IRIS Module | Classroom Diversity: An Introduction to Student Differences
Is it important to acknowledge students diversity in classroom settings? Why or why not?
Introduction to diversity.
Influence of teacher perceptions.
he remainder of this module will present information about some of the most important kinds of student diversity: cultural, linguistic, that involving exceptionalities, and socioeconomic status.
first thoughst activity
ELL
HISPANIC BOY
CHEERLEADER
skinny, white, blond girl, mean
Student living in poverty
White boy black foot hoodie. Dirty ripped up jeans
student with a dissability
me
girl in a wheel chair
Honor Roll student
Rhett and Jamie
school bully
large white boy
mean pretty girls
prom queen and king
QB and Cheerleader
Noel
Dig deeper
our thoughts can be influenced by stereo types.
everyone stereo types
Why Perceptions Matter :
Even when individuals have little information about another, they naturally form perceptions about them, some of which might be based on stereotypes. This tendency can lead to misperceptions.
Teachers should realize that their perceptions—and misperceptions—can positively or negatively shape their expectations for students. This, in turn, can influence students’ performance in the classroom.
As research has shown, when teachers have high expectations, students are more likely to demonstrate high academic achievement. In contrast, when teachers have low expectations, students do not perform up to their potential.
High expectations
Give longer wait time after asking a question
Provide more prompts and cues to shape student responses
Offer specific feedback
Create more opportunities to learn and practice new skills
Provide more positive reinforcement
Low expectations
Give little or no wait time
Move on to another student if a student gives an incorrect answer
Offer minimal feedback (e.g., “Incorrect,” “Wrong”)
Provide fewer opportunities to learn and practice new skills
Provide less reinforcement
Research Shows
Students whose teachers have high expectations for them perform better on achievement tests than do students for whom teachers have low expectations.
Activity
How similar are your own experiences to those of your students?
How might these similarities affect your perceptions of your students?
What perceptions do you have of your students’ race/ ethnicity, cultural diversity, linguistic differences, disabilities, or socioeconomic status?
How might these perceptions influence your instruction and your students’ learning?
What should teachers understand in order to address student diversity in their classrooms?
Cultural diversity
Linguistic diversity
Exceptionalities
Socioeconomic factors.
culture
cross-cultural dissonance
the beliefs, values, customs, and social behaviors of a group that are reflected in their everyday life. Cultural norms are learned as they are passed down from one generation to the next. Though culture can be tied to specific racial or ethnic groups, it can also encompass broader groups of people.
culturally based conflicts
Cross-cultural dissonance can also occur when the methods of instruction used in school differ from what students may be used to.
Making a difference in the classroom
Teachers should take the time to learn more about the background, values, histories, practices, and traditions of these students and their families.
culturally responsive teaching.
Students from different cultural backgrounds bring their own knowledge and life experiences to the academic setting.
By doing this, they have the potential to change how they provide instruction. More, teachers who embrace a fuller understanding of their students’ backgrounds and personal experiences can use them as a tool to make connections for all of their students
Teachers are culturally responsive when they
Acknowledge and respect different cultural heritages
Teach students to understand and appreciate their own and others’ cultural heritages
Recognize the strengths and contributions of individuals from historically underrepresented groups
Activate students’ prior knowledge and connect what they know to what they are learning
Use a wide variety of instructional techniques (e.g., role-playing exercises, storytelling) that align with the way in which the student is taught in his or her own culture
Expand the traditional curriculum to ensure that diverse perspectives are embedded by incorporating multicultural knowledge, resources, and materials in all subjects
It is important to understand the difference between social and academic language. A teacher might be confused that a student who appears to be proficient in English when communicating with his friends on the playground struggles to communicate and understand content in class. A lack of awareness about the difficulty of academic language might lead a teacher to believe that the student is not trying or that he or she has learning difficulties.
What teachers can do?
One in five students in the United States (ages 5–17) speaks a language other than English at home or speaks English with difficulty. Across the nation, more than 150 languages are spoken in our schools, with Spanish being the most predominant. Such a marked increase in ELL enrollment suggests that teachers need to be adequately prepared to work with these students.
