Some Great Websites :-)

Here are some extra websites to help you in the field of UDL. Some we have not covered before and others are just too good and need another posting. Have fun!

1.  As we have experienced, UDL is a lot to take in. There is a lot of information out there but this website sums it up for you. It is great if you need to quickly glance over the different parts of UDL. It includes the definition of UDL, a list of who benefits from it, the principles, common teaching methods, implementation and essential qualities. The implementation area has some interesting things that you could forget to alter in your lesson plan. They also give examples in the qualities section to help you understand the three methods in UDL. Here is the website. http://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Universal-Design-FF.pdf

2. Here is a website that is directed towards the high school teachers or professors. Do you realize that your students are not grasping what you lecture about in class. It may not be their fault. As we have seen, not all students learn the same way. This is the same for adults. 
http://ada.osu.edu/resources/fastfacts/Guided-Notes-Fact-Sheet.pdf

3. Here is another teacher friendly website!   http://udlwheel.mdonlinegrants.org/

I love this wheel that I found through this website ( http://www.udlcenter.org/implementation ). It shows a lot of guidelines and checkpoints that could help you with reducing barriers and evaluate your current curriculum. 

4. http://www.CAST.org

  I am going to give you this site again. It is probably the best site to learn about UDL. Go to it and evolve your teaching skills!

5. http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/classprofiletutorial.cfm

This website allows you to create a class learning profile considering each student in light of the three brain networks, noting strengths, needs, and interests.


Have fun exploring!

UDL Guidelines - Pre/Post Assessment

This past week I reviewed a lesson that I created four years ago in my Methods classroom at my Undergraduate school. We started learning about using UDL in the classroom this semester. Our professor gave us a checklist of UDL guidelines to see if each part was included in our lesson. To my surprise, I did not do so well. I don’t think I had at least half of the guidelines needed. This was a huge wake up call. I know it will probably get easier to create the lesson plan when this is embedded in my head. Practice-practice- practice! Here is the site.  http://udlonline.cast.org/guidelines        

Let me tell you what my lesson is about before I get ahead of myself. It is a 2^nd grade science Air Pressure lesson. We previously covered the reading on air pressure and this was a fun hands-on lesson to show how air pressure worked. The students were split up into small groups. They watched a demonstration of the set up of a balloon taped to a straw on a string and had to recreate it (see photo below). Once set up correctly, they had to let it go and measure it's distance. The students had to measure to see which balloon would travel further, a long balloon (pictured) or a regular round balloon. When they were finished, they could race the balloons and add items to their balloon to alter it. I had two students in the class that spoke very limited English.  

I took my lesson plan and my UDL guidelines checklist and checked to see if I incorporated each of these components throughout my lesson plan. Below are a few or my strongest and areas that still need some help. 

My strongest area was Providing Options for Comprehension. Listed below are the links.

I.    Provide Multiple Means of Representation:

1.     Provide options for comprehension

3.1  Activate or supply background knowledge

3.3  Guide information processing, visualization, and manipulation

3.4  Maximize transfer and generalization

Areas that I need to develop are listed below with their link.

Provide options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols

Provide options for expression and communication

Provide options for self-regulation




There are some challenges that come with developing greater variety in the use of UDL. I believe that my greatest would be trying to focus on the technology to help the student and help the rest of the class at the same time. Students ask a lot of questions when it comes to technology and troubleshooting. They would need a lot of one on one time. If there is no aide in the classroom, this may be tricky at first. If something were to go wrong with the device, it may take a week or more to get it fixed.


