experiential Module

Equitable access to language classrooms for students with different abilities 

As a classroom teacher, I struggled to feel like I was engaging and creating equal opportunities for all of my students.  Because I was teaching at a private school, I had students with a variety of accommodations in my general ed foreign language classes.  I felt like I was vastly underprepared as a teacher on how to best teach these students Spanish and they were unprepared on how to learn a language.  Their parents and guardians were often unable to help support their children since language classes felt so intimidating to them as well.  

As I began thinking through my experimental module, I realized there was a growing literature on students with disabilities and inclusion in the classroom, but less of a conversation on how that could apply specifically in the language classroom and then even less available as far as resources for the classroom teacher, parent or guardian, or student themselves to download and use.  I created downloadable resources for each shareholder that they could customize to their own experience.  

Here is my reflective essay on the overall rationale and outcoming of my experimental module.  My passion for equitable access and inclusion stemmed from my own experiences as a classroom teacher at a private school with no supports for students with accommodations.