Recognizing and Providing for Student Differences in Instruction

1. Module 6Providing for student differences. TED 367 Methods in Sec. Ed.

2. Module 6 Explain how teachers can recognize and provide for student differences in instruction.

3. Reading • Read the following in the Duplass textbook: • Topic 8: “Teaching in a Diverse Classroom”

4. Topics • Differentiated Instruction • At-risk Students • Special Needs/Exceptional/Disabilities Students • Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students • Gifted and Talented Students • Slow and Recalcitrant Learners

5. 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.

6. Differentiated Instruction

7. 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.

8. Differentiated Instruction • Give students choices about how to express what they have learned. • Use reading materials with different levels of readability. • Present ideas both visually and verbally. • Meet with small groups to re-teach key concepts. • Pair students of lesser and stronger reading ability. • Vary the length of time for students to complete projects so struggling students can succeed.

9. Differentiated Instruction • Provide for individual work as well as collaborative work. • Tie instruction to assessment. • Use flexible grouping (e.g., readiness and mixed-readiness groups, same and different interest groups, random groups). • Carefully organize and explain classroom routines (like where to put assignments), directions, and objectives.

10. At-risk Students

11. 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.

12. At-risk Students • 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. • Use time outside of class to talk with students about matters unrelated to schoolwork. • Assign projects and tasks that allow students to be successful from the beginning. This develops a sense of mastery and confidence. • 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.

13. At-risk Students • Give students important classroom responsibilities and allow students to plan how they will complete assignments. • Help students reach at least one meaningful goal each day. • Keep learningstruggles private. Encourage students to ask and answer questions and respond privately, on a one-to-one basis. • Use a variety of grouping approaches: by ethnicity, gender, readiness, and so on.

14. Special Needs/ Exceptional/Disabilities Students

15. 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.

16. Students with Special Needs • Intellectual differences: profound mental retardation, educable mental handicap, and other conditions. • Communications differences: hearing and speech disabilities. • Sensory differences: auditory and visual impairments. • Behavioral differences: ADHD, social maladjustment, and other conditions. • Multiple and severe handicaps: cerebral palsy and other impairments. • Physical differences: dwarfism, confinement to a wheelchair, and other conditions.

17. Working with Special Needs Students • Explain the learning and behavioral expectations in detail. • Use cooperative learning with heterogeneous groups, particularly for reading and composition. • Use peer tutoring with all students participating. • Use shortened assignments to accommodate the slower pace of special students. • Remind students how to correct their own errors.

18. Working with Special Needs Students • Use multiple examples. • Refocus students who are dawdling. • Use one-to-one teacher-to-special-student coaching while students are in cooperative learning groups. • Teach a strategy’s steps by using mnemonics, modeling, and choral recitation of the components.

19. Working with Special Needs Students • 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. • Use accommodation instruction to allow special students to do the same assignment but in a different way. • Give a dyslexic student a verbal exam. • Use direct instruction for knowledge content like vocabulary and factual information.

20. Working with Special Needs Students • Use constructivist approaches for analysis and decision-making. • Promote independence during projects by having students maintain a folder of their work.

21. Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students

22. Linguistically and Culturally Diverse • In the 100 largest school districts, 68% of students are minority students.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. Working with Diverse Students • Don’t insist that students make eye contact when you are speaking to them: This is considered rude in many cultures. • Be visual. • Use drawings, dramatic gestures, actions, emotions, voice, mime, chalkboard sketches, photographs, and visual materials to provide clues to meaning.

26. Working with Diverse Students • 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. • 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.

27. Working with Diverse Students • Correct heavily accented speech by repeating the words correctly and asking the student if he or she would like to try. • Allow the use of bilingual dictionaries. • Use student volunteers to help new ELL students learn new phrases and pronunciations. • Encourage writing.

28. Gifted and Talented Students

29. 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.

30. Identifying Gifted Students • Criteria for determining gifted: • GPA • IQ • Problem: Gifted students many times are not identified.

31. 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.

32. 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).

33. Working with Gifted Students • Provide opportunities to work independently or in dyads (prefer to work with other gifted students). • Emphasize critical thinking, problem-solving, and inquiry (student-centered methods). • Involve students in activity/assignment planning. • Provide options for enrichment. • Learning centers, special projects, multimedia programs.

34. Slow and Recalcitrant Learners

35. Slow and Recalcitrant Learners • Students who require more time to learn typically fall into 2 categories: • 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. • 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.

36. Working with Slow Learners • Build the student’s self-esteem: • Discover something the student does well and build on that. • Use frequent positive reinforcement. • Vary instructional strategies. • Build student’s communication skills: • Emphasize speaking, listening, reading, writing. • Help student improve reading skills such as pronunciation and word meanings if needed. • Help the student learn in small sequential steps. • Maximize use of in-class work. • Use appropriate level reading material.

37. Working with Recalcitrant Learners • Learn as much as you can about each student. • Avoid lecturing. Instead, engage students: • Interactive media. • Real-world problem solving. • Help students develop their learning and studying skills (especially mnemonics). • Maximize use of in-class work. • Use frequent positive reinforcement. • Use appropriate level reading material.

38. SUMMARY: Providing for Student Differences

39. 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?

40. Providing for Student Differences • Start learning experiences in the concrete, and progress to the abstract. • Rely more heavily on student-centered methods of instruction. • Use learning centers. • Maintain high expectations (can be different for different students). • Provide variations and options in assignments.

41. Providing for Student Differences • Make learning meaningful by integrating it with life. • Use peer coaching. • Use small group and cooperative learning strategies. • Use interactive multimedia computer programs.