Reflection on Diversity 

            Robert W. Cole (2008), in his literature, provides detailed and accurate strategies for teaching diverse students.  According to Cole, it is essential to incorporate all the students in the utilized teaching method in order to achieve equity.  Despite the various efforts and strategies in the 21st century to fully develop teaching strategies to attain efficiency in diverse classes, there is still no adequate evidence to show that the developed methods are effective.  There lacks a better way of teaching students. The major issue in teaching is the fact that teaching fails to fully embrace fresh tactics of teaching diverse students as most instructors rely on a single method of teaching all the students in a similar manner.

            There is, therefore, a pressing need for differentiating teaching and instruction strategies. This should, therefore, be achieved based on the abilities and demands of both the instructors as well as the teachers. However the students need to pay attention in class because with the diversity it is challenging for the teachers to fully differentiate the teaching methods. There is a great need for concentration in order to increase the capability of acquiring maximum knowledge.

            Due to the differing abilities of children in academic achievement, it is essential for the teachers to adopt specialized teaching strategies. This is because the diversity of the students makes it hard to the instructor to draw a conclusive assessment of all the students.  The incapability of the teaching strategies in diverse classes’ results to undesirable results as the ability to hold or interpreting certainly delivered knowledge differs from one student to the other.

            I, therefore, believe that teaching differentiation is crucial as it helps the instructors in catering for wider ranges between students. On the other hand, students are fully able to work based on their abilities without the pressure of concentration.  This is given that the diversity of the students helps the teachers in developing differentiated instructions to increase understanding and eliminate misinterpretation of information. 

            Through my internship in Om Ayman Independent School and Qatar Academy Alwakra, I have learned through literature and experienced and generated the following pieces. I, therefore, plan on assisting the differentiation process by incorporating the following:

• Ensuring that the is free interaction between the instructor and students during classes
• Effective communication in informing individual’s operational changes and issues
• Favorable policies to help the students access their instructors more often
• Developing Strategies for meeting the needs of the diverse population

My unit plan will, therefore, consider the following pieces:

            Piece 1-Differentiating the learning content entails knowledge, skills as well as concepts. Therefore, the content differentiation involves the utilization of distinct formats of message delivery which should be accomplished through the use of different techniques while solving equations.  These may, therefore, include the use of video, graphics, lectures as well as audio where the students will have the opportunity of selecting  content focus based on individual’s interest.

            Piece 2-Process differentiation is a method which involves the sense of students in utilizing content. Students highly require time in processing the generated content.  Therefore, it is essential to differentiate time to help them digest and reflect on the content before beginning the following segment. For example, the instructor can give the students 30 minutes of reflection which is a powerful skill during the experiences of processing. This can involve the partner talks, journaling or pair thinking and sharing

            Piece 3-Product differentiation allows the students to choose individual format designs after the choices are given by the teacher.  This helps in developing transparent academic criteria thus increasing individual understanding.

 

            Reference

Cole, R. W., & ASCD Improving Student Achievement Research Panel. (2008). Educating          everybody's children: Diverse teaching strategies for diverse learners. Alexandria, VA:           Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.