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1. This video from PBS News Hour shows how students in at risk school in Bronx, New York are succeeding in due to the use of a teaching method called blended learning that uses educational technology on computers to help students learn at their own pace and with their own funds of knowledge as well.

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In customized classrooms, at-risk students thrive

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This article written by University of Massachusetts global discusses three strategies for helping at risk students and these strategies include prioritizing relationship building, incorporating a democratic classroom model, and also using an enabling component model that uses interventions to help struggling students get over learning difficulties in the classroom.

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Help Your At-Risk Students Succeed: 3 Strategies for Motivation

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Experts share their advice on how to help your most at-risk students achieve their academic goals.

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This website has a lot curriculum with materials and activities that incorporate a lot of gender inclusivity when talking about topics that have to do with genetics like nondisjunction and inheritance as well.

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gender-inclusive biology lesson materials - Gender-Inclusive Biology

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article, publications, diversity, viewpoints, student responses, pedigree, genetics

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This article talks about the gender differences and disparity in the classroom particularly in terms of how most curriculum is geared towards boys and the fact that even though most girls raise their hands to ask and answer questions they aren't as supported in their learning as boys are.

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Some ideas on how to minimize gender bias in our teaching practice and curriculum.

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This video is about a TED Talk from the British School of Brussels wherein the speaker talks about her experiences dealing with women from her native village in India that didn't have the opportunities she did to pursue higher education due to the barrier of a low socioeconomic status.

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Socioeconomic Status and Barriers to Education: Monica Korakula at TEDxBritishSchoolofBrussels

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This article discusses how the socioeconomic achievement gap affects students who have a higher SES and a lower SES in terms of brain development, availability of resources, and even success and drop out rates of public schools as well.

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The Socioeconomic Achievement Gap in the US Public Schools - Ballard Brief

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The socioeconomic achievement gap in public schools is a social issue that has evolved over time and affects the whole country.

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This blog post from the American University of Washington D.C. is about how to best teacher culturally and linguistically different students in the classroom with strategies that have evidence to show their overall effectiveness.

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Honoring the mandate to provide all students with an equal education requires adaptation. Shifting demographics in the United States have dramatically altered the ethnic and racial makeup of student populations, and a growing number of students do not speak English fluently. These changes present significant challenges for educators, requiring them to rethink their curricula and teaching strategies.

Examining the growing need for diversity and exploring ways to modify behavior in the classroom constitute a critical step toward creating linguistically inclusive and culturally sensitive learning environments.

The Growing Need for Diverse Teaching Strategies

US school districts are required to provide equal educational opportunities to language minority students, but meeting that standard has become more challenging as the number of students classified as an "English language learner," or ELL, has grown.

Generally, the term "English language learner" describes a student who is learning English in addition to their native language. Exact definitions of ELL vary, as do delineations between ELL and ESL (English as a second language), but by any measure, the number of students for whom English is not their first and primary language is growing as a percentage of all students enrolled in US public schools.

An average of 10 percent of students in US public schools are English language learners, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). In cities, the average is close to 15 percent. (NCES defines ELL students as those being served by programs of language assistance, including ESL, high-intensity language training, and bilingual education.) Among ELL students in the US, Spanish is the most common language spoken at home (75 percent), followed by Arabic (3 percent).

The increase in ELLs in public schools reflects a larger demographic shift. The percentage of non-white students in US public schools has increased significantly over the last decade, from 48 percent in 2010 to an estimated 54 percent in 2020. The percentage of Hispanic students enrolled in public schools grew from 23 percent to 28 percent over the same period.

While addressing diversity in the classroom largely consists of focusing on ELL students, cultural and linguistic divides are not exclusive to that segment of learners. In 2018, 47 percent of students and 79 percent of teachers in US public schools were white. This contrasts starkly with the student-teacher ratio for Hispanics (27 percent of students, 9 percent of teachers), Blacks (15 percent of students, 7 percent of teachers), and Asians (5 percent of students, 2 percent of teachers). Such disparities in representation of races and ethnicities among educators constitute a longstanding issue in US public schools.

Teaching Strategies for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students

The first step in addressing cultural and linguistic diversity is to be aware. The very act of considering culture and language skills when developing curricula and activities makes it more likely that lessons will be inclusive. Teaching culturally diverse students entails the following additional steps:

Learn about your students' cultural backgrounds and demonstrate appreciation of those cultures. Teachers show students how to embrace different cultures by modeling respect and acceptance.

