by Kristen Buyce
Are you struggling to teach rigorous, grade-level content to your diverse learners? Technology may be the answer!
Being faced with a class of monolingual students, English Language Learners of all proficiency levels and students with individualized education plans is a situation that many educators find themselves in. It leaves them feeling overwhelmed about how to plan lessons while taking into account trying to meet all of their needs.
The answer may lie in a shift in mindset. As Todd Rose (2013) argued in his Ted Talk, “The Myth of the Average,” instead of designing lessons to fit the “average” student, which is effectively “designing for nobody,” lessons should be designed to fit the edges of learning dimensions, so that all students’ needs can be met.
Our classroom scenario above illustrates one edge of students who require the most support with accommodations and modifications to reach the learning standard. We must also consider the opposite edge of students in the same class, who are ready to go deeper and be more challenged. If lessons are planned to teach to the edges, we can address the learning needs of the rest of the students who fall in the middle of these edges as well.
Students’ learning experiences can be positively impacted by technology, but when teachers plan how to utilize technology to teach to the edges and meet the needs of their students, it is then when all needs are met.
As a result of adopting this mindset shift and incorporating technology into my instruction, I have been able to provide multiple entry points into my lessons for my students to meet the rigorous content and language demands.
In what ways can technology help you reach all of your students? To begin, let’s examine some common challenges teachers face and how technology can help!
Challenge #1: How can you assess language or account for student voice in this classroom full of diverse learners?
Possible Tech Solutions: Programs like Classkick, Flip, Nearpod, Kami, Seesaw, and Padlet, to name a few, have the capability to record students’ responses to questions or comments. By doing so, all students can answer questions, not just one single student.
Challenge #2: How can you simplify concepts and language for this classroom full of diverse learners?
Possible Tech Solutions: The use of Rewordify, SMMRY, and Publishing Google Docs in conjunction with the Immersive Reader Extension can provide students with multiple pathways to understanding complex academic concepts and language.
Challenge #3: How can teachers provide accommodations for students that need assignments and tests read aloud?
Possible Tech Solutions: Using programs such as Classkick, teachers can record their own voice, reading different assignments or even exams. Kami, Immersive Reader extension, and Seesaw are some other possible tech solutions that have similar features.
Challenge #4: How can you give quick and on-the-spot feedback while all students are working at a different pace? How can a teacher be everywhere at once?
Possible Tech Solutions: Programs such as Classkick enable teachers to monitor the progress of their students in real-time, whether the view is of the whole class, one student, or one slide view of the whole class. Along with its multiview features, it also can auto-grade making catching mistakes even easier in real-time. This feature allows teachers to provide feedback to their students on the spot, whether it is audio, written, or a customized sticker. In Google Classroom, you can provide audio feedback using the Talk and Comment extension.
Challenge #5: How can you add more spice to your lessons to help increase engagement?
Possible Tech Solutions: Download free pre-made slides from Slides Mania, SlidesGo, and Slides Carnival to recreate your old slides to add more attraction. Animated GIFs can be used to provide visual support for difficult concepts, using the GIPHY extension. For word-to-picture connections, Flaticon and The Noun Project provide easy-to-decipher images.
Challenge #6: How can you increase cognitive engagement in your classroom while having all of the students be able to participate?
Possible Tech Solutions: The collaboration board in Nearpod or Padlet will allow all students to respond and provide evidence for their thinking. Furthermore, students can collaborate on these platforms and comment on one another’s work.
While teaching rigorous, grade-level content to your diverse learners may seem daunting at first, infusing technology to make sure all students’ needs are met helps to lessen the cognitive load for both you and your students!
As Todd Rose stated, “We have a chance right now to use this technology to create learning environments that are so flexible that they truly can nurture the potential of every single individual.”