Effective Teaching Strategies that Accommodate Diverse Learners

Book excerpt: This popular book examines the teaching, instruction, and curricula required to meet the needs of diverse learners, who by virtue of their experiential, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds, challenge traditional curriculum and instructional programs. The updated book provides a summary of the characteristics of students with diverse learning and curricular needs and a critical examination of current issues in education. Based on these analyses, recommendations for teaching reading, comprehension, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, and also teaching English language learners are given to ensure that diverse learners succeed in the classroom. FEATURES: Includes new "application and reflection" sections in each chapter that provide applied case studies, application activities, and questions for discussion and reflection-This new feature allows students to apply the six principles of effective instruction to real life situations, with the goal of facilitating the translation of research to practice. Includes a new chapter on teaching reading comprehension-With the addition of this new chapter, the book now better covers the complexities of teaching reading with chapters on both teaching code-based elements of reading such as phonemic awareness, alphabetic understanding, and fluency as well as teaching meaning-based elements of reading such as comprehension strategies. Provides recommendations for determining the critical curricular and instructional priorities for teaching students with diverse learning needs, who are typically behind their school-age peers in academic performace and content coverage. Concrete examples of how key concepts in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies are taught, integrated, and supported-Examples are provided across grade levels, from the elementary grades through high school. Guidelines for developing, selecting, and modifying curricula to meet the needs of diverse learners into each chapter.