Cultivating Learning in Diverse Learners

"Coming together as a community to create a truly inclusive system of early childhood care and education requires commitment and a willingness to strive to be ready to teach and support every child in the community." (Including Children with Special Needs, by Amy Watson and Rebecca McCathren)

Our program at the school is one of its kind in the province. I currently work in an Arabic Transition Program which is a program established in 2007 at FW Begley School to respond to its community's needs and strengths. The program is available for ELL learners that have Arabic as a home language from grades K-3.  The program underwent many changes and progress in the last 5 years because of the changes of the school community. There was a lot of communication and parent engagement to introduce the program in its early piloting and throughout. There was a study that was done by OISE to see the benefits of having dual language instruction and vocabulary throughout the classroom and it was found that the students excelled in their first language as well as acquiring the English Language at a higher level. This website mentions this program among others as well that account for diverse learners throughout Canada:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312053148_Bilingual_Education_in_Canada

Research suggests, for example, that effective instruction acknowledges students' gender differences and reaffirms their cultural, ethnic, and linguistic heritages. Many effective instructional approaches build on students' backgrounds to further the development of their abilities. Critically important is recognizing that the use of effective instructional practices as demonstrated by research will improve achievement for all children, including those who are not minorities or children of poverty. The implementation of sound, research-based strategies that recognize the benefits of diversity can build a better future for all of us.
Amazing Resource:
Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners

by Marietta Saravia-Shore

(http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107003/chapters/Diverse-Teaching-Strategies-for-Diverse-Learners.aspx)

Zeichner (1992) has summarized the extensive literature that describes successful teaching approaches for diverse populations. From his review, he distilled 12 key elements for effective teaching for ethnic- and language-minority students.

1. Teachers have a clear sense of their own ethnic and cultural identities.
2. Teachers communicate high expectations for the success of all students and a belief that all students can succeed.
3. Teachers are personally committed to achieving equity for all students and believe that they are capable of making a difference in their students' learning.
4. Teachers have developed a bond with their students and cease seeing their students as "the other."
5. Schools provide an academically challenging curriculum that includes attention to the development of higher-level cognitive skills.
6. Instruction focuses on students' creation of meaning about content in an interactive and collaborative learning environment.
7. Teachers help students see learning tasks as meaningful.
8. Curricula include the contributions and perspectives of the different ethnocultural groups that compose the society.
9. Teachers provide a "scaffolding" that links the academically challenging curriculum to the cultural resources that students bring to school.
10. Teachers explicitly teach students the culture of the school and seek to maintain students' sense of ethnocultural pride and identity.
11. Community members and parents or guardians are encouraged to become involved in students' education and are given a significant voice in making important school decisions related to programs (such as resources and staffing).
12. Teachers are involved in political struggles outside the classroom that are aimed at achieving a more just and humane society.

Example of Educating Students with Special Needs

http://www.familyconnect.org/info/education/1

We have a student who is partially visually impaired. She has an vision itinerant teacher that works with her for the first part of the day. She engages her in the learning through tools like an ipad, magnifying camera and screen, and magnified visual pictures. When she's not there, we usually have her sit up close to the easel and bring the picture book closer to her so we use proximity and the students know why we are doing that and respect the time she takes to look closer to the details in the pictures. It seems to be giving  sense of community for the rest of the class and being an inclusive classroom to all.

Start to the school year

Ensuring a well-planned and organized start to the school year is critical for children with special education needs. Schools keep families informed about the requirements and procedures necessary for September enrolment. A sample school checklist that identifies some of the requirements is included below:

School checklist for entry of students with special education needs in Kindergarten

• Register in January to allow for a well-planned transition
• Complete the registration form,  and the Kindergarten Parent Questionnaire​ 
• With parental consent, an observation visit to the preschool setting is arranged for school staff and appropriate support staff

Kindergarten is such a memorable experience for children and their family members, and it is the beginning of a child's formal educational career. Kindergarten provides opportunities for children to grow and develop physically, emotionally, socially and academically, and for many families it is an exciting and sometimes challenging time. It is a new experience for both the child and the parents, and change can be somewhat challenging at first. By planning ahead and thinking about the ways you can support your child in this new adventure, you can make the transition to kindergarten a smooth one for your child and your family. This is especially important for families of children with special needs. 
 https://www.shastacoe.org/uploaded/Dept/selpa/CAC/Countdown_to_Kindergarten_Final_Eng.pdf

https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/11-simple-ways-to-start-using-technology-in-your-classroom

http://www.achildwithneeds.com/parenting/learning-websites-for-kids/

Cultivating Learners Through Literacy

An inspirational Quote...

