Transcript Providing for student differences.

Module 6
Providing for student differences.
TED 367
Methods in Sec. Ed.
Module 6
Explain how teachers can recognize and
provide for student differences in
instruction.
Reading
• Read the following in the Duplass
textbook:
– Topic 8: “Teaching in a Diverse Classroom”
Topics
• Differentiated Instruction
• At-risk Students
• Special Needs/Exceptional/Disabilities
Students
• Linguistically and Culturally Diverse
Students
• Gifted and Talented Students
• Slow and Recalcitrant Learners
Introduction
• The diversity in American classrooms was
partially created by…
– A democratic society that attracts people from around
the world.
– By the desegregation of public schools.
– By a commitment to universal access to public
education.
• The proportion of students from diverse
socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, and religious
backgrounds and with special needs will
continue to grow.
Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated Instruction
• Within-class differentiated instruction
does not mean you lower your standards,
but rather that you provide opportunities
for students to meet those standards in a
variety of ways.
Differentiated Instruction
1. Give students choices about how to express
what they have learned.
2. Use reading materials with different levels of
readability.
3. Present ideas both visually and verbally.
4. Meet with small groups to re-teach key
concepts.
5. Pair students of lesser and stronger reading
ability.
6. Vary the length of time for students to
complete projects so struggling students can
succeed.
Differentiated Instruction
7. Provide for individual work as well as
collaborative work.
8. Tie instruction to assessment.
9. Use flexible grouping (e.g., readiness and
mixed-readiness groups, same and different
interest groups, random groups).
10. Carefully organize and explain classroom
routines (like where to put assignments),
directions, and objectives.
At-risk Students
At-risk Students
• The term at risk originates from a 1983
U.S. government publication, A Nation at
Risk: The Imperative for Education
Reform.
• Variables that indicate students may be at
risk:
– Poverty, ethnicity, race, gender, language.
At-risk Students
1. Help students feel welcome in your classroom
and your school.
•
Greet each student entering your room by asking
questions about topics that matter in his or her life.
2. Use time outside of class to talk with students
about matters unrelated to schoolwork.
3. Assign projects and tasks that allow students
to be successful from the beginning. This
develops a sense of mastery and confidence.
4. Focus on higher-order thinking. Just
because a student is at risk does not mean
that he or she can’t tackle higher-order
cognition.
At-risk Students
5. Give students important classroom
responsibilities and allow students to plan
how they will complete assignments.
6. Help students reach at least one meaningful
goal each day.
7. Keep learning struggles private. Encourage
students to ask and answer questions and
respond privately, on a one-to-one basis.
8. Use a variety of grouping approaches: by
ethnicity, gender, readiness, and so on.
Special Needs/
Exceptional/Disabilities Students
Students with Special Needs
• As a result of the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA):
– About 11% of the school-age population are
classified as “exceptional.”
– About 70% of these students are
mainstreamed into your classrooms.
Students with Special Needs
1. Intellectual differences: profound mental
retardation, educable mental handicap, and
other conditions.
2. Communications differences: hearing and
speech disabilities.
3. Sensory differences: auditory and visual
impairments.
4. Behavioral differences: ADHD, social
maladjustment, and other conditions.
5. Multiple and severe handicaps: cerebral
palsy and other impairments.
6. Physical differences: dwarfism, confinement
to a wheelchair, and other conditions.
Working with Special Needs
Students
1. Explain the learning and behavioral
expectations in detail.
2. Use cooperative learning with heterogeneous
groups, particularly for reading and
composition.
3. Use peer tutoring with all students
participating.
4. Use shortened assignments to
accommodate the slower pace of special
students.
5. Remind students how to correct their own
errors.
Working with Special Needs
Students
6. Use multiple examples.
7. Refocus students who are dawdling.
8. Use one-to-one teacher-to-specialstudent coaching while students are in
cooperative learning groups.
9. Teach a strategy’s steps by using
mnemonics, modeling, and choral
recitation of the components.
Working with Special Needs
Students
10. Use adaptation instruction to allow special
students to work on the same content but with
lesser degrees of difficulty.
•
Have them list ten states, capitols, etc., while the
other students list twenty.
11. Use accommodation instruction to allow
special students to do the same assignment
but in a different way.
•
Give a dyslexic student a verbal exam.
12. Use direct instruction for knowledge content
like vocabulary and factual information.
Working with Special Needs
Students
13. Use constructivist approaches for
analysis and decision-making.
14. Promote independence during projects
by having students maintain a folder of
their work.
Linguistically and Culturally
Diverse Students
Linguistically and Culturally Diverse
• In the 100 largest school districts,
68% of students are minority
students.
Linguistically and Culturally Diverse
You could have a classroom:
• That is primarily populated with one
dominant ethnic group.
