2.

a.
i. The neighborhood around the school contains an area with rich diversity. There
are many houses, parks, churches, stores, restaurants, a garden, and much
more. The community contains people of many backgrounds. There are people
who have grown up in the United States, but there are also people who came to
the United States as refugees. There are people who have money and that don’t
need to worry about money, but there are also people who do not have money
and have been homeless before. This helps me understand that some people
may have past experiences with ideas within this unit, but some students may
not due to the limited experiences that they have had in their life.

ii. The school’s mission statement says, “We’re a neighborhood Christian school
(PK-6th grade) committed to inspiring the minds and hearts of our students;
equipping them to embrace cultural, economic, and racial diversity; and
empowering them to love and serve in community.” At the school the breakfast is
offered for free and lunch is offered at an affordable price, unless they qualify for
free lunch. They also offer free busing for students within Grand Rapids Public
School System boundaries. The school has been made handicap accessible so
that it is accessible to all students. Lastly, the school offers After School Care
through Salvation Army at an affordable cost.

iii. In this unit I want to honor the fact that not of the students have the same prior
experiences. This means that some students may have seen different biomes,
but other students have never been outside of Grand Rapids. As a teacher, I
need to make sure that I do not assume that students have had the same prior
experiences that I have had. They might need more explanations, visuals, or
demonstrations of an activity to comprehend a concept. Looking at the mission
statement, I want to make sure that I am incorporating ideas of inspiring minds
and hearts of students to embrace many kinds of diversity and serve in the
community.

b.
i. Our students come from diverse settings. Most of the students live in a home
where both mom and dad are together, but there are a few students who do not
have a father figure in their lives. Some students come from families where
money is not an issue and whose parents have good jobs, but there are also
students who have come from Africa as a refugee or have experienced
homelessness in their life. Within the class we have 5 students who don’t speak
english at home, two of whom still need lots of English learning to become fluent.
Within the class the majority of students are white, but there are also many
students from different backgrounds. There are students who are Hispanic,
African American, Chinese, and some students are bi-racial. This makes our
 classroom very rich and diverse, which is a great learning experience for
students.

ii. Thinking of our Individual Learners, I will take these things into consideration with
how I implement the unit. I realize that in order for the students to learn some
ideas they need to have concrete experiences to pull from. This means that I will
need to provide all students with these concrete experiences to help their
comprehension and understanding of the unit. I also realize that not all of my
students will fully understand the academic language of English that is being
used, this means that I will need to support them with visuales, partner work,
mini-sessions, and many other things. Lastly, I want to respond to the learners
unique backgrounds by having the students from different countries share about
their past homes in this unit. This is a unit where students from Africa or China
could share their knowledge with us about their past home.