COMPETENCIES FOR A DIGITAL AGE

“What is clear is that education – deeper, broader and more universal – has a significant part to play in enabling humanity to succeed in the next half century. We need to ensure that students everywhere leave school ready to continue to learn and adapt, ready to take responsibility for their own future learning and careers, ready to innovate with and for others .... We need perhaps the first truly global generation; a generation of individuals rooted in their own cultures but open to
the world and confident of their ability to shape it.”

Paying Attention to K-12 Literacy (http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesLIT/PayingAttentiontoLiteracy.pdf)

Literacy involves the capacity to:

• access, manage, create and evaluate information
• think imaginatively and analytically
• communicate thoughts and ideas effectively
• apply metacognitive knowledge and skills
• develop a sense of self-efficacy and an interest in life-long learning

It is interesting to think about how us as Kindergarten teachers, we are setting the foundational learning for our 21st century students that will go along with them into their post-secondary education and careers, and their adulthood. Sometimes thinking about that makes me refocus and treat the learning happening by looking at the whole-child..

Am I taking into account their interests..

Am I considering their background and cultural perspectives..

Would the parents be collaborators with my program..

Will my teaching be an significance in this students' learning because of where he/she comes from, how much literacy has been exposed to him/her already...

Our last Parent Engagement made me think of how it is very important to have the parent always involved in their child's learning journey especially in our community, and to also have choice in what they are learning about..

Evidence From Research...

Research Monograph #4 Supporting Families as Collaborators in Children’s Literacy Development

by Dr. Michelann Parr Nipissing University

(http://thelearningexchange.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/WW_Familes_Literacy_AODA.pdf)

"Many families are unaware of the valuable role they play in apprenticing their children into literacy. When asked what they do to support their children’s literacy development, they often think in terms of school-based tasks, rather than the things they do each day: singing a lullaby, playing card games, talking at the dinner table or checking email. Because there is no evident academic or school connection, families undervalue what they do that fosters literacy. It is essential, then, that educators help parents understand the important role they play in their children’s education. As the Ministry of Education points out, “When parents are engaged and involved, everyone – students, parents, and families, teachers, schools, and communities – benefits, and our schools become increasingly rich and positive places to teach, learn and grow.”

Supporting families as collaborators in children’s literacy development requires:

• helping parents and caregivers recognize the many ways literacy is fostered on a day-by-day basis at home
• working collaboratively with families– talking with them, not at or over them –and building on their strengths
• engaging in ongoing dialogue that respects cultural, linguistic and familial identities
• planning family literacy activities that are fun, meaningful and engaging

Into Our Classroom...

We like to think about ourselves as co-creators of a responsive literacy learning environment in the classroom and the school, like in the hallways. Together we engage in inquiry, reflection, dialogue and the sharing of ideas in all the frames across the day. Our classroom has an effective literacy learning environment which is responsive to learners’ interests, preferences and strengths and provides opportunities for learners to express their thinking in many different ways.

Tips...

Tips to Support Students’ Vocabulary Development

• Teachers can support vocabulary develop-ment by participating in children’s play using new vocabulary appropriate to the play context.
• During play, teachers can make connections to children’s prior knowledge and add content to children’s play scenarios in ways that expand children’s understandings.
• As teachers observe, listen, and respond to what children are doing and saying, they extend and build on children’s language and learning.

(http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/ww_vocabulary.pdf)

Cultivating Learners Through Mathematics

How does Math Learning look like in our classroom...

