Diversity in the Mainstream

Teaching for Year 7/8

Presented by Rohanna Anderson Marianne Yang Francine Serrurier Lucie Ptackova

Calabria College
Key Issues
Low Socio-Economic Status (below metropolitan average) Majority of families receive Government Benefits Identified as a highly multicultural area (over half of residents born overseas) including refugees. Language backgrounds include: Chinese, Cambodian, Sri Lankan, Somali No ESL support at school, option to attend community Language School for 6 months Special Education Needs Students (hearing impaired, sight and learning disabilities) are integrated in to mainstream

Identification
of Key Students

ROLE PLAY
Lucie: Teacher Marianne: Stella
Indigenous student who is reserved and quiet in class

Rohanna: Sam
A student with a hearing impairment

Francine: Amanda
A gifted and talented student

Understanding
Catering for Diversity in the classroom doesnt mean tolerating or rationalizing poor performance from certain groups on the basis that they are different because of their background or because of a belief that they are innately inferior.

Dinham, S, 2008, Diversity in Australian Education, Teaching and Learning and Leadership, Australian Council for Educational Research

Gifted & Talented Students

Amanda
Six Modules: Understanding Giftedness The Identification of Gifted Students Social and Emotional Development of Gifted Students Understanding Underachievement in Gifted Students Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students Developing Programs and Provisions for Gifted Students

Have you seen these?

Characteristics Masking Giftedness

1. Are bored with routine task 2. Refuse to do rote homework

3. Difficult to get them to move onto another topic

4. Critical of others, especially their teachers 5. Disagree with others, as well as the teacher

6. Make jokes or puns at inappropriate times

7. Hand in messy work 8. Disorganized
(Adapted from Roger Taylor)

Research of Giftedness Biological Differences

Dr. Barbara Clark, Growing Up Gifted, pp. 29-30

From brain/mind research, we know that gifted individuals show some measurable biological differences, for example: There is, by means of an increase in neurological cell production, accelerated synaptic activity that allows for more accelerated thought processing (Thompson, Berger, and Berry, 1980). The neurons become biochemically richer, allowing for more complex patterns of thought (Rosenweig,1966: Krech, 1969).

Pretest
If score of 85% or higher
1. The student displayed that he or she has already mastered the content being presented. Excuse the student from daily assignments already mastered. 1.

If score of 84% or lower

The student displayed that he or she will need some or most of the instruction needed for that section of the curriculum. Instruction will be the same as planned and observation will be needed to monitor how students are performing. Adjust pacing if necessary. If students learn the material quickly after the introduction, allow extended opportunities. If students seem to understand the material quickly, consider Most Difficult Five First strategy. Allow the student to take the next pretest prior to the next lesson or unit.

2.

2.

3.
4.

Assign activities or skills sheets covering the materials missed on the pretest.
Provide, or have the students create (using the Bloom Alive Center), extended or accelerated materials or activities for the student to engage in while the rest of the class is learning the required material. When the unit is completed, repeat 1 -4. 5. 3.

4.

5.

Differentiate the
Content
Process Product

Learning environment

Difficulties you may face: Gifted students who have not experienced a differentiated curriculum previously may challenge the process with the its not fair that I have to do something that is different/harder/has higher expectations The same might apply to the rest of the students in the class

Questioning Techniques
Blooms Hierarchy to Vary the Processes

Examples of Differentiating with Questioning

Knowledge Identification and recall of information Who, what, when, where, how, describe, list Comprehension Organization and selection of facts and ideas Retell (in your own words) What is the main idea of _____? Application Use of facts, rules, principles How is _____ an example of _____? How is _____ related to _____

Analysis Separation of a whole into component parts What are the parts of features of _____? Classify _____ according to _____ Outline/diagram/web How does _____compare/contrast with _____ What evidence can you present for _____?

Differentiating with Questioning

Evaluation Development of opinions, judgments or decisions Do you agree or disagree and why What do you think about _____? What is the most important____ and why Prioritize _____ according to _____ How would you decide about _____? What criteria would you use to assess _____? Synthesis Combination of ideas to form a new whole What would you predict/infer from _____? How would you create/design a new _____? What might happen if you combined _____ with _____? What solutions would you suggest for _____? What if _____ What could I substitute for _____? How could I adapt? How could I modify? How could I put to other uses? What if I eliminated, reversed or rearranged a part?

Most Difficult First

For content areas that focus on drill and practice, such as math, grammar, language mechanics, reading skills, vocabulary

MDF is a process that allows students to demonstrate their capabilities in 10 20 minutes instead of a longer time period. Instead of doing 40 problems, they are able to show what they know by doing the most difficult ones.

During this time they agree:

To not bother anyone else.
To not call attention to yourself.

So the teacher has time to help students who need more individual attention.
Adapted from Susan Winebrenner, Teaching Gifted Kids in the Regular Classroom

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Island

Stella
Students learn best when they are happy, secure and confident. These conditions are best met when students three basic needs are met: to feel autonomous or self-determining; to have a sense of oneself as competent and effective;

to be related to others and be part of a social world.

This is true of all students but especially important of students that identify as being of Indigenous background (Better classroom management, Gary Partington)

Students of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background have been identified as having certain characteristics: View things from their own perspective and might not consider the effect their actions have on the rest of the class Many will be dealing with a number of problems outside of school which can effect their mood in the classroom They dont like teachers who shout or are unfair. They will either respond in kind or take offence They like to be helped when they cant do the work They tend to express themselves more physically than verbally They respond better to behaviour management if they are warned before action is taken against them for misbehaviour. When dealing with a behavioural issue, focus on the behaviour, not the child.

Teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

When teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students there are a few steps that need to remembered: Set up the ground rule early so the students know what behaviour is acceptable and what is unacceptable Take time to learn about their culture but also remember that each are an individual Make sure where possible the work is relevant to their real world, this is important to all students but especially for indigenous students Incorporate visual and Kinaesthetic activities where possible (Teaching Aboriginal Students, Creative Sprits)

Helping Stella
The first step to helping Stella would be to find out the reason why she is not performing to the standard expected of her One reason could be due to her lack of understand of the content Based on this, the teacher can adapt the class work to suit Stella better One way could be by presenting it in a different way, such as visually or kinaesthetically

Students with Disabilities

Hearing Impairments
Important to be able to identify ways to adapt instructional material and methods so as to maximize student participation and independence. Be aware that you may require alternative instructional and support materials.

Be prepared to adapt materials and teach children to use assistive technology.

Adapted from Sigafoos, J, Arthur, M 2005, Educating students with high support needs, Educating children with diverse abilities 2005, Pearson Education Australia

Students with Disabilities

Hearing Impairment: Sam
Mainstreaming children with disabilities can foster inclusion with the school community and can lead to greater acceptance and more opportunities to be exposed to typical language and social interactions. We must make reasonable adjustments to accommodate a student with a disabilitys learning needs while balancing the interests of the student, school, staff and other students.

All students have a right to participate in educational programs. This means having the same educational opportunities and choices as mainstream students.
Supporting the needs of a diverse group of students requires a positive approach and good planning. Teaching a child with a disability may mean allowing more time to plan, collaborate and learn new skills..

Adapted from the Association for Children with a Disability, 2010, Students with Disabilities in Mainstream Classrooms.

In class with a hearing impaired student

Practical things that you can do to include a child with a hearing impairment may include:
- physically re-arrange the classroom and provide visual stimuli - working together with other professionals

- make use of available technology IWBs, Ipads, laptops. E.g.. in-class email
- write instructions on the board/display on projector, and face the student when speaking

- try to avoid walking around the room while explaining.

- modifying activities this afternoon perhaps limit unnecessary noise, repeat/write other students answers
Adapted from the Association for Children with a Disability, 2010, Students with Disabilities in Mainstream Classrooms And Swinburne University,2013, Teaching Strategies for Students with a Hearing Impairment

Difficulties you may face

Building an environment in which other students are respectful, helpful and empathetic.
Forgetting to face the student/class when writing on board/walking around room

Keeping discussions manageable for the student

Reminding students to make these considerations as well

You may need to learn and use new technologies to aid the students learning

Interdisciplinary Learning
Reasoning skills: Giving reasons for opinions and actions, to draw inferences and make deductions, to use precise language to explain what they think, and to make judgments/decisions informed by reasons or evidence.

Enquiry skills: Ability to ask relevant questions, pose and define problems, plan what to do and how to research, predict outcomes and anticipate consequences, and to test conclusions and improve ideas.
Creative thinking skills: Generate and extend ideas, suggest hypotheses, apply imagination, and to look for alternative innovative outcomes. Evaluation skills: Enables ability to evaluate information, judge the value of what they read, hear and do, develop criteria for judging the value of their own and others work or ideas, and to have confidence in their judgments.

CLASS TIME
Year 7/8 Team Teaching multi-domain class, covering Diversity in the Mainstream.

Two Activities for this afternoons class. Miss Yang will run an activity to show importance of respecting diversity. Miss Anderson will run a creative writing activity that uses the ideas of Diversity in the Mainstream.

Activity One
Connect the Dots

Directions: Connect all of the dots with four straight lines. Do not lift your pencil off the paper. Do not retrace any line. Lines may cross if necessary

Discussion:
Why is it that most of us did not think of going outside the boundaries to solve the problem?

Activity Two
Creative Writing Imagine you are a refugee from Africa and it is your first day at Calabria College today. You are to write a journal entry about your day. Remember to use emotive language (that we learnt last week) in your writing. If you finish before 20 minutes, you are to use your laptops or the class computers to research why refugees have to leave their country.

What was it like thinking like a Refugee?

Was it a happy experience?
Did you write in a scared perspective? What happened in your entry?

How did you feel?

Activity Two in Relation to Students

This relates to Sam by having clearly written instructions and minimal discussion. An activity like this also eliminates unnecessary noise. This relates to Amanda by providing her with an activity that has no limit and we will provide extension task This relates to Stella by having a task that is easily relatable to and that everyone can do, but by also allowing students to understand her situation better.

Reflection
While teachers try their best to provide inclusive classrooms sometimes they can end up encouraging marginalization
For example: The refugee scenario can divert the students attention to other students differences rather than similarities

Differentiating the curriculum is important for students with different needs than their peers but if not done discreetly this can also result in students being isolated from their peers

Reflection Continued
Differentiating the work also takes time and effort, putting some teachers off. Instead of every lesson being differentiated, use it once or twice a week Not all teachers have a strong background in knowing how to accommodate students with extra learning needs, making it difficult to know how to adapt the classroom for them

Resources
Creative Spirits, 2012, Teaching Aboriginal Students

Dinham, S, 2008, Diversity in Australian Education, Teaching and Learning and Leadership, Australian Council for Educational Research

Swinburne University,2013, Teaching Strategies for Students with a Hearing Impairment

http://www.swinburne.edu.au/stuserv/disability/hearing.html#adjust ments

Association for Children with a Disability, 2010, Students with Disabilities in Mainstream Classrooms.
Gary Partington, 2006, Department of Education and Training, Western Australia, Better Classroom management

Rupert Wegerif, 2002, School of Education, Open University, Literature Review in Thinking Skills, Technology and Learning