ABSTRACT
During the middle school years, young adolescents develop increasingly complex ways of thinking and first develop powers of abstract reasoning. Teachers who provide students with rich and diverse learning experiences are brain changers and neural pathway connectors. This is especially important during the teen years, when the brain is undergoing rapid and dramatic development. Despite some criticism and controversy around the multiple intelligences theory, we believe it is useful to broaden our understanding of intelligence using this framework. Thinking about students with intellectual, visual, or auditory disabilities, as well as students who are gifted and talented, reminds us to vary our instructional strategies to provide equitable opportunities and teach diverse strengths. How will you differentiate for varying rates of learning (e.g., early finishers), learning modalities (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile), learning styles (e.g., verbal, logical-mathematical, spatial), and other relevant diversities (e.g., English language learners) in the classroom? What accommodations will you make to ensure access and academic success for students with disabilities such as autism, ADD or ADHD, a language impairment, or a learning disability? Accommodations are important tools for removing barriers in inclusive classrooms. The chapter concludes with a list of suggested accommodations for diverse learners.
