First of all, we have a question for you. Have you ever had a classroom in which all students are the same? A classroom in which all of them have the same interests and needs? Of course you haven’t! However, if that has happened to you, we are sorry to inform you that you have mistakenly perceived students as if they were part of an homogeneous group.

Now, we want you to visualize a real classroom, how is it like? Lots of students, right? And they are all different from each other. That’s how we like it. A classroom full of incredible minds with their own uniqueness. Therefore, the idea is not to separate students according to their grades, intelligences, capabilities, etc., but rather embrace diversity and provide every single learner with the same opportunity for understanding and expression. 

So, as you might have noticed, our entry is about diversity in the classroom and how to make the most of it, specifically, students diagnosed with SEN.

For that, we decided to adapt an activity from the book E-teens for 7th graders. This activity is from unit 2 “Communication” which focuses on different celebrations and means of communication. The idea is that in this unit students express quantity, request and necessity, and use vocabulary related to the topic. The final outcome is to ultimately organize your own party.

Here, to test students memory and understanding, the teacher shows pictures of two parties and ask CCQ’s such as:  what type of party is this one? Is it a camping party or a movie party? 

Moving on, the teacher shares the activity objective in order to continue with the activity first instructions.

The teacher shows some colorful flashcards; each of them represents one of the parties mentioned before. At the back of each flashcard, there is a to-do list with the instructions of the whole activity; the teacher points out its existence but it explains its use later. Also, there are a set of cards with words; for instance we have "there" cards in blue, are/is cards in orange, quantifiers cards in green (such as many, a a lot of, some, etc.), and vocabulary cards in yellow. Students are asked to pick one flashcard+a set of cards randomly.

First, the teacher tells students to focus on the first two points. So, in pairs, they have to look at the image and pay attention to the amount of people, food, drink and decorations they see. Then, they have to create three sentences that describe the party using the cards given. Also, the teacher explicits the time, models the activity, and asks CCQ’s. Students do the activity...

Uff time flies! it’s time to move on to step number three; so points 1 and 2 are checked off the list. Now, students join another pair and share with them what they have found in their party. Once again, the teacher explicits the time, models the activity, and asks CCQs.
Here, camping party with halloween party have to get together, and pool party with movie party have to form groups.

So, without further ado, let's get started --->>

We ensure that all learners have equal access to information. We provide physical objects so they can interact with the material. Also, the instructions are explained, they should be written on the board and at the back of the flashcard as a to-do list (we use the one sentence rule). In this way, students can focus on one action at a time. This is very helpful for students diagnosed with Asperger syndrome because they need structure, and students diagnosed with ADD because they can be more focus.

This also has to do with the other principle: 

Students have the to-do list. So they can monitor what you they have to do, what they have done, and what they will do next.  
Besides, feedback is also important. When they have to share what they found in the party becomes an instance for peer feedback and checking understanding.

For example, students have the picture and in each picture there were some objects. hey have to relate the object with its written form, for example, the word "balloons" with the balloons that appeared in the picture. Besides, learners have to relate the amount of balloons they found with the quantifiers, so on and so forth. 

A person diagnosed with Intellectual Disability will not be able to achieve high when it comes to language skills such as reading and writing or with math, reasoning, knowledge and memory.  

What to do:
- Use concrete, visual examples to illustrate explanations.

- Offer instructions and information in different ways.

WE HOPE YOU COULD IDENTIFY SOME OF THESE TIPS IN OUR ACTIVITY! 
Thanks for coming :)

Besides, there is no visual support in case that while speaking the other partner does not understand; perhaps, it would have been a great idea to have had students draw their own party first or do something else than just talking. Hence, we adapted this activity in order to make it more scaffolded and guided - step by step- in which every student has the same opportunity for expression and understanding.

Furthermore, the activity is about describing a party you went to, but we thought that there might be a student who has never been to a party, specifically a student diagnosed with asperger syndrome because assembles or less formal settings can cause great anxiety. That is why we give students specific theme parties so that they can focus on that party. Besides, for many students diagnosed with SEN, writing is a particular problem, thus we decided to give them the cards first. In this way, they can arrange the words before writing the sentence down.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the part when students share what they did with another couple was done strategically. They can use same quantifiers in different ways depending on the party they chose. So, for example, the halloween party with the camping party. Students use the quantifier “some” like “there is some pumpkins” and “there is some water”. Here “some” is used with countable and uncountable nouns. In this sense, there is a purpose and there is an exchange of information among the students; it is not randomly. This is an instance of peer feedback as well.