Definition of "Diverse Learners"
A teacher must understand how students differ in their approaches to learning and create instructional opportunities that are adapted to students with diverse backgrounds and exceptionalities. All people are unique, varying in cultural background, academic background, interests, strengths, motivation, and approaches to learning. An effective math teacher develops a relationship with each student so he or she can better understand individual needs. In order to personalize learning to these needs, a math teacher needs a diversity of content resources and lesson ideas, including open-ended projects, directed activities with manipulatives, visual simulations and software tools, group discussion, and traditional homework with solutions.
Supporting Artifacts and Analysis
My artifacts highlight my experience generating new curriculum or adapting traditional curriculum to better reach a variety of students from different racial backgrounds, different ages, and different learning styles.
I was a founding teacher and committee member for a Saturday program designed to teach engineering and design skills to high school students of color in the Boston-metro area. I co-developed a course on circuits and electronics design during the first semester and co-taught a course on the engineering design process. Both courses utilized team projects to facilitate cooperative learning and poster presentations for students to present on individual learning outcomes. I taught with a team of 3 other Olin students in the 3-hour/week, 10 week courses until the program closed due to a lack of funding.
The Olin STEM Academy was my first experience running a full course. We started by developing a set of content and soft-skills objectives for the semester and followed with lesson plans for each week. However, once we met the students, we discovered a variety of tweaks that needed to be made to adapt the curriculum. Our students came from multiple ethnic groups, went to five different high schools, and had little experience with engineering. Boys and girls approached the projects differently, active kids jumped into things without knowing what to do, and quiet kids sat back and tried to avoid project work. One of the most helpful things we did in the first semester was to interview every single student during class -- we were fortunate to have enough teachers to be able to free up a couple people for 10-15 minutes of Q&A and one-on-one discussion. When we had a better sense of who inspired the kids, what they liked about school, and what they wanted to do when they grew up, we were on much better ground for connecting our curriculum to each of them. We added more structure to the course to help the students who were lost, but didn't stop those who wanted to try something new. We used stations to break the students into smaller groups with an instructor to provide direction. We taught the same topic in multiple ways using a lab-style activity, a group exercise, and a verbal explanation. More than anything, starting up the STEM program taught me the importance of understanding the unique attributes of your students so you can find and design personalized curriculum that best connects to them.
At the beginning of the TPC program, I spent two weeks observing in a middle school math classroom in Rochester, MN. This experience allowed me to sit back and watch a few individual students to see how they learned, how they interacted with their peers, and how the teacher interacted with them. The observation notes describe what I saw in class, and the reflection summarizes what I can take away from the experience and apply to my classroom. The experience brought to life the incredible diversity in a student body. However, the one thing many of the 8th grade math students shared was their boredom in class. Kids on the low end didn't understand things and checked out. Students on the high end found the worksheets long and unnecessary. Social students stopped working to chat with their friends. Quiet students tended to fade away and disengage. A small proportion of the class had both an interest in learning and the appropriate level of challenge to engage in the course. As a teacher, I want to make sure that my courses are as relevant as they can be and include a varied amount of rigor that all students can work up to when they are ready. Finally, I want to make sure that my lessons are not taught in isolation, but that my course maintains coherence throughout. This way, I can use more real-world examples, interactive tools, projects, and visuals that teach the connections between topics and demonstrate the relevance of math to the students.
Visual demonstrations and interactions:
This page focuses on concept-focused visuals I developed and used with my students. The first is a concept map of the different forms of quadratics used in Algebra 2. I asked students to fill in the blank portions of the diagram as we learned about the new forms, and then used the diagram as a discussion starter on when each form is useful and why each exists. The second is a Geogebra interactive tool I designed for this same unit to allow students to see how the equation of a parabola would change in the different forms as you changed its attributes. The third is a Geogebra interactive I used to teach a Geometry lesson on different conditions for congruence in triangles. The visual and interactive tools I created show how I can teach to multiple learning styles while simultaneously strengthening connections between disparate parts of a course. The first two examples clarify the connections between the different forms of equations for parabolas, with the Geogebra tool allowing students to discover these connections through experimentation on their own. However, creating these resources for students is not enough -- they are busy and will cut out anything that the teacher doesn't treat as essential. To really bring a concept map to life, I needed to spend class time filling it in and facilitating discussion. To make students want to use the Geogebra tools on their own, I needed to put them up on the SMART board for students to experiment with in class as individuals or small groups. With resources like this available, high-achieving and struggling students alike start asking new questions that get at the conceptual core of the subject.
Synthesis
In order to teach to every student, a teacher needs to understand each student and appreciate their differences. I need to build a strong rapport with students and constantly monitor these relationships. I can do this through surveys, class activities, one-on-one discussions/tutoring, and small group interactions. A strong baseline relationship with each individual fosters the ability to make amends and grow the relationship even when I make mistakes in my interactions with students throughout the year. Beyond the relationships, the course must be designed for a diversity of skill levels, interest levels, and comfort with social situations. As a strong supporter of team-based project based learning, I need to be especially careful to design activities that give all students a meaningful and safe way to engage in the content. Both the course content and daily interactions of my students and me must constantly support diversity, flexibility, and mutual trust.