Lesson Plans to Accommodate Diverse Learners
Your class will consist of 30 students of diverse learners. Of the 30 students, 14 need
accommodations to be successful in the classroom. Two students have been diagnosed with
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and are extremely active, fidgety, and impulsive. One
student has been diagnosed with Dyslexia and has trouble reading and writing. One student has
been diagnosed with Autism and has poor social relations with classmates. One student has been
diagnosed with Down Syndrome and has delayed speech and language. One student is hearing
impaired and has trouble distinguishing certain sound in oral speech. Five students are English
Language Learners with Spanish as their first language. Four of these students are academically
behind grade level. Two students are African American. These students are proficient in English
but seem to struggle with the completion of tasks when directions are subtle. Finally, one student
is an English Language Learner with Japanese as his first language. He is proficient in English
and is academically on grade level.
Following are broad goals for the lessons:
1. Increase students’ cultural knowledge through numerous activities relating to different
content areas.
2. Enhance students’ sensitivity to individual differences and unique qualities among
classmates.
3. Create a learning environment to support the success of all students.
4. Accommodate the unique needs of diverse students.
All lessons must include the following sections:
Title:
Grade:
Time Allotted:
Materials:
Objectives:
Introduction (e.g., anticipatory set):
Activities:
Closure:
Assessment:
All lessons must include a variety of text-based accommodations that are verified in the
following table:
Text references
Accommodation
Needs Met
Sample lesson plans:
Title: Prominent Leaders of the Rights Movement
Grade: 10th
Time Allotted: 50 minutes
Materials: Primary source documents, such as letters and speeches
Objectives: Through the use of primary source documents, students will employ processes of
critical historical inquiry to interpret the past. Students will investigate and interpret the
viewpoints of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, analyzing the differing perspectives from
which they came.
Introduction (e.g., anticipatory set): Ask students to brainstorm/review what they already
know about the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. Teacher will
write ideas on the board.
Activities:
1. Prior to this class, students will have read excerpts of the Malcolm speech “The Ballot or
the Bullet” and excerpts from the Martin Luther King Jr. letter “Letter From a
Birmingham Jail.”
2. Students will form four groups. Groups one and three will focus on the questions as they
relate to Malcolm X, and groups two and four will focus on the questions as they relate to
Marin Luther King Jr.:
To whom was Malcolm X or Martin Luther King Jr. speaking?
Whom or what did he identify as the problem in the struggle for civil rights?
What was his solution to the problem of inequality, discrimination, and segregation?
How might have the facts that Malcolm X was a Northerner and Martin Luther King Jr.
was a Southerner have affected each individual’s perspective?
(Students should back up their assertions with evidence from the documents.)
3. In a whole class discussion, each group will report their findings on Malcolm X or Martin
Luther King Jr. Participants from each group should take turns reporting the group’s
findings.
Closure: For homework, ask students to write an essay, a dialogue, a poem, or a political cartoon
discussing the similarities and differences between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
(adapted from History Alive reading).
Assessment: Students will be given a grade for their oral presentation of the group activity and
the quality of the written piece. *See rubrics attached.
Text references
Tannock &
Martinssen, 2001,
p. __.
Accommodation
Group work and oral presentation
Needs Met
Will accommodate ADHD
students by teaching social skills
to help students learn to interact
socially and work cooperatively.
Bridging Cultures
with a ParentTeacher
Conference and
Multicultural
Education
Gollnick and
Chinn, p. 103
Group work
Group work
Provides opportunities for students
to interact and be social with
peers, which is valued in the
Latino culture.
Provides opportunities for mixed
ability group work, which helps
ELL students with modeling of
age-appropriate language skills.
Title: Cookie Division
Grade: 3rd
Time Allotted: 45 minutes
Materials:
The Doorbell Rang, Pat Hutchins
Tiles or buttons to use as cookies
Paper folded into eight squares with six problems like, “Nine cookies for three students to
share.”
30 laminated pictures of coolies
Paper plates
Scotch tape
Objectives: Students will be able to connect a representation or picture of division to an
equation, model division using manipulatives, demonstrate how multiplication and division are
inverse operations.
Introduction (e.g., anticipatory set): Read The Doorbell Rang. While reading, stop and ask
how many cookies each child will get. Connect to the concept to division.
Activities: Go back through the book and have the class come up with division equations for
every time more children come to the door. Ask students how many children there were at the
beginning of the book. Put two paper plates on the white board or chalk board. Ask students how
many cookies the mom made. Put 12 laminated cookies on the white board (have scotch tape
attached prior to the lesson). Ask how many cookies each child will get. Make sure to give
enough wait time and have students write their answers on a mini white board and hold it up
when they are finished. Ask students to explain their thinking. Ask students to come up with an
equation to represent the picture. Repeat the process for each time the doorbell rings.
Guided Instruction: Tell students they are going to be using color tiles to represent
cookies. Do an example of a problem using color tiles on the overhead. Hand out worksheet and
do the first problem with the students. Ask students how many paper plates they need and how
they know. Ask how many cookies each child gets. Have students hold up fingers to tell. Create
an equation to represent the picture.
Independent Practice: Group students into pairs. (Group students based on abilities. Put
students together who are on similar levels.) The worksheets have 8 squares and can be adapted
to meet the various levels of learners. Make easier or less complex problems for students who
need a challenge. They will have their own papers, but they will share color tiles and help each
other work through the problems. Students will make pictures and write equations for the
problems.
Closure: Students will share their strategies for division. Ask students to create an equation
about our class.
Assessment: Monitor during independent practice. Collect students’ papers to check for
understanding. Review concepts individually as needed.
Text references
Double Demands
of Teaching
English Language
Learners
Reconceptualizing
ADHD
Student Diversity,
p. 30.
Student Diversity,
p. 55
Friend and
Bursuck, p. 344
Gollnick and
Chinn
Accommodation
Below grade book to amplify
understanding of division
Needs Met
Effective for ELL students
Hold up white boards.
Keeps ADHD students actively
involved with lesson.
Beneficial for ELL students and
those with cognitive challenges.
Allowed for additional time for
students who need it as well as
enhancement activity for those who
finish early.
Manipulatives to represent abstract
ideas.
Allows for ample wait time.
Apply division to real-work
experiences.
Helps ADHD students stay
focused, and helps students with
cognitive challenges.
Helps ELL students and students
with cognitive challenges.
Helps students with cognitive
challenges.