Brandy Brown October 2013 Diversity Practices My classroom is a community.

I want my students to be able to function and interact with one another as members of that community. Like any group of people, each of my students will come with different skills and experiences. I do not see ELL students as a detriment to my classroom community but as citizens whose unique experiences to contribute to class discussions and work. Like every student, each ELL will have specific needs that will need to be met in order for him or her to fully contribute and excel in my class. The idea of teaching English and the Language Arts to a population with multiple native languages can be daunting. Some of the strategies I have for modifying my instruction for ELL students include: selecting texts that are relevant for a multicultural classroom, pairing students with the same native language together, and structuring my lesson plans using the Into, Through, and Beyond composition to ensure scaffolding for all learning levels. My community of learners will incorporate their own experiences in the discussions we have about the various reading materials we will be using in the classroom. In order to help ELL students connect the material with their own lives I will use texts that are culturally relevant to the students. Many classrooms will have a diverse group of learners, which means a range of texts that extends to multiple regions of the world. It would be neat to have students who are from the same region as a given author to introduce the rest of the class to the cultural background of the text. Not only does this give each student a chance to celebrate their own cultural differences but it also allows students to connect with a text with a more genuine understanding. My classroom is set up for students to work in groups to discuss and understand the work at hand. I will pay special attention to the composition of each classroom group. I want to make sure that each group is composed of varying levels of English language proficiency. In this way, the students can use each other as a resource for help on group work, paper revisions,

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Brandy Brown October 2013 and can even translate for one another if an ELL student does not have the English proficiency to convey their ideas to the group or class. Not only does this ensure that each students ideas are being expressed but it also helps the students feel accountable for each other as a cohesive group, contributing to the communal environment. The Into, Through, and Beyond structure helps to break down lessons and texts in a manner that scaffolds the information. The Into section gives all students an enjoyable way to engage with texts and classroom activities while making sure all students have the background knowledge to understand the information. The Through section helps students to access the texts in modes that best suit their learning style. Finally, the Beyond section allows students to critically think about the information they have learned and connect it across the course. The structure helps me, as the instructor, engage with the students and gauge their learning. This allows me to alter my lessons and methods to better facilitate their learning. Without these strategies and modifications to lessons, ELL students have a much harder time engaging in a classroom community. Lessons should not be modified after they are created to include ELLs but they should be created and structured with Ells and a diverse classroom at the forefront. A working classroom community requires that each student is considered to have an important role in its function and given access to the same knowledge as their peers.

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