During my time in this course, I would like to learn more about using the "Smart Board". I notice that more and more classrooms have them now in this area. It is rare not to see one in a classroom. I would also love to build more on developing students’ intrinsic abilities to regulate their own emotions and motivations. As stated in the Guidelines above, "The ability to self-regulate – to strategically modulate one’s emotional reactions or states in order to be more effective at coping and engaging with the environment – is a critical aspect of human development. ("Provide options for," )"

References

Provide options for self-regulation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/udlguidelinesexamples/home/multiple-means-of-engagement/provide-options-for-self-regulation

Review: Cast- Teaching Every Student

"One size fits all definitely doesn't work in the classroom anymore. Everyone has different learning styles and there needs to me alternative methods for teaching." A quote from a video on this site.

http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/

I really liked this site. It finally made using UDL click in my head. I started by watching the four videos under the basics section. After that, I looked at the UDL Guidelines. I liked that it broke it down to show different examples to help with lesson planning. Within each example is a link to better explain it. It helped so much when I wanted to alter an old lesson plan (soon to follow).

Three primary principles guide UDL—and provide structure for the Guidelines:

To learn more, click on one of the Guidelines below.

I. Provide Multiple Means of Representation

PerceptionLanguage, expressions, and symbolsComprehension

II. Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression

Physical actionExpression and communication
 Executive function

III. Provide Multiple Means of Engagement

Recruiting interestSustaining effort and persistence
 Self-regulation

CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield, MA: Author.

Another area in this site allows you to complete an activity. It gives you a scenario and places you in the scenario.  I chose to cook Indian food. It takes the three guests (including you) and shows you the strengths and challenges each person has with cooking the food. You have to include yourself in that list and include your strengths and weaknesses.

The last section, Case Studies, I liked the most. I chose Reading Challenges in  Social Studies. Let me warn you, it is very long but detailed. It shows you how you should look at the overall picture when dealing with your challenges. Throughout the slides it describes her social studies lesson and gives you the traditional approach and the UDL approach (as sampled below). At the end, there is a link to a model geography lesson in more detail in the UDL toolkit section.

 Lesson Goals

Traditional Approach Student groups create a map containing political, topographical, and resources in the selected state of study. Students will orally present and describe the state and map results to the class.

UDL ApproachStudents map the political, topographical and natural resources of a selected state, compare patterns across the maps, and present results to demonstrate understandings of the state and resources.

Cast Website

We have touched upon UDL in my previous blog. Here is something to catch you up if you need it. 

I wanted to introduce you to a website that will become your best friend when using UDL in your classroom. 

www.cast.org

Founded in 1984,  Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) wanted "to explore ways of using new technologies to provide better educational experiences to students with disabilities."  ("Cast timeline: One," )

Their Mission:To expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through the research and development of innovative, technology-based educational resources and strategies.

I get what you are thinking, "How am I going to find the time to integrate UDL in every lesson plan?"  This is where this website comes in. You need a login to get into most of the goodies but it's free and easy to set up. If you are a Pinterest lover like I am, you might be familiar with exchanging great teaching ideas. This website has an area that you can create, organize and share UDL lesson plans and resources. 

On top of the exchange area, this website has many other learning tools to help the teacher, student and parent with UDL. There are even free Apps!  Here is a quick link to check them out.  http://cast.org/learningtools/index.html

If there is one thing I have learned about UDL through all of this, it is to use all of your available resources. I hope this helped to make it easier for you to succeed.

("Universal Design for," Universal Design for Learning)


References

Cast timeline: One mission, many innovations, 1984-2010. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://cast.org/about/timeline/index.html

Universal Design for Learning [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://cast.org/udl/index.html

Curriculum Barriers Tutorial

Today I would like to add on to my previous post. Earlier, we talked about the UDL website. This is a link through found the www.cast.org website. ** http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/curriculumbarriers.cfm**

This tutorial really put things into perspective for me. It helps you analyze hidden barriers in the curriculum when using the UDL framework. I love how it walks you through step by step.

There are four parts to the tool. The first three are shown below. The forth is to save your work on the website.

                                                                                                        ("Curriculum barriers template," 2002)
Here is a link to a sample tool. - http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/curriculumbarrierstemplate.cfm

I chose Charlie because he is a lot like the first grader that I currently nanny for (J). J is a lot like Charlie. He focuses on things that he absolutely loves and focuses when he plays the Wii (a little too much), just like Charlie. I also chose the sixth grade science area. It stated that there was computer use with the curriculum. I think that Charlie would benefit from this technology use but a barrier would be that he would focus too much on the computer and you wouldn't be able to dislodge him from it. This is a known problem with him and the Nintendo.