– As in many schools drawing from the Hispanic
communities in the Southwest or in an Inner
City school with mostly African American
students.
• In a suburban school with a few ethnic
minority students from one culture.
– A relatively small number of African American
or Latino students.
Linguistically and Culturally Diverse
• With a few minority students who have
diverse linguistic and ethnic backgrounds.
– Perhaps in New York City, where you could
have one Chinese, Vietnamese, Pakistani,
and Haitian student in a class of thirty.
Working with Diverse Students
1. Don’t insist that students make eye
contact when you are speaking to them:
This is considered rude in many cultures.
2. Be visual.
•
Use drawings, dramatic gestures, actions,
emotions, voice, mime, chalkboard
sketches, photographs, and visual materials
to provide clues to meaning.
Working with Diverse Students
3. Talk slowly. Simplify your message (avoid
passive voice and complex sentences).
•
•
Use short, simple sentences and no pronouns.
Repeat yourself using the same grammatical form.
4. Give ELL students more time to respond,
don’t be impatient; and smile.
•
Remember, they are just as bright as non-ELL
students; it’s the language that is the barrier.
Working with Diverse Students
5. Correct heavily accented speech by
repeating the words correctly and asking
the student if he or she would like to try.
6. Allow the use of bilingual dictionaries.
7. Use student volunteers to help new
ELL students learn new phrases and
pronunciations.
8. Encourage writing.
Gifted and Talented Students
Gifted and Talented
• Historically, teachers used to refer to
gifted (exceptional ability in one or more
academic subjects) and talented
(exceptional ability in visual or performing
arts).
• Today, the terms are used synonymously.
Identifying Gifted Students
• Criteria for determining gifted:
– GPA
– IQ
• Problem: Gifted students many times are
not identified.
Identifying Gifted Students
• Abilities of gifted:
– Transfer knowledge to other circumstances.
– Manipulate a symbol system.
– Take on adult roles at home.
– Be resilient to cope with dysfunctional family.
– Think logically and solve problems.
– Creative or artistic.
– Independent mind/leadership ability.
Identifying Gifted Students
• Characteristics of gifted (that may go
unnoticed):
– Antisocial.
– Creative, high achievers.
– Underachievers (learn in ways not
challenged).
– Divergent thinkers.
– Perfectionists.
– Sensitive.
– Students with special needs (ADHD, dyslexia,
etc., can mask giftedness).
Working with Gifted Students
1. Provide opportunities to work independently
or in dyads (prefer to work with other gifted
students).
2. Emphasize critical thinking, problem-solving,
and inquiry (student-centered methods).
3. Involve students in activity/assignment
planning.
4. Provide options for enrichment.
•
Learning centers, special projects, multimedia
programs.
Slow and Recalcitrant
Learners
Slow and Recalcitrant Learners
•
Students who require more time to learn
typically fall into 2 categories:
1. Slow learners.
– Are willing to try, but require more time due to
any of a number of reasons.
– Not less intelligent, just require more time.
2. Recalcitrant learners.
– Refuse to try.
– Referred to as underachievers and reluctant
learners.
– May be due to history of failure, bored with
school, poor self-image, severe personal
problems.
Working with Slow Learners
1. Build the student’s self-esteem:
–
–
Discover something the student does well and build
on that.
Use frequent positive reinforcement.
2. Vary instructional strategies.
3. Build student’s communication skills:
–
–
Emphasize speaking, listening, reading, writing.
Help student improve reading skills such as
pronunciation and word meanings if needed.
4. Help the student learn in small sequential
steps.
5. Maximize use of in-class work.
6. Use appropriate level reading material.
Working with Recalcitrant Learners
1. Learn as much as you can about each student.
2. Avoid lecturing. Instead, engage students:
–
–
Interactive media.
Real-world problem solving.
3. Help students develop their learning and
studying skills (especially mnemonics).
4. Maximize use of in-class work.
5. Use frequent positive reinforcement.
6. Use appropriate level reading material.
SUMMARY: Providing for
Student Differences
Providing for Student Differences
• One classroom may contain at-risk,
special needs, linguistically and culturally
diverse, gifted students, and slow and
recalcitrant Learners.
• How can a teacher differentiate instruction
to accommodate so many diverse learners
at the same time?
Providing for Student Differences
1. Start learning experiences in the
concrete, and progress to the abstract.
2. Rely more heavily on student-centered
methods of instruction.
3. Use learning centers.
4. Maintain high expectations (can be
different for different students).
5. Provide variations and options in
assignments.
Providing for Student Differences
6. Make learning meaningful by integrating
it with life.
7. Use peer coaching.
8. Use small group and cooperative
learning strategies.
9. Use interactive multimedia computer
programs.