EQUITY FOR DIVERSE LEARNERS
"Effective urban educators are committed to meet the needs of a diverse population."
Over the years I have worked in a variety of communities each with its own unique set of learners. Those communities are only further diversified by their students' ethnicities, races, socio-economic status, gender, language, abilities, interests, and families.
Once I was able to acknowledge and embrace that all this diversity can exist in one classroom a new challenge arose. It came in the form of ensuring that every student, no matter their background, was given the same opportunities to learn as every other student. A large part of tackling this challenge is committing to equity.
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Photo of masks I sewed for my 3rd class with their names/school colors.​
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Equity Example #1
While working in a third-grade in-person classroom during the pandemic it was easy to see that early on students were uncomfortable with wearing their masks. Some only had the throwaway ones from the office while others had ones with fancy designs. To help everyone feel more comfortable I went out of my way and purchased the materials to cut out and sew masks for all of the students in the class. One side was the school colors and the other was a fun polka dot pattern. I was also able to sew in each student's name so that they didn't get them mixed up. ​
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By giving the students these masks they were able to each have something just as their own while also being on equal footing with one another. Those who always had throwaway masks could now wear their own special mask. It brought us together as a class and made certain student more comfortable seeing the teachers wear masks of the same design.
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Equity Example #2
For half an hour each morning, there is time set aside for Social-Emotional Learning (SEL). I utilized part of this time for students to type letters to each other.
While with my group of fifth-graders, who were virtual, I realized that it was difficult for them to communicate with each other. At the end of class some would shout out to their friends to meet them on separate links to play video games or for them to check their phones. However, it became obvious that not everyone was being included in these activities. Part of that is because some didn't have phones or access to certain video games. ​
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In order for students to communicate with one another on equal footing, I put together google slide groups of three or four. These google slides are in a virtual Pen Pal format. Each week I add a new prompt and each student will go to their assigned slides and type up a letter to their pen pals. After typing their letters those in their group can read the letters that are addressed to them.
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This way they can still get to know one another and potentially make new friends in the online setting.
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Screenshot of Pen Pal google slides with a few of the students' letters to each other on the side. ​