Teaching Diverse Learners By Lauren Persson Such diversity

Teaching Diverse Learners By Lauren Persson

à Such diversity is present in the classrooms of today's society. Teachers are faced with accommodating students of varying ethnic backgrounds, intellectual strengths and levels of ability. Many strategies and techniques exist for presenting materials and assignments in a way that is understandable and accessible to students with diverse learning needs. à Chelsea Oliver

Students a teacher might be missing: • Learning Disabled – Teachers might not be aware of the disability • Behavioral Issues – Acting out in class, anger issues • Physically Disabled – Hearing impairments, issues getting around the classroom • Troubled Home Life – Parents fighting, horrible living conditions, different caregivers • Language barriers – Learning English as a second language • Cultural barriers – Coming from a different culture and separating home life from school Signs that a teacher is missing a student: • Students grades are dropping • Less social interaction – Isolating themselves from peers • Outbursts in class – Temper tantrums, arguing with teacher, fighting with peers • A drop in classroom involvement • A decrease in learning – Not absorbing the information being taught in class

Strategies To Help Reach All Learners • Using scaffold instructions to help student learning • Use students strengths to help plan instruction and group students together to help students needs • Using differentiated instruction tailored to students’ abilities • Have high expectations for your students • Encourage equal participation in the classroom

Zeichner’s 12 Key Elements for Effective Teaching in a Diverse Classroom 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Teachers have a clear sense of their own ethnic and cultural identities Communicate high expectations for the success of all students and a belief that all students can succeed Personally committed to achieving equity for all students and believe that they are capable of making a difference in their students’ learning Develop a bond with their students and cease seeing their students as “the other” Schools provide an academically challenging curriculum that includes attention to the development of higherlevel cognitive skills Instruction focuses on students’ creation of meaning about content in an interactive and collaborative learning environment 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Teachers help students see learning tasks as meaningful Curricula include the contributions and perspectives of the different ethno cultural groups that compose the society Teachers provide a “scaffolding” that links the academically challenging curriculum to the cultural resources that students bring to school Explicitly teach students the culture of the school and seek to maintain students’ sense of ethno cultural pride and identity Community members and parents or guardians are encouraged to become involved in students’ education and are given a significant voice in making important school decisions related to programs (such as resources and staffing) Teachers are involved in political struggles outside the classroom that are aimed at achieving a more just and humane society

• That minority and low-income children often perform poorly on tests is well known. But the fact that they do so because we systematically expect less from them is not. Most Americans assume that the low achievement of poor and minority children is bound up in the children themselves or their families. "The children don't try. " "They have no place to study. " "Their parents don't care. " "Their culture does not value education. " These and other excuses are regularly offered up to explain the achievement gap that separates poor and minority students from other young Americans. But these are red herrings. The fact is that we know how to educate poor and minority children of all kinds—racial, ethnic, and language—to high levels. Some teachers and some entire schools do it every day, year in and year out, with outstanding results. But the nation as a whole has not yet acted on that knowledge. … • —Commission on Chapter 1 (1992, pp. 3– 4)

Ways Diversity Provides a Rich Learning Environment • Lets the students experience the real world • Helps students recognize that all people are unique in their own way • Students recognize and respect that people are different and that different is a good thing • Teachers provide a save environment that gives every student a chance to be themselves • Teachers work with a learning staff or special education staff to create lessons and activities that benefit all students.

Ways to Create a Classroom that Respects Diversity • Set up behavioral expectations the first day of class • Use ice-breakers and teambuilding games the first few weeks to encourage the students to feel comfortable • Validate individual student experiences and challenges, avoid making assumptions • Use group work regularly in the classroom • Get regular feedback from the students about assignments, readings, lectures, and activities • Make your instructions diverse and use a range of voices • Encourage students to talk to you and tell you when something is wrong • Use self-esteem activities to build student confidence

Effective Learning Environment in a Diverse Classroom • Use educational images to decorate the classroom • Play soft music while children are working • Recognize all cultural holidays • Provide on one time • Learn phrases in different languages

• A classroom that respects diversity promotes learning. Integrated classrooms create a rich learning experience for students and teachers alike, but classroom diversity is not without its challenges. Differences between students may create conflicts that distract from learning, and your responsibility as a teacher is to establish a classroom that not only respects diversity, but values it as an asset to education. A classroom atmosphere that celebrates differences, communicates respectfully, and maintains high expectations for both student behavior and achievement promotes student learning, both inside and outside of the classroom. • By Hannah Wahlig

Programs used in EPS • Behavioral contracts to help with behavioral issues in the classroom and home • Use of IEP’s for all ages so that learning and behavioral progress is documented • Resource rooms with specialists – Speech, reading, English, math, and science • TA’s assigned to most disabled students to help out in classrooms • Parental involvement with learning – Homework packets, notes, email reminders, classroom helpers

My Experience • While student teaching in Elkhorn I have gotten lots of hands on experiences with diverse classrooms. I have met some wonderful kids that have taught me a lot about patience and how to set up lessons to accommodate those students. Having TA’s for each student to let me know how communicate with the student and help them learn. I have learned ways of making accommodations to different lessons, sometimes even several accommodations depending on the grade levels and the different disabilities. I have learned how to keep lessons from stereotyping and I try to keep the lessons open for interpretation. This school district has given me experience with kids from different cultural and economical backgrounds. I have heard the bad stories about home life and then I have also put up with parents not caring about whether or not their child is in school. I have learned patience, classroom management and many other skills from my cooperating teachers.

Resources • • • http: //www. learner. org/workshops/teachreading 35/session 7/index. html http: //www. ehow. com/way_5844024_effective-strategies-accommodate-diverselearners. html http: //voices. yahoo. com/best-practices-teaching-diverse-learners 586825. html? cat=4 http: //www. ehow. com/info_7920245_classroom-strategies-diverse-learners. html http: //www. ascd. org/publications/books/107003/chapters/Diverse-Teaching. Strategies-for-Diverse-Learners. aspx http: //www. ehow. com/how_7787249_create-classroom-respects-diversity. html http: //www. ehow. com/how_2305535_create-effective-learning-environmentdiverse. html http: //www. ndt-ed. org/Teaching. Resources/Classroom. Tips/Diversity. htm http: //www. pbs. org/kcts/preciouschildren/diversity/read_linguistic. html http: //www. ericdigests. org/1998 -1/needs. htm