Teach

It is your job to make sure staff members understand the significance of designing meaningful learning environments for all children and youth. In their own courses, staff members have learned the importance of meaningfully planning environments as well as strategies for meeting the needs of individual learners. As you work with staff members, you should reinforce their learning. Staff members will need your support to know how and when to use the strategies they have learned. Teach staff members to recognize the range of abilities in their classrooms or programs. It is critical to understand the needs of children with IEPs, but it is equally important to understand that all children and youth need individualization. Help them consider and plan for the preschooler who needs an extra challenge, the toddler who is learning more than one language, or the pre-teen who sits quietly by herself.

As you learned in Lesson 3 in this course (Cognitive Development: Interactions that Support Learning), it is also important to help staff reflect on their cultures. In the classroom or school-age environment, culture might express itself in ideas about how children or youth learn, how people should interact, how children should be disciplined, how much children should direct their own experiences, how boys and girls should behave, and myriad other ways. To guide staff members as they reflect on their own cultures, you can be prepared to ask questions and guide discussions. It can also be valuable to do reflection activities along with staff.

Helping Staff Strengthen the Environment

There are so many ways staff members can recognize and reflect the ethnicity, culture, language, and family traditions of children in their care. You can encourage staff to strengthen their environments in any of the following ways (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010):

• Classroom props or materials: Include props from a variety of cultures. In child-development centers, toy food, menus, books, dramatic play clothes, and furniture can all reflect experiences from around the world. Art materials should include a range of materials for representing skin tones, fabrics of various patterns, books about art around the world, and media for creating a range of artistic materials. Musical instruments from around the world can be used to enrich programming.
• Bulletin boards and displays: This space can be used to reflect and respect family traditions. Families can be asked to contribute pictures or items for posting on the board. Children and youth can spend time researching their own or another culture and documenting what they have learned.
• Class books and biographies: Books about children in the class document the real experiences of children and families. Encourage children to contribute pictures, drawings, and text about their lives, ideas, and families.
• Family stories: Provide families with materials and instructions for creating a Family Book. Families and children can work together to talk about and record their family history and daily life. This can be a great way to introduce children and families to one another. It also provides an opportunity to present real-world family structures.
• Storytelling: Encourage grandparents or community elders to share stories of their childhood with the class or group. These can be audio-recorded or transcribed to create keepsake books for the class.
• Messages from home: Using a tape-recorder, encourage parents to record a brief message in their home language. This can be played for a child when he or she is upset or homesick.
• Field trips: Visit community cultural landmarks. Go see a dance troupe, play, or musical performance that will broaden children's cultural perspectives. Create a service-learning initiative to encourage children to be active in their own communities.
• Collaborative work: Encourage children to work together in collaborative peer groups. This may minimize the pressure on a child who is learning English. It also exposes children to a variety of ideas and encourages creativity.
• Snacks and meals: Invite parents to share a traditional meal or snack with the children.
• Responding to children's questions: When children ask questions about race or gender, answer as honestly as you can. Avoid bias or judgment in your answers (e.g., avoid answers like "Willem uses a wheelchair because his legs are broken" or "Big boys don't cry like that"). Encourage children to notice how we are all alike and different.

It is important to avoid the "tourist" approach to teaching about culture, or over simplifying aspects of cultures. It is most valuable to help children explore the cultures represented in their own families and communities. Focus on helping children respect and understand the cultures and traditions present in your own classroom, program, or community.

Helping Staff Adjust the Environment

Children enter our programs with unique backgrounds and experiences. Often it will be necessary to adapt the environment to make it developmentally appropriate for each child. Staff may need support recognizing and implementing these adjustments.

For children who speak a language other than English at home, it is important to recognize, respect, and reinforce home language use (NAEYC, 1995). In some programs and regions of the country, it is possible to increase a child's and family's comfort by hiring staff who speak the child's home language.