This helped me understand how to truly break down a students disability for the certain lesson. I had never heard of barriers before I visited this website. It helped me understand why my students could benefit from using one material but not another. I really had to put thought into each students potential barriers while creating the lesson. Get to know your students as individuals! Get to know their likes and dislikes. It will help all of you succeed.

Thanks for listening!

-Bridgette


Curriculum barriers template. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/curriculumbarrierstemplate.cfm

Planning for All Learners

A Great New Website!

http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/tk_introduction.cfm?tk_id=21

I promise, learning about UDL gets better! We have amazing websites like this one to guide us through it. Hooray for technology! Yes, we are still discussing UDL. The more you practice with it, the more you will use it. Earlier we talked about what UDL is and I showed you some good tools to help you along. Well, here is another.


PAL- I've never heard of it before today. It stands for Planning for All Learners. According to this website, "PAL applies UDL to planning and developing curricula in ways that promote access, participation, and progress in the general education curriculum for all learners." ("Udl toolkits ;," )


There also is a "PAL Toolkit that provides specific planning steps, guidance, mentoring, model lessons, tools, templates, resources, and links to other educators using the PAL Model." ("Udl toolkits ;," )


I read over the site and it talks about how PAL is a great tool that brings together the general education teachers, special education teachers and other specialists. I love that it has everyone on the same page. They come together to focus on the curriculum for the student with disabilities. I wonder if some schools require this or if we as teachers have to start it on our own. The site helps you out with Setting Goals, Assessing Students, Applying UDL to lesson plans and teaching the lessons.


Have a great day!

-Bridgette

Udl toolkits ; planning for all learners (pal). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/tk_introduction.cfm?tk_id=21

Review of a Helpful UDL Website

Review of a Helpful UDL Website

( http://udl.wiki.ciu20.org/Multiple+Means+of+Engagement )  

Today I reviewed a new site that impressed me. As discussed in the previous post, I will be expanding on the UDL module. This website first goes into the three multiple means of UDL; representation, expression and engagement which we talked about earlier. Under the E-Book (http://udl.wiki.ciu20.org/E-books) link on the right, there is a slide show that explains in detail how to create an E-Book using PowerPoint and Voice Threads. They include tutorials and finished examples. There are some sample UDL lessons under another link ( http://udl.wiki.ciu20.org/Sample+UDL+lessons ). I really liked that they had a UDL lesson builder ( http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/ ). It is free to use but you do need to create an account. I looked over the “Explore Model UDL Lesson Plans” ( http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/explore.php ) and it taught me, through examples, different ways to incorporate UDL in the real classroom. It shows you how each part is a UDL connection. This provided me with a helpful tool that I will use in my teaching future.

Talk to you soon,

Bridgette

Purpose of This Blog

Hi! Welcome to my blog! If you would like to know more about Assisted Technology in the classroom, this blog is for you. I have started my first class toward my Masters of Education and Special Education Certification and you get to follow me through it. 

For the next few blogs we will talk about Universal Design for Learning. This is the first time I am hearing about this term. We did not address it in my Undergraduate courses from 2008-2011. According to http://www.cast.org/udl/,  "UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn." ("About udl:what is," 2013)

There are three basic principles. 

1) Provide multiple means of representation ( http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle1 ) ("About udl:what is," 2013)

2) Provide multiple means of action and expression ( http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle2 ) ("About udl:what is," 2013)

3) Provide multiple means of engagement ( http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle3 ) ("About udl:what is," 2013)

More on this topic will be addressed soon. Below is a video that might help you to understand UDL at a greater level.

                                                                                                   (Saronin1, 2009)

Thanks for reading!

-Bridgette

(About udl:what is universal design for learning.) (2013, 7 16). Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/udl/ 

Saronin1. (Director) (2009). Aerosol & udl [Web series episode]. In YouTube. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/tA5OYqWziIQ