Developing Critical Consciousness with Students and their Families

Fourth Grade teacher Irazema Guerrero exemplifies building affirming and responsive relationships with students' families through her work with families in Los Angeles.

The clip below is from a family night, where families learned about the achievement gap, then shared strategies and resources for helping their students be successful at school. At the end of the night, families and students worked together to create a vision for success, and a plan of how to overcome potential barriers to school success. 

• How do you see Ms. Guerrero embodying a culturally responsive perspective in her work? Reference the statements on the Conceptual Map if helpful.
  
• How does what this teacher is doing with families fit into our paradigm for transformational teaching as outlined on the TAL Impact Model?
• Although Ms. Guerrero is from the community in which she teaches, how might a teacher with a different identity or different experiences practice a culturally responsive approach in this setting?
  
• Are there any pitfalls to the approach and actions of this teacher? What are they? How could they be effectively navigated? 
  

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