For all children, including those who are culturally and linguistically diverse, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can help meet all children's needs. To learn more about UDL, explore the resources of the National Center on Universal Design for Learning ( http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/whatisudl). The principles of UDL ensure that all children have multiple ways to get information (spoken words, pictures, music, multimedia, etc.), multiple ways to express what they know (music, dance, drawing, technology), and multiple ways to engage with important content (peer learning groups, alternatives to paper-and-pencil tasks, movement, choice, preference). Carefully helping staff members understand that these adaptations help all children will help them meet the needs of diverse groups of children.

Environments and Materials that Address the Needs of All Learners

There are many things you can do to support staff help all children meet important learning goals. The first and most important step is to encourage staff to gather information about each child. Your staff will need to know what each child is able to do well and what seems to be hard. Staff will also need to know what each child likes and what is motivating for them. Gathering information will help them know the skills and strategies that are likely to help a particular child in their care.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL; CAST, 2011) is one strategy you can share. UDL helps all people learn and be successful in their environments. There are examples of universal design all around us: audio books, curb cutouts for strollers and wheelchairs, keyless entry on cars, and electric can openers. Many of these tools were developed for people with disabilities, but they make life easier for all of us. Using the concept of UDL, some examples of what staff can do in their learning environments to support children with special learning needs are using adaptive toys and eating utensils, using picture schedules, adapting seating arrangements, providing agendas (with or without pictures) of the activities that children will participate in, providing multiple ways for children to learn information (e.g., reading a book, watching a video, using the internet to research a topic), using materials in a different language, or sharing vocabulary words with school-age children before reading them a story.

The Figure below shows three strategies for using UDL and offers examples of each.

Model

There are many ways in which you can model an inclusive attitude with staff members. There may be unintentional biases related to race, culture, family traditions, or family structure in your program. Several observation tools (like the ECERS-R for early childhood programs and the Council on Accreditation's Program Observation Worksheet) have guidelines for promoting cultural and linguistic diversity. As you spend time in classrooms and school-age settings, you should be aware of the following:

• Biased language. Watch for language that may send stereotypical messages. Staff members may call children "baby girl," "big boy," or "cutie" rather than their given names. Do staff members comment equally on girls' and boys' appearances and accomplishments? Do they praise African American boys for their athleticism more than their academic achievements? Do they comment on children's size (e.g., "He's going to be a football player")? Do they encourage girls and boys to play sports or lift weights? Do they encourage girls to "be careful" while saying "boys will be boys"? Do staff members encourage peaceful solutions for all children (e.g., avoid directions like not hitting kids with glasses)?
• Stereotypical play opportunities. Are children encouraged to play in stereotypical ways (e.g., girls with dolls and boys with trucks)? Do boys and girls get equal access and encouragement for playing "house," woodworking, music, science, active or messy play?
• Biased materials. Do posters, photos, and displays represent the children in the classroom and the broad range of human experiences? Are there any stereotypical images (i.e., Native Americans in "war paint")? Are men and women portrayed equally in images of physical, intellectual, and service professions? Are there respectful images of people with disabilities? Are there books in a variety of languages? Do books represent real-world experiences?

If you see any examples of bias in your programs, say something. Model unbiased language and interactions. Make it clear that men and women can be equally strong and nurturing; that we all benefit from a range of experiences; and that our "labels" do not define our interests or abilities.

Observe

It is important to reflect on the level of support staff members are providing to children who need it. Recognize each staff member's strengths and be prepared to support them around their needs. You can help staff members by participating in planning and problem-solving, observing, and providing feedback.

Make a Plan: Making adjustments for children is not always easy. Staff members may need help planning and identifying ways to help children. They may struggle with whether certain modifications are "fair." You can work together to identify the struggles a child is having. Then you can brainstorm solutions. It can help to write the concerns and possible solutions down on a planning form or chart paper. A sample planning form is shown here, and a blank planning form is in the Apply section.

Sample Planning Form

Spend Time: Observe in classrooms or programs. Make special notes about children you see struggling. Also be sure to note children who seem to need an additional challenge. Note the learning styles you see present in the room and ways staff members support those styles.

Provide Feedback: Talk to staff members about the ways they support children's learning. Recognize their accomplishments and encourage them when they are struggling. Be a resource for the staff members and help them find ways to reach each child.