Gisela Vivanco

Spring 2014



Three Strategies for an Inclusive
Classroom



Using a Getting-to-Know-You strategy on the
first day, such as Icebreakers allows the teacher
and the students to get to know each other.


Understanding a students learning styles is
very important for teachers when developing lessons
and explaining specific examples.


Learning about and supporting students unique
learning cognitive process is extremely beneficial
to relate mathematical problems to them and motivate
them into the learning process. This can be done by
administering the Multiple Intelligences survey by
Dr. Gardner.










Three Strategies for an Inclusive Classroom

Getting to know students names and interests can be done as an
icebreaker activity on the first day of school.
Divide the students into groups of 3. Provide a Getting to Know You
handout, which has ten questions that will get the students interacting
with each other. The teacher should be the first to share. The idea is
that they feel part of a whole, as the new classroom will be part of
their day for 40 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for the next 9 months.
This strategy can be done for 5 minutes. Meanwhile the teacher should be
walking around and listening to the conversations. At the end of the 5
Gisela Vivanco
Spring 2014

minutes the teacher can request the students to talk about what they
learned about each other, and in that way the teacher also gets to know
the students.

Understanding students learning styles are very important,
and come in very handy when explaining specific examples.
I give my students a learning style survey, which helps to
categorize them as visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners. It is
important to mention that some one them may have taken the survey before.
That is why I ask them to bring the survey completed the next day. I walk
around checking off the learning style they received. As time goes on,
and you get to know the struggling students; this information will come
in handy. May students have trouble understanding a mathematical problem,
I would use drawings, speak slower, be repetitive, or do a make believe
scenario using some of the students as actors.

Learning about and supporting students unique learning
cognitive process is extremely beneficial to them, and it makes it
easier for teachers explain mathematical problems and to motivate
students into the learning experience.
I also give my students a survey on multiple intelligences. This
seventy statement long survey calculates the students potential in seven
categories. These are linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-
kinesthetic, spatial-visual, interpersonal and interpersonal. Each
category represents a natural intelligence. I like to know what are the
highest three scores for each student, and when I assign groups I balance
them by these intelligences. This way, group members learn about
themselves, how especial they are and how especial everyone is in their
own way.




(What do you think about this one?)

Providing and analyzing a take-home test on the prerequisites
for the course allows the teacher to understand the level of
expertise in which each student stands.
Although I will not be able to implement this specific strategy
until I have my own classroom, I have always thought that this is a great
way to start the class. I have heard and read that the first day of
school is one of the most important days, as it sets the tone of the
class. A test of this kind will allow students to review material they
should already know on their own, and it will allow for a better
understanding of the level of difficulty and the speed I should be
choosing while teaching. By analyzing each test I can understand the
concepts that are mastered and the ones that are not, and in that way I
can help each student by providing some general notes on those concepts
and assignments they can complete at home.