In the Classroom: Dimensions in Diversity

by Elizabeth Gehrman

Senior Lecturer Katherine Merseth
(Photo by Paula Cooney)

"Will you clap for us?"

The first reaction of the graduate student asked this question seems to be, Huh? But he gamely attempts to comply, putting his hands together a few times in a sporadic rhythm.

The puzzlement around the room only grows when Jon Nordmeyer, a lead instructor for HGSE's "Dimensions in Diversity" class, turns to graduate student Christina Feo and asks her to rate the clap of the next student in line. She seems to almost randomly select "B-plus." "I thought she was clapping a little sarcastically," she says. Both of her fellow judges give the clapper a "C."

Nordmeyer then turns to a third student and asks him to clap. And so on down the line. With each performance, the students learn a little more about what Nordmeyer is looking for and how the student judges perceive his instructions. By the end, outgoing Kenny Johnson, the fifth student to clap, does a rousing hambone, slapping his chest, belly, arms, and thighs in an exploding percussion.

What does this have to do with diversity? "It raises awareness in the participants and the observers of the important connection between assessment and performance," says Nordmeyer. "It's easier for students to hit the target when they understand what the target looks like, and teachers have to be sensitive to explaining things in terms that everyone in the class can understand."

"Dimensions in Diversity" is a two-credit summer module designed to help prepare graduate students to educate urban children.
"We try to design summer coursework so that it both complements and bridges the scholarship and the practicum of our students," says Vicki Jacobs, a lecturer in education and the associate director of the Teacher Education Program. "The summer component is meant to bring forward the things most important to successfully addressing the student-teaching they're starting to do--and two things that come up immediately are special-needs kids and English-language learners [ELLs]."

Jacobs is quick to point out that "Dimensions in Diversity" in no way equates special-needs students with ELLs; rather, the class addresses the sensitive nature of students' needs that newly minted teachers now confront in urban classrooms. "It's pretty well accepted now that the practices for special education students are practices that work for all students," says Jacobs. "They remind HGSE interns that students are not only learning what, but how and why. In other words, they're learning to learn as well as learning the content."

The course was implemented two years ago by Senior Lecturer Katherine Merseth, director of the Teacher Education Program, in response to Massachusetts' adoption of "sheltered English immersion"--as opposed to bilingual education--for Englishlanguage learners, and to the particular needs of urban youth. It is taught in two segments: At the beginning of the session, Tom Hehir, professor of practice and former director of special education at the U.S. Department of Education, addresses working with special-needs students. "Wow, he had a lot of information," says Feo, a master's candidate from Long Beach, California. "It was obvious that he really understood physical and learning disabilities. And I liked his outlook on getting us to see where regular-ed teachers fit into special-ed, and how we can use our resources in ways that best serve students."

In the second half of the summer session, the needs of English-language learners are addressed, first in an overview given by assistant professor Nonie Lesaux, and then in three participatory sessions led by Nordmeyer, the director of the ACCESS (Actively Connecting Content, English Students and Standards) Program at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and two of his colleagues.