Vonnahme Master’s Portfolio 1

Diversity and Differentiation

Samantha Vonnahme

ED 698 Master’s Portfolio Spring 2024

University of Alaska Southeast

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The seemingly innocuous questions I wrote for a family engagement plan survey actually

serve a deeper purpose than cursory interest in the lives of my students. The questions remind

me of every class I have had the privilege to teach and the richness one can discover in a

seemingly ordinary classroom. Recalling each student and their unique stories, from the hard to

the entertaining, elicits within me an emotional response—a response that reinforces my belief

that tapping into each of their stories make their learning exponentially more meaningful.

After the second round of parent teacher conferences for the year, I found one meeting

in particular stood out to me. A kindergartener in my class has a mother who is from Jordan.

The student is a fluent English speaker and has improved her literacy and reading skills so

drastically over the year that she went from well-below proficient, to reading and spelling on

her own. Occasionally this little girl’s mother will bring traditional Arabic snacks to share with

the class and we are treated to a small language lesson and a new experience. Before

conferences I only had a handful of interactions with this student’s mother. Fortunately, she

was able to attend our meeting, and I came out of the exchange feeling thankful and thoughtful

towards the different perspectives, cultures, and stories that complete our class tapestry.

Though I often fail to realize it, the families of my students have an abundance to share, and I

have an abundance to learn and understand. Perhaps this oversight would not feel so

pronounced had utilized something like the survey I designed for family engagement. The

question, “What does meal time look like in your home?” could have given me insight that I

could use to connect with my student in a deeper way.

When I first came to Fairbanks, I did not have a broad understanding of what diversity in

a classroom might look like. As far as upbringing and beliefs went, I grew up in a varied setting,
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but my class lacked diverse ethnicities and cultural practices. Comparatively, in my class of 1 st

graders and kindergarteners there is one English language learning (ELL) student, and at least

two more that speak more than one language. Ethnicity’s include Alaska Native, Caucasian,

Middle Eastern, African American, Puerto Rican, and others. Out of 21 students, seven have

some type of speech or language disability and only three are reading at grade-level

proficiency. There is one student being raised by grandparents, two in foster care, and many

splitting time between divorced parents. The range of personalities is wide, as is their before

school exposure to language in the form of print material. Geographically, the students and

their families occupy an urban section of Fairbanks, often set apart from the subsistence and

natural lifestyles many Alaskans enjoy. These are all things I know based on observation,

interaction, and access to school files. How much more could I learn by asking intentional

questions, whether on paper like those from the family engagement survey, or in meetings

such as those that happen at parent teacher conferences?

I believe children are able to learn content deeply when it is connected to prior

experience and shared stories, a concept that Hattie and Yates (2014) repeat several times in

their published research. An obvious aspect of prior experience is shared location and the

stages of development many children experience at a similar pace. An example of the way I

approach this perspective in the current lessons I teach is well-demonstrated by a recent Social

Studies lesson about the difference between places in a community where you buy goods,

receive services, or live. When I planned the lesson, I looked at the colorful, generic clip-art in

the atlas provided by the curriculum and thought, “These kids don’t know this world. I want

them to know and connect to the images that are presented.” Bloom (1981) explored similar
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thoughts when he wrote, “Perhaps the most important curriculum implication is that beautiful

curriculum plans have little relevance for education unless they are translated into what

happens in the classrooms of the nation or community” (p. 37). Hattie & Yates (2014)

corroborate this view and write, “A major determinant of knowledge acquisition will be what

the mind already knows…Prior knowledge effects readily outweigh effect due to IQ…” (p. 114).

In order to rework the lesson, I thought about places the students would likely

recognize: Fred Meyer, WalMart, Value Village, SunRise Espresso, the hospital, Fly Trampoline

Park, the fire station, or our school. I then printed off a picture of each and handed them out

during our discussion. As I handed out the images, many kids received them with exclamations

that they knew this place and had gone shopping there. Other kids leaned over with excited

glances to see if they too had a connection. One of my students received his picture and cried,

“My dad works here!”—an exclamation that could have been repeated several times over with

the use of a simple question on a survey. Sometimes while planning I feel too exhausted to put

the extra effort in and make these connections to prior knowledge, but the enthusiasm with

which the social studies lesson, and others like it, are met, gives me the inspiration I need to

form further lessons using the same practice. Additionally, when exhaustion is the driving factor

behind an inability to pursue prior knowledge, it is all the more reason to engage with families

early on the year, asking questions from the family engagement survey, and other

questionnaires like it.

