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Learner's Reality

Instructional Framework - Heart Tree Icon

Educators foster collaboration and meaningful learning by inviting and centering student perspectives from BIPOC and other historically oppressed groups by our current education systems, emphasizing lived experiences, and promoting agency. Educators create conditions to showcase student expertise through an inclusive approach that challenges oppressive systems.

Dimension: Environment

 

Descriptor What it Could Look Like and CSTP Connections
Creating emotionally safe learning environments
  • Designing flexible learning spaces for students to choose which best suit their learning preferences (CSTPs: 1B, 2C, 2D, 3C, 4C)  
  • Creating check-in routines and connector activities for students to share their lived experiences (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 3B, 4A, 5A)
  • Creating a classroom culture that values linguistic diversity (celebrating multilingualism, incorporating home languages into classroom routines) (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 3A, 3E, 4B)
Building a student centered classroom community
  • Creating a memory wall where students can share artifacts of personal significance (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 3B, 4B)
  • Establishing student-created calendars, bulletin boards, or newsletters (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 2D, 3C, 4D)
  • Encouraging student-led classroom design (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 2C, 2D, 4A)
  • Playing music chosen by students when appropriate (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 3E)
  • Creating spaces where BIPOC and other historically oppressed groups of students see themselves   represented in the classroom space, including posters, symbols, imagery, or other celebrations (CSTPs: 1B, 1D, 3A, 3E, 5D)
Fostering a culture of collaboration
  • Arranging desks in a way that promotes community-building and discussions (CSTPs: 2A, 2D, 2B, 3D, 5C)
  • Establishing a community resource-sharing wall (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 3A, 5A)
  • Modeling and encouraging student self-advocacy (e.g. advocacy language patterns on wall “One thing that is still not clear to me is…”) (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 2D, 4D, 5A)
  • Creating culturally inclusive resource libraries that uplift BIPOC and other historically oppressed voices (CSTPs: 1B, 1D, 3A, 3E, 4A)
  • Co-creating community norms and procedural agreements for small groups and the classroom community (CSTPs: 2A, 2B, 3C, 5A)

 

Dimension: Curriculum

Descriptor What it Could Look Like and CSTP Connections
Fostering student interest and agency
  • Including tools and resources to address learners’ specific learning needs and previous experiences (scaffolds, deeper learning opportunities and extension opportunities) (CSTPs: 1B, 2D, 3C, 4A, 5D)
  • Incorporating students’ previous experiences into curriculum design (CSTPs: 1A, 1B, 2A, 3B, 4A)
  • Pacing the curriculum based on the needs of the learners in the classroom (CSTPs: 1A, 1B, 2A, 4C, 5A)
  • Including curricular materials and resources that account for potential learning gaps (such as Constructing Meaning, Universal Design for Learning, etc.) (CSTPs: 1B, 2D, 3A, 3E, 4C, 5D)
  • Using culturally responsive texts and materials that reflect students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds (CSTPs: 1B, 1D, 2D, 3A, 3E)
Creating opportunities for students to build critical consciousness
  • Planning units of instruction that connect across content areas and grade levels (CSTPs: 1A, 3A, 3D, 4C)
  • Incorporating recent events, contemporary examples, and connections to students’ experiences (CSTPs: 1A, 1B, 3A, 4B)
  • Encouraging a critical consciousness lens to surface and analyze dominant narratives (CSTPs: 1A, 1D, 3A, 4B, 5C)
Drawing upon students' cultural, linguistic, and social and community sources
  • Using authentic strategies to get to know learners in the classroom (e.g. one-on-one check-ins, empathy interviews, student surveys), and using this street data to inform curricular decisions (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 3C, 4A, 5B)
  • Uplifting diverse role models and perspectives, especially from BIPOC and other historically oppressed groups (CSTPs: 1B, 1D, 3A, 3E)
  • Interrogating the use of deficit language about languages, cultures, and places different from our own (CSTPs: 1D, 2D, 3A, 4B, 5D)
  • Implementing culturally sustaining pedagogies that affirm student identities (CSTPs: 1A, 1B, 1D, 3E, 4B)
  • Creating systems for two-way communication with family/guardians in order to increase family engagement (CSTPs: 1C, 2A, 5B, 5C)
  • Eliciting and applying knowledge of students’ cognitive, cultural, linguistic, social-emotional, and physical development to increase engagement​ (CSTPs: 1B, 2A, 2D, 3C, 4A)

 

Dimension: Instruction

Descriptor What it could look like & CSTP Connections
Ensuring equitable access to content
  • Removing barriers to instruction by providing content and learning activities that support choice and ensure accessibility (CSTPs: 1D, 2D, 4A, 4D, 5A)
  • Engaging students as whole beings by incorporating their kinesthetic, creative, and linguistic assets into instructional design (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 2D, 3C, 4B)
  • Intentionally scaffolding for language learners and students with disabilities (CSTPs: 1B, 2D, 3A, 4D)
  • Providing opportunities for translanguaging (allowing students to use their home language as a bridge to English) (CSTPs: 1B, 1D, 2D, 3A, 4A)
Preparing students to be facilitators of their own learning
  • Facilitating structured learning experiences by providing clear agendas and instructional expectations (CSTPs: 2A, 4A, 5A, 5B)
  • Scaffolding learning in ways that support a gradual release of responsibility (CSTPs: 1A, 4D, 5A)
  • Promoting collective ownership of the learning process wherein students support one another in their learning (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 2D, 4B)
  • Making use of collaborative learning groups or peer support/ peer mentoring in the classroom (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 2D, 3D, 4B)
  • Fostering authentic critical thinking by posing real-life, subject-related dilemmas (CSTPs: 1B, 3A, 3B, 4B)
  • Posing problems in a manner that allows students to grapple with multiple approaches and potential solutions (CSTPs: 1A, 3B, 4B, 5A)
  • Providing students with opportunities to critique solutions situated in the real world (CSTPs: 1A, 3B, 4B)
Developing collaborative learning structures
  • Structuring authentic and engaging opportunities for students to interact, dialogue, and learn with one another (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 2D, 3B, 4B)
  • Developing productive group behaviors by establishing both individual and group accountability structures (CSTPs: 2A, 2B, 2D, 5A)

    • Examples: roles and responsibilities, group work norms, individual and group work products in the context of collaborative, groupworthy learning tasks 

  • Engaging students in inquiry about themselves to identify and clarify interests, values, and personal goals (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 4A, 5A)

 

Dimension: Feedback and Appraisal

Descriptor What it Could Like Like & CSTP Connections
Facilitating effective self-reflection
  • Establishing an ongoing cycle of goal setting and reflection (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 4B, 5A,  5B)
  • Maintaining reflective journals or portfolios (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 4A, 5A, 5B)
  • Providing timely, strengths-based feedback that is specific, actionable, and culturally affirming (CSTPs: 1B, 2B, 5A, 5B, 5D)
  • Co-creating learning outcomes, rubrics, and evaluation tools (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 4D, 5A, 5B)
Valuing growth over time
  • Providing feedback that validates growth and progress as well using feedback to identify areas  of need (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 4B, 5B)
  • Providing narrative-driven feedback that is assets-based (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 5B, 5A)
  • Providing multiple opportunities to assess for mastery with embedded supports (CSTPs: 1A, 2A, 4D, 5A, 5B)