Utilizing Culturally Responsive Teaching, as described in the article by Nikki Rucker, is essential for teaching students of all backgrounds.

While there are various teaching moves and strategies to consider, an overall theme I noticed in many of the readings and videos related to student choice.

Teachers must ask questions like,

"Do students have a choice in what they read?

"Do students have a choice where they sit?"

"Do student have a choice in how they interact with each other?"

Likewise, one of the 7 "Characteristics of Responsive Teaching" (Schmidt (2005a, 2005b) as cited in Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz (2017) is to have 

"Student control of portions of a lesson" or a "healthy hum."

I believe this hum, or shifting of the control from teacher to student is essential to engage all learners.

It allows for strategies like the decision making/social action approach (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2017).

By allowing students to engage in cultural concepts and issues that are important to them, students can see some of the authentic uses for reading and writing.

It reminded me of the way Chris Gable engaged his students in authentic tasks related to reading news stories. 

Mr. Gable's writing was cross-curricular and he selected topics for student study based on surveys.

Students worked in groups with different focuses and if comprehending the reading, they engaged in different authentic writing tasks.

By working as a community, each group was able to contribute specific knowledge to help the class better understand. 

This theme of community appeared in the SIOP Model video as well.

Instead of copying notes, students actively engaged in learning through teams, contributing to collaborative graphic organizers and group presentations. 

Scaffolding student learning for ALL

In order support language acquisition for all learners, several strategies could be used.

The SIOP Model (as featured in the video) stands for Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol. 

One highly effective component I noticed was previewing all vocabulary before beginning the lesson and applying that vocabulary to sentences, rather than simply copying definitions.

Additionally, that teacher focused on applying vocabulary and tying it to visuals. She says, "pictures can't be beat!" When making collaborative posters, students cut up pictures from old textbooks.