Training guide

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2. Being inclusive

Inclusive education means involving ALL students in your class. It is a process, not something you do occasionally. It is every teacher’s responsibility, not just those who have been asked to support children with a special need. The activities this course will help you to think about how you can be inclusive in your school.

It can be difficult to include everyone in the lesson, especially if:

  • you have a large class
  • some children’s behaviour is challenging at times
  • you have few resources
  • some children have a need as a result of poor hearing, a physical disability or visual impairment.

The inclusivity challenge which affects many teachers is dealing with a large class.

Some strategies for teaching a large class include:

  • Concentrate on a few students in each lesson, making sure that over time, you assess and support everyone. Each day record the names of students you have helped and every few days, try to get around to everyone;
  • Move around the room while children are working.
  • Set tasks to do in groups and pairs so you can observe students working and they can help each other.
  • Use local resources or action songs to engage everyone.
  • Share information about your children with other teachers to help each other get to know them.
  • Share teaching resources and ideas for collaborative tasks with colleagues.

Activity 2.2: Teaching a large class

Look at the pictures below. Both classes have over 60 children in the class. What strategies are the teachers using?

With a partner, go through the list above and talk about the ideas. Write your top three in your Teacher Notebook, then share your choice with another pair. Which of these ideas could you use most easily in your school?

Teacher strategies 1

Teacher strategies 2