MGE/SEC
444/G
Opening
Doors for Special Learners
As teachers you will learn that all of your students are special learners, but you will have a few that will need some extra attention. This will include students with culturally diverse backgrounds and those with special educational needs. As an introduction to this page, I found it very inspiring to read the article entitled “Spread a Multicultural Message Every Day”. The article provides statistics that show teachers why it is important that we spread this message. It also gives great tips on how to spread the message. For example it suggests choosing literature with multicultural themes, providing quality books to your bilingual population, and including diversity in every subject.
While these are great examples they are not enough. So to help you find lesson plans, teaching strategies, and alternate disciplines for these students this website guides you to pages with endless resources and information. If cultural diversity and trying to teach those who have special needs to read frustrate you and your classroom choose one of the following categories to help calm yourself:
·
Celebrating
Cultural Diversity
·
National
Clearinghouse on Bilingual Education
·
Inclusive
Schools Teaching and Learning
Celebrating
Cultural Diversity Through Children’s Literature This website provides access to books in over seven
languages. Our classrooms may be
filled with students from all countries and we are expected to teach them to
read, write, and do math. Literature
is a great way to help teach them and giving them something in their language
will make them feel very comfortable, and take one less thing off of their
minds.
National
Clearinghouse on Bilingual Education
The
National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education strives to:
·
Address critical issues dealing
with the education of linguistically and culturally diverse students in the US
·
Serve as a broker for exemplary
practices and research as they relate to the education of LCD students
·
Become a valuable source of
information for individuals working in foreign language programs, English as a
Second Language programs, Head Start, Title I, Migrant Education, or Adult
Education programs.
Their
IN
THE CLASSROOM link provides practical resources for
linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms in the following areas:
·
Lesson
Plans on the Internet
A
web guide to online resources for teachers who need help with finding lesson
plans and teaching strategies for special education students
Inclusive
Schools Teaching and Learning
Schools
are accommodating diversity with a variety of teaching strategies and different
degrees of mastery. Inclusive
learning environments are reflections of the change in teaching and learning to
help all students meet high expectations. This
website gives the following information: Research,
Resources and Strategies for Inclusive Classrooms; Technology; Research and
Strategies for Teaching Reading; and Inclusive Schools Program Pilots.
English
Exercises Online gives teachers free access to more than 100 language resources,
interactive quizzes and exercises, ready-to-use handouts, and lesson ideas.
These sources are a definite must for those working with students where
English is their second language.
Banks, J., (1997).
Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies (6 ed). Seattle: Allyn and Bacon.
Brozo, W.G., & Simpson, M.L. (1999).
Readers, teachers, learners: Expanding literacy across the content
areas (3rd Ed). New
Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.
George, P., Lawrence, G., & Bushnell, D. (1998) Handbook for Middle School Teaching (2nd ed). Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Heward, W.L., (1999). Exceptional Children: An introduction to Special Education (6th ed). New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.
Mastropieri, M.A., Scruggs, T.E., (2000). Inclusive Classroom: The Strategies for Effective Instruction. New Jersey: Merrill Prentice Hall.
