Typically a class might have students at different levels and they also learn differently. What is the best way to deal with this situation so every child feels included?
Good Question. Differentiated instruction is a major challenge in every classroom and there is no single tailor made solution for it. A few techniques that we employ in our classrooms to make it inclusive are:
Presenting subject knowledge in a variety ways like logical explanation, using pictures and mental maps, hands on activities etc...
Using differentiated worksheets for practice. In such worksheets the same questions are given but with different levels of help like giving templates for answers, hints for problem solving, sentence stems etc... for less able students.
In group work, assigning roles help a lot in ensuring inclusion.
If there is only one or two less able students in a classroom of high achievers, assigning a 'study buddy' can also help in improving those kids.
I think it might sometimes help to ask students at more advanced levels to explain the content in their own words to students at less advanced levels. Students sometimes understand things more easily if explained in the language of their peers. Taking on the role of the teacher may also motivate some students.
I think you have to create an effective instructional strategy especially in inclusive classroom. But for the first step must know the characteristics all of your students, so that you can create it easy.
I agree that getting to know your students as individual human beings is an important first step. Depending where you teach, you may be able to set up individualized plans for learners. If you are teaching in a more restricted context where you are required to follow a very prescribed way of teaching, you may want to think more creatively about how to allow each student to flourish. I am not sure there is a one-size-fits-all answer to your question, as it depends both on the individual students; the composition of the class as a whole (including class size); and the system in which you teach. As we gain more experience as educators, we become familiar with navigating each of these different terrains and you can accommodate students' individual needs a bit more.
It might be helpful to group the students in class according to their abilities. That way you could provide studies in different groups with different learning activities matching their abilities.
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I am dealing with students of different levels at the moment so, your question is so timely. What I normally do is treat the topic with general input that would cater to all levels. However, they would vary in the activities that I let my students work on. For example in learning a specific rule in grammar, the activity would be based on their level of understanding and interest (skills which was pre-assessed). I group them in their respective level and I let the advance learners be the group's facilitator or sometimes discussant. Within this activity, a few times however, I would allow them to code-switch to have an effective learning acquisition.
I think some students need more attention than other students do. Treat each one differently. Do not follow one style with all your students. Give them the chance to be leaders for some time to be more confident of themselves.Listen to them when they talk and never blame them for making mistakes. Students are afraid of making mistakes.
i believe a classroom is the organisation of different kids from different backgrounds with different levels of comprehension. kids as adults do not come into the classroom with concrete expectations. they basically come to learn what they are fed with by their tutors. whatever they are fed with becomes something they tend to hold onto. but in as much as they are all different, they all need different approaches in terms of handling. they all cannot be handled same way because some will have the brain that can absorb faster than others. the best thing in my view is to do a classroom organisation where based on their level productivity through classroom activity and works, you can group them based on similarity in terms of level or scale of understanding in every course or subject because some may be good in maths but not all that good in English so the organisation should be based on level of comprehension for each course
It is important to know the individual needs of the children in the classroom. As practitioners we should be setting out activities and lesson that promote inclusion within classrooms. Lev Vygotsky's theory (1978) is effective such as peer support which can be promoted in settings
What about dividing them into groups according to their level of knowledge? Their knowledge is crucial, but not their age. This step will help organise lessons more productively as lessons will assume some structure.
Oh! do I say simple, that is when it comes to categorization. I don't think this is common in education. You can only talk of this in sporting activities where students are pick in terms of their age, height or size. in education we talk of IQ and it is difficult to determining the level of a child's IQ using aforementioned above. so, that can only be done by allowing full participation of the student in your class. First, give class test to your student so as to know their level of performance. then, re-arrange the students so to have the higher scorer with the lower one sitting side by side and so on. Then make your class a democratic one in the sense that your focus should not be too much on the knowledgeable one but your target on the low performance in your test. whichever questions ask from the class encourage the less privilege to answer the questions either right or wrong make a sigh of relief to encourage the student to do more and better.
Some of our students are extrovert while others are introvert. You only encourage the participation of the introvert in the class not to allow the dominance of the extrovert students on them because it makes the instructor feels that his/her set objective is not achieve at the end of the class. Thanks.
Great question! When I taught im public education and students worked in groups I would assigned job duties. The trick is learning the students strengths and weaknesses. Also having options for work instead of assigning one type of product. This allows for students at varying levels to be challenged. Once again this takes some effort and can be achieved by using Bloom's taxonomy as a guide.
Good Question. Differentiated instruction is a major challenge in every classroom and there is no single tailor made solution for it. A few techniques that we employ in our classrooms to make it inclusive are:
Presenting subject knowledge in a variety ways like logical explanation, using pictures and mental maps, hands on activities etc...
Using differentiated worksheets for practice. In such worksheets the same questions are given but with different levels of help like giving templates for answers, hints for problem solving, sentence stems etc... for less able students.
In group work, assigning roles help a lot in ensuring inclusion.
If there is only one or two less able students in a classroom of high achievers, assigning a 'study buddy' can also help in improving those kids.
Meeting the learning needs of students at a variety of different levels is a challenge. However, it is critical to engage students in their learning providing opportunities for voice and choice as they achieve curriculum outcomes. Having them take ownership of their learning and be accountable for their learning motivates students and allows for curiosity and innovation.
This sect of student can easily be dealt with if the teacher is such a dynamic and methodological type of teacher who has every method of class presentation at his finger tip.
Student love to be love, concentration, awareness, perseverance, recognition and encouragement even when what they are doing is not in line with your expectation. student of different level of IQ in class can easily be move on together when they realize their instinct and they were rewarded.
It gives me joy to site a reality example of my two students of the same parent. The brother happen to be 3 years older than his junior one but keeping this two kids together for special coaching I realize that the junior one will always be interested in his brother's assignment and will always want me to encourage him to do it. Not later that I realize, the small boy with low level always perform better than his brother. This is due to an encouragement, reward, attention and promising that you can do better. A child can do better if he/she has all it takes to learn.