Megan Tunon

ESL 3
Strategies for Diverse Learners


1. Make it explicitly clear that in this classroom the teacher expects the same achievement levels
from all students my maintaining high standards and treating each student equally. This
involves maintaining consistency when it comes to classroom and school rules, classroom
procedures, and grading.
2. Develop a caring relationship with all students by getting to know each one individually and
finding out about their aspirations, concerns, strengths and weaknesses.
3. Research students home cultures to better understand the social norms that they bring to the
classroom. Perhaps have each student do a presentation of their home culture to share with
the class
4. Reach out to parents and guardians and encourage their participation in the class. This could be
done by maintain email and phone contact with them, sending out a newsletter, and hosting a
family night.
5. Tap into students backgrounds to enhance their learning. Incorporating texts, images, and
activities that involve students interests can greatly improve their motivation levels.
6. Make sure that the curriculum is culturally relevant to the diverse groups of students in the
classroom. Instructional materials should highlight students heritage and contributions of their
ethnic groups.
7. Talk about stereotypes and dispel them. Use examples of important leaders who broke down
cultural stereotypes to open up a dialogue about discrimination. Face it rather than ignore the
issue.
8. Try to make your classroom compatible with the students previous classrooms. By researching
the school system of diverse students homes, teachers can accommodate their students by
making adjustments to the way things are done in the classroom to be more similar to what
diverse students know. Culturally incompatible classrooms can inhibit student learning.
9. Incorporate cooperative learning. Research shows that students acquire second languages
faster when they work with peers in cooperative groups. Group work forces students to engage
in both social and academic language with their classmates.
10. Develop instruction around the cultural norms of the students. Understanding cultural norms of
diverse students will help the teacher to adapt their expectations of those students. This
involves expectation of what can and will be accomplished outside of the classroom to how to
best interact with students.
11. Address all learning styles. This can be done by differentiating instruction, especially by
incorporating artistic expression into your lessons, including visual and performing arts.
12. Reach out to the community by getting students and families involved in community activities
and making them aware of community resources to support their transition.
13. Differentiate assessments to accommodate each students learning style. This can include group
projects, performance, presentations, art projects, and portfolios.
14. Teach language through content rather than skills exercises. This can be done by using the
regular content courses to drive instruction or by incorporating thematic units into the ESL
classroom.
Megan Tunon
ESL 3
Strategies for Diverse Learners
15. Use sheltered English techniques such as slowing and simplifying speech, incorporating visual
aids, graphic organizers and manipulatives, building on prior knowledge, cooperative learning
especially between L1s and L2s, modeling tasks, and reviewing content and vocabulary.
16. Use technology! Technology can be a power unifying tool in the classroom; it is often the
common language spoken by all students.