The Power of Collaboration: Meeting the Needs of Learners With Differing Abilities and Interests

• In Event: Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Disrupting Notions of “Normal”: Addressing the Needs of Students With Perceived Disabilities

Abstract

Through the examination of one school’s approach to meeting the needs of diverse learners this presentation will share the understandings developed and will describe the ways in which the administrators and teachers worked together to provide literacy instruction that was meaningful and purposeful, as they navigated educational policy and high-stake testing demands. This study was conducted in an upper-elementary classroom in a suburb of a large Southwestern U. S. city. Observations of the instructional and collaborative practices of the teachers, as well as of students as they moved between various educational contexts were conducted over a semester. By describing this one school’s approach, effective instructional and organizational practices that meet the needs of diverse learners may be conceptualized.

Author

• Katharine Lynette Chamberlain, The University of Texas - Austin