1. Teaching to All Learners

3. What does this quote mean to you? To an educator? To a child?

4. Diverse Leaders
What is a diverse learner? What does it mean to be a diverse learner? Teaching to diverse students means to teach to a variety of learning styles, cultural and educational backgrounds, languages and family support systems.

5. Types of Diverse Learners
Cultural backgrounds
Educational backgrounds
Family support systems
Languages
Learning styles
Diversity in the classroom varies with the types of students that are enrolled in the class. Every year you will have a variety of different learning styles, cultural and educational backgrounds, languages and family support systems within your classroom. Look around the classroom now, or think about the other classes you have. When you think of your class, think about all the different types of students and the backgrounds that are represented. As a teacher, you will be expected to contemplate the diverse student populations within your classrooms as you create lessons. As you create lessons, you cannot teach to just one type of learning style, or one type of educational background. Instead, each lesson must be varied and structured to include all types of learners.

6. Learning Styles
Learning styles group students together by a common method of learning.

7. Constructivism A learning theory created by:
John Dewey
Jean Piaget
Lev Vygotsky
Children develop their understanding by building on what they already know… They “construct” knowledge.
These theorists believed that children are active learners who seek knowledge. Each theorist believed children problem-solve and interact with the world around them and with other people. As teachers creating lessons, give students hands-on activities that teach through doing. Students want to feel, touch and manipulate objects to reinforce the learning process. And, when children are having fun with these activities, they are enjoying learning, thus fostering their desire to learn more.

8. Multiple Intelligences
A learning theory created by Howard Gardner
People can be smart in many ways
Each of you know students who are really good in math; others may do better in science, art or music. That is the basis of this theory - each person has many intelligences. As a future educator, it is your job to seek out what areas your students will excel in, and encourage them to exceed their personal and academic goals by teaching toward those multiple intelligences.
For more information on multiple intelligences, please see the lesson titled How Did You Learn That? at

9. Cognitive Development – Bloom’s Taxonomy
Creating
Evaluating
Analyzing
Applying
Understanding
Remembering
Bloom’s taxonomy was developed in the 1950’s and is still used today to categorize ways of learning and thinking in a hierarchical structure. During the 1990's, a former student of Bloom's, Lorin Anderson, led a new assembly which met for the purpose of updating the taxonomy, hoping to add relevance for 21st century students and teachers. Bloom’s Taxonomy lends itself to multimedia presentations to enhance cognitive development.
Remembering: Retrieving, recognizing and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory
Understanding: Constructing meaning from oral, written and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing and explaining
Applying: Carrying out or using a procedure through executing or implementing
Analyzing: Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing and attributing
Evaluating: Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing
Creating: Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning or producing
Using the pyramid, describe how a teacher could touch on all the components in a lesson.

10. Multiple Learning Modalities
The four major modalities that educators focus on are:
Auditory
Kinesthetic
Tactile
Visual
Discuss and ask students for examples of differentiated instruction for each type of modality.
The Four Modalities of Learning
Implementing and developing differentiated instruction is possibly the most important and effective thing we can do as educators in order to reach more of our students.
(click on picture)

11. Cultural Backgrounds
A student’s cultural background is shaped by his or her ethnicity, race, language, religion, socioeconomic status and gender. 

12. Cultural Backgrounds Ethnicity Gender Language Race Religion
Socioeconomic status
Look at the makeup of our classroom, or even another class you are in. Each student is different culturally speaking – his or her ethnicity, race, language, religion, socioeconomic status and gender varies from that of others; no two students are alike. This can make a difference when you are lesson-planning because it can determine how the student connects emotionally and cognitively to the lesson. The teacher may have to adjust the lesson to tailor to the needs of his or her students. Additionally, this can change from year to year. No two classes will be alike for any teacher, and this is why it is important for teachers to re-evaluate lessons each year to ensure they are meeting the needs of each student.

13. Educational Backgrounds
Every school and every classroom has students with varying educational needs. These students can vary widely on the spectrum of educational needs. Teachers in an early education setting need to be aware of the children in their classrooms with special needs. They should also be aware of how best to educate each student based on their physical, intellectual, social and emotional abilities so that students’ needs are met early on in the educational process.

