Planning and

Designing for Diverse

Learners
and Inclusive
Settings
Master of Education- Advance Teaching

University of the People

EDUC 5710: Teaching for a Diverse and Inclusive Classroom

Dr. Mary-Ann Quartetti

September 12th, 2022

 TABLE OF CONTENT
Overview of Principles

01 of Planning and
Designing for a
Diverse Student
03 Flexible Classroom
and Flexible Grouping
Population.

Environment Centered
02 Three Techniques
04 Learning
Overview
Teachers must determine what is important for student
achievement and help them achieve success (Stanford &
Reeves,2009).
A teacher’s responsibility is connecting content, process,
and product. Whereas the students’ response is to
learning based on readiness, interests, and learning
profile(McCarthy,2014)
Planning and Design must be based on the needs for all
students.
Modifications and accommodations must be made to engage
all learners.
Planning and designing fosters an environment that would
support all learners (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006).
It gives an opportunity for student-teacher collaboration and
better communication.
 ● “Just as everyone has a unique fingerprint, every
student has an individual learning style (Weselby,
2021) .”

Differentiated
● Carol Ann Tomlinson describes this technique as
factoring students’ individual learning styles and
levels of readiness first before creating a lesson plan
Instruction (Weselby, 2021) .
● Allows teacher to vary learning activities, content,
modes of assessments and the classroom evnrionment
to meet the needs and support each student (Stanford
& Reeves,2009).
● Four ways to differentiate instruction:
1) content, 2) process, 3) product, and
4) learning environment (Weselby, 2021) .
 Summary of
Differentiated
Instructions
Teachers match the lesson, teaching
strategies, content learned to the need
of the students

(Wikipedia, 2022)
 Universal Design for Learning
Known as UDL is a framework that guides teachers in
designing learning experiences that meets the needs of all
students (Schwartz, 2022).
Barriers to learning are in the design of the environment
(Posey,2022) .
Four Main Principles
1. All Students can reach the high expectations set.
2. Barriers to success exist in the system, not the students
3. Learner variablity is the norm, one size fits all approach does
not work
4. Continual self-reflection leads to lifelong expert learners
 Process of how
UDL takes place

(Ministry of Education, 2016)

 Retrofitting
• The technique used to adapt to students needs after the
curriculum is planned and designed (Stanford &
Reeves,2009).
• It is reactive rather than proactive .
• It finds a resolution after the students are not experiencing
success with the planned curriculum.
• This technique is used when students are not reaching their
full potential for success.
 Flexible Classroom
A flexible Classroom gives the
students to opportunity for
better collaoration with peers
and teachers (Markle, 2018).
It prioritizes the students’ needs
concerning the environment in
which they learn.
It can be arranged to accommodate
students who have disabilities to
(Markle, 2018) feel included.
 Flexible Grouping
• A form of grouping that supports various levels of
learning abiltiies. It depends on the students’ needs and
strengths (NAESP, 2020).
• Students with disabilties are able to be part of classroom
disucssion and collaborate with each other.
• Teachers can determine what type of group is necessary
to meet the objective.
• This ranges in size, objectives, and lengthe of time. \

(Kaufman, n.d)
 Environment
Centered Learning
An environment that is designed for the active
construction of knowledge by and for learners
(Federation University, 2022) .
It is an environment that encourages active
participation, collaboration and communication
among teachers and students.
This learning environment is not a traditional
classroom.
It focuses on the comfortability of the students to
make them feel safe and welcome.
 Teachers adjust the lesson plans to the
students to achieve success and allows
them to meet all the needs of the
students. There are many techniques
Conclusion that are beneficial to all students.

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 References
Kaufman, T. (n.d.). Flexible groupingsTracy L. Kaufman. Differentiated Instruction. Retrieved September 13, 2022, from

https://edpd593finalproject.weebly.com/flexible-groupings.html

Markle, B. (2018, August 20). Reflections on shifting to a flexible classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved September 13, 2022, from

https://www.edutopia.org/article/reflections-shifting-flexible-classroom

McCarthy, J. (2014, July 23). 3 Ways to plan for diverse learners: What teachers do. Edutopia; George Lucas Educational Foundation.

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-ways-to-plan-john-mccarthy

Ministry of Education, N. Z. (2016, November 30). Universal Design for Learning. Inclusive Education. Retrieved September 13, 2022,

from https://inclusive.tki.org.nz/guides/universal-design-for-learning/

NAESP. (2020, January). Research report flexible grouping for Inclusivity - NAESP. Flexible Grouping for Inclusivity. Retrieved September

13, 2022, from https://www.naesp.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Snapshots_JF20.pdf

Posey, A. (2022, May 13). Universal Design for Learning. Understood. Retrieved September 13, 2022, from

https://www.understood.org/en/articles/understanding-universal-design-for-learning
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https://federation.edu.au/staff/learning-and-teaching/teaching-practice/development/principles-of-learning-environment

Stanford, B., & Reeves, S. (2009). Making it happen: Using differentiated instruction, retrofit framework, and universal design for

learning. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 5(6), 1-9. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ967757.pdf

Schwartz, S. (2022, February 4). 4 principles of a universal design for learning approach. Edutopia. Retrieved September 12, 2022, from

https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-principles-universal-design-learning-approach

Tomlinson, C.A., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction and understanding by design: Connecting content and

kids. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Weselby, C. (2021, April 29). Differentiated instruction: Examples & classroom strategies: Resilient educator. ResilientEducator.com.

Retrieved September 12, 2022, from https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/examples-of-differentiated-

instruction/

Wikipedia. (2022, September 10). Differentiated instruction. Wikipedia. Retrieved September 13, 2022, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differentiated_instruction