Five Ways To Differentiate for Culturally Diverse Students

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Cultural diversity is something every teacher will see in the classroom and something that needs to be celebrated. Every student is different and has a unique experience and way of learning and it is our responsibility to differentiate instruction to meet their needs and celebrate their unique identity. 

Differentiating for culturally diverse students can range from cooperative learning to using specific hands on activities to activate their prior knowledge. Each of these ideas lead to student achievement and high levels of learning. 

That being said here are five ways to differentiate for culturally diverse learners:
    1. Prior Knowledge Links: Prior knowledge is one of the most successful ways to reach students where they are at. Teachers who utilize this method understand that creating these link is essential and will only elevate their students learning (Stallord, 2016). There are many ways to do create these links. One way is to ask whole class questions, for example, have you ever visited a forest, another is to have students interview each other to find out their knowledge about a certain topic (Stallord, 2016). 
    2. Nonlinguistic Representations: Students do not merely learn from written or spoken language and using interactive modalities like singing, role-playing, sketching, and taking photographs can often meet students in a different way than direct instruction can (Stalled, 2016). These representations can help students learn new vocabulary and communicate when there are language and communication barriers between students and teachers (Stalled, 2016). 
    3. Realia and Hands-on Learning: Again students need more than written and spoken language to learn. Teachers who utilize this method will bring tactile objects into the classroom to enhance their instruction and help their students learn (Stallord, 2016). These tactile objects can be anything from blocks, leaves, insects, shapes, etc. (Stalled, 2016). These objects are used to enhance instruction and give students another tool to form connections between the classroom and their learning. 
    4. Higher Order Thinking: Students are capable of so much and it's our job as teachers to challenge them and give them the support they need to meet those challenges. Teachers who utilize this method challenge students to go beyond basic material to more abstract thinking and activities (Stallord, 2016). Higher order thinking activities and questioning range from asking students to make inferences to asking them to make predictions and reflect on them after an experiment (Stallord, 2016). Higher order thinking gives students the chance to really show what they have learned and apply their unique knowledge and experience to the classroom (Stallord, 2016).
    5. Oral; Reading, and Writing Skills: Students should practice their skills in multiple ways and a culturally diverse classrooms encourage students to integrate reading, and writing with oral skills (Stallord, 2016). This method when used will ask students to read something, write something about it and then present it (Stallord, 2016). When done this makes the students more comprehensive and intelligent readers, and writers (Stallord, 2016).
Resource Used:Stallord, J. (2016, August 19). Use PLT and differentiated instruction to reach diverse learners. Project Learning Tree. https://www.plt.org/educator-tips/8-differentiated-instruction-techniques/.

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