Teaching Diverse Learners

Pull-Out Programs

Programs that allow students to leave the regular classroom for certain periods of the day for additional instruction to meet their particular needs.

Learning Styles

Preferred methods of absorbing or processing information.

Special Needs

A broad range of physical, mental, social, and behavioral challenges that impact learning.

Self-Paced Learning

A form of learning that allows students to move to the next learning task as soon as they master the previous one. Students progress at individual rates, rather than as a class.

Ethnicity

A particular racial, national, or cultural group, including that group's customs, beliefs, values, and often language and religion.

Individualized Education Program (IEP)

A written educational plan developed for a specific student with disabilities.

Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

Describes students who are not proficient in English - Newcomers Program.

Learning Diversity

Differences in learning based on abilities, interests, or experiences.

Special Education

Educational settings that provide adapted programs, extra staff, and specialized equipment or learning environments or materials to help students with special needs learn.

Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner's theory that individuals have a broad range of types of intelligence, each to a different degree.

Accommodations

In teaching, modifications to the environment, learning strategies, or materials that are made to help students with particular special needs succeed in the classroom.

Auditory Learners

People who learn best by hearing or listening to information.

Kinesthetic-Tactile Learners

People who learn best by performing hands-on or physical activities.

Visual Learners

People who learn best if information is presented in a way that they can see.

Mainstreaming

Placing students with special needs who show the ability to keep up with the curriculum in a regular class.

Inclusion

Placing students with students into a regular class, using modified class assignments, if they will benefit from the class experience.

Stereotype

Preconceived generalizations about certain groups of people.

Magnet Schools

Schools designed to emphasize a particular subject area or area of talent and attract qualified students from throughout the school district.

Exceptional Learners

Students who are gifted, talented, or have special needs, such as a disability, and need, or can benefit from programs matched to their abilities and potential.

English Language Learners (ELL)

Students whose native language is not English and who are not yet proficient in the English language.

Differentiated Instruction

Teaching that incorporates learning options to better meet the specific learning-related characteristics of individual learners.