The greatest challenge faced by Sara Frye was to teach in a dual language classroom even though she did not have any experience teaching in an ESOL class and did not speak Spanish. There was a sense of fear of not being able to understand nor to communicate her lesson to the students who did not speak much English.
As an educator, Sara Frye did not let her confidence to be shaken by a parent who was observing the class and, as she progressed thru her lesson, her enthusiasm for the subject, her creativity using visual aids and manipulatives with a “hands on activity” promoted students engagement and they were all comfortable to participate, to work together. She gave a great example that good teaching will always come with a clear purpose:…show more content… Tomlinson talks about the uncertainty of teaching a heterogeneous class and in her research “Learning How New Teachers Relate to Academic Diversity in Mixed Ability Classrooms” she comes to the conclusion that new teachers are graduating not knowing how to handle diversity and educators (with and without experience) still have a hard time to “move away from one-size-fits-all teaching”. She also brings some solutions to these issues, which includes “in-school models” and coaching in the application of differentiated education. There is a necessity to train educators in the art of modifying instruction in order to reach all students with their many readiness levels, different interests and learning profiles.
As a novice teacher, I see myself struggling with this challenge of “teaching them all” however, in order to grab all of my students attention, I have been presenting the same material in a variety of ways: songs, videos, printed activities, smart board presentation, etc. Furthermore, to fairly measure how much they have been learning, I have been assessing my students in many forms: verbal assessments, class and homework projects, classroom observations, teacher-made and standardized tests. It has been really rewarding to see that many of my struggling learners are already
