Sharing+UDL+Resources

Let's share UDL Resources for week 3's assignment. Please plan to Skype on Wednesday @ 8:00 EST. You may leave your Skype name here: **__RESOURCES__** By Cristina- I will continue to search and post more when I find other resources.
 * Melody Shafer || Skype name: melody.shafer ||
 * Kimberly || Skype name: mskimberlyann1 ||
 * Cristina || Skype name: cristina.serapiglia ||

Case Story: Engaging High School Students in Writing __[]__

~This site takes you through the process, lesson, and activities of incorporating UDL strategies into a writing lesson. The site compares the "traditional" teaching approaches to the UDL approaches. It explains Mr. Garcia's lesson goals, objectives, and methods. Then how to introduce the lesson, guide the lesson, and close the lesson. Whether you teach English or not, it a great resource to obtain ideas.

Methods- Introduce, guide, and close lesson:

**Module:** **Universal Design for Learning: Creating a Learning Environment that Challenges and Engages All Students** __[]__ ~ This module examines the three principles of Universal Design for Learning and how to apply these principles to the four curricular components which are goals, instructional materials, instructional methods, and assessments. The site allows you to access a sample unit plan in which they explain instructional methods, potential areas of concern, and then UDL solutions. There are also a multitude of resources to use at each stage of the curriculum.

Great job on the Skype call - thanks for your input!

by Melody: I thought this was a great blog post by a teacher of what UDL looks like in a "real" classroom: UDL, or Universal Design for Learning, is, according to the [|National Center on Universal Design for Learning] ,

"a set of principles for designing curriculum that provides all individuals with equal opportunities to learn. Grounded in research of learner differences and effective instructional settings, UDL principles call for **varied and flexible ways** to  · Present or access information, concepts, and ideas (the "what" of learning),    · Plan and execute learning tasks (the "how" of learning), and    · Get engaged--and stay engaged--in learning (the "why" of learning)" CAST, [|The Center for Applied Special Technology], does a wonderful job of explaining what a UDL classroom would look like. But I am going to simplify it here.

UDL means providing **all** students what they need to be successful. This can be as simple as allowing the child who struggles to remain seated, to stand during class. It can mean providing fidget toys, spell checkers, laptops, highlighters, pencil grips, multiplication charts, etc. It can mean finding a place in the room for children to take breaks without missing out on learning. It can mean giving extended time for tests to all students, not just the ones with mandated IEPs.

So what needs to be in place to actually create a UDL classroom? What prevents teachers from creating one? In my opinion, the following needs to be there:

**1. Educators must believe that they are responsible for teaching every child. **

I know that right now you are saying, "Of course. What else would teachers do?" But think about this. Have you ever given a test, had a bunch of students fail, and said, "Well, I guess they didn't study?" Have you ever taught a lesson and watched that one child who stops paying attention and then just ignored that child? I think we have all done this from time to time. We say all children should be successful but maybe we really mean all children who are engaged and work hard should be successful.

Once we wrap our heads around the idea that we, as educators, are

responsible for helping every child meet with success, then we begin to examine reasons why some children aren't. My own daughter, who is not classified and, therefore, does not have an IEP, requires extra time to take tests. She is a slow processor (which causes me much angst when I am trying to get her to make a decision) and she is not a great test taker. When she has teachers who give her that extra time, she is successful, getting As on tests. When she is held to a 42 minute period, she often does not complete her exams, severely lowering her grade. I am eternally grateful to those teachers who allow her, and other students who need more time, to come back during lunch or after school to complete the exams. I think this should be standard practice. Why shouldn't she be allowed to actually demonstrate her knowledge of the content instead of always demonstrating her processing and test taking skills?

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Let's talk about that child who checks out during class. Often, it has to do with a teaching style. Maybe this child can't really concentrate during direct instruction. A simple solution is to use [|CoverItLive] with your class. This chat room allows students to discuss the content being taught while the lesson is happening. It keeps them engaged, helps them formulate the new learning into their own words, and provides them with a new way to demonstrate knowledge.

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Another simple solution - have students draw pictures for note taking during class. Imagine the child who sits doodling during every lesson. Make those doodles meaningful. Instead of drawing hearts while you are teaching about the Civil War, have the student draw quick pictures of each event.

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Hopefully, you have noticed that none of these ideas changes your teaching at all. But it allows more children access to your information.

**<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">2. Educators must teach students how to access tools and then allow them the access. **

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Okay, this one does take some time from your class curriculum but imagine if your students had been taught how to access tools earlier in their school career. You wouldn't have to teach them anything.

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">I also know that, in order to show students how to access tools, you need to be familiar with them yourself. Lucky for us, Karen Janowski and [|Joyce Valenza] created an incredible wiki to help us in this endeavor. You can even give the URL to your students and make it a homework assignment for them to explore the site and find two or three tools that would be helpful for them. Now you have removed the time from your class and have made it clear to students that they will be allowed to access these tools as needed.

**<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">3. Educators must give up that position of power to allow students the freedom to do what they need to be successful. **

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">In our classroom, during a typical teacher directed lesson, we might have two students on the carpet in front of the room, one student standing in the back, three students with Koosh balls rolling around in their hands, one child typing furiously on the laptop, and one child getting up to get the Franklin Dictionary to check new vocabulary being used. It takes some getting used to. For most people watching, it looks a bit disorganized. The children appear distracted with all the movement but the reality is, they don't even think about it anymore. We start a lesson and they move into position. Who is taking notes? Who is drawing? Who is typing? Who is filling out a graphic organizer? Who is standing? Who is squeezing a toy? All children are engaged in their own way and we can focus on the content.

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">When students in our class are working, as they most often do, on projects in groups, that's when the room really hits its chaos mode. Children who need quiet ask to work in the hall, outside by the tree, or in our breakout room (a guided study room used for anything but guided study). Children who thrive with noise remain in the room with their groups talking, discussing, pulling out equipment, hitting our UDL drawer for tools, heading online to access more tools, etc. To any outsider, learning isn't occurring. But get closer and you will hear the conversations going on...the learning, the synthesizing of ideas, the discussions about methods of demonstrating knowledge. Also within those groups are children using their own tools to access the same information. So one child has a textbook for its resource. One child has opened up [|Discovery Streaming] or [|BrainPop] to find videos on the topic. One child is taking notes from internet articles. And one child is moving from group member to group member, asking questions, getting data, taking it all in.

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">It becomes controlled chaos. And it was very hard for me, as an ultimate control freak, to allow. I wanted quiet. I wanted them all to do the same thing at the same time. But I realized quite early in my career that doing the same thing at the same time left an awful lot of students by the wayside.

<span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Once educators truly embrace these three ideas, success follows and every child can feel good about what they are learning in school. Why not try just one to start? <span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">by Lisa Lingo @ [] <span style="color: fuchsia; font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Also, here is a link to a youtube video of UDL; [] (to summarize - using technology to reach the different learners and help students with different backgrounds, etc.)

__Background Info -- Kim Rigney__
Inspiration for UDL [] Question 5 []

3 Principles and Examples [] (Found middle of page in Colored Chart.) [] []

Role of Technology in UDL Video by Dr. Rose []

Slide Show from Previous Student I found online -- Lists lots of references at the end []