51 pages • 1 hour read
Zaretta L. HammondA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
This refers to the disparity between academic performance and skill mastery. It exists primarily between affluent students and low-income students. The achievement gap sheds light on the inequities in educational contexts, especially when analyzing students who are enrolled in public schools across the nation. The gap is attributed to multiple socioeconomic factors and has shaped public education in America for decades, particularly as the demand for postsecondary education has increased.
The amygdala is a collection of cells in the brain that helps the brain process fear-inducing situations. The amygdala is commonly linked with the “fight or flight” instinct. It triggers a release of hormones that alert the brain to a danger or discomfort. People often respond instinctively, regardless of the threat. Hammond argues that when the amygdala dominates a student’s thinking, they lose their ability to focus on academic learning.
Hammond argues that cognitive routines are the “engines of information processing” (131); students engage in deeper learning by means of established habits in the classroom. As teachers plan cognitive routines for their students, they must consider students’ prior knowledge and how it relates to new skills or content. Hammond points out that for most cognitive routines, the brain resorts to one or more of the following meaning-making habits: looking for similarities and differences; understanding whole-to-part connections; understanding how objects, events, or concepts are related to another reference point; identifying the predominant perspective in which new information is situated.
Hammond argues that within the classroom, educators often try to orient their practice within a context that leads to greater integration of cultural elements. These cultural reference points fall into three general categories: surface level, which have low emotional impact in terms of establishing trust; shallow, which build emotional trust by means of observing the unspoken rules of culture; and deep, which speaks to essentially all the major aspects of students’ culture, thereby building intense levels of trust.
Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) is a methodological approach to teaching. It interweaves students’ cultural contexts, including language and life experiences, into classroom learning. CRT is intentional by nature; it is not an accidental montage of vague cultural references, but an in-depth exploration of how to maximize student learning by increasing students’ sense of belonging in the classroom. The goal of culturally responsive teaching is to remove learning barriers, particularly for students of color, who historically suffer from systemic factors that perpetuate the achievement gap. CRT serves to raise academic expectations for all students, holding students to rigorous standards to promote skill mastery.
Hammond emphasizes the role of students’ brain power as a primary focus of classroom instruction. The information processing cycle consists of three stages: input, elaboration, and application. During the input stage, students’ brains filter information by zeroing in on what is most relevant. During the elaboration phase, the brain moves information from short term memory to working memory. Finally, during the application phase, the brain finds ways to use information to develop skills.
Hammond defines intellective capacity as “the increased power the brain creates to process complex information more effectively” (16). She provides two alternate names as well: “fluid intelligence” or “intellective competence.” Teachers must focus on building intellective capacity as they approach their work with students. The end goal is to transform students from passive recipients of content into active, independent learners who believe in their potential to learn and hone academic skills.
This refers to productive student-teacher relationships, predicated on a mutual pact: Both student and teacher are invested in learning and continually improving. This partnership transcends the realm of friendly rapport, prioritizing specific learning goals around particular skills. Hammond clarifies the term as a practical equation: “rapport + alliance = cognitive insight” (75). Each component must be evident in the learning partnership to be effective, as teachers and students build trust in search of their mutually shared goals.
The “Ready for Rigor” framework is a structured approach to teaching within the context of cultural relevance and responsiveness. It is based on four practice areas: awareness based on sociopolitical consciousness, learning partnerships based on trusting relationships between teacher and student, information processing contextualized by cultural archetypes, and community building activities that lead to safe learning spaces. According to Hammond, effective implementation of the “Ready for Rigor” framework “helps us operationalize culturally responsive teaching” (20).
Judith Kleinfeld, an educator, originally coined this term in 1972. “Warm demander” refers to an approach in which teachers demonstrate a balanced combination of personal warmth, or care, and active demandingness. According to Hammond, this is the ideal stance of a culturally responsive teacher: A warm demander “earns the right to push for excellence and stretch the student beyond his comfort zone” (97). Warm demanders stand in stark contrast to teachers who fall into two distinct extremes: On the one hand, teachers whose professional distance inhibits them from building trust and rapport with students, and on the other, teachers who are so lenient their students never engage in rigorous learning experiences.