Research Shows
At the same time, general education teachers should promote the success of ELL students in mastering academic content. In addition to adding to their own knowledge about language acquisition and proficiency, teachers should use effective supports and strategies to strengthen students’ learning outcomes.
Contextual Supports
Provide visual cues to help students learn new words or content.
Activate Background Knowledge
Build on or connect instruction to students’ previous experiences to help them understand new concepts.
Sheltered Instruction
Enhance student comprehension during instruction by speaking more slowly, speaking more clearly, monitoring vocabulary, using multimodal techniques (e.g., visuals, role-playing, video), and keeping clauses and sentences short.
Teach Vocabulary
Provide explicit vocabulary instruction with guided practice and frequent opportunities to practice using new words.
Teach Comprehension Strategies
Help students understand what they read by teaching pre-, during-, and post-reading strategies such as finding the main idea, using context cues, and self-monitoring.
Differentiate Instruction
Use of a framework in which teachers implement a variety of strategies to adjust curriculum and instruction to maximize the learning of all students.
Provide Opportunities for Practice
Provide ample opportunities for students to practice not only their academic skills but also their use of the English language, while providing corrective feedback.
English language learners perform better when information is scaffolded in their first language. (August & Shanahan, 2006)
Literacy in one’s native language is a predictor of reading success for English language learners. (Ford, 2005)
Reading instruction in a student’s primary language promotes higher levels of reading achievement in English and in his or her primary language. (Goldenberg, 2008)
Exceptionalities in K–12 schooling refers to both disabilities and giftedness.
These are:
Deaf-blindness
Deafness
Developmental delay
Emotional disturbance
Hearing impairment
Intellectual disability
Multiple disabilities
Orthopedic impairment
Other health impairment
Specific learning disability
Speech or language impairment
Traumatic brain injury
Visual impairment, including blindness
Autism
Students with disabilities (ages 6–17) make up 11% of the total school population. Of these students, three out of four spend all or part of their day in the general education classroom.
Why Exceptionalities Matter
In fact, no two students with the same exceptionality act or achieve in exactly the same ways. It is important for teachers to learn about all aspects (e.g., motivations, experiences, goals, strengths) of their students. Understanding how a disability affects the student will allow teachers to make specific instructional adjustments.
What Teachers Can Do
General education teachers should be prepared to address their students’ wide range of ability levels and instructional needs. Two approaches for helping them to do so—Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and differentiated instruction—are designed to meet the needs of the widest range of students (i.e., gifted, typically achieving, struggling learners, students with disabilities, ELLs).
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
A research-based framework for teachers to incorporate flexible materials, techniques, and strategies for delivering instruction and for students to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways.
differentiated instruction
An approach in which teachers vary and adapt instruction based on the individual needs of students in the classroom; examples of how to differentiate instruction include flexible grouping and immediate corrective feedback.
accommodations or modifications
Accommodation: A service or support that allows a student to access the general education curriculum without changing the content or curricular expectations (e.g., audio books for students who have difficulty reading).
Modification: A service or support that allows a student with a disability to access the general education curriculum but that fundamentally alters the content or curricular expectations (e.g., a sixth-grade student is given a third-grade science text to learn about the solar system––covering the same content but not at the same depth).
assistive technology
Any device or service that helps an individual with disabilities to access the general education curriculum; examples include index cards to help a student track the line of text on a page while he is reading (low-tech) and screen reading software that reads digital text aloud (high-tech).
family’s socioeconomic level or status (SES) is defined by the income, education, and occupation of members of the household. A family’s SES is typically categorized as either high, middle, or low. It is important for teachers to understand that a relationship exists between SES and educational outcomes, specifically:
Why SES Matters
Potential Challenges for Students Related to Low SES
Students Might Have Difficulty
Concentrating
Remaining engaged
Attending school regularly
Being on time to school
Responding appropriately to authority figures
Completing or turning in homework
Bringing materials to class
Communicating with others
Performing on grade level
Staying in school and graduating
Staying awake
Having their basic needs met
Few educational resources at home (e.g., books, computers)
Less access to enrichment (e.g., tutors, museums)
Limited access to transportation
Reduced opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities at school or in the community
Transiency or homelessness
Poor nutrition
Inadequate healthcare
Less help with homework
Delayed language development
Read to less frequently at home
More responsibilities (e.g., childcare, cooking meals) because parents are working multiple jobs or longer hours
Less supervision at home
Fewer hours of sleep
What Teachers Can Do
Schools are often based around middle-class norms and values. students from low-SES backgrounds might display behaviors that interfere with their ability to succeed in school. school personnel sometimes assume that the student in question is unmotivated, lazy, or apathetic about school. Alternatively, they might think that the student has a disability that affects his learning or behavior.
