Chapters 10 & 11

10 Promoting Success for All Students through Technology

*MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION IN 21^ST CENTURY SCHOOLS*

“Multicultural educators organize teaching and learning to achieve multiple outcomes at the same time—providing majority students information about individuals and groups who are different from them, while offering diverse opportunities to locate themselves and their histories and cultures within the school curriculum” (Maloy, Verock-O’Loughlin, Edwards, & Woolf, 2013, p. 244).

            Because America has such a diverse population, teachers are expected to meet the needs of all students by integrating multicultural education into the curriculum.  Due to the fact that we are living in the 21^st century, technology enables educators to provide multicultural education to all their students.  Teachers should be able to pull from sources on the web and teach multiple perspectives to reveal hidden histories, instruct students with information that their students can connect with, and create a classroom community where cultures and collaboration are celebrated.  In the history textbooks, not every side of an event is revealed; therefore, it is the teacher’s job to provide students with texts in which multiple perspectives of an event is revealed.  Moreover, by connecting classroom learning to students’ lives and to things they value, teachers are able to making learning relevant to their students.

*UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING*

“By emphasizing highly flexible instructional goals, strategies, and materials, UDL reduces potential barriers to learning while increasing learning opportunities for all students” (Maloy et al., 2013, p. 250).

            Although it is frowned upon to teach in a uniform manner for all students, universal design for learning (UDL) is beneficial and is much more than teaching in a uniform manner.  UDL enables teaching in a universal way that can meet all students’ needs without taking away from any one student.  Furthermore, I have already practiced UDL unknowingly.  By using the SMART Board to display any writing to my students during my student teaching, I did not only cater to students who had poor vision, but also to students who learn better with visual aids.  I always enlarged the text on the SMART Board in order to ensure that everybody could easily read the learning material.  However, even though many teachers use technology in the class, they may not use it in a way to promote UDL.  For instance, in the classroom I observed in, using the SMART Board to project the answer key for the math homework would be considered UDL; however, the teacher did not zoom into the page, and left many students seated in the back row squinting and unable to check their homework.  Teachers need to be careful in guaranteeing the UDL they integrate into their classrooms truly reduce potential barriers to learning while enhancing all students’ learning opportunities.

11 Engaging Students in Performance Assessment and Reflective Learning

*TEACHING PRACTICES*

“Teachers foster student engagement by establishing a balance between teacher-chosen and student-chosen activities…students contribute to the learning process in ways such as those described by Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde…

·      Students select themes for study, reading materials, discussion topics, and formats for publishing their own writing.

·      Students set personal goals and document their progress.

·      Students’ own questions and interests are the focus of classroom discussion and study.

·      Students take responsibility for making decisions about classroom rules and procedures” (Maloy et al., 2013, p. 284).

After reading through the different teaching practices to foster student engagement, I found myself relating to them during this course as well as when I taught over the summer.  These practices revolve around a student-centered way of teaching, and really give students a voice in completing their schoolwork.  Within the EDU 7266 course, I found myself selecting themes and formats for publishing my writing, setting personal goals and checking out my progress, and adding personal questions to the classroom discussion while listening to others talk about a topic of interest.  Over the summer, I always teach my students by starting out with creating the rules with my students and selecting materials of their interest.  However, if I were to incorporate all of the teaching practices listed above to engage my students in, I feel my teaching would connect better to my students and make learning more meaningful to them.

 **REASONS FOR TEACHING WITH CLICKERS*

“Student participation systems with clickers have numerous instructional advantages…Active learning…Student involvement…Real-time feedback…Question-centered instruction” (Maloy et al., 2013, p. 288).

            I believe I have only used clickers only once throughout all my years in school.  Furthermore, I only used it during one class session in high school for a brief period of time.  However, I can still recall using the clicker and seeing myself as one of the highest scorers, even though nobody else knew those scorers were, due to the anonymity provided by the numbers that represented us.  Although I rarely have any experience with using clickers, I believe using clickers are beneficial and would really love to use them in my future classroom.  By teaching with clickers, everybody is engaged and alert, not falling asleep at their desks.  Clickers provide a competitive environment that promotes learning, as students compete to score as high as they can.  Furthermore, not only do clickers provide the teacher feedback as to what students know, but clickers also provide students with immediate corrective feedback after each question, when the answer is revealed before proceeding to the following question.  In addition, teaching with clickers promotes question-centered instruction, as students critically think to answer challenging questions and hold discussions with the class or with their groups.  I wish I had more experience with using clickers, for I would have absorbed much more information through this method than just a simple lecture.

***FOOD FOR THOUGHT...***

1)    How do you promote multicultural education in your own classroom/How has multicultural education looked like in the classrooms you observed?

2)    What is one method of UDL you use in your classroom/have seen in a classroom?

3)    How would you provide more student engagement by following the teaching practices listed by Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde?

4)    If you use clickers/or would like to use clickers, how would a lesson with them look like in your classroom?

Work Cited

Maloy, R., Verock-O’Loughlin, R., A. Edwards, S., & Woolf, B. (n.d.). Transforming

learning with new technologies (2nd ed.). Pearson