Culturally Relevant Inspiration By Tyra Gunter

A. L Stanback Middle School Link: Location: Hillsborough, North Carolina Students: 58% Cacasion, 27 % Hispanic, 11% Afican American, 3% two or more races, 1% Asian

21 st Century Skills Communication and Collaboration Technology Skills Creativity Problem Solving Skills Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.) Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved from frameworkFramework for 21st century learninghttp://

Middle School One on One Program This program involves student transitioning from Elementary school to Middle school. This program is set up by the students who are already in middle school and want to help the students feel comfortable in a new school. They work with them in the summer to share there experiences and give them some expectations. Throughout the school year they ensure that they are doing ok and to answer any questions that they may have.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy “ Raise student expectations, and support the idea that students should be active participants in their own learning”. (Wardel, 2012, sec 4.3) The principle of the school wants the teachers to incorporate 21 st century skill in their lesson plans. To talk to the students about those expectations and what the skills look like. Some examples would be ethics, personal responsibilities, and being self directed learners.

Promotion of Creativity The school came up with the Literacy Block. That benefits all student learning. It is for 25 minutes 4 days a week and it involves students and staff to participate. It is use to improve achievement in reading value. They also created reading interventions, that are made up of specialized activities to help readers get to the next level.

Dana Elementary School Link: elementaryhttp:// elementary Location: Hendersonville, North Carolina Demographics: School is in a rural area, majority of the parents work in the apple orchard, produce or agriculture. 44% Minority, with 33% being Hispanic, 80% free and reduced lunch. Title one school.

21 st Century Skills Technology skills Problem solving skills Communication and collaboration Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.) Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved from for 21st century learning

Instructional Base Learning They use the Social Studies curriculum as primary and branch off from there. They use inquiry base activities to teach the students problem solving skills in math and in science. They communicate with one another, working in teams through out the day. They use shared inquires in literature through there Junior Grade Books program.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy “expect all students to learn the important skills needed to succeed in today's world” (Wardle, 2012, sec4.3) Teachers incorporate todays need of technology in the classroom to help them students get a better understanding of their work. They have the students work on projects where they can communicate with one another and share information about the pictures and information that the teacher shows them.

Promotion of Creativity The 2 nd grade did an engineering project that help them enhance there problem solving skills. They build astronauts out of Styrofoam and got and egg and placed in in a basket and was going to climb a ladder and drop it. The students had to be creative and use problem skills to find a way for the egg not to break when it hit the ground.

Farmington Public School Link: farmington-public-schoolhttp:// farmington-public-school Location: Connecticut School: The racial makeup of the town was 92.91% Caucasian, 1.55% African American, 0.12% Native American, 3.72% Asian, 0.59% other races, and 1.11% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.19% of the population.

21 st Century Skills Communication and Collaboration Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.) Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved from for 21st century learning

Instructional Practice Active learning community is one principle that is used for the students to be able to work in groups and collaborate with one another to answer questions that meets the units goals. Principle two is challenging expectations where the students are encourage to overcome obstacles, persevere, and problem solve in when the conduct research and cannot find the answer they are looking for in one source. They need to be able to find a new source of information.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Expect teachers and students to agree together on the goals of their class and the means of attaining those goals; while this is very difficult to do, it is also critically important. There is a common understanding of where they want the students to end up when they graduate. The give more real world applications going on in the classroom. Allowing the student to be self teachers and being responsible to do the thinking work, and the teachers are more like coaches.

Promotion of Creativity The school allows the students to do a capstone/independent program is where the student can dive into an area of interest to take control of their own learning. They work with a mentor in the community and explore and practice that interest.

References Edutopia (n.d.). Schools that Work. Retrieved from Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (n.d.) Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved from for 21st century learning Wardle, F. (2013). Human relationships and learning in the multicultural environment. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Human relationships and learning in the multicultural environment