The curriculum unit selected in this regard is Interactive Fractions and Decimals.
Specifically, the teaching is expected to include multiplication and division of numbers between 1 and 100 and solving word problems.
Specifically, the standard that is taken into consideration in this analysis is:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.1: Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
Principle of Culturally Responsive Teaching
Current State of Curriculum Unit
Gaps Between Principles and Curriculum Unit
Recommendation for Improvement
Relationships:
Developing Positive and authentic relationships across differences and getting to know students, families, and communities are important to creating a classroom culture where students feel safe and supported.
Linking mathematics, culture and community and the different ways of accomplishing that take into consideration the cultural diversity of the students so as to come up with learning activities. Mathematical concepts of multiplication and division in this unit are based on cultural perspectives that permit the students to not only reflect and appreciate their own culture but also the culture and traditions of others (d’Entremont, 2015).
Mathematical concepts can be understood in different ways. One of the key gaps in this regard is that it is challenging to see the mathematical opportunities in a task, sizing it up and acclimatizing it for a specific group of students.
There are recommendations for improvement:
1. Making use of body language, gesticulations as well as expressions to communicate a message that all of the questions and opinions of the students are important (Krasnoff, 2016).
2. Making use of eye contact with both the low-achieving students and the high-achieving students. The teacher needs to be thoughtful of the cultural norms and interpretation of even simple mannerisms such as eye contact.
3....
Making certain that instructional materials as well as other visuals being used in the curriculum unit mirror the racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds of the students (Caro-Bruce et al., 2007; Rimm-Kaufman & Sandilos, 2016).
Relevance:
Connecting curriculum and instruction to the lives of students facilitates their learning and success
Mathematics is used in everyday lives of the students. For instance, the division of sweets amongst friends is...…equitably by circulating around the class, it is not yet guaranteed that all the high-achieving and low-achieving students will understand the same aspects.
1. A key way to improve is to use multiple approaches to consistently monitor students’ understanding of instruction, directions, procedures, processes, questions, and content.
2. There is also the need to ascertain the understanding level of the students and lay some emphasis on low-achieving students in the unit to assist their understanding.
3. Asking higher order questions impartially of high- and low-achieving students. Classroom questioning has an exceedingly significant role in equitable classroom practice. Posing questions in the course of lesson instruction is more efficacious in generating achievement gains as compared to instruction undertaken devoid of questioning students (Krasnoff, 2016).
4. The teacher providing assistance to both the high-achieving and low-achieving students is another recommendation. It is imperative to note that one-on-one meetings are the decisive confidence builders for students and are particularly efficacious as supplements to instruction when students practice a class strategy or approach. What is more a teacher’s complete attention to each child expresses caring about their learning and interest in assisting them understand and improve.
References…
