Responsive
Classrooms:
– A Shift in Mindset
t the just-completed National Literacy Summit, speakers, including Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, Dr. Pedro Noguera, and Kweku Mandela, offered thoughtful and sometimes provocative insights into the question, “What is a culturally responsive classroom?” Summed up, they asked us to consider that our responsibility is more than teaching from content with diverse, colorful faces and stories from different communities. Instead, they challenged us to change our minds about how we interact with our students.
Responsive
Classrooms:
– A Shift in Mindset
t the just-completed National Literacy Summit, speakers, including Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, Dr. Pedro Noguera, and Kweku Mandela, offered thoughtful and sometimes provocative insights into the question, “What is a culturally responsive classroom?” Summed up, they asked us to consider that our responsibility is more than teaching from content with diverse, colorful faces and stories from different communities. Instead, they challenged us to change our minds about how we interact with our students.
It is a fact that children learn at different rates, and that as children age, their cumulative feelings of success or failure become critical, sometimes defining elements, for their rate of learning and ultimate trajectory.
Simply put, how a student feels about the experience of learning is as important, if not more important, than the knowledge and skills we ask them to master. This provocative, and yet well-researched finding suggests that the role of teacher is as much confidence-builder as it is “guide on the side”.
Confidence, self-esteem and self-identity are culturally constructed. Our feelings about ourselves and our abilities stem from the world around us and our interactions with it — our culture. When presented with continuous negative feedback, messages of failure, embarrassment or even physical frailty, our confidence and self-esteem are less supported than in the opposite scenarios. Even one instance of feeling that we failed, especially if we are working to please an important adult whom we admire, can devastate and have lifelong consequences. The feelings of failure and memories of embarrassment never leave us. Ever.

Achieve3000 is devoted to the ideal that all learners are capable, and that success builds upon success. We are dedicated to including authentic voices from the broadest set of human stories, and especially stories of students in the world. In the coming weeks, we will launch early reader content from NABU, stories written and illustrated by members of the African and Haitian diaspora. Our Kids and Teen Channels are populated with stories by and about the amazing contributions of young people from all walks of life. But our ultimate promise to you — and to our readers — is that every Achieve3000 learning experience results in success. The feeling you get when you can read, when you really understand, and when you find stories which speak to you and to your own experience.

The Scoop: Where students engage in conversation, creating their own arguments and understanding around STEM topics.
Kids Channel & Teen Channel: Where we celebrate relevant stories from every walk of life.
Our new WordPlay lessons: Where Chicago’s Mr. Reed reads and guides students through word games to build foundational literacy skills.
Actively Learn: Where its comprehensive curriculum with questions challenge students to reflect upon history and literature, making their own deeper and culturally relevant connections.
And coming soon, Teachonomy — Where the voices from educators around the world continually motivate and challenge us to bring a critical eye to our practices.

Kevin Baird (MBA, ALEP) serves as chief academic officer for Achieve3000. He is a noted leader in college and career readiness content, strategies and standards. He has taken part in educational research on every continent save for Antarctica, consulted with governments to create college & career readiness initiatives, and has served as trainer and consultant for states and districts across North America. Kevin has served as chairman and senior faculty at the non-profit Center for College & Career Readiness and has collaborated with Achieve3000 for over 15 years and contributes as a member of our Educator Leadership Council.