Lesson changes in response to the place we live can be done without personal

knowledge of my student’s lives or their various personalities and cultures. I believe, however,

connection to this knowledge is vital to engage learners more effectively. A core belief of my
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teaching practice is to create relationships with my students and their families. This is not only

to craft a safe, trusting, and respectful environment, but to evaluate ways in which the

academic content can become more relevant or differentiated to suit various stages of learning.

None of my students will ever be in the exact same place in their academic journey and

according to Bloom (1981), even students provided with appropriate instruction will have

differing rates of learning, something that does not indicate future capacity to learn. Fisher et

al. (2018) agree in their claim that each new set of students will require teachers to design and

modify lessons accordingly.

Recently I have begun to eat my own lunch with the students—a small change—but one

that has significantly increased my knowledge of what the students are doing outside of school

without needing a survey to do so. I have found their stories, while often silly, bely a richness of

experience which can be addressed by way of other stories. Fortunately, we live in a time when

books of diverse subject matter, author, and opinions are plentiful, and I try to reflect this in my

classroom. Rather than see one perspective, I attempt to read widely enough to show every

student, no matter what their skin color, a version of themselves. For some of my students, it

was the story of Martin Luther King Jr. we read on his birthday. For others, it was hearing an

oral telling of how the slaves used to sing songs to create a little joy while we learned “Michael

Row the Boat Ashore”. Others found themselves in a reading lesson on a little boy afraid to

jump off the diving board and others in a science lesson on an Alaskan-themed book about our

senses. Furthermore, in another attempt to adjust curriculum to fit student background, I now

add my own spin to pre-made structured literacy slides. As a group, the kids choral read a

decodable story, but rather than characters and situations with which they have little
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connection, I write my own slides. The students have become eager to see whose name is

mentioned and what they happen to be doing or saying.

In The Girl with the Brown Crayon, Vivian Gussin Paley (1997) writes of a literary journey

she and her class went on during her last year as a kindergarten teacher. In the midst of their

expedition, she tells of how the family members of her students were asked to come in every

week and share an oral story, specifically from their own childhood. This type of community

investment is inspiring to me. The presence of family members in a classroom and in the wider

school can do much to build relationships and foster accountability, while also sharing cultural

richness and diversity far more effectively than I can alone. Asking questions about availability

to come in and share, sort papers, or accompany the class on field trips would be another

helpful addition to a family engagement survey so that this type of classroom atmosphere can

be fostered. When Maria Montessori (1964) first set up her unique children’s houses, they were

located close enough for the mothers to hear when their children were upset. Montessori

believed in a place of education of which mothers would be so intimately aware that they

would feel entirely safe leaving their child to caring hands and an exceptional education.

Parent involvement has been something of a pipe dream for me. It is not a practice I

currently implement, but I can imagine exactly how it would look to invite parents in to the

classroom once a week to share a story, their career, or a special talent. Oftentimes, however,

the press from district level to maximize time spent in literacy, especially this year, forces these

dreams to the back-burner. Bloom (1981), however, argues that early learning programs that

emphasize language development and motivation to learn do not work nearly as well as

programs that include parent involvement. I must also remind myself that the knowledge
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students come into the classroom with is often connected to their parents or a parent-figure in

their life. Fisher et al. (2018) write that effective teachers will pursue this background

knowledge because they know it sets the stage for new learning. Currently, my plan is to

expressly invite a student family member into the class every Friday afternoon to share a

personal story or skill.

Diversity in the classroom does not merely present itself as a student’s unique

background or culture. It is also present in personalities, learning styles, disabilities, interests,

and various skill levels. I have found, however, that I can connect all teaching to the idea that

these many differences can be addressed by knowing each student. One of the boys excels at

drawing, so I encourage him to tell his stories by beginning with an image, then adding words

later. Another student seldom appreciates brain breaks and asks for different work to

complete, so I make sure to have something on hand. Several get frustrated during work times

and I direct them to take a break at our calm-down spot, from which they emerge ready to try

again. Giving my best attempt at knowing and understanding each child’s story is my current

practice for enabling them to reach high standards through instruction, modified materials,

resources, tools, and technology.

There is so much I can learn about a student before they are even in my class for one

day. The questions asked in the family engagement survey serve a bigger purpose than giving

families a voice in the education of their child. It is an opportunity to get a glimpse of the

diversity found within each group of learners I encounter. The variance requires adjustment to

content, classroom community, and goals to provide better avenues towards success for every

student.
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References

Bloom, B. (1981). All our children learning. McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Fisher, D., Frey, N., Quaglia, R.J., Smith, D., Lande, L. (2018). Engagement by design. Corwin.

Hattie, J., & Yates, G. (2014). Visible learning and the science of how we learn. Routledge.

Montessori, M. (1964). The Montessori method. Schocken Books Inc.

Paley, V.G. (1997). The girl with the brown crayon. Harvard University Press.