Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Series
Dreadlocks, Hip-Hop, & X-Box: An Introduction to Arts Integration and Culturally Responsive
Description: This workshop is designed to provide participants with an introduction to our brand of critical pedagogy. Participants will be provided with an overview of our pedagogical approach, which emphasizes social justice, arts integration, and culturally responsive teaching. We will contextualize our approach in classroom instruction, and empower participants on how to implement it in their classrooms. Participants will also explore how our pedagogical framework is used to increase students’ synthesis of information, analytics of texts, and performance on standardized assessments.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: Principals, Curriculum & Instruction Specialist, Coaches, Teachers
Product Code: PDP-001
What’s So Dreadful About My Locs? A Dialogue on how Race Based Stereotypes & Privilege Effect Educators and Students of Color
Description: This workshop is designed to develop cultural competency amongst educators by having them explore the ways in with race and privilege effect our everyday interactions. Educators will also discuss how the intersections of race and privilege play out in our classrooms and schools, and the implications that this has on student achievement. Educators will leave with an action plan for addressing systems of privilege and racism within their classrooms and school communities.
Workshop Length: (full day; 6 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-002
It’s Still Bigger than Hip-Hop: Integrating Youth Popular Culture in the Classroom
Description: The workshop will look to use hip-hop and other vessels of youth popular culture as a way of developing critical literacy and critical thinking skills among youth. This workshop takes the position that pedagogy based in youth popular culture is culturally responsive. We will also explore the use of hip hop, and other youth cultural media, as a tool to increase students’ synthesis of information, analytics of texts, and performance on standardized assessments. The workshop will look at how this pedagogy is being used in schools to develop the aforementioned skills, and increase student achievement.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: Principals, Curriculum & Instruction Specialist, Coaches, Teachers
Product Code: PDP-003
X-Box, I-Pads, & Droids, Oh My! Engaging Students and Redefining Instruction with Technology
Description: 21st century educators must become digital natives if we are to properly engage our students and equip them with the critical thinking skills they need to be competitive in our world. Integrating technology in a way that modifies or redefines its use opens a whole new world of interactive, engaging teaching and learning opportunities. In this fast‐paced, app‐filled, workshop, participants will gain dozens of practical, usable ideas for using youth based technologies to increase learning and engagement in all grades and content areas.
Workshop Length: (full day; 6 hours)
Intended Audience: Principals, Curriculum & Instruction Specialist, Coaches, Teachers
Product Code: PDP-004
Get smART: Increasing Academic Competencies through Arts Integration
Description: We believe that the arts, as cultural products, are ideal tools for culturally responsive teaching. Research shows that academic programs, which engage a students’ cultural identity and the arts, results in the learning of a wide range of academic competencies. This workshop allows participants to explore innovative approaches to connecting the arts with other subject areas. Participants will also learn how to use the arts as a tool for increasing academic engagement among underrepresented students in a way that meets the Common Core and is academically rigorous. Through this process, participants will be provided with tools for assessing their curricula and determining if students are meeting evolving objectives in both the arts and core-academic content areas.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-005
Teaching to Change the World: Techniques for Effectively Implementing Social Justice Pedagogy
Description: It is our belief that the achievement gap is created when educators fail to connect curriculum to students’ lived experiences. Therefore, in order to close the "achievement" gap instruction must be culturally responsive and anchored in social justice. This workshop will train educators on how to implement social justice pedagogy through exploring the six elements of social justice curriculum design. Educators will learn how social justice pedagogy can increase our students' socio-political consciousness, instill in them a sense of agency, and develop a positive social and cultural identity, which will increase their academic achievement.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-006
Reading and Writing Our World: Developing Critical Literacy through the Freire Culture Circle
Description: Paulo Freire believed that literacy is socially and culturally situated. As a result, a literate person must be able to read and write the word and the world. Therefore, to be literate, one must not only possess the ability to read and comprehend, one must also possess the ability to make meaning, synthesize, and evaluate. This workshop is designed to provide participants with an introduction to Paulo Freire’s Culture Circle, as a means of increasing literacy skills, making content more accessible, and instilling the confidence and motivation that our students need to be successful.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-007
Say It Like You Say It To Yo’ Momma: Using Marginalized English Dialects to Develop Academic Literacy Skills Amongst Students of Color
Description: This workshop demonstrates the possibilities of a 21st century pedagogy for Second Language Learners, Ebonics-speaking students, and other students who speak marginalized English dialects. The workshop opens up a discussion challenging the belief that speaking Standard English, and giving up one’s native vernacular, helps students of color succeed academically. Instead, the workshop presents a counterargument demonstrating that validating non-standard dialects of English increases students’ academic literacy skills in written and oral communication.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-008
Description: This workshop is designed to provide participants with an introduction to our brand of critical pedagogy. Participants will be provided with an overview of our pedagogical approach, which emphasizes social justice, arts integration, and culturally responsive teaching. We will contextualize our approach in classroom instruction, and empower participants on how to implement it in their classrooms. Participants will also explore how our pedagogical framework is used to increase students’ synthesis of information, analytics of texts, and performance on standardized assessments.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: Principals, Curriculum & Instruction Specialist, Coaches, Teachers
Product Code: PDP-001
What’s So Dreadful About My Locs? A Dialogue on how Race Based Stereotypes & Privilege Effect Educators and Students of Color
Description: This workshop is designed to develop cultural competency amongst educators by having them explore the ways in with race and privilege effect our everyday interactions. Educators will also discuss how the intersections of race and privilege play out in our classrooms and schools, and the implications that this has on student achievement. Educators will leave with an action plan for addressing systems of privilege and racism within their classrooms and school communities.
