Operations Mgmt

Running head: Strategies for Teaching Diversity, Multiculturalism, Differentiated Instruction and Equity in the Classroom.

Strategies for Teaching Diversity, Multiculturalism, Differentiated Instruction and Equity in the Classroom.

S. Duncan

University of Phoenix

EDA 532

Dr. Gary McDaniel

Monday, July 17, 2006

As the student population in American schools becomes increasingly diverse, educators must respond with school reform efforts that meet the needs of all students. They must develop culturally sensitive curricula that integrate multicultural viewpoints and histories, apply instructional strategies that encourage all students to achieve, and review school and district policies related to educational equity. Teacher education programs in particular are responsible for preparing future teachers to promote meaningful, engaged learning for all students, regardless of their race, gender, ethnic heritage, cultural background, or learning disability (Cooper Shaw, 1997).

As a classroom teacher I have worked very hard to promote and apply instructional strategies and differentiated instruction that includes all of my students. The majority of my students are ESL, (24 out of 42) I had 9 RSP students, 3 speech students and 2 ED kids that were mainstreamed during Language Arts time. With this many students I had to find a way to get to all of them. I was allocated a 30 minute ESL aide, and had the RSP teacher for 90 minutes a day with the inclusion program, so I had to plan my day around the times that they could come in and work with the appropriate students. I myself was also required to teach 30 minutes a day of ESL to my ESL learners. Needless to say I had a large task before me.

I planned my day for as little teacher directed time as possible and more collaborative work amongst the students. We had several work stations and small groups working together most of the time. I used collaborative groupings many different ways; i.e.: high to low in reading or writing; ability grouping; gender grouping; any way I could think of for grouping to help my students learn and teach each other.

Our text for language arts was McDougall/Little Language of Literature. This program provides a Bridges text for slow learners and ESL learners, the regular text for your one size fits all, and a Classics text for Gate learners. The theme in all of the books is the same just some of the stories are a little bit different. I have all students in the regular text and they use the other texts for supplemental work. When we hear the story for the first time we build background knowledge by asking students to tell me what they know about the subject or theme we are discussing and we brainstorm and write some things on the board, we then listen as a whole class to the story on CD. This way everyone