Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners Transcript
Speaker 1: I am in my twelfth year of teaching and I've always had students who were designated as students with special needs or students who are designated as English language learners. I never have felt like I've done the best job at supporting them. For me, it's really important because it's over a third of my kids and I want all of my kids to grow and develop as learners. For some of them, that means something really different than what it means for someone else. For my Getting Better Together focus, I really want to work to meet the needs of my diverse learners.
Can I have a volunteer, in a loud, clear voice, read our learning target for today? I should see many hands up in the air ... Today we have four adults in the room. Myself, my co-teacher, and two paraprofessionals. What I want to do differently is maximize the adults in the room and recognize that gives us a huge advantage in helping push students further than I could as one adult by myself. Or as we could as four adults with one person teaching ...
Speaker 2: All right, everybody has their book?
Speaker 1: We are trying something new today where we're actually using stations to give kids smaller group instruction with an adult and a few of their peers ... If you're analyzing text, what are you doing? Sam?
Speaker 3: Make a claim about it.
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that? ... How we actually came to today, my co-teacher, Ms. [Aldebi 00:01:42] and I looked at previous work that our kids had done. We also ask kids to do kind of their own self reflection. We gave them a very short, three question survey ... We have a lot of strengths as a group and we also have some areas where we need to grow. Those are actually in three main areas. The areas we're looking for growth in are locating the piece of evidence that you want.
We started seeing some data that showed us that our students needed particular help in certain areas. We took all of that data and used it to create four different stations ... Each of you is going to move to at least two of these stations, today ... Today's lesson will focus on preparing for a text-based discussion about the book, "Wonder", by R.J. Palacio ... How do you figure out what the most important events are? ... The station that I'll be working at is, how do we identify major events in a particular section of the text? ... I'm going to give you some strategies today that will help you. We are going to use our discussion questions to locate evidence ... My co-teacher is working to help students find the piece of evidence they want.
Speaker 5: Do you agree, [Angeline 00:02:59]?
Speaker 1: Also, one of the paraprofessionals is going to be working with a group on how you use textual evidence to support an inference that you're making.
Speaker 6: Summer made the right decision 'cause she felt uncomfortable.
Speaker 7: Where's the evidence to support your claim?
Speaker 8: Oh, yeah. It's right here.
Speaker 1: The fourth group, they'll be preparing for our group discussion for the next day.
Speaker 8: She finally got used to it and she saw him for the person he is, not for how he looks.
Speaker 9: Exactly, so that's what you could write.
Speaker 1: In these small groups, we're hoping that kids will walk away with a new skill that will help them better analyze the text and find evidence to support that ... I made a little awesome book mark for you guys. When I'm trying to identify a major event, I ask myself three questions, okay? These are the three questions that can help you figure that out ... Stations one and two were for students that needed a little bit more foundation ... Okay, we're going to pick two, and I want you guys, they're all from Summer's section, to determine is it a major event, or a minor event? How do you know? You can use your questions to help you.
It's my hope that breaking things up and breaking them down will help push them. If the evidence shows me they're not quite ready, how do I break it down so that they can kind of find their entry point? ... [Deshwandee 00:04:14] is our fabulous peer tutor. Ms. Aldebi and I were talking, as were planning this lesson, around particular kids who are just really high-level readers. They're really good at making inferences and analyzing text. How do we push them? One way to do that, I think, is to get them to step into a space where they're supporting others. The more opportunities we can give kids, the better ... If this event were missing, would it have less of an impact on me as the reader?
Speaker 10: Now we know he likes to play that game.
Speaker 1: Okay, and is that-
Speaker 11: It's more of a detail than action, than, like, something that would [inaudible 00:04:50] to you.
Speaker 1: It was really awesome to have Deshwandee talk with other kids around why she thought things were major or minor events. In that sense, she was more of a model today.
Speaker 2: Let's start with this, locating the piece of evidence you want. How do you guys typically start doing that? Yasmine?
Yasmine: If they're talking about a certain character, I would go to their part.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 14: I use the hint that they give me.
Speaker 2: What's the hint that you're talking about? What part.
Speaker 14: It's talking about Summer, so I go back into the chapter of Summer.
Speaker 1: For my station, I was facilitating locating evidence. The question was about a certain chapter in the book, I was just asking them, how do you know to look in this particular chapter? Or, how do you know that this is what's going to happen? ... Let's talk about what you guys mentioned before. You say you use hints from the question. We're using what we know about the narrator. Who's the narrator that we're talking about in discussion question number two?
Speaker 15: Summer.
Speaker 1: Summer, okay. Let's turn to Summer's section in our book. Where is the evidence that tells us what the plague is? Yasmine?
Yasmine: Okay, I found evidence in paragraph three, sentence two.
Speaker 1: Very nice.
Yasmine: It says: Apparently, this is a game that's been going on since the beginning of the end. The plague, it's a game that they play.
Speaker 1: Very nice, so that's the first piece of evidence ... I think it went well. Our students picked up on what we were looking for. They just needed the extra push as to how we're going to be locating it and getting those questions going for them to figure out where to start ... We are going to transition. Make sure you have everything you need, and then if you don't remember, you can look up at our station paper. Take your things to your second station.
Speaker 7: Now, we discuss questions number two, and they're finding the evidence.
Speaker 1: All right ... There's some students that could have benefited from hitting every station, but just with the way that our day was structured and the time, we gave them the opportunity to go to two.