Learn more about students' lives outside of the classroom, and let that information inform lessons. For example, try to find examples that are relevant to students with different cultures and backgrounds.

Embrace diversity in teaching styles. Making an effort to accommodate different communication preferences, cognitive styles, and aptitudes results in lessons with a greater chance of reaching all students.

Encourage students to relate the benefit of a lesson to their own lives.

Bring diverse guest speakers into the classroom.

Educators can also benefit from the following tips for teaching linguistically diverse students:

Develop a relationship and work closely with an ESL teacher or interpreter.

Incorporate more group work. This allows students to practice their language skills in a more personal, less intimidating setting than the front of the classroom.

Make things as visual as possible by writing on the board, diagraming, and using pictures.

Allow ELL students to preview materials before a lesson when possible.

Understand that some students may experience a silent period. Students learning a new language commonly go through a period of several weeks or longer when they are taking in the new language but do not yet speak it.

Efforts to better serve culturally and linguistically diverse student populations are not limited to the classroom. Developing responsive curricula and teaching strategies is critical, but a holistic approach that includes families and the larger school community promises better outcomes.

Working With Parents

Positive parent-teacher relationships can influence any student's success, but they can be particularly important for students whose culture or dominant language differs from that of the majority of their classmates. Developing a relationship with the parents of ELL students or any student who is outside the dominant cultural or ethnic group, or whose culture or ethnicity differs from that of the teacher, builds a sense of trust and acceptance among students and their families. Making the effort to build such relationships can be challenging for teachers, and in cases where there is a language barrier, it may be necessary to engage with a language instructor or interpreter for support.

Support From Schools

Schools can address linguistic and cultural diversity by working to recruit teachers of color and instructors who can teach and tutor in languages other than English. Demonstrating support for student diversity is also crucial. Measures such as providing school signage in different languages, encouraging students to speak their first language at school, and displaying non-English books and materials creates an environment of acceptance and appreciation that benefits all students.

Schools can also play a role in supporting more training designed to mitigate implicit bias. Research has shown that teachers are just as likely to have a racial bias as non-teachers.

Create Inclusive Classrooms

American University's Online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership prepares educators to shape education policy and create more inclusive learning environments.

The degree program provides future teachers and education leaders with the tools they need to transform the education system to benefit all learners. With a focus on building equitable learning environments, the curriculum emphasizes systems change, personal leadership, social justices and anti-racism, and policy and research.

Learn more about American University's Online EdD in Education Policy and Leadership.

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Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students | American University

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Students in US schools are increasingly diverse. Learn more about teaching strategies that address culturally and linguistically diverse students.

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This website gives helps educators by giving lesson plans, activities, and curriculum for 9th grade biology all in Spanish in order to support ELL and ESL students who speak Spanish as their primary language and that come from a background rooted in Hispanic culture as well.

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For additional resources that may better match what you're looking for, we have a few tips to guide your search.

1. Search for key terms in Spanish, the more specific the better. For example, "extracción de adn en frutas" (DNA extraction in fruit) will get you closer to the experiment you're looking for than searching "experimento de ciencias para niños" (science experiment for kids). Use Google translate for help with spelling/punctuation/translation.

2. Search using another google extension for Spanish speaking countries such as google.com.mx (or .ar, .cl, .co, .bo, .ec, .es, .gt., .pe, .uy) and/or click the "Español/ Latinoamérica" version. For non-Spanish speakers, use Google Chrome so that your search results will be translated easily.

3. Specify by grade level to filter out higher ed results.

4. Reach out to us for help. We know the start of the year is busy, and we're always here to help, email us to find what works for your science teaching.

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For additional resources that may better match what you're looking for, we have a few tips to guide your search. Search for key terms in Spanish, the more specific the better. For example, "extracción de adn en frutas" (DNA extraction in fruit) will get you closer to the experiment you're looking for than searching "experimento de ciencias para niños" (science experiment for kids).

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This video is from the New York Times and deals with teachers giving advice and strategies in dealing with issues of racism and racist talk in the class among students.

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Strategies for Facilitating Conversations About Race and Racism in the Classroom

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This article goes over how to support learners who racially and ethically diverse in the classroom with activities and lessons that utilizes their funds of knowledge.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

Teachers may be hesitant to discuss race with young kids, but these research-backed, age-appropriate strategies can help.

