Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain Teacher Professional Development

Has your school been studying the Zaretta Hammond book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain?

Are you looking to give a 15-20 minute professional development training to your staff using the book as a reference?

Check out this ready-to-use Information Gap activity to guide your participants through a short training session.

The documents in this activity will allow you to lead a 15-20 minute activity using the sheltered instructional strategy called Information Gap.

Information Gap is a collaborative activity that will get your students or participants up and moving, talking to one another, and using targeted academic vocabulary and concepts. The activity has people working in pairs and each person has a different piece of missing information. Participants must listen and talk to each other in order to fill in the information gap.

Documents included in this PDF:

PDF page 1: Facilitator Guide and Instructions

PDF page 2: Information Gap Instructions to Provide to Participants

PDF page 3: Master Copy of Information Gap (to be used as an answer key)

PDF page 4: Version A: Information Gap for Ignite, Chunk, Chew, Review

PDF page 5: Version B: Information Gap for Ignite, Chunk, Chew, Review

PDF page 6: Participant Reflection Sheet to Use After the Activity

Background Needed:

Although it would be helpful for your participants to be familiar with the information from the book, it is not essential. This activity could serve as an introduction to the content, an activity to review the content, a refresher activity for those who have studied the book in the past, an activity for book studies, or for other reasons that you deem appropriate.

Materials & Prep:

Print 1-2 copies of the Master Copy. Cut the number of participants in half and print one stack each of Version A and one stack of Version B using that number. For example, if you have 20 participants, print 10 copies of Version A and 10 copies of Version B. Print one copy of the instructions and one copy of the reflection sheet for each participant.

Instructions: (plan for 15-20 minutes)

1.(2 min) Review the Information Gap Instructions with your participants, using the instructions on PDF page 2.

2.The facilitator uses the Master Copy from PDF page 3 as an answer key.

3.(10 min) Participants work in pairs, one person using Version A and the other using Version B. It is ok to cut this short if not done if needed for time.

4.(3 min) Debrief the activity afterwards using the reflection sheet from PDF page 6.