individualizing education for diverse learners

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This article was downloaded by: [University of Birmingham] On: 11 November 2014, At: 10:22 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK The Review of Education Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gred19 Individualizing Education for Diverse Learners Jean R. Harber a a Indiana State University Published online: 09 Jul 2006. To cite this article: Jean R. Harber (1981) Individualizing Education for Diverse Learners, The Review of Education, 7:1, 71-74, DOI: 10.1080/0098559810070110 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0098559810070110 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 1: Individualizing Education for Diverse Learners

This article was downloaded by: [University of Birmingham]On: 11 November 2014, At: 10:22Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

The Review of EducationPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gred19

Individualizing Education for Diverse LearnersJean R. Harber aa Indiana State UniversityPublished online: 09 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Jean R. Harber (1981) Individualizing Education for Diverse Learners, The Review of Education, 7:1, 71-74,DOI: 10.1080/0098559810070110

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0098559810070110

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in thepublications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representationsor warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Anyopinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not theviews of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should beindependently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses,actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoevercaused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematicreproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: Individualizing Education for Diverse Learners

Individualizing Education for DiverseLearners

Gene Stanford, ed. Classroom Practices in Teaching English, 1980-1981: Dealing with Differences. Urbana, Illinois: National Councilof Teachers of English, 1980. xii + 126 pp. $5.50, paper.

Jean R. HarberIndiana State University

Dealing with Differences is an edited volume of twenty-four paperswhich deal with the educational needs of students who have abroad range of special needs. The populations addressed in thisNational Council of Teachers of English publication include someof the traditional categories of handicapped youngsters (i.e., visualimpairment, hearing impairment), non-native English speakers,and minority students, and the gifted and talented.

This book of readings is addressed to classroom teachers whowish to individualize their English programs in order to best servethe diverse range of learners in their classes. Recent legislation (P.L.94-142: The Education of All Handicapped Children's Act) hasserved to increase educators' awareness of "atypical" learners andhas encouraged the provision of educational services to all handi-capped youngsters in the least restrictive setting which is mostappropriate to their current needs.

Mills and Rodrigues's chapter gives the reader numerous verypractical and specific suggestions for adapting the English curricu-lum for youngsters with a variety of handicapping conditions,including the modification of the mode in which materials are

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Page 3: Individualizing Education for Diverse Learners

72 THE REVIEW OF EDUCATION / Winter 1981

presented, the modification of the response mode expected andthe use of peer tutoring. Phelan discusses the affective domain ofteaching special students. She points out the importance of creat-ing a "caring" atmosphere and successful experiences for all stu-dents, as well as the importance of avoiding teacher burnout.Collins presents a particular strategy—class-mating—which involveshaving older students write stories for younger students. Herecommends the class-mating strategy for use with speakers ofnonstandard English and with English as a second language stu-dents as a means of encouraging the use of standard English inpublished writing. Folsom presents a strategy—"I am the only per-son here who "—for building the confidence and motivationof students who are different. In the final chapter of the section onmainstreaming, Sherman, Betti, Chiappeta, and Supen describe acompetency-based program they developed for teaching basicskills in the language arts area.

The second section of the book deals with particular handicap-ping conditions. McColley describes the materials available toteachers of students with visual impairments and classroom modifi-cations which she was surprised to find were beneficial to manyother students in her class as well. Dreher and Duell discuss the useof the total communication approach for working with studentswith hearing impairments. Deem and Engel discuss the "chapterreading" strategy as a means they have found to be effective indealing with different reading levels found within a classroom.D'Angelo explores potential uses of wordless picture books,including oral language development and building successfulexperiences. She suggests these materials for use with learningdisabled youngsters. Fennimore presents the "sentence exten-sion" approach as a successful means of enhancing both oral andwritten language. The needs of withdrawn students are addressedby Rubin, and, in the final chapter in this section, Schiff presentsseveral activities to draw older, returning students into the main-stream of class discussions.

