A big part of differentiation is equity, in which students are provided with the right learning experiences for their needs. This is different to equality, in which all students have access to the same resources.

This got us thinking about inclusive education and inclusion in languages. Inclusive education means that all students can access and fully participate in learning, alongside their similar-aged peers, supported by reasonable adjustments and teaching strategies tailored to meet their individual needs.

Classroom culture influences our thoughts, perceptions, behaviours and how we treat others. Language classrooms have a unique role in understanding other cultures and perspectives, developing communication skills that promote understanding and empathy for others. We are also in the unique position that our content often requires students to share information about the personal worlds, so it’s even more important we provide safe places for them to do so.​

Attached please find our differentiation infographic (updated to include the importance of being responsive, as part of ongoing formative assessment) and an inclusion infographic for your classroom, to remind students about the importance of inclusion.

Just in time for Term 4, we have developed a generic 10-week Stage 4 party unit.

The unit has been developed to support you in differentiating and adjusting teaching, learning and assessment activities to support a range of students.

Our aim was to provide you with key information, in a practical and user-friendly way.

Differentiation and adjustments depend on the individual students in your class, so we have included a comprehensive range of examples – you will need to modify these, or include your own, to support individual student needs.

​You can find the unit on the Stages 4 and 5 section of our website, under the heading Programming in Stages 4 and 5. Alternatively, it's on each of the language-specific Stages 4 and 5 pages.

The Language Teacher Network – Mid North Coast will hold its Term 4 meeting on Thursday 6 December 2018.

Agenda: 
1. Differentiation in the classroom
2. Disability Register (including Evidence)
3. TeachMeet
4. Funding 2019 focus

Date: Thursday 6 December 2018
Time: 9:00am-3:00pm
Venue: Orara High School

For further information contact the network leader Jody Newhouse on 66551315 or at jody.newhouse@det.nsw.edu.au  

The new syllabuses provide differentiated content for 3 broad learner groups in Stages 4 and 5. The main content is written for the second language learners - those students who are learning the language as a second or additional language.

There is differentiated content provided for those students with prior knowledge or experience in the language. These students have some exposure to the language, either at home or at school, but are not fluent or confident users. They may understand more than their non-background peers, but don’t have strong skills. For example, the student may have had some lessons in primary school, or at another high school, or have spent some time living in the country, but not going to school. The student may also hear a language spoken at home or in the community (for example, their grandparents speak to their parents in Chinese at home) and so they may understand the spoken language, but don’t read, write or speak confidently.

There is also differentiated content provided for those students with a background in the language. These students come to your classroom with considerable knowledge of the language. They may have attended school in a country where the language is spoken for part of their education, or have received considerable instruction in the language. For example, a student may come from a Greek-speaking family and may have attended Saturday school throughout their primary school years, they may have lived in Japan and attended an international school where they learned Japanese as well as English, or they have recently moved from Argentina where they spoke Spanish as their first language and attended school.

Now it becomes an easier task for teachers to select the appropriate content to cater for the learning needs of these 3 broad groups.  It should be noted that teachers are expected to choose the appropriate content according to the learners in their class and therefore, if a teacher is only teaching a class of second language learners and there are no students with prior knowledge/experience or background, the teacher simply selects the main content points to include and does not need to use the other content points.