14. Educational Needs Abused and neglected
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Gifted and talented
Homelessness
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
There are an assortment of different educational needs you may find in your classroom one day.
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a complex developmental disability that usually appears during the first three years of life and is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the normal functioning of the brain, impacting development in the areas of social interaction and communication skills.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder involving the brain that affects emotions, behaviors and learning.
Gifted and talented students give evidence of high performance capabilities in areas such as intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership capacity or in specific academic fields.
In 2008, there were an estimated 772,000 children who were abused or neglected and 3.3 million children who were referred to Child Protective Services in the United States.
Homeless children represent 1.35 million children who are without a place to live. Children comprise the largest growing population of homeless people.
IDEA, or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, was created to ensure that all children with disabilities have the right to a free public education and related services designed to meet each student’s specific needs.

15. Languages
With our ever-changing and growing nation, you will likely see multiple languages represented in your classroom one day. As a teacher, you will be responsible for pre-teaching, teaching and reinforcing lessons to English Language Learners (students who are learning English as a secondary language.)
Pre-teaching the lesson might include giving the student an introduction to the text to read, providing a list of unfamiliar vocabulary words to study, creating a flip-chart with those words or pairing him or her up with a proficient English speaker to help with any vocabulary words or pre-reading.
Reinforcement activities might include checking for understanding, questioning, playing review games, writing to explain what was learned or creating descriptive art.

16. Overview of TEKS or LOTE
Teachers and students continue to be challenged by the integration of more languages and cultures and the effect they have on classroom dynamics, understanding and learning.
Teacher note: This video is about 14 minutes long.
Overview of TEKS for LOTE In this video, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) gives teachers an example for how to implement TEKS into the classroom, specifically Languages Other Than English classrooms.
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17. Tips for Working with LEP Students
Read and discuss some of these strategies.
Teacher note: You can make copies of this handout. See All Lesson Attachments tab.

18. Family Support Systems
Some of your students will come to you with wonderful, stable support systems at home, ready and willing to help the student succeed in the classroom. Other students will not have this support system at home. As an educator, you will have to teach to both types of students.

19. Family Structures
Students whose parents are married make up about two thirds of all families
Seven out of ten mothers work
The divorce rate rose four times from
One in four children live with only mom, 5% with only dad and 4% with neither
Family structures have changed drastically over the last 50 years and will likely continue to change as you begin to enter the teaching profession and continue teaching. Teaching to the different family structures represented in your classroom means having an understanding of each student’s background. This will take some research on your behalf to get to know your students. This is valuable information and can give you insight to each student in your classroom. It can also make a world of difference if a student is having trouble grasping a concept.
Childstats.gov
America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-being, 2013

20. Accommodating Diverse Learners
Who are diverse learners?
To help achieve President Obama’s stated goal of including all of America’s students in leading the world in education, the administration has designed a blueprint for a
re-envisioned federal role in education through the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The new ESEA will ensure equity and opportunity for all students by calling for
▶ rigorous and fair accountability for all levels of school performance
▶ meeting the needs of diverse learners
▶ greater equity in providing students a fair chance to succeed
ESEA includes programs that help schools meet the special educational needs of:
children working to learn the English language
students with disabilities
Native American students
homeless students
the children of migrant workers
neglected or delinquent students
In addition, the federal government has a responsibility to provide assistance to certain high-need regions and areas, including rural districts and districts that are affected by federal property and activities.

21. Accommodating Diverse Learners
Get to know your students
The first step in accommodating the diverse learners in your classroom is to identify the level at which individual students are working in your classroom. You can identify your students’ levels of performance by evaluating test scores, administering a learning style inventory test and finding out what your students are interested in.
Strategies for Teaching Diverse Learners An elementary teacher describes her approach to teaching diverse learners.
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22. Accommodating Diverse Learners
Identify areas of your curriculum that could be adapted to differentiated instruction
Next, study the TEKs for the content area you are teaching. Pick the concepts or skills that can be taught in a variety of degrees of complexity. Then, think of different methods of delivering the lesson that will be unique to your student learners. Make sure your ideas cover a range of learning preferences, abilities and interests. Ideas should also cover auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners.

23. Accommodating Diverse Leaders
Examine your role as teacher in the differentiated classroom
Constant evaluation as a teacher is key in every grade level throughout education. Evaluations are needed for two reasons. First, teachers need to know if their instructional goals and objectives are being met, and secondly, teachers need to change the format of lesson delivery if students do not master the concept. Assessment results should increase teacher understanding of students' abilities, interests and needs and should be incorporated into future planning.