The learning environment is set up to create opportunities for choice, collaboration, personalized learning and inquiry. More specifically for mathematics, our hope was to broaden understanding of what mathematics is and what the teaching and learning of mathematics can be. We wanted students and teachers to see math all around them and be inspired to think about mathematics in different ways – to see mathematical ideas in the materials, in pinecones, in buildings and structures, in images of our community, in art, in stories.

We have intentionally curated both mathematically structured materials like pattern blocks alongside materials often known as loose parts such as ribbons, gems, rocks, pinecones, etc. We also have art materials available to the students such as paint, clay, yarn and wool so that students can express themselves and think using different languages. Students also have access to various tools to support their investigations such as measuring tapes, grids and ten frames. 

The learning environment is intentionally flexible with choices in seating and tables available for both students and adults. Interestingly, although we have some chairs available, most of the students have used them, preferring instead to stand or sit and lie on the carpet or use pillows. We have observed the flow of movement in the space and intentionally have large open spaces for students to move through. Shelves filled with baskets of materials are open and accessible to students. Students can choose the materials they want to use and take them to where they would like to engage. We took doors off of some cupboards to create more open shelving. Provocations are set up on tables for students (and educators) to inspire mathematical thinking and inquiry. We always like to say 'art of teaching mathematics' – the intersection between what we are noticing about our students and the curriculum. This intersection is the lived curriculum of the classroom and our role as educators is to focus on a pedagogy of noticing and listening – being present and paying attention to our students and then being responsive. Our yearly math planning last year focused on five key elements of early mathematics: counting, subtilizing, decomposing numbers, spatial sense and patterning. 

Other teachers often notice the collection of numerals we have in baskets and trays on our shelves. We are always on the lookout for numerals in dollar stores, thrift stores, etc... Students use them in their play and investigations, ordering them, using them to label/represent their collections or sets of materials or to use as purposeful numbers in their creations (addresses, phone numbers, parts of a story, etc).

Here are 'Instructional Resources' for Math Learning that we often use in our class:

https://janicenovkam.typepad.com/reggioinspired_mathematic/instructional-resources.html
Reference:
https://blogs.sd38.bc.ca/sd38mathandscience/2017/06/11/the-studio-at-grauer/

Why Mathematical Routines...     

• Regular practice that has multiple entry points, open-ended, and personalized
• Helps to build a mathematical community
• Collaborative 
• Encourages mathematical discourse
• Responsive
• Focus on a pedagogy and noticing and listening
• Focus on number sense, mathematical thinking and reasoning

Evidence From Research Readings...

Monograph #59
Making Space for Students to Think Mathematically

Dr. Christine Suurtamm, Brenna Quigley, and Jill Lazarus University of Ottawa
Reference
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/WW_SpaceThinkMath.pdf

Shifting from evaluative listening to interpretive listening can help a teacher decide how to respond to and support mathematical thinking. Many of An- gela’s questions provided her with opportunities for interpretive listening: “Can you explain this to me?” “What made you think of unit rates?” “What did you find out when you did that?” We saw her make strong use of these opportunities as she used student responses to these questions to further probe their thinking; each question she asked depended on the student’s previous response.

When using questions to elicit and respond to student thinking, consider that:

Asking questions, listening, and responding to student thinking promotes group interactions and enriches students’ mathematical under- standing.


Asking questions that facilitate interpretive listening will prompt student thinking and will provide opportunities to listen to that thinking.


Asking good questions, can help to elicit student thinking.

Teachers can foster mathematical understanding by ...

• providing a safe space for taking mathematical risks, allowing for exploration, and promoting collaborative learning

• presenting rich problems and encouraging high-quality student interaction

• creating a math talk learning community

• asking good questions and listening to student thinking

Cultivating Learners Through Inquiry

Most children are naturally curious about their surroundings. They have an interest in exploring and investigating to see how things work and why things happen. Children have an innate sense of wonder and awe and a natural desire for inquiry. 

