Addressing Diversity

This course, Diverse Learners, stresses the importance of understanding diversity and the ways in which it impacts how teachers view the students in their classrooms, how students interact with teachers and other adults in the school, and how parents perceive that school staff members are responding to their children.

When working with diverse learners, it is also important to understand your own diversity and how it influences your work as an educator.

In this Analysis assignment, you will describe the ways in which you are diverse and complete a SWOT analysis of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to diversity. You also will create a demographic portrait of the diverse students at a selected school, preferably your own.

In the Module 2-4 Application assignments, you will continue to work with data as you create a demographic portrait of a student group experiencing an achievement gap, research trends and issues related to the group, and apply what you have learned in a lesson plan to create a diversity action plan appropriate for your selected student group.

• View/Download the Template Tables Download Template TablesWord document for use in this assignment.
• Complete Parts 1, 2, and 3 and compose your responses in a 5- to 7-page Word document (not including the title and references pages).
  • Write an introduction and conclusion for your paper.
  • Use APA format for the title page, references page, and in-text citations.

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Part 1: Diversity Self-Knowledge

Self-knowledge is critical to understanding and appreciating diversity. Research suggests educators must understand their own values and beliefs before they can truly understand others. In Part 1 of the Analysis, you will reflect on the characteristics that make you a diverse individual and their impact on you as an educator.

Respond to each question in a well-developed paragraph.

• How do you define diversity?
• How are you diverse? List 10-20 characteristics. Think about culture, ethnicity, language, religion, learner characteristics, special needs, talents and gifts, etc.
• How do your diverse characteristics combine to make you a unique individual?
• How does your diversity influence you as an educator?

Part 2: Personal SWOT Analysis

Conducting a SWOT analysis provides you an opportunity to gauge your strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats, so you can better understand student diversity.

Consider the following questions as you complete the SWOT analysis. You may create the table yourself, or use the template provided in the Template Tablesdocument.

• What are your strengths in regard to student diversity?
• What are your weaknesses in regard to student diversity?
• What opportunities are presented by student diversity?
• What are the threats you face regarding student diversity?

Part 3: Demographic Diversity Portrait

In Part 3 of the Analysis, you will create a demographic portrait of student diversity at a school, preferably your own. Follow the steps below.

Step 1. Select a school, preferably your own.

Step 2. Record data from the School Report Card, School Improvement Plan, and other sources on a Demographic Diversity Portrait chart. You may create the table yourself, or use the template provided in the Template Tables document.

• Include data on gender, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language, and ability. Except for Total Student Population, record the data in percent.
• Insert rows to include data you feel are relevant to the creation of a complete demographic portrait.

Step 3. Answer each question below in a well-developed paragraph.

• How does student diversity impact teaching and learning at your selected school?
• How does the school take advantage of diversity to enrich teaching and learning for all students?
• How does the school incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to enhance learning for all students?