Strategies for Teaching Diverse Learners (Week 1)

After watching the video, it is apparent that both teachers are recognizing their students learning needs and modifying their assignments. Their main focus was reading and writing strategies. They both mentioned using drawings to demonstrate their understanding of reading material. Allowing these students to think in pictures, is an excellent demonstration of applying spatial intelligence to reach their needs.

Both Teachers had students writing with crayons instead of the ordinary pencil. The first teacher used visuals to reinforce the students understanding of coral reefs. She listed questions on the board to look at before reading and she had individual vocabulary handouts at each students table. Visual learners can really benefit from these strategies. The second teacher gave the students an option to give an example of what the word means. This strategy would meet the needs of the intrapersonal multiple intelligence. It gives students an opportunity to relate this new term with something in the world around them. One improvement both teachers could have made is to incorporate the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. For reading strategies, the teachers could have had the students perform a skit on their interpretation of the readings or they could have played a game such as Around the World with the vocabulary.

To enhance the lesson for an audience of diverse learners, the teachers could have used the software program PAINT. With this program, the students could have used colorful word art to display the term and its definition as well as insert pictures. To elaborate more on the vocabulary, the teacher could have used the program WordWeb. With this program, the students could have looked at the word pronunciation, synonyms, proper nouns, and definitions. Lastly, they could have both used PowerPoint to introduce the vocabulary and display questions.