Responding to and Planning for Diversity in Today’s Classrooms

Shelley will set the stage by helping participants calibrate their understanding of inclusion and how it has evolved over time before shifting mindsets of how we understand, respond to and plan for the diverse groups of students in our care.

Many of us have heard Shelley Moore present keynote speeches at conferences, or are familiar with her 5 Moore Minutes podcast series and YouTube channel. We now have the opportunity to learn in the community with Shelley for two days!

This workshop is for school leaders, team leaders, staff, faculty and inclusion advocates for children of all ages and abilities. Each workshop day is divided into three sessions outlined below.

Session 1: Understanding Inclusion Today

Calibrating our understanding of inclusion today is critical to inclusion’s success. This session guides participants through the evolution of inclusion over time through humour and real-life stories.

Session 2: Getting to Know Learners from a Strength-based Perspective

How can we respond to student needs without looking at their deficits? This session will look at individual and class dimensions that can be used for planning and advocacy from a positive and responsive perspective that reflects student identity and contribution. We will look at how we can use a class profile to make decisions that reflect the unique composition of a classroom community, and that build on Universal Design for Learning and Equity Oriented Practices.

Session 3: Supporting One, Supporting All: Collaborative classroom support models for inclusive classrooms

The Inclusive planning process is aiming to situate Disability as an identity, not a deficit, and so to determine what supports and strategies students require, teams are shifting to look at needs, instead of disabilities, as a reference point. In this way, planning for inclusive classes can be universal, and anticipate needs of everyone in a community. In this session we will connect to Universal Design for Learning principles and look at how we can plan for a student with a disability, in ways that can support many students in a classroom.

Session 4: Curricular Design strategies that support planning for all students

In this session, we will look at some curricular planning approaches that allows us to design for a range of diversity using grade level curriculum. We will see examples of how we can use curriculum in flexible ways to support success and growth for all students, while targeting self-determination and agency.

Part 1 – Learning Continuums and Lesson Design

Part 2 – Lesson Sequences and Design

Session 5: Inclusive assessment through triangulation of evidence

This session will dig into how we can use curricular mapping to support students to self- assess, as well as give feedback to and evaluate student evidence of learning that reflect grade level standards.

Session 6: Reflection & Goal Setting

A final opportunity to share our learning and to set some intentions for the school year.

Presenter(s) Bio:

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dr. Shelley Moore is a highly sought-after inclusive education researcher, collaborator, consultant and storyteller, and has worked with school districts and community organizations throughout Canada and the United States. 

Her research has been featured at international conferences including the Council of Exceptional Children (CEC), the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), The American Education Research Association (AERA), and the Canadian Society for Studies in Education (CSSE). 

Shelley completed her undergraduate degree in Special Education at the University of Alberta, her masters at Simon Fraser University, and her Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia.

Host or Publisher International School of Amsterdam