- http://www.CAST.org
- www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines
- www.udlcenter.org/implementations/examples
- www.ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Universal-Design-FF.pdf
- http://www.visuwords.com/
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Additional UDL resources
While I continue my journey learning about assistive technology I want to provide my followers with as many resources as possible. As teachers, we are always working to improve and reflect on our classroom teaching practices. I found the following resources pertaining to UDL below very informative and beneficial. All of the sites are teacher friendly and very easy to use. I recommend that if you have time to go check them out. I know I will be saving these sites to my bookmark list to refer back to when planning to implement UDL into my classroom.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Improve Your Lectures Through Guided Notes
My last two posts focused on my first experience applying all of this new information we learned on UDL into one of my lesson plans. Although it was challenging at first, I pulled through and I'm sure my students will benefit from the extra time I put in for them all to be successful. During this post, I want to talk to you about a very teacher friendly resource about improving the effectiveness of your lectures through the use of guided notes. As teachers, we are always improving our education, especially when working with students with disabilities. Personally, I do not have much experience working with special education so I enjoyed learning about a technique I could use in the future.
Guided notes are teacher-prepared handouts that provide all students with background information and standard cues with specific space to write key facts or concepts during the lecture.
There are many benefits to using guided notes including the students produce complete and accurate notes, increasing active engagement, serving as an advance organizer, and helping the teacher prioritize and limit lecture content. I know, it sounds like a great strategy doesn't it? Now the question is HOW. Constructing guided notes is easy, especially for a lecture that you already have developed. First you want to identify the important content students must learn from the lecture. Next, simply delete key facts and concepts from the lecture outline leaving the remaining information to provide structure and context for the students note taking. Visit the website for additional guidelines to follow when creating and implementing your guided notes.
There are many benefits to using guided notes including the students produce complete and accurate notes, increasing active engagement, serving as an advance organizer, and helping the teacher prioritize and limit lecture content. I know, it sounds like a great strategy doesn't it? Now the question is HOW. Constructing guided notes is easy, especially for a lecture that you already have developed. First you want to identify the important content students must learn from the lecture. Next, simply delete key facts and concepts from the lecture outline leaving the remaining information to provide structure and context for the students note taking. Visit the website for additional guidelines to follow when creating and implementing your guided notes.
Heward, W, L. Guided Notes: Improving the Effectiveness Of Your Lectures. (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Guided-Notes-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Post-Assessment UDL Lesson Plan
In my last post I discussed my pre-assessment for one of my lessons. After looking at the UDL guidelines I noticed that there were some areas that I did not address in my lesson plan. It is important to critically reflect on UDL practices so you know what principles you did not have in your plan and can include next time. Therefore, like all good educators, I reflected and revised my lesson. The areas that I decided to modify were...
At first it was challenging to incorporate these additional UDL approaches. Overall, my goal is to reach all learners in my classroom and additionally incorporate these new areas of technology as I learn about them. I think the most difficult thing for me, is simply researching and taking the time to read and learn about new technology and how it can be used in the classroom. However, the website has many resources and provides examples of technology that I had not previously used before. Additional, the Cast website includes great examples of how to incorporate these UDL principles in your lesson plans. I came across a great interview with Carol S. Dweck that talks about how teachers can develop students motivation and success. This was beneficial to me because one area I wanted to improve upon was increasing mastery-oriented feedback. I learned that teachers should focus on the students' efforts and not their abilities. For example, when students succeed teachers should praise their efforts, not their intelligence. Also, when students fail, teachers should give feedback about effort and what they can do now. These are key ingredients in creating mastery-oriented students.
- Representation
- Perception: Offer ways of customizing the display of information
- Language, Mathematical Expressions, & Symbols: Illustrate through multiple media
- Action & Expression
- Physical Action: Vary the methods for response and navigation
- Executive Functioning: Support planning and strategy development
- Engagement
- Sustaining Effort and Persistence- Increase mastery-oriented feedback
- Self-Regulation- Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies
At first it was challenging to incorporate these additional UDL approaches. Overall, my goal is to reach all learners in my classroom and additionally incorporate these new areas of technology as I learn about them. I think the most difficult thing for me, is simply researching and taking the time to read and learn about new technology and how it can be used in the classroom. However, the website has many resources and provides examples of technology that I had not previously used before. Additional, the Cast website includes great examples of how to incorporate these UDL principles in your lesson plans. I came across a great interview with Carol S. Dweck that talks about how teachers can develop students motivation and success. This was beneficial to me because one area I wanted to improve upon was increasing mastery-oriented feedback. I learned that teachers should focus on the students' efforts and not their abilities. For example, when students succeed teachers should praise their efforts, not their intelligence. Also, when students fail, teachers should give feedback about effort and what they can do now. These are key ingredients in creating mastery-oriented students.
Pre-Assessment UDL Lesson
In my last blog post, I talked about the Curriculum Barriers Tutorial website which encourages teachers to think about the materials and methods they use in their lessons to make sure they do not create a barrier for any of their students. In this post, I am going to be reflecting on a lesson that I created least year for one of my undergraduate math courses. That means it's time to apply all of the new information we have learned about UDL! My reflection will focus on the UDL guidelines, specifically which ones I included and which ones I did not address.
My lesson was designed for third grade and focused on telling time on an analog and digital clock and also calculating elapsed time. My essential question was how can you tell what time you need to get up in order to get to school on time. Explain your answer with an example. My lesson plan followed best practice procedures starting with an ignition and then gradually releasing the responsibility through mini lesson, guided practice, small group instruction and independent practice.
