Support for Student Cultures in the School
Reflection on how the teach-now clinical experiences has prepared me to support students from diverse cultural groups
As a child, I have always wanted to be a teacher, my dad saw the potentials in me and had always encouraged me, though my mom had a another career choice in mind for me but my dad had said that I can be whatever I wanted to be. So teaching for my started right from when I was a child, I would gather other children of my age and sometimes children below my age and be teaching them how to count and how to write numbers, I loved math, and I love to represent my school and serve as teacher’s helper. My teachers encouraged me and wished to see me grow in academic excellence and become a teacher one day. As I grew up, some many things happened and some many changes happened too part of which was the choice of Career. By the time I was done with high school and getting ready for College, I wanted to be an engineer at this point, so I applied for an engineering course in the university and was not granted admission, I tried the second time and my mom who had always wanted me to be a doctor was encouraging me to pick up a medical school form, but I was so scared of seeing blood so I optioned for biochemistry. In college, I still felt I was not where I was supposed to be. Though I would study hard to meet up and get good grades but I was not passionate about the whole thing. Almost in my final year, I picked interest in biochemistry and said to myself, “If only I could work harder and make better grades then I will be able to teach biochemistry. So teaching biochemistry made more sense to me so I decided to like the course. Before I graduated from college, I had the opportunity to teach in a British curriculum school in Nigeria, I taught grade 3 and 4, and teaching began to make sense to me. I finished college and then started seeking for jobs. I visited Abidjan and became a voluntary substituted teaching assisted, I wanted a job I could before enrolling in masters program. At the point of substituting teaching assistants, I was motivated to apply for a full time teaching assistant. I applied and got the job the job, the dynamic of the international school is so unique and my homeroom teacher encouraged me to apply for Teachers certification. I was passionate about teaching and though I started learning about diversity and in international school but I know I need more knowledge and methodology if I want to succeed in this career, so I began to search for a platform that could give me the methodology that I needed to teach in the international school and Teach-Now was that platform. I had started teaching but as a novice, I knew I was not there yet. When I started the Teach-Now program I gained lots of ideas and strategies.
I will like to enumerate what I learned and how it helped me to support students from diverse group.
- First the collaboration and communication strategies used during the VC was efficient and I drew from this. I came to understand that the key to successful output is an effective and efficient communication. Students come from different background and if as a teacher I am able to have good communication, then there will be feedback and progress. This part of Teach-Now strategy was not only useful to me as a teacher, but also to students, because they learn to interact with each other and as they communicate, they collaborate and share ideas not minding was culture one is from. Teach-Now helped me to be a good communicator and also I passed it down to my students and colleagues.
- My clinical practice helped me to teach in a ways that I was guided and student learning was effective. Each week of teaching practice was an offload of standard and each standards made room for all students. Teaching practice was one the best parts that I loved because it motivated me and prepared me as better teacher, and having student learning in mind, my lessons were planned to make sure that no child was left behind. There was differentiation, communication with parents and the turnout was successful and I would say that Teach-Now really prepared each module to suit student needs and students learning.
- The most important part of the Teach-Now program is that I have been more critical and cynical of myself and teaching philosophies as the course has continued. I began to see education not only as a brand philosophy, but as an individualized experience aimed at getting the most out of learners. Teach-Now exposed me to the application of 21st century skills in class. My students became more innovative, creative, they became problem solvers, they also think critically and all these skills helped to make my students understand themselves better and be more involved in their learning. Also with The Teach-Now program I was more exposed with project based learning, center based, student centered, play based and how they all play good role in accommodating all students as such making sure that learning cuts across all diversity. The program was loaded with strategies and supporting learning with varied forms of assessment, peer assessment, self-assessment, formative and summative. These are all tools I had used in the past as I self-taught myself to teach, but I can finally give name and reasoning to their uses and functionality and thus use them to greater and more efficient effect. Every module was packed with different and exciting units that support students learning. Working in an international school and doing the Teach-Now program I gained more knowledge that made me embrace multiculturalism, I started with my students and then to my colleague now I see everyone as one big community of learners.
Some students at my school still need supports so here are some ways to support these specific students:
ELL students
- Provide modifications for worksheets, tests, and other class materials.
- Help students make connections across languages in both content (e.g., by activating prior knowledge) and in vocabulary (e.g., through cognates).
- Engage students in authentic, high-interest reading material and in writing tasks that draw on their background experiences.
- Provide students with visual support for oral presentations.
- Paraphrase and keep oral instructions at student’s level of language proficiency.
- Provide opportunities for oral expression, particularly in pairs or small groups.
- Encourage students to ask for help and explanations.
- Provide reading material in the student’s native language so that he/she can continue learning and developing literacy skills in that language.
Students with Learning disability:
- Recognize and use students’ multiple intelligence.
- Use a multi-sensory approach (e.g., have students talk, write, draw, move).
- Allow for alternative responses for tests and classroom tasks (e.g., oral responses instead of writing)
- Teach memory strategies (e.g., chunking of information, making visual images, constructing mnemonics).
- Use manipulative to help children transfer from concrete to abstract levels of thinking.
- Teach meta-cognitive skills (e.g., have students evaluate and monitor their own work).
- Use behavior charts.
- Provide visual calendars or a plan of the day.
- Provide organizational supports, such as daily planners, homework checklists, etc.
Create an inclusive classroom, make the learning environment to be welcoming and get to know your students.
Other strategies include:
- Provide extra time for task completion.
- Use instructional strategies such as cooperative learning and hands-on learning.
- Use performance-based assessment to determine mastery of a concept or skill.
- Minimize distractions in the environment (e.g., organize materials, use predictable routines)
- Present new information in context.
- Use graphic organizers.
- Teach pre-reading strategies.
- Allow extra time for processing and thinking.
- Provide instruction in small groups for greater individual attention.
- Inform students of learning objectives both orally and in writing.
References.
PhD in Special Education.com. “How to Support Special Needs Students.”
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