Grace

Grace in the classroom would be how we embrace and accommodate the learner through inclusiveness, differentiation and simply reflecting the characteristics of God, kindness, caring, acceptance and love.  I particularly enjoy what Sapon-Shevin (2008) says about inclusion in the classroom, “Inclusion is about creating a society in which all children and their families feel welcomed and valued”(p.49).  Grace in the classroom is about creating an environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging despite their ethnicity, abilities, disabilities, sexual orientation and religion.  This inclusiveness, is a holistic approach to teaching a student as they are recognised and valued in our classroom.  We not only communicate with the learner but also their whanau eg. parents, guardians and grandparents.  

This atmosphere we create in our classes provides support for the learner as their community is involved in their learning experience to help the student.  Inclusive classrooms promote care and acceptance for others.  The principles of care and acceptance underpin what an inclusive classroom looks like by using language like ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ and it causes students to accept others differences as they also have been accepted and embraced.

The learning needs to be made relevant to each learner so they are motivated to engage with their learning.  

Differentiation would be foundational in making the learning relevant to the student as described by Davey (2014) Students feel valued when they are catered for in a manner that matches their learning experience.  When we differentiate in our classes, we are aware of the students learning needs and we set our lessons and unit plans to accommodate them.  Differentiation includes how the room is set up, the content, pace, level of learning, assessments and tasks.  A few strategies that could be used the classroom would be tiered activities to meet the level of learning for the students, group work to meet the collaborative learners and giving students choice over the way their assessments are presented to encourage self-efficacy.  The different resources we use in our lessons are set up to meet the needs of learners from the whiteboard, videos and articles.

As God responds to us with grace despite our actions that grieve him.  We can do the same in our classrooms.  There are times students will not listen or be on task, this is where we show grace for example continuing to be kind even when they have previously done to harm you.  When you are told by previous guardians or teachers about a certain student, this does not mean we can mistreat them to show that they cannot play up in your class.  Grace is unmerited but given freely, just as our God pours out His grace upon us, to show we are still loved and worthy.  When student’s feel loved and worthy of this they operate positively out of this.  If we can provide and model grace for our students then the students can view what Grace looks like in action and follow suit.  When learners leave the school, my hope is that they leave as citizens who contribute and participate in the well-being of others, creating strong communities and nation.

References

Davey, K. (2014). A student’s perspective on differentiation. Australian Educational Leader, 36(1), 25-29.

Sapon-Shevin, M. (2008). Learning in an inclusive community. Educational leadership, 66 (1), pp. 49-53.