Conversations about multicultural education, antiracism, and antibias are becoming more prevalent within educational communities. However, there may be hesitation and confusion about whether and how to create a classroom community that is supportive of children from racially diverse backgrounds-particularly ones who are younger.

In early childhood, educators may approach racial diversity and race-related issues from a color-blind philosophy or believe that young children are unable to understand issues of race due to their age. These approaches not only are dismissive of children and families' experiences but also create an inaccurate portrayal of history and current events. Additionally, color-blind approach is an ableist term that equates actual medical blindness with ignorance and implies that racism is only connected to sight and negates the structural and day-to-day issues associated with racism.

As a result, educators should intentionally create a learning environment that respects and values racial diversity while addressing students' experiences and the historical issues that shape those experiences. Here are five research-based approaches that early childhood educators can use.

Reflect on Who You Are and Your Experiences With Race

In order to create a learning environment that authentically supports racial diversity, educators can start with self-reflection. Understanding oneself will reveal educators' feelings, thoughts, and attitudes about race and how they influence interactions and expectations with students.

Remember Intersectionality

In addition to race, many children and families may experience other forms of discrimination and oppression when they belong to multiple identity groups simultaneously, such as gender, class, ability, language, or sexual orientation. Children may be blamed for problems or experience erasure because of their multiple identities. Therefore, creating learning environments that are supportive of racial diversity should also be inclusive of children's multiple identities. You can use resources like Photovoice, films, and texts to encourage students to reflect on the experiences of children and families with intersectional identities and think of ways they can be supported.

Discover Something to Love About Each Student

Even though children come from different racial and ethnic communities, it's important to balance that with recognizing students individually. To build learning environments that affirm and acknowledge racial diversity and intersectional identities, educators should discover something to love about each child in the classroom. This love and connection can develop through visiting the children's homes, meeting with families and community members, or interacting during recess or outdoor activities.

Avoid Tokenism

Educators should avoid doing one-off projects that reinforce stereotypes about different groups of people. Educators may incorporate activities and lessons that expose students to historical knowledge about people from a variety of racial and ethnic groups, the oppression experienced by people of different racial and ethnic groups, and the ways in which different groups have historically and currently contributed to national culture and society. When doing this, it's valuable to not position one or two well-known individuals as representative of their entire cultural community.

Build Bridges

Educators can implement activities that specifically address race-related topics or conversations. Students can read books that feature characters of different skin tones, then have a conversation about the importance of making friends with people from different backgrounds.

They can also make self-portraits by mixing paint colors or using crayons that match the children's skin tones. In this activity, children can see variation within their own and possibly other racial groups. This also may be a chance for students to observe colors associated with racial groups, like white, and notice if there are students who match that skin tone that may identify as White. For classes that are conducted virtually, students can use online painting tools.

When educators start with understanding themselves and then expand that to understanding the experiences of others, they can intentionally cultivate a learning environment that honors racial and intersectional diversity within the classroom and the larger society. It is not a practice that has an end result; rather, it's a process that requires consistent reflection, learning, and growth.

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How to Support Young Learners in Racially Diverse Classrooms

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Teachers may be hesitant to discuss race with young kids, but these research-backed, age-appropriate strategies can help.

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This video brings into perspective new light on the use of inclusive technologies such as speech to text or word prediction in the classroom and their impacts on universal design for learning and equity for different learners.

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This blog post shares different resources that can be used as a means of incorporating different educational technologies that bring in elements of the universal design for learning to support different kinds of learners in the biology classroom.

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Integrating Technology in the Life Sciences

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Easy ways to incorporate some technology into your existing biology and life science lessons. Give your science curriculum a boost and transform science lessons into STEM lessons!

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This resources is from Perkins School for the blind and gives great curriculum that has been modified for students that are blind or virtually impaired so that they can get equal access to content like their peers.

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Hands-on lesson ideas in the areas of biology, botany, zoology, and physiology

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This is a great article that talks about the experiences that students with disabilities face and the interventions and the support they need to receive in order for them to succeed in the classroom.

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Creating Positive School Experiences for Students with Disabilities

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The school experiences of students with disabilities can be positively or negatively influenced by the attitudes and behaviors of students and staff and by general school policies. School counselors can take the lead in assessing school climate in relation to students with disabilities and initiating interventions or advocating for change when appropriate.