Traditionally, education was a single style delivery method. This ensured that those students who could learn in this style benefited, and those that did not were often left behind. Education in British Columbia has been reevaluated and has gained the understanding that all students can learn, and different styles of learning is not a uniqueness but a human quality.
If you start your lesson planning knowing each of your learners is an individual and has ways of learning that differ from each other, you will design your lessons with uniqueness and understanding. Being flexible on how you present learning, will allow more students to connect. Further, scaffolding the learning, or breaking it up in chunks, will allow students who need more time to process build up their understanding. Scaffolding is akin to walking a staircase for those who cannot jump to the top; very few can jump to the top easily and without help and support. With transparent expectations and early feedback students will understand where they are in the journey of learning. If they do not know where they are, in the general understanding of the topic, they cannot make the steps needed to further themselves. This is where support and feedback, continual feedback, becomes vital. The best laid out lessons still may not work without the appropriate supports. Students need to know, what they are learning, why they are learning it, and where they are in their learning. Assessments in the early stages, allow students to know their starting point, assessments during the learning allows students and teachers to know where they stand in the journey and assessments after allow students and teachers, again, to know where the students stand in their learning journey. This information empowers and motivates.
Further, allowing students to display or share what they know in a variety of ways also creates an equitable learning environment. We are not all artists, conversationalist, writers, or technicians, but we are all comfortable in one area. Allowing students to tell you what they know, in the way most comfortable to them, allows the teacher to actually observe what the student understands. When the student is uncomfortable with their method of presentation, the focus becomes on the presentation style and not the content.
Having a good plan, incorporating universal design for learning, scaffolding, providing helpful ongoing feedback and support and allowing the student to present their learning in a variety of ways will foster learning for many. Learning how to do all the above takes time and I am only beginning of my journey as an educator. However, I do know that an educator is there for all the students, not just a select group and that is the type of educator I want to be.