Helping Diverse Learners Succeed

The article, Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners in FCS Classrooms, describes the changes in the ethnical make-up of today’s classroom and the challenges teachers face as they aim to teach children from different cultures. In addition, the article points out the different needs of multicultural learners in the classroom. Finally, the article also describes research based strategies and techniques teachers can use that prove to be effective for the diverse learner.

Poverty is a serious issue which our society and children faces every day. It is a constant struggle that shouldn’t be ignored. UNICEF states “The study of OECD countries in 2007, over fourteen percent of Australian children under the age of eighteen are currently living in households who are defined as poor or with incomes less than half of the median national income”. The increase in the number and percentage of children living in poverty within our society has contributed to making today's classrooms more diverse than ever it has been. This highlights and makes both teaching and learning more challenging. Diversity exists in the students who are living in poverty and the education assistant and teachers must provide the concept of diversity

Within the core of many educational institutions, diversity is a commercial tacit. While every institution cannot offer the same kind of diversity, the endorsement of such exists through various definitions. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges define diversity through the various classes: race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and age (“Statement on Diversity”)

1. The maintenance of cultures as parallel and equal to the dominant culture in a society is?

The author of White Teacher is Vivian Gussin Paley. The book is about her experience of teaching her kindergarten class. She shares her experiences of teaching in a school with integrated classes in a time when racism was a major part of society in the outside world. Mrs. Paley’s main focus was to be the best teacher she could be to all of her students, but was not sure how to go about dealing with the racial differences in her classroom. She was told she should ignore the subject of race in the classroom and pay more attention to the behavior and success of her students. Mrs. Paley quickly realized that this was not the solution and that ignoring this subject did not help the students. It conveyed the wrong message to all of the students, even the white ones. Mrs. Paley started to bring the subject to her students and this also helped with her own struggles with racial stereotypes in and outside of the classroom environment. This book gives an inside look of the struggles that teachers face when trying to address the issues of race and it gives some insight on some of the solutions teachers can use to effectively deal with this very fragile subject.

The fact that my school was diverse was a gift. I met all sorts of people from different races, religion and even sexualities. Everyone there respected each other 's ethnicities and each of us are creative with different ideas from our culture. With diversity we can feel comfortable working with different people and have connections with them. If the schools weren’t diverse, the minorities would have a hard time fitting in and getting involved with the school. If the classroom wasn’t diverse, how could we learn from other people’s cultures and point of view. My friends introduced me to their culture and I honestly had the best experience of my life. I got to learn different dishes such as Shchi, a Russian dish, and dimsum, from Chinese’s style buffet. I started to learn and notice different race and learned to appreciate their culture. Diversity can also causes problems. Katherine W. Philippis

Essential to the work of school administrators and other school leaders is the support of diversity, equity and accessibility within a school’s culture. In order to do so, they must set the tone for how to consider diversity, equity and accessibility with faculty, students, parents, school stakeholders and themselves. Throughout this course, Diverse Learners, our learning has focused on conducting and applying research as it relates to the education of diverse learners. In this reflection, I will discuss what I have learned about diversity and student achievement.

The United States population is filled with diverse individuals. It is important for educators to understand that diversity in classrooms is not just based on race but ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, economic status, learning disabilities, and etc. It may not affect your student directly but it can be a part of their family background. Educators may assume that students have the same social or educational status of each other which in some cases is not true. If they assume that every student is on the same academic level, the students may suffer educationally or emotionally. Teachers need to understand that all students grow and progress at different times and it is up to an educator to help start their growth in the right direction and to make each child feel accepted. Yale University () discussed how it can affect teachers if they do not understand how to assess diversity, “teachers may themselves feel out of place based on their own ascriptive traits (i.e. differences based on class, privilege, etc.).” Diversity in classrooms is becoming more frequent and educators need to understand how to properly assess their student’s based on their educational needs and how to teach other students how each of them are different individually. There is no right choice to teach diversity but it is something that needs to implemented in classrooms.

In beginning this class entitled Diverse Learners, I thought to myself that it would be a good opportunity to learn about teaching in an inclusive classroom to the myriad of students which will enter its walls. In essence that is what teaching is all about, creating an environment in which all students can learn to the best of their ability no matter what that ability is.

Students have their own best way in effectively learning the lesson. With the diversity of students, the problem is each student has a preferred learning style. It becomes undeniably one of the reasons that make it difficult to achieve the best expected outcome out of teachers’ effort. However, teachers try to incorporate various teaching techniques to make every learning opportunity become productive, meaningful, and relevant for the learners.

In the past, I have supported diverse learners in a variety of ways. To begin, from the first day of school I begin building a positive relationship with students. Students need to know that I can about their academic success and their well being. In addition to building a postivie relationship with students, I also strive to create a positive relationship with parent. Parents are a vital component to student success, everyone is part of the “team” for learning. Last, I set high expectations for my students. I am a firm believer that if you set high expeactations and students know you care about their learning, they will work hard to reach their goal. My learning goal in supporting diverse learners is for students to reach mastery of each knowledge and be able to make application with each skill. I have found that students can reach mastery on a specific skill, yet has difficulty transferring the knowledge into application. In addition, my goal is for students to have a positive learning experience. I want my

I completely agree with you, Rhea. In order to meet the needs of diverse learners, classrooms should offer multiple choices. In order to reach students of different abilities and backgrounds, teachers should incorporate both traditional methods of instruction, such as paper and pencil, as well as interactive stations that allow students to take control of their own learning. I enjoyed my AFX more than the IFX because, while there were chances for students to control their learning, students were given multiple outlets to control their learning. They used ipads, the smartboard, they had multiple centres (for math and English), they drew pictures and used papers and

Teachers should understand the diversity spectrum that is in a classroom; there are cultures, races, languages, and socioeconomic backgrounds in classroom during the 21st century educational realm. Students need to acknowledge student’s diverse background specially when they arrive late in the school year.

In order to start a successful diversity training, we will have to begin with defining the concepts of diversity. The prerequisites associated with this would be to determine if the students know anything about the definition of diversity and to provide the definition to the participants. We will provide the definition of affirmative action, and inclusion. We will then provide the students with a timeline for the use of the terms diversity, affirmative action, and inclusion.

Growing up in a small town I did not deal with much diversity. Out of a school of one-thousand kids we only had twelve black students and three hispanic students. The school is virtually homogenous. I was shocked to see how the world's attitude towards diversity differed from my narrominded town.