1 Valuing Diverse Students

2 Teaching Foreign Languages Video Library This video library illustrates effective instruction and assessment strategies for teaching foreign languages There are 27 videos that may be viewed at

3 Think/Pair/Share 1. What are your beliefs about diverse learners? 2. In what way(s) do the changing demographics impact classroom diversity? 3. How do you define diverse?

4 Identification Students come from many racial/cultural/ethnic/SES/ linguistic backgrounds “Exceptional” indicates abilities ranging from gifted to physical, emotional, or learning disabilities

5 Pedagogical Implications Students having different proficiency/linguistic levels Students having different native/heritage languages Students with different academic levels

6 Think/Pair/Share Think of nonverbal answering practices (body language) that are commonly used in classrooms and brainstorm with a partner to create a list like the following: pointing, hand raising, standing on line, etc.

7 Think/Pair/Share What are some instructional strategies and assessment practices that work effectively with the wide variety of diverse learners?

8 Learner Preferences What are some strategies to learn about students’ multiple intelligences and/or learning styles?

9 Now think about…. 1. How these may be integrated into an early phase of a lesson. 2. Other ways students could use the list you generated to signal their comprehension.

10 Other Important Pedagogical Implications Multiple Intelligences Learning Styles Learning Strategies

11 Multiple Intelligences Verbal/Linguistic Logical/Mathematical Bodily/Kinesthetic Naturalist Visual/Spatial Musical/Rhythmic Interpersonal/Social Intrapersonal/Introspective

12 Multiple Intelligences Bodily/Kinesthetic Role playing; dancing; TPR, TPRS, hands-on learning Interpersonal/Social Cooperative teams, paired activities Intrapersonal Independent study Logical/Math word order activities, pattern games, classifying and categorizing, cause and effect

13 Multiple Intelligences Musical/Rhythmic write jingles, jazz chants, musical cloze Naturalist describe changes in local environment Verbal/Linguistic debates, story telling, word games Visual/Spatial drawing a response, video exercises, graphic organizers

14 Learning Styles A learning style is a general approach a learner uses to learn a new language (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992).

15 Learner Styles can be categorized into 3 areas: Global Analytic Integrated

16 Learning Strategies Metacognitive: planning for learning, monitoring one’s own comprehension and production, and evaluating how well one has achieved a learning objective. Cognitive: manipulating the material to be learned mentally or physically

17 Learning Strategies (cont’d) Social/Affective: either interacting with another person in order to assist learning, as in cooperative learning, and asking questions for clarification, or using affective control to assist learning tasks (Chamot & O’Malley, 1994).

18 Ask Yourself These Questions 1. What do you believe are the advantages of teaching culturally, linguistically, and cognitively diverse students? 2. What experiences do you have with people whose cultural backgrounds are different from yours?

19 Ask Yourself These Questions 3. How do you accommodate the special needs of heritage language learners?

20 In the video you will see…. Ways to work with multilevel classes in the same room & at the same time (Shuffleton and Fu). How important grouping and cooperative learning are in working with diverse learners.

21 In the video you will see…. Strategies to create a positive learning environment for HL and EL learners in the same class. How teachers help students to value the diversity of their classmates.

22 Theory & Research Informing Practice Teaching practices must be underscored by theory and research. Evidence on this can be collected using teacher action research. TFL Library showcases practicing teachers demonstrating “theory to practice”

23 TFL Video Library is a wonderful resource!! It’s free! It’s easily accessed It reaches many languages across all grade levels It’s useful for new and “not so new” teachers

24 To Access the Library Go to