Teachers must recognize that each student who enters the classroom brings a different story, background, culture, and perspective. In order to provide learners with the best learning experience, teachers must understand the differences in how learners grow and develop. Each student has a unique brain that deserves to be nurtured, so that growth is possible. Teachers must recognize that instruction in a diverse classroom should be developmentally appropriate, but also challenging.
Students need a space where their growth and development are the teacher’s priority. Teachers must meet students’ abilities where they are both individually and in groups, and further challenge students to set goals. Teachers can effectively plan for instruction based on each individual student’s developmental needs within a diverse classroom, the teacher must adapt and create lessons continuously that follow diverse learning strategies.
This standard is important in ensuring that students receive an education that is focused on the growth and development of each learner.
Emily Dickinson Poetry Text Set
In one of my courses, Reading in the Content Area, I designed a full-length text set that focuses on the works and life of the poet, Emily Dickinson. The text set is designed to support diverse reading levels and is accompanied by a lesson plan that is packed full of multiple intelligence activities with differentiation. Through the use of text sets, teachers can provide diverse learners with a rich reading experience on a specific topic. There are leveled picture books, nonfiction texts, fiction texts, graphic novels, and poetry collections included in the text set. Students will have varying reading levels, and it is my job as their teacher to provide texts that can engage each individual learner at their individual level. Emily Dickinson and Poetry Text Set
Anticipation Guides
During my student teaching with 9th graders, we used Anticipation Guides throughout our reading of The Odyssey. Giving students the opportunity to think about themes or ideas within a text/story before reading the story itself allows the student to call on personal opinions and experiences and further participate in a discussion that involves multiple perspectives and ideas. Anticipation guides are an effective way to put a spotlight on the individual learner. Below is one of the Anticipation Guides I used during my student teaching with 9th graders.
Student Goal Setting
It is extremely important that teachers develop a growth mindset in the classroom. Every student should be given the opportunity to grow in some way. One way I encourage students to develop a growth mindset is through goal setting, tracking, and reflection. In having students set goals for their learning, the teacher can concentrate on what each specific student needs to meet those goals. These goals can be revisited, reflected upon, and adjusted towards the middle of the year. At the end of the year, students can reflect on their growth throughout the year.
