Educational Diversity

Being in a class of all first graders does not mean that you are going to be in a classroom of students who are all at the same level academically. Even if you are in a classroom with no children who are special education or with English language learners there would still be a huge spread of learning capabilities. Then if you throw into the picture that there are students with learning disabilities or with the handicap of not speaking English as their first language you can see how quickly you get a classroom with a huge range of understanding. This gap between students can sometimes be hard to deal with. You have to chose if you teach towards the higher end or towards the lower end. If you teach in the middle some will be bored while others will fall behind. If you split the class into "groups" you run the risk of the children realizing who the "smart people" are and who the "less smart people" are. This is not what kids want to be feeling in elementary school.

This movie is one found on You Tube that shows a new resource available for teaching students with autism. It talks about how those types of students learn very well visually and this provides pictures to learn from.






The website Reach Every Child has resources for teaching children with ADD or teaching English language learners or teaching students with learning disabilities. Whether you are a regular elementary education teacher or a special education teach you will most likely come across cases such as these so it is good to be prepared.