Students in our classes can range from how do they look, the way they
respond to our instructions, maturity, personality and the ability to learn.
This diversity should implement differentiating instructions in our classes.
Students in classes during a lesson can be classified as:
- Know
the lesson.
- Learning
the lesson.
- And
don’t know what we are talking about.
On the other hand, they can be
classified by their learning styles: some are good listeners who can benefit
from the teacher’s presentations; others need to read or discuss and idea; and
some students need to practice to accomplish understanding.
Moreover, culture plays a big rule in
the diversity of students in classes. Along with the benefits that different
cultures bring to classes from altitudes, values, believes, and way of acting
and interacting, it is considering as one of the important factors that divide
the classes into low and high achievers.
For this we as teachers should use
diverse of instructions and methods to meet the learning needs of our students,
we know that no one form of instructions can be effective with all students and
no student can learn the same way and same rate as another.
Some of the major instructional options
is grouping students according to their abilities, where dividing the students
into two types of groups: low ability and high ability students can benefit
both types. In such groups we may assign challenging activities and some times
games for the high achievers that can stimulate their critical thinking and
develop their thinking and social skill. Meanwhile teachers can work with the
low achievers emphasizing on the main objectives and giving them more time to
complete their tasks.
Another option that we can use is
providing a strategy instruction for the low achievers. Explaining the strategy
to our students, modeling it, and then practice is very helpful. For example, I
ask my students to teach someone else in their family about what we learn, and
I usually ask them to make a scheme for long lessons where they keep the rules
and the important concepts.
We can also use the peer tutoring,
where we assign students to 1 to 1 pair, one of them will be paying the
teachers role. This kind of working is motivated for both students high and low
achievers.it might be good for the social interactions in the class. In order
to have an effective peer tutoring work we should teach our students how to
teach, explain the main objectives, and keep monitoring all the students during
this work and help those who need. At last, evaluate the results.
Many other things can be done to help diverse classes, like building relation ship with
students, encourage and motivate students in each step of the learning process,
and using technology in our classes.
Of course, diversity is an important issue we as teachers should be aware about. Students in the class differ in their abilities, way of thinking and getting the information. So, teachers should have variety of activities and exercises and different skills to meet all students' needs.
ReplyDeleteYou have mentioned important strategies that can be followed to meet students' needs and support their differences. Besides, One of the important things is to let the students choose between individual work, small group work, and pair work. Some student learn and perform better when they work alone, others do better when working with others as you stated.
ReplyDeleteAs teachers, we must be cognizant of the importance of diversity. This class has a wide range of learning styles and skills among the students. You've outlined a number of effective ways to address the needs of students and support their uniqueness.
ReplyDeleteOf course, diversity is an important issue each teacher should be aware of it. Each teacher should have her strategies to meet all the students need.
ReplyDelete