ELEVATED EDUCATOR
Culturally relevant lesson plans for multiple grades, subjects, and languages.
WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?
Our purpose is to make publicly available a limited number of examples of culturally relevant and responsive teaching materials that have been used at East and could be used by others. Our intention, while not being averse to stand-alone CRRP materials, is to provide real life, teacher created or adapted artifacts of activities, materials, lesson plans, or whole unit plans, around topics as they are typically taught in various content areas at the secondary level across New York State.
EDUCATORS
One skilled in teaching.
A student of the theory and practice of education.
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Merriam Webster
CULTURAL RELEVANCY
A pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
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Gloria Ladson-Billings
PEDAGOGY
“a student-centered approach to teaching in which the students' unique cultural strengths are identified and nurtured to promote student achievement and a sense of well-being about the student's cultural place in the world"
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Matthew Lynch
THE TEAM
Turning vision into reality
The East Staff
This site would not be made possible without the relentless efforts and commitment of the staff at East Upper and Lower School. They have made the success of their students their life's work. We would not be here today if it wasn't for their passion, tireless effort, and the thankless actions they carry out on a daily basis. Thank you to all of the East Staff for making this possible.
Jennifer Rees
We continue to strive to enhance not only the relevance and responsiveness of our curriculum and pedagogical approaches, but also to deepen our own understandings and further develop culturally sustaining mindsets and practices through critical reflection. While we are proud of the work that we have done thus far, we recognize it as a foundation and know that we are yet at the beginning of this journey in fully realizing our vision of equity and inclusion for all.
Dr. Shaun Nelms
This project is not about indoctrinating students in having them think a certain way. It's giving them the skills and ability to have meaningful conversation and dialogue about topics that impact them directly.
Dr. Susan Meier
We don’t believe that writing culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy is something that can be accomplished with one unit, or one period of focus, or one set of materials. However, all undertakings begin with a first step, and we hope that seeing real examples of authentic curriculum materials making a good faith effort to be culturally relevant and responsive can serve as a first step for other educators who believe in the benefits of this direction.
"It is important that students like myself see themselves in the curriculum because it creates a connection between the students and the content that they are learning. We often see students more engaged in courses that are either aligned with their interest or intriguing to them. Learning about people who are the same ethnicity, gender, race, or religion as you makes you want to be engaged. And you're not just engaged because you want to make sure that the teacher is teaching everything correctly. You are engaged because now you have the chance to enlighten your peers and your teacher about something related to the curriculum that they may not have known. I’ll never forget hearing my AP Language teacher talk about Marcus Garvey, and how his works are related to the ideologies of Malcolm X. I instantly sat up and actively paid attention, because I wanted to hear more. I was also cross checking everything he said with everything my father (a native Jamaican) has taught me. I say this to say that when students see even a glimmer of themselves in their schoolwork, it makes it truly worthwhile."
STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Students at East Lower and Upper School have dedicated much time to producing literary and artistic publications. The Eagle Express is the newspaper of East Lower and Upper School while Mosaics is an art and literary magazine. Check them out by clicking the buttons below!
SPONSORING ORGS
Thank you to the East EPO Staff for your countless hours of supporting, inventing, collaborating, teaching, writing and revising. Thank you to the Center for Urban Education Success, Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development, University of Rochester, for sponsoring this initiative.
SEARCH NOW
Search through all of our unit plans in our database and serve the needs of your students.