotes and sustains learning. Once teachers build that trust and allyship (just because you call yourself an ally doesn't necessarily mean that you are), they can become "warm demanders"-- caring teachers who provide support and hold students accountable for reaching high levels of learning. A CRT understands that respect and trust have to be earned from the student by putting the student's needs first.
This book is very important today because of the impact of systemic racism on school policies. Because our Black and Brown families often live in less well-to-do areas that receive less property taxes, they go to schools with less resources and less-equipped teachers. They are given less learning experiences and more watered down curriculum that does not grow their brain or critical thinking skills. As they continue school, they fall farther and farther behind and begin to internalize that there is something wrong with them. This is then seen by the greater society that they are not smart and that they are lazy and troublesome. But they are not failures; the system failed them. While we cannot tear down the system that put this in place over night, teachers can prevent their students from this learning loss. We need to address the system where we can and give our students the equitable education they deserve, but first, teachers need to be open and culturally aware.
Hammond does not provide a step-by-step guide on what to do; however, she does give strategies to use in the classroom, and at the end of every chapter she has an "Invitation to Inquiry" to reflect on your own teaching practices and a list of further readings. It is really about making the changes in ourselves to bring about the changes we want to see in our students.
finallyfinnian's review
5.0
I find most teaching books to be kind of dry and lofty - not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. It's nice, however, to read an educational book that is also accessible and interesting. Like any how-to book, there are things in here that will work for me and things that won't. But for the most part, I found this book an important manual on how to be a culturally responsive educator, something that has always been important and is even more so now.
kmkrueger's review
5.0
If you are an educator and need a book to guide you to a culturally relevant, equity based classroom, use this book as your foundation.