1.

LEARNERS & LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

a. Engaging and Supporting Diverse Learners: Applying Principles of

Universal Design for Learning
In our sixth hour government class there are thirty-six students. About a
third of the class is female. The class is made up of twenty-five African
American learners, eight Caucasian learners, one Yemeni learner, one
Bangladeshi learner, and one Latina learner. School wide at least 90% of
learners are in poverty, which can be translated into the classroom. Eight
learners have chronic absenteeism, while nineteen learners have failing
grades in one or more subjects. This particular class has ten learners with
special needs. Out of those ten learners the school only supplied four
learners I.E.Ps. C.B. needs extra time for assignments. D.G. needs
directions read orally and extra time for assignments. G.M. and K.T.
requires oral instruction, shortened questions, and extended time for
assignments. Only four I. E. Ps have been specifically listed because the
other I.E.P.s for the six remaining special needs students were
unavailable to us, as well as our mentor teacher. There is also one ELL
students who speaks Bangla, but she is proficient in the English language,
often her articulation is the subject to be worked on.
In general, 6th hour government is energetic. Often very involved in the
work at hand with a few exceptions. For this lesson specifically, they may
not have specific prior knowledge in regards to the topic, but the platform
being used (i.e. Twitter) is fairly common amongst the class.
Regarding their weaknesses, the learners tend to start on the warm-up late
(approximately 5 minutes into class) if they are not reminded to do so.
Learners often become unmotivated near the end of the hour and start to
cease participating in class activities. This is our sixth period class, so
often at least 2-3 students are often very tired during the this time. There
are approximately three students who are not social within the class, but
often excel at individual work. All in all, the main weakness of this class is
lack of motivation, which comes from a variety of sources, mainly fatigue
and stress outside of school.
Regarding strengths, this class has an overall academic strength in
participation. All of our students show up and are rarely absent even
though it is listed in the schools database that they tend to be absent often.
There is also not an issue of participation.
This class has a wide spectrum of academic performance. Though
nineteen learners are below a satisfactory grade, the rest either excel with
As and Bs or stay at a C range. Work ethic in this class is often
satisfactory, though there are a few individuals who need to be coaxed into
doing what they need to. There are three students on the basketball team,
two students on varsity football team, three students in band, one student
on the volleyball team, three students on National Honor Society. At least
eight of the students in this class work a job after school. Many students in
this class are fairly open and personable with the teachers in the room and
are not afraid to voice opinions in class.