Over the years, I have seen a variety of diversity in my classroom, and as a result it has made me want to adjust my teaching style. Diversity is a topic that is constantly being examined closely in education. Diversity can be seen in all types of places: socio-economic status, learning style, academic readiness, cultural background, and even religious background. Luckily, teachers have so many textbooks, online and text resources and Web 2.0 tools to help them engage and reach students no matter their background. In order to effectively use these tools, we must understand our students' background. In my experience as a teacher, building background knowledge has been a very successful tool at engaging students. It gives them some confidence and expertise in the content, which empowers them to complete tasks that might normally overwhelm them.
This year I have really seen the diversity in technological ability with my sixth grade Language Arts students. At the beginning of the school year, I made a goal to have a technology themed classroom this year. I wanted to constantly engage my students and expose them to a global community by using tools that would undoubtedly engage them. Little did I know that I would have students that had no background knowledge about computers. Even though they had been in feeder schools in our district, many could not get on the internet or type in a Word Document without a great deal of assistance. As mentioned in The Case for Cultivating Cultural Awareness (2011), teachers and students alike need to people who learn to interact with the world around them, regardless of the differences between them. I was determined to get my class to be exposed and to interact with other classes by using technology as the gateway.
Even though it was difficult at first, I kept trying. Each time we would go in the lab, I would hook up my school computer to the big screen and hook my computer up to the big screen and take them through the process of what we were doing step-by-step. I began to use peer mentors to help struggling students, and eventually they became proficient! Slowly, but surely my kids became and embraced technology literacy.
We began to interact with one another by using strategies, such as, back channeling,web quests, and publishing our own blogs. Together, my co-teacher and I found and utilized software to create an equal playing field for our struggling students. Web 2.0 tools that we have found that help with this are My Skills Tutor and SnapRead. I love to use SnapRead with struggling readers because it makes education accessible for them. When the students begin to realize they can function on the same level as other students, they are thrilled and motivated.
Not only have my co-teacher and I used technology tools in the classroom, but we also use strategies and resources to keep our students informed. These include Literature Circles, think-pair-shares, and websites that level text, such as, Readworks.org or NewsELA. Both of these websites have a plethora of reading resources that give teachers the ability to choose what Lexile their students are reading on!
Additional strategies we used included cooperative learning to have the students work in assigned groups amongst themselves. In each group, students were given a specific job Scribe-the writer, Time Keeper- Makes sure we are on task, Summarizer- Summarizes the content and presents to the class, and Researcher-goes to the computer to find additional information. These roles proved to be very effective in the classroom and also taught students how to work together when there was pressure and a constrained time limit.
Overall, I have found that exposing students to other students who are different from their normal crowd has strengthened our classroom environment and created a sense of community among the vast majority of the students. Students are very responsive and engaged in this learning environment because they know their teachers are making an effort to reach them where they are. When we teach students to embrace one another's differences, everyone's strengths and talents shine through.
This year I have really seen the diversity in technological ability with my sixth grade Language Arts students. At the beginning of the school year, I made a goal to have a technology themed classroom this year. I wanted to constantly engage my students and expose them to a global community by using tools that would undoubtedly engage them. Little did I know that I would have students that had no background knowledge about computers. Even though they had been in feeder schools in our district, many could not get on the internet or type in a Word Document without a great deal of assistance. As mentioned in The Case for Cultivating Cultural Awareness (2011), teachers and students alike need to people who learn to interact with the world around them, regardless of the differences between them. I was determined to get my class to be exposed and to interact with other classes by using technology as the gateway.
Even though it was difficult at first, I kept trying. Each time we would go in the lab, I would hook up my school computer to the big screen and hook my computer up to the big screen and take them through the process of what we were doing step-by-step. I began to use peer mentors to help struggling students, and eventually they became proficient! Slowly, but surely my kids became and embraced technology literacy.
We began to interact with one another by using strategies, such as, back channeling,web quests, and publishing our own blogs. Together, my co-teacher and I found and utilized software to create an equal playing field for our struggling students. Web 2.0 tools that we have found that help with this are My Skills Tutor and SnapRead. I love to use SnapRead with struggling readers because it makes education accessible for them. When the students begin to realize they can function on the same level as other students, they are thrilled and motivated.
Not only have my co-teacher and I used technology tools in the classroom, but we also use strategies and resources to keep our students informed. These include Literature Circles, think-pair-shares, and websites that level text, such as, Readworks.org or NewsELA. Both of these websites have a plethora of reading resources that give teachers the ability to choose what Lexile their students are reading on!
Additional strategies we used included cooperative learning to have the students work in assigned groups amongst themselves. In each group, students were given a specific job Scribe-the writer, Time Keeper- Makes sure we are on task, Summarizer- Summarizes the content and presents to the class, and Researcher-goes to the computer to find additional information. These roles proved to be very effective in the classroom and also taught students how to work together when there was pressure and a constrained time limit.
Overall, I have found that exposing students to other students who are different from their normal crowd has strengthened our classroom environment and created a sense of community among the vast majority of the students. Students are very responsive and engaged in this learning environment because they know their teachers are making an effort to reach them where they are. When we teach students to embrace one another's differences, everyone's strengths and talents shine through.