Reflection on Creating a Classroom Lesson Plan for a Diverse and Inclusive Classroom

 

Reflection on Creating a Classroom Lesson Plan for a Diverse and Inclusive Classroom

Author: Santosh Kumar Biswa, Sr. Teacher, Damphu CS, Tsirang, Bhutan

 

Making the classroom inclusive is one of the most crucial things we as instructors must accomplish. It's because the students in our class will have a range of needs, talents, and interests, as well as different backgrounds. We must assist the students who need more support than others to achieve successful learning outcomes. To effectively teach to their needs, our lesson plan must be inclusive and diverse. It's crucial to remember that each classroom will have a different learning environment as we work to develop inclusive classrooms (Kaplan, n.d.).

How has creating a classroom lesson plan for a diverse and inclusive classroom increased my knowledge about the lesson planning process?

Sincere to say, during my teacher training college, I only learned the parts of lesson plans and how to compose them. Making diverse and inclusive lesson plans was never something I was instructed to do. My lesson plans have always been content-focused. As a result, prior to creating the lesson plan, I never assessed the needs of my students or developed instruction tactics that took into account their various learning needs and limitations. I did not evaluate the changes that should be made to lesson preparation while creating inclusive lessons. Now that I've gone through this course, I've realized that my lesson plan needs to be unique and well-planned to meet the needs of my diverse group of pupils, some of whom have disabilities. I understood that a diverse and inclusive lesson plan would improve the effectiveness of my instruction.

As a result of taking this course, I have realized how important accommodations in the classroom are and how they benefit all of the children in the room, which has greatly expanded my understanding of the lesson-planning process. When developing my lesson plans, I should pay particular attention to the four main categories of accommodations, including content, process, products, and learning environment (Olinghouse, 2008). I concluded that, while taking into account the complexity of the material and the learner profiles, the instructional concepts I include in my lesson plan should be broadly based and all students should have access to the same core material.

For the varied learners, I should plan to convey the content in a variety of ways. In addition, I understood that I had to incorporate the differentiated learning process through differentiated activities that comprise scaffolding, flexible grouping, interest centers, manipulatives, varying the amount of time a student needs to master content, and encouraging an advanced learner to dive deeper into a subject (Olinghouse, 2008). I realized that the goods should give students a variety of ways to demonstrate their knowledge, as well as varied levels of difficulty, group or individual work, and numerous grading options, as indicated by Olinghouse (2008).

Prior to realizing I was doing it incorrectly and failing to meet their requirements, I would simply ask my students to write their homework and show them to me in my milieu of practice. Additionally, when lesson planning, I used to simply employ the technical teaching methods that I had studied in my training program. Now I understand that my lessons should incorporate a variety of teaching strategies based on UDL, inclusive design, and differentiated instruction to accommodate the unique needs of my students, and the assignments I give them should provide them a choice in how they can demonstrate their learning (Cornell University, 2022).

Improvements are needed in planning to create inclusive lessons in the classrooms I teach.

I learned a lot about the lesson planning process through the readings in this unit and the writing assignment, and I also discovered that I need to make some adjustments to my planning to create lessons that are inclusive in the school where I teach. The following are the improvements needed in my lesson plan:

·       Including inclusive activities that respect my students' many learning styles, skill levels, and cultural backgrounds.

·       Making diversity concerns an aim of my course's learning objectives and incorporating local histories and current events into classroom activities

·       Utilize a variety of activities and a learning model to provide my students with as many opportunities to make decisions as feasible in the classroom (Kaplan, n.d.).

·       Keep my activities with big groups to a minimum.

·       Create hands-on activities that let students interact with real things from their surroundings.

·       Create hands-on activities with multiple levels of difficulty for kids that fit their developmental needs.

·       Analyze the lesson critically from several angles and use resources that fairly represent different ideas (consider gender, nationality, ethnicity, age, sexuality, political affiliation, socio-economic status, ability, linguistic background, etc.).

·       Support collaborative learning and small groups.

·       Providing adaptive learning resources and alternate test formats

Conclusion

In an inclusive classroom setting with a variety of cultural differences, learning levels and requirements, and varied disabilities, teachers should always be mindful of students' learning needs while developing lesson plans (Ginsberg & Wlodkowski, 2009). Additionally, before creating the lesson plan, reflection on the needs of every student must be done. Teachers should constantly ensure that their lessons are rigorous and feature high expectations for learning while also catering to the requirements of all pupils (Olinghouse, 2008).

 

References

Cornell University. (2022). Incorporating Diversity. https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/designing-your-course/incorporating-diversity

Ginsberg, M. (2009). Diversity & Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching in College. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306033737_Diversity_Motivation_Culturally_Responsive_Teaching_in_College_2009

Kaplan. (n.d.). Creating Inclusive Lesson Plans. https://blog.kaplanco.com/ii/creating-inclusive-lesson-plans

Olinghouse, N. (2008). Designing lessons for diverse learners. https://edwp.educ.msu.edu/te/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2020/06/Designing-Lessons-for-Diverse-Learners.pdf