Jayme shares her thoughts on Universal Design for Learning and Curriculum 2.0, planning with UDL, and how it has changed her thinking about the writing process. Thank you Jayme for sharing your thoughts!
0 Comments
As an educator, have you ever witnessed someone teaching a lesson that was so engaging to kids, you just had to step back and appreciate the great art of teaching? Because no matter what anyone says, there is a critical human component of planning and delivering learning experiences that can't be denied. This year, I've been lucky enough to see it time and time again in our schools. Thank goodness for the camera on my phone because that's what has made it so easy for me to share it with others. Amy Zeigler is an 8th grade Social Studies teacher at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School in the Wheaton cluster. A few Fridays ago, before Snowzilla hit us, I was visiting UDL PLC classrooms at Loiederman MS and saw Ms. Zeigler deliver a lesson that had her students thinking, collaborating, and reflecting. Does anyone remember the computer game, Oregon Trail? The premise is that you were journeying out west and would encounter obstacles and then have to make a decision about how to deal with each problem. Your decision would then affect the rest of your journey in some way. Ms. Zeigler's lesson was a role play structure in which kids were assigned to groups for the "trail". In the middle picture you can see the thread that each group of three or four students had to keep holding throughout the activity so they wouldn't be lost on the "trail". Each person in the group was randomly assigned a profile: some were doctors, farmers, merchants, etc. As the journey began each group was assigned a few oxen, little plastic ones, and some random amount of money in the form of little plastic gold coins. As the journey ensued, students were presented with "obstacles" that they needed to figure out how they were going to handle.
Each obstacle presented choices that could be made by the group with an arrow pointing to the side of the room that would designate where the group should go to commit to their choice. The flipchart presented the obstacle, choices, possible risks and rewards. As members of the group were eliminated, sometimes as a result of their choices, they would sit down at their seat and observe. The analysis and discussion of the problems made for quite a lively experience! A variety of points were presented and important decisions were made. Sometimes individuals were lost during the journey, sometimes whole wagon teams- either by sickness, trail accidents, etc. In the end, just as in the actual events of westward expansion, not everyone made it to the end of the trail. The reflection that occurred at the end of the lesson was critical for students to be able to fully process the experience of their journey and gain a deeper understanding of the expansion movement. The reflection prompt (shown in the picture above) helped students think about their feelings of their "journey" and tap into the affective network of the brain. I definitely think that the role play structure facilitated this, as well. Of course, I love that Ms. Zeigler had students compare and contrast their journey with the painting American Progress by John Gast in 1872. It is a seamless way of presenting the concept of westward expansion in multiple ways of representation: through a role play activity and also in the visual mode of a painting. This lesson also provided multiple means of engagement, according to CAST's UDL Guideline- Educator Worksheet because it provides "options for sustaining effort and persistence" by "fostering collaboration and communication". I feel that it also "provides options for self regulation" by helping students to "develop self-assessment and reflection". If you haven't used the Educator Worksheet by CAST, I encourage you to take a look. It breaks down the aspects of the UDL framework that is very specific as you work to apply the UDL framework in lesson planning. As we say, much of implementing UDL is "front loading" your lessons with flexible options so it will reach more learners. This worksheet is a valuable tool for putting the UDL lens to your work. Let me know what you think! Click on each picture to see a larger image. A few short weeks ago, I was able to visit the classroom of first grade teacher Abby Stone. Her students were busy reading, writing, and talking as they researched about the topic of penguins. I took a few pictures and thought I would share because they demonstrate some of the nuts and bolts about how she set up her classroom to implement the UDL principle of providing multiple means of representation.
The first picture clearly shows the steps that students were to follow in their research process as well as the choices that they would have. The students had a choice for how they wanted to learn about their topic. The content was presented in print and digital formats and the students were able to choose which one they wanted to use on that day. It was interesting to see that there were students that had chosen each of the three formats. In UDL classrooms, we often see visual supports for classroom routines. The second photograph shows technology structures for using the computers as a choice. The specifics for how to access a variety of websites and resources will help guide students to get to their choice. Sometimes navigating through the menus and passwords can be tricky as they are different for each digital resource! Posted directions can remind students of the specific path to get to each one. These structures will empower students to become independent users of information. The third picture shows the variety of graphic organizers that students were able to choose from as they gathered their information. By offering these choices, Ms. Stone has allowed for different opportunities that students' can flex the strategic network of their brain. I imagine Ms. Stone had to build an understanding of each type of organizer throughout the year, but at this point, the students had many to choose from. Surely if this can work in first grade, we can envision providing these choices for older students as well. Can anyone think of other ways that teachers can support choice for all students? Have you had a chance to check out the UDL Tool Finder on the HIAT website? It's a chart that gives practical solutions to a variety of student challenges. When you plan a lesson with the UDL framework in mind, you think about the barriers that are going to keep your students from being successful. This chart will give suggestions to help your students tackle a variety of academic tasks. Challenges might include students who can't decode on grade level, have difficulty with organization, and students who struggle with spelling. I think one thing to remember is that offering a choice of tools to all students in your class will be beneficial. All students will begin to learn what works best for them and begin to make choices based on what they know about themselves as learners. If you watch the video clip of Erin Swift, she talks a little bit about the metacognition that develops as she offers choices for learning. At the end of December, I interviewed Erin Swift, third grade teacher at Great Seneca Creek Elementary School. The UDL PLC has been active at Erin's school for almost 3 years, so she offers a classroom perspective of someone who has worked with the UDL framework over time. Here's just a quick look at some of her thoughts on UDL and her classroom practice. Today I was considering how UDL connects with writing. The UDL framework is based upon the neuroscience that describes three networks. Here is an explanation of the three networks taken from the CAST website at: http://www.cast.org/udl/ The Strategic Network can be addressed in a few different ways during the writing block. Yesterday I stopped by during the writing block in a Kindergarten class at Harmony Hills ES. The students in Ms. O'Melia's class had several choices for writing. At the same table I noticed four different ways of engaging in the writing process. Place the mouse over each image to read the explanation. It was obvious that the students had a choice in how they were able to work on their writing, not only in the materials that they were allowed to use but in the manner that they were allowed to execute their ideas. All were working on the similar goal of sharing a story through writing but they were choosing different strategies to accomplish that goal. It was obvious that Ms. O'Melia had established everyday routines that allowed this choice to happen fluidly. This was not a one day activity, just the routine of their writing time each day. Some students were writing on the carpet, some were at tables. Each was engaged in the process as they were planning and carrying out their task.
