Every child is a cultural being with a unique history and rich cultural practices; a member of communities in and outside of school. Yet too many children spend their days inside classrooms where they rarely find their voices, values, and cultural practices reflected in curriculum materials, much less embraced and celebrated through instructional practices. Culturally relevant teaching is essential, now more than ever. If we want children to develop as successful learners, we must communicate that they belong in our classrooms. They need to see themselves, their cultures, their families, and their communities reflected in the materials and resources they find there. Culturally relevant teachers honor students' identities by positioning them at the center of teaching and learning. Each and every day, they make sure children and their families feel that they belong in school. They include multiple perspectives and points of view in the curriculum. In this book, four teachers who teach in richly diverse classrooms and have studied culturally relevant pedagogy for years with researcher Mariana Souto-Manning, share specific practices, strategies, and tools that make their teaching culturally relevant. Join the authors of No More Culturally Irrelevant Teaching and show your students that their lives do matter...in teaching, in learning, and in society.

"While no check-list of attitudes, dispositions, behaviors, or actions can define what thriving teachers look like, the teachers interviewed here give us powerful examples of what it takes to face their profession with courage, their content with enthusiasm, and their students with love." -Sonia Nieto One in four public school students in the U.S. now speaks a language other than English at home, and the number of emergent bilingual and immigrant children in our schools continues to grow daily. What does it mean to be a teacher today, when students are more diverse in language, culture, race, and social class than ever before? What does it take to thrive, when the demands of teaching have never been greater? Sonia Nieto found and interviewed 22 teachers of varying backgrounds and school settings who help answer the question of what effective, culturally responsive teaching looks like in the real world. Their stories of success, failure, frustration and hope will resonate with everyone who has struggled to meet the needs of diverse students in our current sociopolitical context. Nieto explores the common themes that arose throughout the interviews, of teaching with a social justice perspective, the moral dimensions of teaching, advocating for students, and challenging the status quo. She raises a persuasive argument that teaching is an ethical endeavor, that we must honor students' identities and believe in their futures, and that ultimately teaching is an act of love. The stories of Nieto's passionate teachers will inspire and motivate you to find joy in teaching students of diverse backgrounds. Read a sample chapter

This extraordinary book draws you into Caltha Crowe's "never quit" efforts to help Sammy, a challenging but charming third grader, gain control of his behavior so that he, and his classmates, can learn. Caltha takes readers into her classroom through rich stories, complemented with personal journal entries. Through her sympathetic eyes, we experience Sammy's defiance, angry outbursts, and baffling responses to stress. Caltha's wisdom and kindness turn this book into the one you'll urge on colleagues, and you'll come away with strategies and structures you can use to help the Sammy in your own classroom.

The achievement of students of color continues to be disproportionately low at all levels of education. More than ever, Geneva Gay's foundational book on culturally responsive teaching is essential reading in addressing the needs of today's diverse student population. Combining insights from multicultural education theory and research with real-life classroom stories, Gay demonstrates that all students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences. This bestselling text has been extensively revised to include expanded coverage of student ethnic groups: African and Latino Americans as well as Asian and Native Americans as well as new material on culturally diverse communication, addressing common myths about language diversity and the effects of "English Plus" instruction.

A clear introduction for the teaching of language and communication.

Winner of the 2020 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award Drawing on personal stories, research, and historical events, an esteemed educator offers a vision of educational justice inspired by the rebellious spirit and methods of abolitionists. Drawing on her life’s work of teaching and researching in urban schools, Bettina Love persuasively argues that educators must teach students about racial violence, oppression, and how to make sustainable change in their communities through radical civic initiatives and movements. She argues that the US educational system is maintained by and profits from the suffering of children of color. Instead of trying to repair a flawed system, educational reformers offer survival tactics in the forms of test-taking skills, acronyms, grit labs, and character education, which Love calls the educational survival complex. To dismantle the educational survival complex and to achieve educational freedom—not merely reform—teachers, parents, and community leaders must approach education with the imagination, determination, boldness, and urgency of an abolitionist. Following in the tradition of activists like Ella Baker, Bayard Rustin, and Fannie Lou Hamer, We Want to Do More Than Survive introduces an alternative to traditional modes of educational reform and expands our ideas of civic engagement and intersectional justice.