The third section addresses the needs of non-native speakers ofEnglish and minority students. This section includes a chapter ongay students by Crew, as well as several selections dealing withnon-native speakers of English. A number of teaching strategies fornon-native English speakers are presented: Tsimbos discussesjournal writing; Perez, vocabulary building; Larkin, contrastingpairs; and Shields and Vondrak, newspapers. Comprehension

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Page 4: Individualizing Education for Diverse Learners

HARBER / Education for Diverse Learners 73

problems of the limited English speaker are addressed by House.In the fourth and final section, the unique needs of the gifted and

talented student are addressed. Crapse describes four ways to meetthe needs of the gifted student in the regular English class (con-tracts, independent research units, special composition topics, andprofessional mentors). The Young Author's Project is discussed byTowler; writing surrealistic poetry, by Gutschow; writing annota-tions, by Nist; narrative writing, by Barnett; and imitative writing,by Lisman.

Numerous contributors to this edited volume stated that, to theirsurprise, the strategies they developed for their exceptional orculturally different students (whether they are gifted, visuallyimpaired, or non-native speakers of English) were very appropriatefor other students in their classes as well. This reviewer suggests thatreaders who take on the challenge of individualizing for the diverselearners in their classrooms will be similarly pleasantly surprised.

The contributions in this edited volume are very timely. With thepassage of P.L. 94-142, regular classroom teachers need furtherfamiliarity with the unique needs of a diverse range of learners whoare finding their way into regular education classes. This bookprovides the reader with numerous very practical, field testedstrategies for working with a diverse population of learners. Theinclusion of other diverse groups, such as the returning olderstudent and the gay student, is likewise timely.

The book places greatest emphasis on non-native speakers ofEnglish and gifted and talented students. Much less emphasis isplaced on the non-standard English speakers or on many of thetraditional categories within special education. For example, thereis only brief mention of youngsters with learning disabilities, emo-tional disturbances, physical and motoric problems, and mentalretardation. However, no single volume could hope to address theentire population of diverse learners; thus, the above should notbe taken as a criticism of the book.

This reviewer was particularly impressed with the first section ofthe book, which sets the stage for the remainder of the volume.Teachers need to recognize the advantages of integrating handi-capped students within the regular classroom before they canbegin to develop strategies and materials for working with theseyoungsters. The idea of mainstreaming handicapped students intoregular classrooms has raised many fears and uncertainties forregular classroom teachers. The success stories recounted by many

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Page 5: Individualizing Education for Diverse Learners

74 THE REVIEW OF EDUCATION / Winter 1981

of the contributors to this volume should serve to dispel these fearsand uncertainties and to entice the reader into wanting to acceptthe challenge of addressingthe needs of diverse learners which thecontributors tried and mastered.

The needs of teachers with changing professional roles are veryappropriately explored in this volume. All too often books whichaddress the topics of mainstreaming and/or diverse learners do notinclude a discussion of this very important issue. Teacher burnouthas only recently been recognized as a legitimate concern. Theexpectancies of teachers have changed drastically in recent years.Many practicing teachers received no formal training in workingwith the handicapped, the culturally and/or linguistically different,or the gifted and talented during their professional training pro-grams. (Unfortunately this includes many quite recent graduates aswell as those who received their training numerous years ago.) Thefears, uncertainties, and feelings of inadequacy of many teachershave resulted, quite understandably, in teachers reacting in manydifferent ways. Some have left their profession; others haveadopted what Gene Stanford, the editor of Dealing with Differen-ces, refers to as an "assembly line" approach. Most teachers, how-ever, to their credit, have looked for a way out of the dilemmawhich is more profitable to themselves and to their students. Theyhave sought further professional training; they have requested thattheir employers provide them with in-service activities; they havesought out ideas from the published literature. This book, Dealingwith Differences, is a fine example of the practical materials cur-rently available to teachers.

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