3 Practices to Promote Equity in the Classroom

I recently observed a classroom where students were presenting history projects to rows of silent and obedient classmates. Though the projects were diligently constructed, I couldn't focus on their content because I was distracted by two facts: only the teacher was asking questions, and he kept calling exclusively on girls to present. Ten minutes later, I walked into a completely different classroom where students rotated through the room presenting group projects to each other. The teacher instructed his class to "work to understand" the content through discussion, and every voice filled the room. These two experiences resurfaced a long-held question: What makes for an equitable classroom? While this topic deserves a whole book, here are three simple practices that you can try on to increase the range and frequency of student voices in your classroom. Practice 1: Use Equity Sticks Equity sticks are a cheap and powerful way to check your biases at the door. Photo credit: Shane Safir

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/practices-promote-equity-in-classroom-shane-safir

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