Understandings

The Full-Day Early Learning–Kindergarten program capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and their desire to make sense of their environment. However, curiosity on its own is not enough. The guidance of a thoughtful Early Learning–Kindergarten team is essential to enable children to learn through inquiry. The team should use inquiry-based learning to build on children’s spontaneous desire for exploration and to gradually guide them to become more focused and systematic in their observations and investigations. As children move naturally from noticing and wondering about the objects and events around them to exploring, observing, and questioning in a more focused way, the Early Learning–Kindergarten team helps them develop and extend their inquiry process. Team members provide children with opportunities to plan, observe, and gather information, and then to compare, sort, classify, and interpret their observations. They provide a rich variety of materials and resources, and interact with children to clarify, expand, or help articulate the children’s thinking. They then encourage children to share their findings with one another through oral and/or visual representations. Many different skills make up inquiry-based learning for children, and children need numerous opportunities to develop and use these skills as they progress through the Full-Day Early Learning–Kindergarten program. Inquiry skills should not be taught in isolation; they should be integrated into interesting topics and ideas and in children’s ongoing play. Some skills need explicit teaching (e.g., using a magnifier, posing questions, analysing data, using graphic organizers), whereas others may be reinforced or practised using different types of activities and investigations (e.g., sorting and categorizing). Taking into consideration the strengths, needs, and interests of the children in the class, the Early Learning–Kindergarten team should model the inquiry process and pose questions that encourage, support, and extend the children’s learning. For example, the team could ask such questions as the following: 

• “What would happen if...?”
• “How would we find out?”
• “What are the places in our school yard where we might find worms?”
• “What ways can you use to get the water from one container to another?”

Children learn best when dealing with topics they can explore directly and in depth. Abstract topics (e.g., rainforests, penguins, planets) are difficult for children to conceptualize. The topic of any inquiry should be drawn from things that are familiar to children in their daily lives.

(Kindergarten Curriculum Document, http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/kindergarten_english_june3.pdf)

Practice 

In our own classroom, learning through play is very commonplace. We use the word 'play' often and with it being said, we mean many different learning goals. We could be talking about measuring, investigating, sharing, building, writing, story-telling, pretending. They learn the expectations of kindergarten through their play. It is their work!

They can be investigating an inquiry about ramps. Why things go down when placed on a ramp in the big blocks area, in the sand centre, in the water table, in the marble run. They learned the new vocabulary like 'gravity', 'pull', 'push', 'force', 'downhill'... and so much more through their play. 

Check this out:

Amazing blog about Ramps

We act like guides and coaches, sometimes initiating questions or just observing. 

They love to show us their learning and sometimes, they need time and space and they might not feel the need to share. 

Just like adults, after a long busy day, we sometimes need to reflect and take our time to absorb the learning. We feel like children need the same time and opportunity to reflect and absorb the learning. They are constantly learning all day long. Even when they are 'being mindful' and 'relaxing' they are learning how to clam down and listen to their bodies. 

What is 'Messing About'?

“Messing about” effectively with materials and ideas requires a very delicate balance. The presence of the teacher is subtle, space and time for the children’s unrestricted exploration is crucial – but the hand of the teacher is nonetheless very present. She must be there to recognize threads of interest and to ask the questions that will provoke new thoughts for the investigation. Traditional instruction requires that each minute in the school day be accounted for. The thought of a classroom with no plan or order, one that might be considered laissez-faire, is frightening. A classroom that employs messing about is neither authoritarian, nor permissive. Rather, as Frances Hawkins knew, the teacher is always engaged, whether as observer or participant. (http://www.hawkinscenters.org/messing-about.html) Leadership Teachers as Learners: Frances and David were profoundly excited by the continual act of learning and  growing- both in themselves and in all around them. They understood that to truly  teach, you must always be learning. Effective Early Learning–Kindergarten team members are themselves reflective learners  who have a passion for the success of the learners in their care and a deep respect for the  children’s individual differences. Team members recognize that their own learning is a  continuous and reciprocal process, they learn from each other, and from the children and  their families. Being active in the community and with families shows great leadership as an early years teacher. I am always striving to taking courses, workshops, attending conferences, is all beneficial to being a leader in this field. No matter the experiences that teachers grew up with, the experiences that they immerse themselves in with being involved in the school community, with parents, with community partners always make us more ready and prepared for most of what this field can throw at us.