Catering for learner diversity

Learners are unique as they have their own interests, learning styles, religious beliefs, cultural background and abilities. Learner diversity is common in classrooms and is sometimes considered as hindering learning and teaching because it may be difficult for teachers to take care of students who learn in different ways and have a different learning pace, which affects the learning outcomes of students. Yet, teachers should appreciate and value the diversity as student differences can be seen as an opportunity to expand their learning capacity because they may complement each other in the learning process.

Teachers should provide students with a comfortable, safe and respectful learning environment which is conducive to each individual student. They should understand their students in terms of their interest, learning style and ability and allow time for students to learn about one another and appreciate the differences among themselves.

Only when teachers are connected with students can they understand what students want to learn, how they can learn better and which tasks can appropriately challenge them and maximise their capacity. In a differentiated classroom, student differences are

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noted and they are given choices in learning content, in the ways they learn and in various forms they can display what they have learnt. The most important thing is to understand our students and design materials, activities and tasks which match their learning needs.

4.3.1 Understanding students

Teachers may connect with students in many ways, and listening to them is the one of the most important of them all. Other ways, such as talking at the door, using chat groups through mobile devices, watching or joining students’ activities, sharing personal experiences or inviting them to their stories and examples are possible ways to build relationship with students. In fact, apart from daily observation and interaction with students, teachers may also make use of some tools to develop preliminary understanding of students in History class at the beginning of the school year. For example, History teachers may conduct a simple survey to learn students’ readiness, interests and learning styles by asking students to fill in a questionnaire (Fig. 4.3a) and converting the data into a bar chart (Fig. 4.3b) for easy reference.

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Fig. 4.3a

Questionnaire A (To be completed by students)

Name: ___________________

Class: ___________________

Date: ____________________

Choose the appropriate description and circle the numbers next to them.

1. I like History.

2. I like stories about human beings.

3. I enjoy watching videos in class.

4. I enjoy searching information on the Internet.

5. I like role-play.

6. I like oral presentation.

7. I like projects.

8. I like written work.

9. I like extended learning (e.g. museum visits, further reading or creative assignments).

10. I like to complete learning tasks on my own.

11. I like to work in pairs.

12. I like to work in small groups.

13. I need clear instructions to complete an assignment.

14. I like to create my own steps on how to complete an assignment.

15. I like to learn by moving and doing.

16. I like to learn while sitting at my desk.

17. Others: ______________________________________

Adapted from Tomlinson, C. and Imbeau, M. (2010). Leading and managing a differentiated classroom.

Alexandria, Va.: ASCD

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Fig. 4.3b

Apart from using questionnaires, teachers may use student learning profile cards to create a handy database of student records. Each card may indicate the student’s reading and writing level, learning styles and interests. A record form (Fig.4.3c) is another way to keep track of students’ performance and learning profiles. The questionnaire results and information collected from daily record forms are useful for helping teachers understand students’ interest, learning style and abilities.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17

Number of Students: 30

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Fig. 4.3c

Record Form B (To be completed by teacher)

Teacher is requested to fill in the form below based on students’ performance in class and assessment in any form, as well as daily chats, in order to identify students’

characteristics and understand their learning progress which can facilitate the design for differentiated lessons.

Notes:

(1) We set three levels only.

(2) Teacher is not required to fill in every box for every student at the same time. Once you spot their characteristics, please mark them down.

Level: 1 requirement not attained / 2 attained / 3 attained more than required Class

No.

Reading level R(1-3)

Writing Level W(1-3)

Group(G)/

Solo (S)

Interests Visual(V) Auditory(A) Kinesthetic(K)

Critical thinking skills C1(1-3) Collaboration skills C2(1-3) Creativity C3(1-3)

e.g. R1 W1 S Drawing NA C3(3)

e.g. R3 W3 G Computer V/A/K C1(3), C2(3)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Adapted from Tomlinson, C. and Imbeau, M. (2010). Leading and managing a differentiated classroom.

Alexandria, Va.: ASCD

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For more details and exemplars of respective lesson plans and strategies, please make reference to the Learning and Teaching Resource Pack for Secondary History Curriculum- How to cater for learning diversity in History class published by the Education Bureau (EDB) in 2017.

4.3.2 Assessing students’ progress

On-going assessment includes pre-assessment and formative assessment, and helps teachers understand where students are in relation to the extent of achieving their learning objectives. This is vital to high-quality, differentiated teaching. Pre-assessment is a way to find out what students are interested or what prior knowledge they already possess. It is usually conducted in the form of pre-test, observation or questioning. For example, History teachers may make use of the interest questionnaire (Fig. 4.4) to find out what students are interested before they start the lesson on ancient Roman civilisation; and the Frayer Model (Fig. 4.5) to understand student readiness for the topic “Life in Greek City-states” before the lesson starts.

Fig. 4.4

Interest Questionnaire

Class: _______________ Date: ______________

What do you want to know about ancient Roman civilisation? Choose TWO of the following questions that you are most interested in (Put a  in the box).

Legend about Rome: Why do people use the “she-wolf” as the symbol of Rome?

Economic activities: How did the ancient Romans earn a living?

Social life: How did the ancient Romans spend a day?

Town Planning: Why do people say ‘All roads lead to Rome’?

