9: Student Diversity and Social/Emotional Learning
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Learning Objectives
Optional In-Class Activity
Your instructor will give you a piece of paper with something already drawn on it. Use what is there as a beginning and complete the picture. You can orient the paper any way that you wish and draw anything that you want. Once the pictures are complete, the class will look at them and discuss the activity.
When you conceive of your future classroom, what does it look like? In what ways will your students be alike? In what ways will they be different? The dimensions along which your future students will differ are numerous and vary widely. There are many ethnic and cultural factors to consider, such as gender, religion, ethnicity and language. What affect will this have on the learning environment and climate of your classroom? Additionally, your students will have differences in styles of learning, degree of motivation, temperament, emotional well-being and social skills. Students also vary in need, and can have cognitive and, or physical impairments. Many of your students will embody several of these characteristics at the same time. Some of these dimensions can be attributed to heredity. Others are a result of where a student is from. Others, still, are a result of the student’s home life and experiences. Regardless of the origin or type of factors that work together to make each student unique, a well-prepared teacher needs to be knowledgeable of how student diversity affects their classroom and their teaching. This chapter will review the array of student differences, with specific attention to the needs of English Language Learners, and the importance of childhood trauma and social and emotional learning in today’s classrooms.