Students from low-SES families typically:
Achieve at lower levels than do students from middle- and high-SES families
Enter kindergarten with significantly lower language skills
Score at least 10% lower than the national average in mathematics and reading
Students living in poverty are much more likely to be absent from school, which also affects their learning.
Students of parents with higher educational levels and professional careers have stronger language skills than do students whose parents have lower educational levels because their parents speak to them more using enhanced vocabulary, longer sentences, direct and open-ended questions, questions that enhances higher-order thinking skills, and more encouraging statements.
Create a structured and well-managed classroom
Critical because… An unstructured and poorly managed classroom is likely to increase anxiety for students who already have highly stressful lives.
Potential Actions
Teach self-regulation strategies (e.g., self-monitoring)
Provide predictable and consistent routines and schedules
Provide a safe and nurturing environment
Critical because… An unsafe environment without nurturing can lead students who come from stressful home environments to feel fearful or threatened, interfering with their learning.
Potential Actions
Teach students how to handle strong emotions such as anger, fear, hurt, and tension
Boost self-esteem and confidence in learning situations
Use evidence-based practices
Critical because… Students might not have access to educational resources and supports outside of school and so often lag behind in basic skills (e.g., language); therefore, teachers need to use evidence-based practices to maximize students’ learning.
Potential Actions
Activate prior knowledge, making instruction relevant to their daily lives
Increase language skills (e.g., by teaching vocabulary, using graphic organizers)
Provide instruction in smaller chunks
Provide rapid feedback
Motivate and engage students
Critical because… These students might have low self-esteem and might not receive a lot of positive reinforcement in the home; therefore, teachers need to provide positive feedback to motivate and engage students. Because these students are often less engaged in school, teachers should build relationships with them to discover their strengths and interests so they can make learning relevant.
Potential Actions
Provide extrinsic rewards (e.g., stickers, extra computer time)
Provide more frequent praise (note: does not have to be related to a specific task)
Incorporate students’ interests into instruction
Include practical applications to help students understand how the content is related to their lives
Support students
Critical because… Students might not have access to resources (e.g., computers, library, quiet places to study, time) to adequately complete assignments; therefore, teachers need to be creative and flexible in helping students to access resources.
Potential Actions
Be available to students before school, during, or after school to help with instructional needs
Schedule time for students to access resources (e.g., library, computer) and to complete assignments.
Involve families
Critical because… There is less parental involvement in schools among low-SES households due to factors such as work conflicts, limited or no childcare, lack of transportation, and negative personal school experiences. In addition, parents may feel disrespected, uncomfortable, or as if they have little or nothing to contribute to their child’s school. Therefore, teachers need to make the extra effort to build trusting relationships with parents, because the more parents participate, the better student achievement will be.
Potential Actions
Find ways to reach families, particularly if they do not have a phone, speak English, or cannot read
Schedule conferences at convenient times for parents
Provide food and childcare while parent/ teacher conferences are being held
Meet for conferences at community centers or other locations to increase attendance among families without transportation
Is it important to acknowledge students’ diversity in classroom settings? Why or why not?
Yes
Students learn best when they see how the material relates to their lives. By choosing not to acknowledge a student's diversity, you are shutting off a crucial piece of students' lives. Everyone wants to be seen and heard. Students need to see how who they are is accepted through exploration of their diversity in the learning materials.
What should teachers understand in order to address student diversity in their classrooms?
It may be uncomfortable for them when they start; teachers need to be comfortable knowing that they don’t know everything or how others' lives have been, but it can be learned. Allowing yourself to learn and grow will create a feeling of learning among students. Watch and listen to your students as they will help lead you to know how to address diversity in your classes.