In my last newsletter, I walked you through a high-level view of building student relationships and alliances over the first four weeks of school. I see so many educators who want to be more culturally responsive struggle with what to do next to build their skill and capacity. Many struggle with how to balance nurturing student relationships while getting to the content they must cover.
Remember, it isn’t an either/or situation. The rapport and connection you make and maintain with a student is for the purpose of getting them into their zone of proximal development or ZPD during instruction. Think of your relationship with a particular student as fuel for getting them to level up their learning. You have to replenish that fuel by maintaining a sense of personal warmth and connection with the student.
So what’s next? The next layer of culturally responsive practice is slowly increasing dependent learners’ capacity to engage in productive struggle without over-scaffolding for dependent learners. Why? When we hear the phrase “productive struggle” we focus on the word “struggle,” which comes with a negative connotation. And we don’t want our kids to struggle and fail (that’s destructive).
Time for a reframe. Productive struggle is the core of learning. For struggle to be productive, it has to be the right mix of curiosity, cognitive stretch, and just-right support. For the brain, it means looking closely at a concept, task and exploring complexities through questioning and grappling in order to make sense of it.
Culturally responsive instruction that creates an environment for deep learning that builds students capacity requires what I call Instructional stacking: talk structures + cognitive tools + learning pit opportunities (productive struggle opportunities). Ok. I know this might seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. You should be doing some version of these things already. The goal is to create a “studio” or “dojo” experience for the student. Think of the classroom becoming a gym for the brain, not just a place where you cover content, and students try to meet the standard through memorization and test prep.
Too often I see teachers who want to be more culturally responsive thinking that it is doing the strategy that makes them culturally responsive practitioners. Wrong. It is about having an impact. In her original research captured in the book Dreamkeepers (1994) where she coined the term “culturally responsive teaching”, Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings highlighted those educators who were successful educating African American children. Not on educators who simply implemented certain strategies successfully. She focused on impact – students were more powerful learners with greater agency.
Creating a learning “studio” or a cognition “dojo” for students means giving them a place to engage in cognitive apprenticeship to reverse the effects of learning gaps - one of the key goals of culturally responsive practice.
Here’s a six week process for creating a studio environment for students to move toward becoming more cognitively independent in January 2023.
Wait, what? January you say?. Yep. Culturally responsive practice requires design thinking, inquiry, and iteration as part of the planning stage. Here’s an important word of caution. Don’t try to cherry pick from among these practices and reduce them to one time strategies for the sake of engagement. Building student capacity is a cumulative process. Think exponential stacking versus cherry picking.
If you insist on using one-off, ”so-called” culturally responsive strategies you found on the internet or got in a rando PD session then you are not going to see student growth that closes their learning gaps over time.
Why planning now for January? Because we all have had a break in our routine, the brain is open and receptive to embracing new practices with less resistance during these times. It’s like a second start to the school year with relationships already in place!
Remember getting to impact with culturally responsive practice (learning partners + instructional equity) is a process, not an event.
WEEK(S) 0 - Nov-Dec
Prep - During your prep time, begin planning your stack. Assess what you currently have in place, how it’s working for students, and what needs tweaking or pruning. Then blueprint the rollout of the three instructional practices you’ll stack over the next six weeks: (1) powerful talk structures, (2) increased context complexity, (3) productive struggle time.
For some suggestions see my article Power of Protocols for Equity for some ideas.
WEEK 1 - First week back from winter break
Stack One: Introduce New Talk Structure(s). In this first week, offer a low-stakes version of the structure with fun content so kids can focus on learning the routine. Channel the principle of the first pancake (the first time is going to be messy and that’s okay.).
Start by offering short, 15-mini-lesson the new routine. Do some modeling. Then have kids practice connecting what they know to the content they’re learning in order to “chew” on the content more effectively.
WEEK 2 - Reinforce the Routine
In Week 2, be sure to use the new talk structures at least twice a week. If using discussion protocols, rotate the ones used. Mix it up with thinking routines or “game storming”. The point is to reinforce the new talk structure(s) with practice. Students might resist, but stay with it. Aim for getting 1% better at the process.
WEEK 3
Cue up Stack Two: Increase Complexity of Content.
Up the complexity of the content. Put the curriculum unit within a bigger context, with competing events, motivations, perspectives. For younger children, maybe explore complex processes, parts, or relationships in nature. Give them time and opportunity to grapple with the content.
This is just the workout young brains need to grow at every grade level. Try giving students tools like thinking routines, Think Like a Historian frame and its prompts. Again, offer these to students to use as tools that help them with the process of productive struggle. It is the “chew” part of the ignite,chunk, chew, and review information processing cycle.
Continue to refine Stack One talk structure move. Add in the use of the cognitive tools, like thinking routines during talk time. Think of this like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. Takes a bit of conscious coordination but we can do it.
WEEK 4
Reinforce Stack Two - the use of cognitive tools to take on content complexity. Remember, the goal is to get the students to use these tools without your constant prompting. That is going to take coaching from you. The tools aren’t strategies for you to own. Aim to get students 1% better at using them this week. Keep reinforcing Stack One move by combining the two.
WEEK 5
Incorporate Stack Three: Learning Pit Time. Apprentice students into productive struggle moves during learning pit time.
While you have instituted different types of talk structures, you want to couple talk structures with a dedicated time block for grappling in the learning pit. Focus on setting up “learning pit time.” This can be 20 minutes, twice a week where students are trying to fix, figure out, solve, or produce something related to the unit being studied.
Think of this time period as the dojo for deeper learning. You want to stimulate students’ natural curiosity and the brain’s drive to notice patterns and solve puzzles.
Continue implementing and using Stack One and Stack Two moves while incorporating Stack Three moves.
WEEK 6
Now that all three instructional moves are in place, continue refining their use by getting all students, but particularly your most dependent and compliant learners, to take more ownership of their learning.
Remember, after these six weeks, you are now at the beginning of a process you’ll want to improve over the remainder of the school year.
How do you know it’s working? Use inquiry tools and gather qualitative data to mark your dependent learners’ growth in their ability to engage in academic conversation, do deeper analysis of the content, and connect new content to their existing funds of knowledge.
Here's a convenient handout with all the steps to keep handy during planning and PLC meetings.
In the next (January) newsletter, I’ll lay out a step-by-step process for helping students take ownership of their learning during productive struggle opportunities, even if they are initially resistant. In the meantime, try stacking. Don’t aim for perfection, but progress.
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