Culturally Responsive Reflection

Culturally responsive teaching is a type of pedagogy that acknowledges the importance of including the students’ cultural references in all of their aspects of learning. (Teaching Diverse Learners. (2006). Principles for Culturally Responsive Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/tdl/tl-strategies/crt-principles.shtml). The digital photo story we did in class was a culturally responsive assignment because: it allowed for different performance modes other than traditional pencil and paper essay or exam, it helped to build a community that respects individual differences and interests as we watch each others digital stories, and it was a type of instruction to accommodate our various developmental needs and learning styles.
First, the digital photo story allowed for different performance modes by allowing us to use the computer to create this assignment rather than writing it or finding actual pictures to cut and glue. Instead of using power point to create the assignment, we were able to use and experience this new program. This is an authentic, real-life assignment that allowed us to create and use information that we are familiar with and actually experience. Louis Moll and his Funds of Knowledge would appreciate this. Moll felt that you could gain a better understanding of your students by seeing them in their cultural element (Moll, L. (1992). Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using a Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132-141. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1476399). By assigning a photo story that is to be a representation of who we are, it is an open-ended assignment that allows for many different answers.
Second, the photo story helped to build a community between our classmates that helps us to respect individual differences. We got to learn about various activities like hunting, fishing, other outdoors activities, sports, and many others. We were able to learn a lot about the entire class in a relatively short amount of time. By learning about other people, we could dispel some of those cultural deficits associated with West Virginia, its land and its people. Instead of looking at the bad things, deficits, we were able to find the good things with are the cultural capital of the people and land. “Tall Tales of Appalachia” said that the people who came into the area thought of us as “backward” people and felt they needed to correct us (O'Brien, J. (2003, May 10). Tall Tales of Appalachia. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/10/opinion/tall-tales-of-appalachia.html) These photo stories allowed us to ignore the views of outsiders and truly appreciate what we have. They also gave each of us a voice. We could use that voice to tell who we are, where we are from, and how proud we are of both of those.
Third, the instruction was able to accommodate various developmental needs and learning styles. Some people can’t just sit down and tell you all about their lives. However, if given the chance, they can sit down, right out some information, find images, and put together an amazing photo story. Some people are way more comfortable using images to explain things than using words. For kinesthetic learners, the act of actually putting together the photo story was the perfect task. The pictures and music was beneficial for the aural, read/write types of learners. Visual learners could see the words and the images and use those. Each type of learner was met by some aspect of this assignment.