Curriculum should be differentiated according to students’ needs, so that young people of diverse cultures, learning styles, and abilities can find meaning. The following paragraphs will address diversity’s presence in the classroom, through students’ backgrounds and abilities, as well as through applied examples of how educators can discover this diversity and use it in instruction.
The first element of diversity among students regards learning styles. In understanding that students are unique individuals, educators must notice the assortment of learning styles these young men and women possess. There are four basic learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and analytical. By creating curriculum that addresses each of these styles, more students are able to find meaning from a lesson or activity.
The second element of diversity among students concerns the lives of the students outside of the classroom. Effective educators realize that learning does not only occur in the classroom, but that outside factors influence students’ learning and acquisition of information. Gloria Ladson-Billings (2006) emphasizes this fact in her chapter, “Yes, But How Do We Do It?” in White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms. She alludes to the idea that students’ entire lives—cultures, living arrangements, and neighborhoods (called “social context”)—provide educational opportunities and shape the way in which they best acquire that information. As a result, students bring these outside factors to school each day, and so these factors influence how they acquire academic information. For teachers to address these complex individuals, they must become familiar with them as people—not simply as students. Doing so provides a canvas upon which genuine curricular learning can take place, and upon which lessons can become “real”, or culturally relevant.
The third and final aspect of student diversity discussed here regards learning abilities. In inclusive classrooms, teachers will see varying strengths and challenges within each student and will need to address each one. It is given that general education students will be present, but it should also be understood that many other groups exist. For example, English language learners (ELLs), learning disabled (LD), and gifted/talented students can be found (Salend, 2008). In this portion of the essay, I will only focus on the three groups above.
ELLs are students who do not speak English fluently and possess a different language in which they speak the majority of the time (e.g. at home with family and friends). Angela L. Carrasquillo and Vivian Rodriguez (2002) address in their book, Language Minority Students in the Mainstream Classroom, some specific needs of these individuals. They note that while most ELLs are proficient in English, they continue to struggle with it in school. The suggested reason for this struggle is linked to the distinction between “basic interpersonal communication skills” (BICS) and “cognitive academic language proficiency” (CALP). The former concept is context-embedded, meaning language skill building is hidden within the text and learned through cues and context clues. The latter concept is context-reduced, meaning language skill building does not exist in the text, and an already proficient grasp on the vocabulary and academic language is required for comprehension—therefore it is the more challenging of the two ideas and the area of concern.
In order to guide these students toward greater linguistic success, teachers must connect subject content directly to ELL’s lives. Activities such as creating oral history presentations, participating in cooperative learning assignments, and working on projects that incorporate multimedia all provide opportunities for these students to excel (Carrasquillo & Rodriguez, 2002).
LD students present another set of academic challenges. Learning disabilities are high-incidence disorders that hinder ability to understand information, and may manifest itself through inability to communicate or think. This group is growing, in part, due to social acceptability of the disorders. However, it commonly goes undiagnosed, so they actual incidence number is probably higher. LDs are distinct from ELLs in that they often struggle with memory, attention, or organizational abilities, while ELLs may not necessarily exhibit these aspects. The two groups are similar, however, when LD presents itself through language difficulty. Like ELLs, LDs often do not have the vocabulary knowledge needed to understand grade-level texts written in English (Salend, 2008).
Several approaches are suggested in assisting students with LD. These approaches include collaboration with service providers and paraeducators, use of instructional technology, and differentiating instruction according to students’ needs. By incorporating these suggestions, meaningful subject content can be achieved (Salend, 2008).
Gifted/talented students make up the third group of exceptional students in this discussion. They add to the class’s diversity due to their complexity and abilities. Spencer J. Salend (2008) explains that these students may differ vastly from one another in their strengths, learning styles, and learning needs. Gifted/talented students are discovered through teacher referrals and intelligence testing. Also, the definitions of gifted and talented have changed over time. While at one time, the gifted/talented classification was only given for academic intelligence, Gardiner’s multiple intelligences are now being used to create a more holistic definition of this classification. Finally, emotional intelligence now plays a factor in modern classification.
In order to differentiate instruction for these learners, Salend suggests such strategies as curriculum compacting and problem-based learning. The former strategy allows students to show achievement through more challenging curriculum, sometimes selected by the students. The latter strategy sees curriculum in terms of problem-solving opportunities; students explore complex solutions to open-ended content area issues by way of research and in-depth thinking. These instructional ideas address motivation, which is often the primary concern with gifted/talented students (Salend, 2008).
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The ideas discussed in the research above only outline a few examples of diversity among students inside and outside of the classroom. Those examples must be applied to planning and instruction in order to be effective. In the following paragraphs, I will demonstrate three ways in which I previously took into account such diversity and implemented it in my teaching.
First, in learning the culture and background of one student from the fall semester’s student teaching experience, I conducted an informal interview with him during lunch. The main point of this interview was to learn more about the person so that I could better understand the student. Though keeping his attention was a challenge, I was able to learn a great deal about his home life, interests, and attitude about homework during the weekends. This information gave me the ability to understand some of his inattentive behavior and incomplete homework in class.
Second, I was able to learn about an entire class of students regarding a topic that involves opinions both inside and outside of school: reading. I accomplished this learning experience by administering a reading attitude survey to each student of a civil rights history class last fall. The students ranged from grades five through eight, and varied greatly in learning abilities and styles. The results of the survey were pretty varied, too. While almost every student enjoyed reading, some students preferred assigned books from school and other students preferred books of their choosing. Additionally, some students enjoyed reading with older siblings, whereas some students liked reading alone. Only one student admitted in his survey that he disliked reading, which was due to his struggle with doing so.
Finally, in understanding the diversity of students in any given classroom, I take into account various disabilities my students possess. Some of these disabilities involve learning and some involve other disorders. While in the research portion of this essay I addressed learning disabled students, I would like to address demonstration of other disabilities in order to provide a fuller picture of the diversity that can exist in an inclusion class.
During the fall semester student teaching experience, I created a lesson plan that modified curriculum for four high-incidence disabilities: hearing impairment, visual impairment, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The lesson topic was Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education, which is the case that began the official Civil Rights Movement. In the lesson plan, I included specific modifications to each section, so that students with the four mentioned disabilities could receive the same learning opportunities as the rest of the class. Changes such as large-font type, and speaking and writing activity directions; as well as environmental changes like strategic seating, closing windows, and adjusting lighting accounted for the various needs in the class.
In closing, every student in a classroom is different and unique. No two students possess identical abilities, backgrounds, or learning styles. For this reason, educators must get to know their students as people, as well as learners, to be effective in guiding them toward success. The research and application mentioned in this essay provide evidence of this crucial need.
REFERENCES
Carrasquillo, A. L. & Rodriguez, V. (2002). Language minority students in the mainstream classroom. Clevedon: Multilingual Materials.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). Yes, but how do we do it? Practicing culturally relevant pedagogy. In J. Landsman & C. Lewis (Eds.), White teachers/diverse classrooms: A guide to building inclusive schools, promoting high expectations, and eliminating racism (pp. 29-41). Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Salend, S. J. (2007). Creating inclusive classrooms: Effective and reflective practices for all students. Boston: Pearson Education.
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