After completing a pre-assessment on my lesson using a UDL guidelines checklist I noticed that my strongest UDL areas were providing multiple means of action and expression and providing multiple means of engagement. On the other hand, I noticed that areas I still need to develop are providing multiple means of representation. Be sure to read my next post about my post-assessment and how I revised my lesson using the guidelines.
My lesson was designed for third grade and focused on telling time on an analog and digital clock and also calculating elapsed time. My essential question was how can you tell what time you need to get up in order to get to school on time. Explain your answer with an example. My lesson plan followed best practice procedures starting with an ignition and then gradually releasing the responsibility through mini lesson, guided practice, small group instruction and independent practice.
After completing a pre-assessment on my lesson using a UDL guidelines checklist I noticed that my strongest UDL areas were providing multiple means of action and expression and providing multiple means of engagement. On the other hand, I noticed that areas I still need to develop are providing multiple means of representation. Be sure to read my next post about my post-assessment and how I revised my lesson using the guidelines.
Curriculum Barriers
Last post I discussed the many resources on the Cast website. In addition to everything mentioned last time, the Cast website also provides a curriculum barriers tutorial which I recommend you check out. This is great for those of you who are new to UDL, like me, or even for those who have been practicing for years because it takes you step by step through a lesson. The tutorial allows you to think about those struggling students in your classroom and list all of the materials and methods you would use during a lesson with them. Then you can think about the qualities of your struggling students and how the materials and methods you may be using may be a barrier for them. This was a very eye opening moment for me when completing the tutorial. Throughout my student teaching experience last year I planned each lesson thinking about differentiation and how I could meet the various needs of my students just hoping that they would understand by the end of the lesson. Now that I have seen this tutorial, when working with my kindergarten students this year I hope to analyze the materials and methods I am using with them to make sure there are no barriers or missed opportunities. The website even provides a curriculum barrier template which provides structured support. When I was practicing with the template, I noticed that some of the methods I use on a daily basis in my classroom are actually creating barriers and causing some of my students to miss opportunities. For example, one of my students struggles with writing and each day I ask them to write their name on things without even thinking about how difficult it can be. I learned how important it is to break down strengths and weaknesses to better understand and help each student be successful. Now my ultimate goal to keep in mind when planning is 'what can I do to reach all learners my classroom' ? .
CAST. "Curriculum Barriers Tutorial". Retrieved from: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/curriculumbarrierstutorial.cfm
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Teaching Every Student
In my last post we talked about how Universal Design for Learning allows us to reach every student, but the question of how exactly we can do this seems a bit overwhelming. However, this site introduced me to another important acronym PAL, or Planning for All Learners. PAL applies UDL to planning and developing curricula in ways that promote access, participation, and progress in the general education curriculum for all learners. The PAL process includes four steps demonstrated in the visual below.
Step three, applying UDL and writing a plan often requires extra time and effort from the teacher. However, this site contains a UDL lesson builder which allows you to craft lessons that will reach and engage all learners. Which if you are new to UDL like me, is an amazing tool! Simply create a username and password and begin creating or adapting lessons to increase participation for all students. Overall the Cast website is full of resources because it is specifically designed to support educators learning about and practicing Universal Design for Learning!
Step three, applying UDL and writing a plan often requires extra time and effort from the teacher. However, this site contains a UDL lesson builder which allows you to craft lessons that will reach and engage all learners. Which if you are new to UDL like me, is an amazing tool! Simply create a username and password and begin creating or adapting lessons to increase participation for all students. Overall the Cast website is full of resources because it is specifically designed to support educators learning about and practicing Universal Design for Learning!
CAST. UDL Toolkits Planning For All Learners (PAL). Retrieved from: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/tk_introduction.cfm?tk_id=21
Why UDL?
In my last post I explained the concept and principles of UDL. This post will deepen your understanding of UDL and explain why it is essential to include in your lesson plans. In our classrooms today we are exposed to learners with very diverse abilities and backgrounds. The one size fits all approach found in traditional teaching methods contains many hidden barriers for these diverse learners. Universal Design for Learning supports teacher's efforts to meet the challenge of this diversity by providing a framework containing techniques and strategies that help them to differentiate instruction to meet these varied needs. The Cast website shows the transformation of education through Universal Design for Learning while providing countless resources for teachers. I think UDL is great because it gives all individuals equal opportunities to learn. One of my main goals as a teacher is to inspire a love of learning within my students. UDL will help me to attain this goal by allowing each of my students to feel successful participating during lessons. The video clip below further explains the benefits of implementing Universal Design for Learning.
CAST: About UDL. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html
Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning was a new term to me about two years ago when one of my professors brought it up during a lecture in undergrad. However, the more I read about it throughout the semester, the easier it was to understand. Simply put, UDL involves considering representation, action and expression, and engagement when planning in order for all learners in the classroom to benefit and be successful. First, multiple means of representation gives learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge. Second, by providing multiple means of expression and action, the learners have alternative ways to demonstrate what they know. Lastly, multiple means of engagement allows the teacher to tap into the learners interests, while offering challenges and motivation. This Wiki Site further explains the three essential and important principles of UDL including examples in each category. If UDL is a new term to you, I would definitely recommend checking it out. However, as a teacher, what I found most useful on this website was the sample lesson plans. The elementary level life cycle of plants UDL lesson could easily be modified for my kindergarten students when we start our science unit!
Universal Design For Learning. (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://udl.wiki.ciu20.org/home
About Me
My name is Amanda Grabosky. I recently graduated from Cabrini College with my undergraduate degree in Elementary Education (PreK-4). Currently I am working as a kindergarten teacher in a private school while continuing my education to get my special education certification and masters in education. This blog will be used to share my professional journey learning about assistive technology.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)