Students are diverse and our teaching should be to

The importance of meeting the diverse literacy and general learning needs of our students

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

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Culturally responsive teaching has become a crucial component in today's classrooms.  The population of students in classrooms has continued to change and develop into a mosaic of diverse backgrounds and learning styles and needs.  Geneva Gay defines culturally responsive teaching as, "Using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of references, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them" (Gay, 31, 2000).  Students should be exposed to meaningful and relevant materials to further develop their learning in the classroom as well as outside.
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Teachers should be incorporating materials that students can directly relate to at some point during their studies.  These materials should include similar cultures, perspectives, and backgrounds that the students can recognize themselves in.  Not only will this support students of diverse backgrounds and learning styles, it is also a great educational opportunity to teach other students about these perspectives different from their own.  In Kathryn Au's book Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice she states that, "Cultural identity needs to be explored by all students, not just students of diverse backgrounds" (Au, 12, 2011).  Everyone can learn a little more about each other.