2.A.3: Meeting Diverse Needs
About the Element
The teacher candidate must use proper inclusive practices, and this may include, tiered supports and scaffolded instruction. This allows the teacher candidate to accommodate for differences in students' learning needs, abilities, interests, and levels of readiness, including those of academically advanced students, students with disabilities, and English language learners (ELLs).
Teachers need to include supports that make learning equitable for all students. This means providing the supports that individual students need, as opposed to giving everyone strictly the same supports.
Diverse Needs in my Remote Classroom
During my student teaching practicum, I taught two Inclusion classes (as described in "My Classes"). Adapting to the online learning environment was especially challenging for my students with disabilities, students struggling with social-emotional factors, and my ELLs.
Challenges in the remote situation led to lower participation from these groups of students in particular, due to the obstacles that the online classroom brings (see "Triumphs and Challenges of Remote Learning" for more information).
To account for the differences in learning, I incorporated scaffolding, sentence frames, and brackets for the lessons I presented. These tools ended up being beneficial to all students, but especially for my students with disabilities and my ELLs.
Additionally, the Sheltered English Immersion course I completed to become earn my SEI certification, helped to teach me how to incorporate additional supports for my ELLs. As content and language teachers it is important to make adjustments to support the needs of our ELLs, who face a major language barrier that can prevent them from learning in the online schooling environment.
Element Artifacts
To the right: This is an example of the Scientific Notation frame that I created for my students. Here it is being used in a class example. Students were able to draw directly on the slide, practice moving the decimal places, and then, just had to complete the frame for their final answer. After several practice examples with the frame structure, students were then given the task of writing the entire frame in themselves.
To the left: This is an example of a sentence frame that I used in my classes. Students were dividing the two numbers to determine how many times greater one number was than another number. Once they found their answer, they could complete the frame with the answer to see the full scope of the example. The frame allowed them to bring context to their answer. This frame was included in slide examples in class, as well as on homework practice.
To the right: This is a sample Lesson Plan that I completed for my SEI Endorsement course. I demonstrate strategies to meet the needs of my ELLs and describe my decisions in incorporating specific activities and additional scaffolding. This lesson covers Two-Step Equations Review (Part 1). Lesson materials are included within the lesson plan.
Sample_SEI_Lesson_Plan_1.docxSample_SEI_Lesson_Plan_2.docxTo the left: This is a second sample Lesson Plan that I completed for my SEI Endorsement course. I demonstrate strategies to meet the needs of my ELLs and describe my decisions in incorporating specific activities and additional scaffolding. This lesson covers Two-Step Equations Review (Part 2) using the Cross Multiplication Method. Lesson materials are included within the lesson plan.
Anna Eng
WPI Teacher Preparation Program
aeeng@wpi.edu