Track Session Type

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA): Engaging Student Leaders; Inclusion and Diversity in Open Education, OER Community Building

Presentation Type

Presentation

OER Level of Expertise

Intermediate

Audience

Faculty, instructional designer

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE AND COMPETENT TOOL KIT

Session Abstract

I have been experimenting with designing a shared repository for lessons that would integrate equity, diversity, and social justice with traditional content areas for all grade levels. With an EDU class that focused on Cultural and Linguistic Diversity, we created a shared space that allows teachers and EDU majors to easily share, trade, and utilize lessons that focus on these two strands of teaching and learning.

The result is a highly useful grid-style tool kit of posted lesson plans available to teachers to teach directly but with enough flexibility to customize. These lesson plans range from kindergarten up to grade 12 and include subject matter from traditional content areas acting as vehicles for 14 diversity and equity-based topics such as anti-racism, body positivity, and economic disparities in the US.

My hope is to grow this project and invite students and teachers in my department (and beyond) to continue to add and share these resources which focus on topics that are so critical, but sometimes difficult to face. My additional motive is to convince teachers in ALL content areas that there is a way to include inclusivity into their lessons!

Objectives of the Session

Attendees would be able to design and implement this tool kit in their own teaching environments.

Attendees would recognize flexibility in their own lessons for these materials.

Full Description of the Session

In this session, I would have attendees do a series of brainstorms and share-outs that center on teaching tools and pedagogical challenges arising from the following questions: How can I make teaching diversity and social justice fit into my lessons/syllabus/curriculum, etc.? How can I find new and relevant ways of teaching these topics effectively? Is there a way to store and share lessons on these topics with other teachers in my school or content area? After discussing these questions in small groups, I would suggest the general idea of the tool-kit grid, displaying the basic elements without the plans that are already in there. Then, I would ask attendees if they would like to add to the list of topics. I would then show them the grid in its current state of completion (currently at nearly 40 share-able plans), and backwards engineer how we arrived at this current iteration.

We would then discuss uses, application, and caveats in small groups and then share out. If there is time, it would be great to, assisted by prompts, invite attendees to add in design ideas or additions that might make the grid even more useful.

Presenter Bios

My name is Corazon Higgins and I have been teaching English language skills, art, and pre-service teacher training for 25 years. I have taught and designed curriculum both in the US and in Asia and Latin America. My areas of inquiry are how to integrate arts practices, equity, and justice into all content areas for all students. I received my Ed.M from Harvard University's Arts in Education program and then functioned as a teaching and research fellow in that program fro 5 years. I have a strong belief in collaboration, sharing, and finding pathways for teachers to feel excited about teaching truth, reality, creativity, and justice.

Publishing Permission

1

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Presenters

Corazon HigginsFollow

Start Date

5-4-2023 10:00 AM

End Date

5-4-2023 11:00 AM