1046EDU470 Krystina McGee

Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment

Strategy Number One:
All About You Survey- I created a survey which allows me to learn about my students on a more personal level and generate data that is relevant to the class as a whole. The questions include a variety of their favorite things (foods, animals, sports and hobbies), their nationality and languages spoken, and questions regarding academics with a strong focus on science. I find it would be beneficial to find out early on which subject each student likes (considers their strongest) in order to determine how many of the students already have an interest in science. By asking the students what their favorite topic in science is and what they would like to learn about this year, I could use this information to plan future lessons that incorporate each of their interests. I was surprised to find out that my current 6th grade is very interested in performing dissections and learning about chemicals. I also included a question about the type of projects each student enjoys doing and provided some options including drawing, building, poetry, writing, singing, acting and research. This will help me make choices about what kind of projects I should assign that would capture their interests and be the most meaningful to them.

Strategy Number Two:

Assessing student learning styles- In effort to assess student learning styles I have attempted to incorporate many methods of teaching into one unit. In a unit on Protists and Fungi, I have designed my daily lessons to support multiple learning styles including: hands-on activities, a long term inquiry project, reading, videos/technology, read-along guides, lecture, drawing, and creative writing. The unit opened with a suggestion for observing pond water under a microscope to observe protists; however, due to a lack of resources (microscope and pond water) we could not perform this lab activity. I found a video on the internet which allowed my students to see pond water organisms under a microscope and instructed my students to draw and label the organisms they saw in their lab sketchbook. Next, I gave them read along guides and taught them how to utilize the guide while they read. They learned to read the questions first and then look for the answers as they read the sections of the text. On the 2nd day of the unit, we began the topic of algal blooms, and I opened class with a lab activity that would become a long-term inquiry study on the effect of excess nutrients in water on algae growth. The students were given lab notebooks to work in for the remainder of the unit which contain a variety of activities including creative writing sections (writing a warning label for a bag of fertilizer and composing a news paper article about an algal bloom in their town). The students will be observing the algal growth for two weeks and recording observations in the table provided in the journals. This experiment will act as a supplement to the content we cover in class through whole group discussion and lecture. I can assess student learning through completion of the read along guides, daily checking of the lab journal for meaningful information, their writing samples which incorporate concepts they have learned in class, their participation in lab and class, and willingness to complete the class-opener activities. Throughout this lesson, I aim to assess which learning styles best suit each students needs.

Strategy Number Three:

Declaration of Expectations- "Inclusion is about a sense of belonging, about feeling respected, valued for who you are. It is an all-encompassing practice of ensuring that people of differing abilities related to, for example, sex, age, and race, feel a sense of belonging, are engaged, and are connected to the goals and objectives of the whole wider society. This quote from Buyie Masuku accurately expresses my view of an inclusive learning environment. One of the ways I have attempted to do this was by creating a Declaration of Expectations, an idea that occurred to me after my current 7th grade students

1046EDU470 Krystina McGee

performed very poorly on a test. In this document, I express that every student has the potential to do better and is expected to do better on the next test (regardless of their abilities or what their grade was) in order for the whole class to get extra credit points. I told my class that even the student who received a 92 must get a higher score on the next test in order for anyone to receive extra credit. I was showing them that I expect more of every single student and even those who did well should always strive to do better. My hopes are that this would encourage all of the students to study, motivate each other, realize that their score affects the entire group, and push them to succeed.

1046EDU470 Krystina McGee

Inclusive Learning Environment After learning about my students for two weeks, I came to the conclusion that the current classroom environment could not be defined as inclusive. The current physical classroom set up was unorganized and messy, causing the students to show a lack of organization and a less than serious attitude towards science class. The methods of teaching were somewhat diverse, but the current teacher upholds many important roles in the school, including principal, which forces him to put less time and effort into the classroom. The students had been used to doing seat work and independent reading with little to no group work or lab activities. The students also had not been assessed other than pencil and paper tests at the end of each unit. Once I learned of the students interests to do experiments, I decided to make the environment suitable for these needs. After an activity on electrical circuits with the 5th grade, I quickly discovered the range of needs and abilities in my classroom and realized that I needed to address this in our classroom set up. I rearranged the classroom in a way that created a learning space that was neat, organized, encouraged group work, and brought the class together as a unit. I have cleared the clutter and created workable lab space which has allowed me to design lessons around many learning styles and do more to enhance the lessons for the students. I have aimed to address a variety of interests and differences through my assignments; For example, as the 7th grade learned about the periodic table of elements, they were assigned an interdisciplinary study in which they were to apply knowledge of an element of their choice to math, science, language arts, and history. The students now feel that they are part of a real class, are doing meaningful work, and are being assessed for their work in a variety of ways.