Speaker 16: Anyone who accidentally touches August has to wash their hands or use sanitizer within thirty seconds, or they will get the plague. I think it's a major event.
Speaker 1: Why?
Yasmine: Because pretty much, they're being mean to him because of how he looks, of his face.
Speaker 1: Okay. If that event were missing, would it be harder to understand the book or feel less complete?
Yasmine: Yes.
Speaker 16: Yes, it would. Because you wouldn't understand why people didn't want to touch him.
Speaker 1: Okay. Bring yourself back to your original seat. We're going to give you three minutes to reflect ... What is one strategy that you learned, or practiced, today? ... Today, we were really intentional about taking the time for kids to reflect and then to respond to each other. When I walked around as students were writing their closing reflections, it was powerful to see that we took some first steps, today ... Were you not reading the questions closely, before? You were just ... what were you doing?
Speaker 17: Reading it, and then not looking for the evidence for it.
Speaker 1: Okay, and so what are you going to do now, or what's different?
Speaker 17: Use the words in the question to help me cite evidence.
Speaker 1: Okay ... We will see in the discussion tomorrow, are they able to actually cite textual evidence that supports an analysis that's accurate.
Yasmine: I learned that if the discussion or anything gives, like, says something about any character, you go back to the book and go to their part of the text.
Speaker 1: What I'm hearing is you use clues from the discussion question to go back and find your evidence. Very nice ... I think it was really insightful to hear certain kids share a reflection, and then others connect to that.
Speaker 18: I have something like that, where it said textual evidence to support my ideas. When I was re-reading it to find the evidence, I remembered the scene that was happening in that part.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You had a connection to what [Anasia 00:09:00] was saying. Okay ... It's beneficial in seeing, like, "Hey, you did learn a new strategy. Now I know I can push you in that area or help you develop additional strategies to use as you move forward" ... Can you sign, thank you, to your partner, please? Ms. Aldebi, Ms. JoAnn, Ms. Elaine, are we good? ... I think I'd make a number of changes to what happened today. One of the key changes is actually creating a space and carving out more time to prepare everybody who was in some sort of teaching role.
Another change would be thinking about our peer tutors. What would be helpful is to kind of even have a class discussion with them around, how do you think we can grow this so that more of us have the opportunity to step into that role? You know, tapping into that bank of resources when we're moving into a lesson or stations that could use that support ... You're saying it would feel incomplete if this was missing. Why?
Speaker 16: Because the raiders feel like that Summer's not just anyone for ...
Speaker 1: I think for me, what it really comes down to, is it's opportunity for kids to have a small group or close to one-on-one interaction with an adult. That's really hard in schools today. In some of my classes, I'm the only teacher. In this class, where there are four of us, something that I want to continue is to figure out, how can we create more opportunities for kids to have interactions and conversations and kind of guided facilitation with other adults in the room? Then, how do we support each other as the adults in the room, to get better at that?
62 Comments
Tiffany Baltazar Jul 14, 2022 4:32pm
1. Ms. DeBose and her co-teacher Ms. Aldebot use data to inform their planning by first giving the students a self reflection. By looking at the data, they have seen where students strenght and weakness. The data was used to create how the students were placed in their groups.
2. Stations are effective in meeting the needs of diverse learners because it focus on small groups instruction which allow students to be with their peer.
3. I could plan a lesson like this one if I don't have extra teachers in your classroom by always using data to group the students. I would always work with my intensive students by giving them more teacher minutes. The other stations would be led by peer tutor with teacher observation.
Jeremy Dixon Apr 20, 2022 12:05pm
The teachers are able to use the data they collected from the older work the students done, students' input, and teacher observation, tofind out the best way to teach their students. Breaking the students down into small groups, the data will show the teachers the best group each student should be in. Working in stations will allow the teacher to see and reach a student easier, and can better see where each student is struggling at. If you want to have the stations but not have the extra staff to do so, have the questions on the station and use the quick learners students to help teach by having one in each group so that can help the others understand.
Socrates Embesan Feb 12, 2022 8:58am
Meeting the needs of diversed learners.
This video is highly recommendable... In a class of diversed learners needs teacher/s who are knowledgeable on how to deal with them. Plans well to make the learners engage in the learning and take the opportunity to learn by themselves based on the varried activities suited to each of the individual learners. Giving them the opportunity to discover by themselves which one a major concern and minor concern in the book is a challenging activity that is given to the diversed learners but she was able to make it work ofcourse with the help of the team. If all activities will be like this, no doubt that whatever plans are made to meet the needs of the tearners will be achieved and realized.
Gretta Brinson Jan 28, 2022 11:45am
The looked at previous work the kids had done. They then gave the students surveys to see where they can improve. They took the data and used it to make four different stations. Each adult in the room helped the students at a station.
The adults can identify easier and quicker in a small group the areas the individual students need assistance in as well as the quick learners and push them further. If the evidence shows that the students are not quite ready, then the adults can be prepared to help and support the students better.
Yes, I can set the stations up and have the starter questions at each station to get the kids going in the right direction. I can also make sure I have one of the quick learners in each group so as they go from station to station they can help each other with their tasks.
Teri Foley-Kanz Oct 20, 2021 9:54am
1. They use data that they have gathered to create their lessons/stations.
2. Each station meets the needs of the learners.
3. By setting up stations for students to navagate and work at their level.