Frustrated by ongoing difficult student behavior? You're not alone: classroom management issues are a leading cause of teacher burnout. But there is a solution. No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices shows how to promote good behavior, address interruptions, and keep everyone moving forward. "Management and control are not the same," write teacher and school leader Gianna Cassetta and noted researcher Brook Sawyer. If trying harder to exert control is sapping your energy, watch as they show how to transition away from the roles of disciplinarian or goody dispenser and toward an integrated, professionally satisfying model for classroom management. You'll find everything you need to get going, including: the rationale for abandoning rewards and consequence tactics research on more developmentally appropriate-and efficient-management a plan that integrates instruction and management to decrease interruptions specific strategies for addressing misbehavior and refocusing on learning goals ways to analyze problematic behaviors and help students connect and stay motivated. Ease your frustration with classroom management and return dozens of hours lost each year to addressing problematic behaviors. Take a page from No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices and turn your classroom into a community that helps students become their best selves-and helps you rediscover the joy of teaching. About the Not This, But That Series No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices is part of the Not This, But That series, edited by Nell K. Duke and Ellin Oliver Keene. It helps teachers examine common, ineffective classroom practices and replace them with practices supported by research and professional wisdom. In each book a practicing educator and an education researcher identify an ineffective practice; summarize what the research suggests about why; and detail research-based, proven practices to replace it and improve student learning. Read a sample chapter from No More Taking Away Recess and Other Problematic Discipline Practices.

"This is the kind of book that needs to be read and reread. There′s so much usable information. A great resource for all teachers." —William Fitzhugh, Fifth-Grade Teacher Reisterstown Elementary School, MD "The stories and classroom situations throughout the book really helped me visualize how all of this can be put to use. The author definitely practices what she preaches, whether she is teaching in a classroom or teaching through the written word." —Kathy Tritz-Rhodes, Principal Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn Elementary School, IA Help students lead with their strengths and gain a deeper understanding of concepts! Students′ learning styles are as diverse as the students themselves, so how can teachers reach all learners according to their strengths? In this updated edition of the bestseller, Marilee Sprenger demonstrates how to optimize learning by using brain-based strategies that address students′ social/emotional, cognitive, and physical learning preferences. The author provides readers with graphic organizers, current research on memory, and new charts to help implement differentiated strategies, and also offers: An explanation of how the brain processes, stores, and retains information Pre-assessment strategies for each learning style "Reflect and Connect" questions to help teachers evaluate their current classroom practice Learning and memory tips for students Exit cards, or quick assessments of what students have learned This comprehensive resource provides the tools you need to create a brain-friendly learning environment and to differentiate content, process, and product for your students′ diverse learning needs and strengths.

Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies raises fundamental questions about the purpose of schooling in changing societies. Bringing together an intergenerational group of prominent educators and researchers, this volume engages and extends the concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP)—teaching that perpetuates and fosters linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of schooling for positive social transformation. The authors propose that schooling should be a site for sustaining the cultural practices of communities of color, rather than eradicating them. Chapters present theoretically grounded examples of how educators and scholars can support Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, South African, and immigrant students as part of a collective movement towards educational justice in a changing world. Book Features: A definitive resource on culturally sustaining pedagogies, including what they look like in the classroom and how they differ from deficit-model approaches.Examples of teaching that sustain the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students and communities of color.Contributions from the founders of such lasting educational frameworks as culturally relevant pedagogy, funds of knowledge, cultural modeling, and third space. Contributors: H. Samy Alim, Mary Bucholtz, Dolores Inés Casillas, Michael Domínguez, Nelson Flores, Norma Gonzalez, Kris D. Gutiérrez, Adam Haupt, Amanda Holmes, Jason G. Irizarry, Patrick Johnson, Valerie Kinloch, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Carol D. Lee, Stacey J. Lee, Tiffany S. Lee, Jin Sook Lee, Teresa L. McCarty, Django Paris, Courtney Peña, Jonathan Rosa, Timothy J. San Pedro, Daniel Walsh, Casey Wong “All teachers committed to justice and equity in our schools and society will cherish this book.” —Sonia Nieto, professor emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst “This book is for educators who are unafraid of using education to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable.” —Pedro Noguera, University of California, Los Angeles “This book calls for deep, effective practices and understanding that centers on our youths’ assets.” —Prudence L. Carter, dean, Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley

"In general, teacher training and teacher evaluation prioritize lesson planning and learning objectives, not strategies for building relationships with students. Yet we know that learning depends on relationships; children cannot learn from people they don't like or who dislike them. Too often teachers, usually unconsciously, make the decision not to have a relationship with a student and thereby deny that student access to their education. This book focuses on the foundations of building relationships with students, even when difficult"--