The THENCE Team recommends the book “Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students” . The author, Zaretta Hammond, offers trainings and public speaking engagements which you can learn more about here on her website.

We encourage educators in our reading groups to adopt and expand the culture tree metaphor to help them navigate educating about holidays or days of honor in the classroom. We also wish to refine the model to best help educators who seek this form of professional development, and facilitate a deeper dive by merging this model with learning from other key authors we mention in our This Month offerings over the month of February.

Who are these other key authors and what are their key works? Read about Dr. Gholdy Muhammad’s Book “Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy here. We also asked learners to consider statements by Dr. Asar Hilliard, III a scholar of developmental psychology, education and history, these can also be read here.

Take a look at how we interpret and expand the Culture Tree Metaphor by interacting with this multi-media video below. You can also test your knowledge with the exercises at the end.