Learning Differences:
Hughes-Lynch, 2012, p. 164,
She brings in a pair of glasses and tells her class:
“Guess what! I got the greatest tool that is going to help all of you learn to read! I thought I read pretty well, and it helped even me! Do you want to hear about it?
After the children agree, she continues in a confiding tone:
Well, I went to this doctor and he gave me this tool that he said was going to help me read, I didn’t believe him, because I read pretty well-I mean I teach reading! And guess what? It helped me read better. It did! I’ve ordered one for every single one of you! Or should I order just one and have you share? Would it be fair for only some of you to get one?
After the students agree that they each want one.
She continues:
I know you all want to learn how to read better. I got the first tool in the mail today-it’s just a demo. But it will let you all know what’s in store for you. I ordered one for all of you-its coming. Because it wouldn’t be fair for me to hog all this to myself.
She takes out her reading glasses and puts them on and says:
Wow! What a difference! I can totally see better! Here, I”ll pass it around so that you can see this amazing new tool that helps me read better!
She then passes around the glasses. The children in the class realize that they don’t help them see.
She says: I am hearing that some of you don’t want to use this. Why not?
Students will say different things, usually something like:
The glasses were made for your eyes, not ours. There only good for you!
She continues on:
Yes, these were made for me by the eye doctor; someone who specializes in helping eyes work better. My glasses only work for me. It’s the same thing with me though; I am a specialist in education. It’s my job, just like the eye doctors job to figure out how to help you learn better, or read better. I work with your brains, not just your eyes. What it means is that I might give some of you something different to ehlp you learn-some of you might get different assignments, some of you might get different grading rubrics, and some of you might use different materials. And you know why? Because it’s my job to help you read and learn and I don’t want to hear ‘But its not fair that so-and-so is doing such-and-such’! Because each of you will get what you need-not what everyone else is getting. Just like the glasses-not everyone needs the same thing to help learn.
The teacher then takes out a large poster with a pair of glasses that says “Fair I when everyone gets what they need to learn.”
This can be pointed to throughout the year, when students complain that it is not fair.