Religion: What gods/goddesses did the Romans believe?

Others: Add your own question here.

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Fig. 4.5 Frayer Model

What I know about (“Democracy” or

“Dictatorship”)

Example of a country

Features

Example of leader/ ruler of that country

Please refer to Appendix 6 for an example of catering for learner diversity in a Secondary 1 History lesson using the Frayer Model.

Formative assessment in the form of group work, observation, self-evaluation and peer evaluation is to keep track of and check if students have attained the learning objectives.

Exit Card (Fig. 4.6) is a form of formative assessment. It can be done by students before the end of the lesson. For example, the Exit Card can help History teachers assess how much students have learnt about the topic on the American Revolution. Teachers may decide what the students should write on the card and understand their learning progress by reviewing their exit cards to inform the planning of the next differentiated lesson.

Fig. 4.6

“Democracy” or “Dictatorship”)

Exit Card - The American Revolution Name: ___________________ Class: ___________

 Name 1 internal factor and 1 external factor that contributed to the American Revolution.

 Briefly explain which factor you believe is more important.

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4.3.3 Differentiated instructional strategies

Teachers using diversified strategies in classrooms does not necessarily mean that they are using differentiated instructional strategies. The strategies should match students’ diverse learning needs. Differentiated instruction is a way of thinking and planning about learning and teaching. Teachers should understand students and keep connected with them through various means. With relevant information and data which reflect students’ interests, learning styles and abilities, teachers may start to plan what students need to learn, how they will learn it and how they will display what they have learnt.

In differentiated classrooms, flexible grouping arrangement is commonly used to allow students to engage in individual or group work according to their learning needs.

Jigsaw is a strategy for flexible grouping. For example, in a S3 History lesson on the impact of the Treaty of Versailles, students may form discussion groups according to their interest and readiness and then choose the reading materials labelled with numbers.

The content includes text, data, maps and video clips. Those with the same numbers form expert groups accordingly. After members from expert groups return to their respective discussion groups, they will report their findings of specified areas to their group members and finally to the class. In this way, students are given choices for taking in information according to their interest and ability, and making sense of the information through group discussion and expressing what they have learnt by presenting their findings to everyone in class.

Some differentiated instructional strategies have been tried out in junior secondary History classes. Colour and Shape Contract, Learning Menu and RAFT are chosen as examples from the resource pack for Secondary History Curriculum- How to cater for learning diversity in History class published by the Education Bureau (EDB) in March 2017.

 Colour and Shape Contract

This is a learning contract between teacher and student. Students are given choices to select the tasks by colour and shape. The contract below is about the Life in Greek city-states: Athens and Sparta (Fig 4.7). Students are required to choose one task from each row. The red circle is a pre-assessment task that addresses students’ readiness.

After they have chosen one red circle in the first row, they have to complete the task by explaining why the collected source is useful. Teacher may allow the students to present their learning outcome so as to check student’s learning outcome, clarify

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misconceptions and explain concepts. After students learn the features of Athens and Sparta, they have to choose one out of three follow-up tasks in the yellow triangles in the second row. Students may opt to draw a poster, design a logo or write a title for a storybook in order to consolidate their learning about the main points of Athens or Sparta. The blue squares in the last row shows three integrative take-home assignments.

Students utilise their prior knowledge and what they have learnt in the lesson and use their imagination to write a journal about a visit to Athens or Sparta, design an application form for migration to either Athens or Sparta or draw an advertisement to attract people to migrate to Athens or Sparta.

Fig. 4.7 (extracted from How to cater for learning diversity in History class, p.26)

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 Learning Menu

It caters for learner diversity in terms of students’ readiness, interest and/or learning style. This takes the form of a learning contract signed between the teacher and student and has to be completed before a due date. In addition to the core learning activities, there are choices for extended activities. The learning menu shown in Fig.

4.8 is about the effects of the Industrial Revolution. The main dishes stand for core learning activities which are compulsory tasks, the side dishes offer choices while desserts are optional only. This makes room for students to further explore the topic according to their interest and ability.

Fig. 4.8 (extracted from How to cater for learning diversity in History class, p.89)

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 RAFT

RAFT is an acronym for Role, Audience, Format and Topic. In a RAFT activity, students are given different roles and they need to write on given topics with particular formats for specified audiences. The focuses of the example below (Fig. 4.9) are to enable students to understand how the Jews suffered from the Holocaust during the Second World War. Students assume a specific role and write to a target audience. This activity helps students learn about past events in an empathetic manner.

Fig. 4.9

Role Audience Format Topic

The Girl in Red (A character in the movie, Schindler’s

List)

Her parents Message for help Save me!

A German woman who was married

to a Jew (A character in the

movie, Life is beautiful)

Nazi officer at the

train station Request letter We want family reunion!

Anne Frank (A Jewish girl)

Family members

of Anne Frank Diary We are being

arrested!

The above examples are differentiated instruction strategies used to cater for learner diversity in History class. Before using these strategies, teachers should make sure that students are ready for the topic by providing them with necessary inputs and preparation for students to opt for their learning tasks or assignments. For example, students are required to watch specified video clips related to the Holocaust or read relevant materials before they start to do the RAFT assignments.

Please refer to Appendix 7 for an example of catering for learner diversity using RAFT.

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