At home, Hillary reviews the Venn diagrams that the students turned in after class. She is surprised by how many of her students, and their friends and families, have experienced acts of everyday racism. At the same time, she is pleased that her students are using TKM as a vehicle to critically reflect on these difficult life experiences, and that they are able to make personal connections that allow them to understand the novel in a deeper way. As she puts the Venn diagrams back in her bag, she thinks about how much her confidence has grown over the TKM unit; some conversations about race and racism have been extremely uncomfortable, but Hillary realizes that she needed to address these issues in an open manner because they were so integral to her students’ lives.
Hillary believes that she has taken many positive steps toward teaching TKM in a culturally relevant way. She realizes that culturally relevant teaching does address the objectives mandated in the curriculum, such as understanding character traits, plot development and the author’s purpose, but it also makes the content more meaningful to students and their lives. Hillary may have spent more time planning her lessons and selecting materials, but she smiles broadly when she thinks about how much more her students—and she!—are learning from teaching TKM thanks to a culturally relevant approach.
Next step: Synthesize and personalize
