Culturally Relevant Teaching Tuesday

Culture Wheel

Get to know your students, let them get to know you and help them see themselves in your classroom and your building.  When I say 'see themselves,' I don't mean people like them.  I mean that students should be able to see their work, their writing, their culture on the walls of your classroom, and in the relationships in the building.  
The "Culture Wheel" center activity could be for your classroom, team, grade level, or entire building.  The objective of this center is for participants to identify themselves with relevant categories on a wheel in order to create a visual of the culture that makes up their learning community.  You can change the categories and do this over and over.  Read below for directions and tips.  

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Directions:  (1) After reviewing the categories on the wheel, place a sticky note/dot on each category with which you identify best.  (2) You may do this anonymously, or you may place your initials on the sticky note/dot. The categories included in the example above are:  Male, Female, White, Black, Asian, Native American, Bilingual, Siblings, Left-Handed, Right-Handed, Glasses/Contacts.  

Suggestions:  Change categories throughout the school year to reflect interests and relevant ideas.  Allow students to offer their ideas for categories in the future, provide a visual for each category to differentiate the activity. 

This activity comes from AVID Culturally Relevant Teaching: A Schoolwide Approach which can be purchased here on page 23.  ​