As a future teacher, I’ve found myself questioning if we really are treating our students fairly. Does every student feel free and comfortable to be themselves in school? Do they find themselves represented in the things we teach? Do they feel like they have a place in our classroom? To find out for myself I interviewed an English major at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is a female, Jewish student in her last year of school, and she had a lot to say to me about her schooling experience.

My biggest take-away from the interview is summed up in the final paragraph, “As a future educator, I will strive to acknowledge my students’ differences by treating them as an individual, by respecting them for their religious beliefs, and I will educate my class about different types of religion. Celebrating our differences is the only way to have a cohesive diverse classroom, and I refuse to fall into the trap of treating my students like they are all the same.”

The whole paper can be read in the document below.

 

This is an example of what my group and I came up with for our assignment, it shows how well we incorporated many different ideas and made a wonderful lesson for an English classroom.

This is a working example of a lesson plan that my group and myself created to go along with the presentation above.

This lesson plan I created to show that each lesson plan can be inclusive and still effective to different types of students.

Here is the part of the lesson that clearly shows how different types of learners can be involved in a lesson and still gain as much knowledge as the rest of their classmates.

Differentiated Learning Activities-­‐ discuss the context of the learners as a rationale for differentiation:

o   Describe important characteristics and diversity of learners in your classroom: number of learners and gender, race/ethnicity, school socio-­‐economic status, special needs, and language proficiency.

18 students:

• 9 African american/ 5 white/ 4 Mexican
• 4 ELL students
• 3 gifted
• 2 ADHD

o   Explain the strategies utilized to maximize success for diverse learners, including the different ways you will represent the content, engage students in the learning, and allow students to express what they know.

 

Content	Process	Product
ELL students will be expected to be able to identify three physical and three behavioral adaptations.	ELL students will be in charge of keeping everyone on task in their groups as well as drawing a picture to present with their group that has the adaptations on display	The finished drawing and the completed worksheet.
The ADHD students will be expected to be able to identify three physical and three behavioral adaptations.	These students can have any designation in their group. The only accommodation we believe is necessary is the classroom rule where if a student is feeling reckless they can walk around their desk.	Contributions to the research as well as the completed worksheet.
The gifted students will be expected to be able to identify three physical and three behavioral adaptations.	They will be in charge of note taking in their groups. They will be in responsible for arranging everything to present to the class.	Contributing to the research, arranging how the group will present, as well as the completed worksheet.

 

• The ELL students will be taking on the role of leader in their groups, this way they can keep everyone on task as well as draw a picture of the animal they are researching. The ADHD students will be able to do whatever job they are assigned because in my classroom the students are allowed to take short walks around their desk if they feel restless. Gifted students will be in charge of the scribe work, this way they will be able to write down the information they deem important enough.