I must say that I was intrigued by the perseverance that I noticed with the boy who chose to use the graphic organizer before writing in his journal. I will post a couple more pictures below as he progresses through his work. He was completely engaged in his task, working continually for quite some time. Now that is the sign of true engagement in that he was interested to work on a task for a sustained amount of time without wavering for a second- he was still working on it when I left! I've heard teachers comment that UDL might be more work up front but it is the type of work that builds independence. I believe the independence stems from deep levels of engagement and a fostered self direction of learners. In many ways, this self directed learning shifts the heavy lifting from a traditional teacher led model and distributes the decision making to students so they are empowered to make learning decisions for themselves. Exciting stuff to watch! I've started reading bits of Design and Deliver: Planning and Teaching Using Universal Design for Learning by Loui Lord Nelson and I was struck Ms. Lord's comments about how one might unknowingly create barriers for learning by decisions that are made as a classroom is set up. One example that she used was that the simple placement of a poster or display can become a barrier to learning if one decided to place an item on the wall based on where it might fit rather than where the optimum viewing space for students might be. Maybe this resonated with me because I'm sure I must have done this at some point in my teaching career- decided to place a poster on that certain skinny wall but maybe not completely obsessed about if the kids could see it or not! I thought of this today when I was in the Kindergarten classroom of Ms. Perkins at Harmony Hills ES. Of course, everyone in MCPS needs to have their word wall displayed in a prominent area of the classroom but Ms. Perkins went a step further and eliminated a barrier by choosing to make her word wall even more accessible. She accomplished this by creating small desk sized copies of the word wall words that kids could choose to use whenever they might need it at their personal work space. These kid sized, laminated word wall sets were in a basket and were easily available to all students. This decision allowed the kids to have two good options for accessing their sight words. Keep breaking down those barriers, Ms. Perkins!
I found out about this newly published book before break. If anyone else is interested to read it, you can email me and maybe we could have a UDL book club of sorts. I bought my copy from Amazon but it might be available from other places. It says there is an enhanced e-book version that includes video clips but I didn't see a link to purchase the e-book version. Here are a few reviews: Loui Lord Nelson did an amazing job of making Universal Design (UDL) practical. I would recommend to all educators who need a practical understanding of UDL and how to simply implement it into their classroom. (Cindy Golden, Ed.D. Author, The Special Educator's Toolkit; Assistant Director, Northstar Educational and Therapeutic Center; Owner, Educator s Essentials 2013-08-05) "Dr. Nelson's clear descriptions and vivid examples will help teachers not only better understand the theory of UDL, but also use it with confidence in their classrooms." (Rachel Janney, Ph.D. author of Teachers' Guides to Inclusive Practices 2013-08-08) If you think this is something you'd like to read with someone else, email me to let me know. I'd love to be able to discuss the ideas with someone else. This morning I was able to spend some time with the UDL PLC at Sargent Shriver Elementary School in Wheaton. I just have to say how interesting it was to spend some time with a group of educators that have been practicing the implementation of UDL over time. This particular team started working with HIAT about two and a half years ago, so the conversations have shifted from what UDL is to how can we find ways to embed our UDL lens into team planning sessions? This team took the time to look at their vision of UDL at Shriver and make a plan to move the school forward. There was much discussion about the metacognition of kids- how do we help kids reflect on what choices are good ones to help their learning. One action item from the meeting is for several team members to pilot test an updated version of their planning template that embeds a UDL lens. Also, the team decided that on their next curriculum focus planning days, they will dig deep to highlight the UDL connections. It was exciting to feel the energy in the room about improving practice and finding ways to design curriculum "to the edges" so that all kids can learn. Great stuff!
Many teachers across the county have mentioned how the new 2.0 curriculum seems to make it easier to practice UDL. This is because the curriculum team included someone who helped to embed that UDL lens as it was being written. |
Categories
All
AuthorsWelcome! I am a media specialist at Brookhaven Elementary School. I began this blog when I was hired to work with the HIAT team as a UDL Project Specialist for the Expanding Bridges Grant. Since the Grant ended, HIAT staff now collaborate to contribute to the blog and share UDL stories from MCPS! Archives
December 2016
|