Workshop Length: (full day; 6 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-002
It’s Still Bigger than Hip-Hop: Integrating Youth Popular Culture in the Classroom
Description: The workshop will look to use hip-hop and other vessels of youth popular culture as a way of developing critical literacy and critical thinking skills among youth. This workshop takes the position that pedagogy based in youth popular culture is culturally responsive. We will also explore the use of hip hop, and other youth cultural media, as a tool to increase students’ synthesis of information, analytics of texts, and performance on standardized assessments. The workshop will look at how this pedagogy is being used in schools to develop the aforementioned skills, and increase student achievement.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: Principals, Curriculum & Instruction Specialist, Coaches, Teachers
Product Code: PDP-003
X-Box, I-Pads, & Droids, Oh My! Engaging Students and Redefining Instruction with Technology
Description: 21st century educators must become digital natives if we are to properly engage our students and equip them with the critical thinking skills they need to be competitive in our world. Integrating technology in a way that modifies or redefines its use opens a whole new world of interactive, engaging teaching and learning opportunities. In this fast‐paced, app‐filled, workshop, participants will gain dozens of practical, usable ideas for using youth based technologies to increase learning and engagement in all grades and content areas.
Workshop Length: (full day; 6 hours)
Intended Audience: Principals, Curriculum & Instruction Specialist, Coaches, Teachers
Product Code: PDP-004
Get smART: Increasing Academic Competencies through Arts Integration
Description: We believe that the arts, as cultural products, are ideal tools for culturally responsive teaching. Research shows that academic programs, which engage a students’ cultural identity and the arts, results in the learning of a wide range of academic competencies. This workshop allows participants to explore innovative approaches to connecting the arts with other subject areas. Participants will also learn how to use the arts as a tool for increasing academic engagement among underrepresented students in a way that meets the Common Core and is academically rigorous. Through this process, participants will be provided with tools for assessing their curricula and determining if students are meeting evolving objectives in both the arts and core-academic content areas.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-005
Teaching to Change the World: Techniques for Effectively Implementing Social Justice Pedagogy
Description: It is our belief that the achievement gap is created when educators fail to connect curriculum to students’ lived experiences. Therefore, in order to close the "achievement" gap instruction must be culturally responsive and anchored in social justice. This workshop will train educators on how to implement social justice pedagogy through exploring the six elements of social justice curriculum design. Educators will learn how social justice pedagogy can increase our students' socio-political consciousness, instill in them a sense of agency, and develop a positive social and cultural identity, which will increase their academic achievement.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-006
Reading and Writing Our World: Developing Critical Literacy through the Freire Culture Circle
Description: Paulo Freire believed that literacy is socially and culturally situated. As a result, a literate person must be able to read and write the word and the world. Therefore, to be literate, one must not only possess the ability to read and comprehend, one must also possess the ability to make meaning, synthesize, and evaluate. This workshop is designed to provide participants with an introduction to Paulo Freire’s Culture Circle, as a means of increasing literacy skills, making content more accessible, and instilling the confidence and motivation that our students need to be successful.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-007
Say It Like You Say It To Yo’ Momma: Using Marginalized English Dialects to Develop Academic Literacy Skills Amongst Students of Color
Description: This workshop demonstrates the possibilities of a 21st century pedagogy for Second Language Learners, Ebonics-speaking students, and other students who speak marginalized English dialects. The workshop opens up a discussion challenging the belief that speaking Standard English, and giving up one’s native vernacular, helps students of color succeed academically. Instead, the workshop presents a counterargument demonstrating that validating non-standard dialects of English increases students’ academic literacy skills in written and oral communication.
Workshop Length: (1/2 day; 3 hours)
Intended Audience: All Educators
Product Code: PDP-008