Diversity and Inclusive Practice
Creating an Inclusive Environment:
I believe that all students need to feel accepted and included in order to succeed in school. Feeling accepted and included will foster students' interest in school and learning. As a teacher, I believe that it is my job to know my students as individuals, such as their background and interests. Knowing the background and interests of my students will help me plan lessons and units that are engaging and interesting for the students, with material they were able to connect with. Allowing students to see their background and interests reflected in the material they are learning at school will allow students to feel connected with school and included within the classroom community.
In addtion, during my grade 3 placement, students participated in “community circles” This was a practice that created inclusion as all of the students were given the opportunity to share and let their voice be heard which allowed students to feel accepted and included in the cclassroom community. I think that community circles are a great inclusive practice that I plan on utilizing as a teacher. By participating in community circles students learned to respect and listen to one another, while still being given the equal opportunity to share their stories.
On the last day of my placement, the students created an “appreciation circle" where they told me something they appreciated that I did for them during my time in their classroom. It was such a touching, positive gesture, and I loved hearing the positive impact I had on the students. I was reminded of why I want to be a teacher. I loved knowing that even though I was only with them for four short weeks, I had an impact on the students and was able to create a positive teaching and learning environment for them!
Responding to the Specific Learning Needs of Students:
In addition to creating an inclusive classroom where students feel accepted and included, it is also important that the individual learning needs of students are being taken into consideration. As an educator, I want to know each of my students as individuals, so I can better understand what learning needs they may have.
My introduction to poetry lesson demonstrates that I was able to create an inclusive environment in the classroom. In this lesson:
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All students were given equal oppurtunities to explore each of the different poetry groups
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Different learning styles were considered as differentiated instruction was used
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Individual learning needs were accounted for
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Students felt accepted and included as all students were given the oppurtunity to give their opinion about poetry and what they noticed in their exploration of the different types of poetry during the lesson
During my supporting literacy placement from September- December 2014, I was a literacy tutor responsible for planning individualized tutoring sessions plans for two students I was tutoring. During these individualized sessions, I was consistently assessing the learning needs of my students. i assessed the specific learning needs of each students by:
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documenting what specific sight words they were struggling with
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Noting miscues they were making while reading
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Noting difficulties the student had decoding words or using reading strategies
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Identifying their engagement and interests with different types of texts introduced during the sessions
In addition to assessing the needs of my students, I responded to their individual learning needs. In order to respond to the specific learning needs of the students, I:
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Designed and implemented sight word games and activities that would allow students to build their sight word bank and practice the sight words they are having trouble with (These words were different for the two students)
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Designed and implemented phonics games and activities that would assist students in their decoding of words while reading
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Introduced independent reading strategies that would assist the learner and develop their fluency when reading
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Introduced texts during sessions that were based on the individual interests and enagement of the learner
I chose to include a tutoring session plan in my on-line portfolio because I felt that the session plans are a good example of how I assessed and responded to the specific learning needs of a student.
During my classroom placements, I was also able to assess and respond to specific learning needs of the students.
An example of how I assessed student needs was to observe students throughout the day, and use my documentations to make professional judgements about the individual needs of the students and then determine how I could properly plan my units and lessons to meet the individual learning needs of students.
I responded to specific learning needs using differentiated instruction in my lessons. For example, based on my observations and discussions with my AT, I noticed that one of my grade 3 students was very active during class and was unable to sit still for very long. I also knew that the student was very involved in sports, and was very active outside of school, but had difficulty sitting still in class. To respond to this specific leaning need I:
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Incorporated opportunities for kinesthetic learning into my lesson plans (This included science, math and language centres and investigations during lessons)
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Provided experiential "hands on" learning opportunities (This allowed the student to move around the classroom and learn hands on, which benefited him)
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Allowed for work to be completed in pairs, and in groups (This also allowed for movement and helped the student stay on task during lessons)
Although differentiated instruction is beneficial to all students, ensuring that I was including kinesthetic learning opportunities really helped this grade 3 student. After assessing his needs through conversations with my AT and observing, I was able to meet his specific learning needs by differentiating my instruction during lessons. Differentiated instruction benefited this student because he was a kinesthetic learner that needed to be active and moving, in order to remain engaged and interested in what he was learning.