1. Diverse Learners in the
Mainstream Classroom
Chapters 9 – 11
Angela Shin
Liz Stachowicz

2. 9 - Teaching Middle School Mathematics for All
Six principles of effective mathematics teachings:
• Equity principle
• Curriculum principle
• Teaching principle
• Assessment principle
• Technology principle
• Learning principle
Teaching mathematics for understanding through five mental
activities:
• Constructing relationships
• Extending and applying mathematical knowledge
• Reflecting on learning experiences
• Articulating knowledge
• Personal involvement in the construction of knowledge

3. Constructivist Theory: SocioculturalMathematics
Learning Theory:
• Emphasizes the importance of of
learners receiving instruction at • Cultural – develops from a
the appropriate level for their culturally historic past that forms
age, to social cognitive theory and generalized knowledge and skills
information-processing learning • Personal – values are attached to
theory actions and goals derived from an
• Connects new ideas to previously activity
learned information • Students express reasoning
• Encourages students to make through dialogue with peers and
conjectures without fear of teachers
criticism

4. Informal Assessment:
• Careful listening, asking thoughtful questions of students
• Making observations as students work on tasks provides teachers with
insights into students’ thought processes and solution strategies
Formal Assessment:
•Reproductions: Basic level of mental activity that involves the recall
of facts, procedures, and definitions (ie: completing
calculations, constructing graphs, using formulas)
• Connections: “Real world situations”; students illustrate different
approaches to solving a problem and reflect their understandings
• Analysis: Requires students use discriminate thinking to choose
appropriate strategies and tools for the solution

5. 10 - Literacy in a Diverse Society
Three phases of the reading process:
• Before: Two goals for teachers before reading include introducing
the topic and setting a purpose for the reading, in order to help
readers set their own purposes for reading
• During: Using “think-alouds” help students monitor and improve
their comprehension
• After: Students can increase comprehension of text through
checking predictions, relating what they read to own
experiences, posing and answering questions, responding to text
through arts

6. How to Improve Comprehension:
• Allow students to chose reading that interests them which is also at a
comfortable reading level
• Encourage silent reading as opposed to round robin reading
• Introduce a topic and give a summary, provide a hook for reading
• Give a purpose for reading
• Encourage students to make predictions
• Model think aloud to get through difficult parts of the text
• Allow student to creatively respond to the text using
art, drama, music, and writing
• Provide multicultural literature so that students can see themselves in
the story and relate to the character

7. How to Improve Writing:
• Allow students to write about what they know from
personal experience and background knowledge
• Allow students to chose their own topic
•Allow students to write in their own language
• Write every day
• Provide students with an authors chair where they can
share what they wrote (Apply this to an art class – Artist’s
Chair)
A lot of these ideas can be applied to art

8. 11 - Understanding the Human Experience through
Social Studies
Ways to make socials studies current and relevant to students of
different backgrounds:
• Learn how others lived outside their own culture and think from other
people’s perspectives, move beyond ethnocentric views
• Participate in the global economy and marketplace of ideas
• Use bilingualism as an advantage
• Teach from multiple intelligences
• Relate historical events to current events
• Analyze current issues that affect them their community, state, and the
world
• Foster a positive ethnic identity, empower students, and instill a sense
of pride in their culture

9. Ways to make socials studies current and relevant to students of
different backgrounds cont.:
•Allow students to speak from their own experience and express their
unique voice
• Bring in different types of current media for children to analyze:
TV, radio, political cartoons, journals and diaries, newspaper articles
• Role play things that happened in history
• Read multicultural children’s literature
• Use cooperative learning and problem solving
• Use technology to enhance your lesson