BUILD BETTER ONLINE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

FOR STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

HOW YOU CAN YOU MAKE

YOUR VIRTUAL ELA
CLASSROOM MORE
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE

THINK ABOUT YOUR CURRICULUM BUILD RELATIONSHIPS

Does your curriculum reflect the students in your
classroom?
Consider this in the books or stories you chose, the
topics of your writing assignments, the examples
you use in class, and the prompts and questions
you ask.
Minoritized students in your classroom
probably not used to seeing themselves in the
stories they read in school. Choosing books that
center Black, Latinx, Asian, or other minoritized
groups can change this.
In the virtual space the way we present and share
our curriculum content can be decided with our
students in mind:
Can all students come to school to pick up a
copy of the textbook?
Learn about students, their interests, and their skills
so that you can:
Give value to the experiences of your minoritized students.
Incorporate student interest into classroom content.
Increase engagement.
Center students through student-led activities where students
can write and share about themselves.
Utilize the existing literacies of your students.
Has getting to know our students through the
computer has been challenging. Try to make a
deliberate effort:
Share things about yourself to help make students comfortable
sharing with you.
Conduct daily check-ins: comments in the chat, sharing an emoji
of the day.
Spending time talking with your students in and out of class
time.

RECONSIDER CONVERSATION
In classroom discussions and conversations consider
two ways to be culturally responsive:
Do your writing assignments have audiences that are
1. Give value to flexible language practices in your
classroom.
Decenter standard English, accept and center
various forms of English.
Allow and invite students to utilize and express
themselves in a variety of ways.
Recognize language as power, and that language
has been used to oppress minoritized groups.
When students can write in their native languages or
2. When holding class discussions and conversations
consider focuses on systems of power, minoritized
groups, and the ways that euro-centric and middle
class forms of knowledge are centered.
In your classroom teach through conversation and
discussion. When you teach through discussion you
are centering student voices, ideas, languages, and
words.
CONSIDER THE AUDIENCE OF STUDENT
WRITING
greater than you?
In your classroom find ways to incorporate writing
assignments that are community oriented. Students
are spending a lot of time at home and in their
communities. In what ways can you utilize this time?
use the language of their communities in school
writing assignments value is assigned to those
languages.
How can your class disrupt injustices and challenge
oppression through student writing? How can
minoritized students use writing to challenge
oppression they face?

DOES MY ONLINE TEACHING

SHOW CARE?

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED HAVE I ASKED MY

STUDENT EXPERIENCES STUDENTS HOW THEY
AND THE REALTIES OF ARE DOING?
ONLINE LEARNING?

Keep these in mind: Keep these in mind:

- Your students may have increased - The environment of this school year is
responsibilities as they learn from home. changing constantly. Consider conducting
regular check-ins with students about how
- Minoritized students and their families are they are handling school right now.
being affected by the pandemic in different
ways, complicating their access to success in - Be ready to make adjustments.
online learning.
- How productive and open to learning are
you when you are stressed or feel unheard?

YOU SHOULD...

Connect your students with authentic audiences for their writing.

Hold high expectations for their writing when you are providing them
with audiences and allowing their minoritized voices and languages to
shine.
Demonstrate cultural competence through classroom content that
reflects your racially, linguistically, ethnically, or economically
minoritized students.
Have a sociopolitical awareness and consider it when you are building
classroom content, connecting with your students, and discovering
audiences.
Consider practices you use, not just the literature you teach.
Eliminate deficit perspectives that affect your grading, expectations,
classroom management, conversations, and more.

Remember:
Talking to your students and their families is
just a first step in engaging with culturally
responsive teaching practices.