24. Instructional Strategies Online
Strategies to Help Students with Various Learning Styles (click on link)
Instructional Strategies Online This website has an extensive list of instructional strategies to help students with various learning styles.

25. Appropriate Technology Applications
Teaching is changing in many ways. Technology is one area where the changes occur almost daily. Strategies or equipment that is new today could well be obsolete in a few weeks. It is the responsibility of the teacher to evaluate applications to determine their effectiveness for the age and abilities of students and the knowledge and skills they support.
How can technology improve education in the classroom?

26. Technology
Providing more realistic and relevant learning with digital simulations and models and virtual activities
Exposing students to the world around them
Providing digital multimedia for creating presentations and projects
Presenting e-books
Making class web pages and web classrooms
Using video-making technology
Developing digital learning games
Providing digital data storage
Technology can improve education in many ways by:
Providing more realistic and relevant learning with digital simulations and models and virtual activities
Exposing students to the world around them
Providing digital multimedia for creating presentations and projects
Presenting e-books
Making class web pages and web classrooms
Using video-making technology
Developing digital learning games
Providing digital data storage

27. Technology in Education
Instructional tool
Assistive technology
With the constant evolution of technology, teachers have to be aware of the latest forms of technology to be used as instructional tools in the classroom. In our current digital age, sometimes students are entering the classroom with more technical knowledge than we have as educators, student teachers and future educators. This is why it is so important for teachers to keep up with the latest technology and to incorporate it into lessons as much as possible.
Aside from utilizing technology in the classroom as an instructional tool, teachers can use it as an assistive technology for diverse learners. Assistive technology is any item, device, or tool that is used to increase, maintain or improve the functional abilities of those with disabilities.
Teaching Diverse Learners Elementary teacher, Jessica Wallace, teaches a lesson about the seasons using technology to reach a variety of learners in her classroom.
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28. Examples of Technology in the Classroom
iPads
Digital cameras
Smart board
Student response systems
There are countless examples of and uses for technology in the classroom. It can be used as both an instructional tool in education, as well as assistive technology to students with disabilities. iPads can access thousands of educational apps that can help students learn skills and concepts. Digital cameras capture examples of student work. Smart boards allow teachers and students to write on the board using digital ink or with a finger. The user can display content, draw, write, move objects and play games with the touch of a finger. What is a student response system? A Student Response System (SRS) is a wireless response system that allows the teacher to request information and for students to respond by using a "clicker" or hand-held response pad to send his or her information to the teacher. When presented with a question, the student presses a button on a hand-held response pad or clicker, which sends either an infrared or radio signal to a receiver attached to a computer. The computer records and/or displays the response per the teacher's preference.

29. Benefits of Technology
Students are engaged
Learning takes place
Utilizing technology in the classroom means that students are engaged in the lesson and that learning is taking place.

30. Questions? ?

31. References and Resources
Images:
Microsoft Clip Art: Used with permission from Microsoft.
Books:
Kauchak, D. & Eggen, P. (2014). Introduction to teaching: Becoming a professional. (Fifth ed.). Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Morrison, G. (2012). Early childhood education today. (Twelfth ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. (2005). Differentiating instruction: Meeting students where they are. Retrieved from

32. References and Resources
Websites:
Inclusive Schools Network This page includes a variety of instructional strategies that are effective for diverse learners such as activities, lesson plans, technologies, websites, projects and more.
Michigan’s Assistive Technology Resource Debbie Spring, a technology consultant, comprised a list of resources to help teachers incorporate technology into the classroom to meet the needs of diverse learners.
The Four Modalities of Learning
Implementing and developing differentiated instruction is possibly the most important and effective thing we can do as educators in order to reach more of our students.
Videos:
Overview of TEKS for LOTE In this video, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) gives teachers an example for how to implement TEKS into the classroom, specifically Languages Other Than English classrooms.
Strategies for Teaching Diverse Learners An elementary teacher describes her approach to teaching diverse learners.
Teaching Diverse Learners Elementary teacher, Jessica Wallace, teaches a lesson about the seasons using technology to reach a variety of learners in her classroom.