We had five “learning intentions” for participants in this presentation.

1. To gain an understanding of UDL
2. To understand why it is important that we understand and embrace UDL in our classrooms now as we are eager to meet the needs of increasingly diverse student populations, and as we need to make decisions about the types of technology we purchase and the pedagogy that drives it’s use.
3. That UDL is not about the technology.
4. That UDL is a subtle shift in paradigm that is having a profound impact on learners
5. That creating Universally Designed schools and classrooms is a journey into which we have taken our first steps with a long way to go…

In classrooms of incredible diversity it may seem practical to create one-size-fits-all learning environments. Classrooms where children are expected to work in similar ways and towards similar outcomes. These types of classrooms, however, don’t work well for the outliers in our society. They tend to become marginalized. Many of the outliers go on to do well in life but can tell stories about how school failed to meet their needs…

What is UDL?

The UDL movement began in architecture with legislation created to make it law that buildings were to be built according to accessibility standards. What was discovered was that when buildings are designed to be accessible for people with disabilities, many other people in the population benefit.

Curb cuts were designed for wheelchair accessibility but are also great for kids on their bikes, and parents pushing strollers.

Closed captioning was designed for the hearing impaired but it is now used more in sports bars, and by couples when one wants to sleep and the other wants to watch TV.

We installed freeware on our computers for our students with disabilities  such as:

Natural Reader which will read most documents including microsoft word, email, powerpoint.

Word Talk which is an add-in for Microsoft word which imbeds a text reader, a spell checker with options that will read for the user, and a thesaurus

CLiCk Speak which is an add-in for FireFox which will read the web.

Programs such as Word talk quickly became useful for other students as they proofread their work and for teachers proofreading their report cards.

We use Kurzweil with many of our students with reading disabilities. It’s highlight and extract functions have also been helpful when used on the Smartboard to teach the entire class about finding the main idea and note-taking.

Write Online is a great online program from Crick Soft that provides word prediction and a word bank for students who need them. Most of it’s other functions are a simplified version Microsoft Word. It is a great program for all kids with accessibility options built in.

Our Smartboards have increased the engagement level for all students in our classrooms. They have especially been good for students who benefit from visual information (isn’t that most of everyone?).

To learn more about the theory and research behind UDL go to the CAST Website.

UDL is important now due to the ever-increasing diversity we face in our classrooms. In the past many children have ’slipped through the cracks’ due to inflexible and inaccessible curriculum and classroom practices.

For many years schools have been questioning if we should be using digital technologies with our students. It is now no longer a question of ‘if’ but one of ‘which’ and ‘how’ digital technology should be used with our students. It is more important than ever that we have a clear pedagogy such as UDL in order to select appropriate technologies to meet the needs of all students. It is important that this pedagogy drives our use of technology rather than the technology driving what we do.

UDL is important now because it has:

Versatility ~ etext can easily be read out loud digitally, video can be paired with reading material

Transformability~ etext can be altered according to user needs or preference in terms of size, colour, and form such as braille.

Ability to be Marked ~ etext can be marked by adding highlighting and annotations by the teacher or the student.

Networkability ~ etext can include hyperlinks to more information, background knowledge, definitions, or video clips to increase student engagement and understanding.

Subtle Shift in Paradigm, Large Impact on Learners

We have been thrilled with our increased ability to meet the needs of the learners within our classrooms. The acceptance has been echoed in the way the students treat and support each other.

In his presentation about UDL at the LATA conference in October of 2008, David Rose said:

“Increasingly we need to be seeing our curriculum as disabling children”

and

“Increasingly our curriculum will be seen as unethical”

It is in legislation that buildings must be accessible to people with physical disabilities. Legislation is beginning to make similar moves towards accessibility in education. Students with special needs are now physically able to access our classrooms. We need to ensure that when they get there the learning is also accessible.

To see David Rose’s entire presentation go to SET BC’s BC UDL project pages

To read Kate’s entire story “I am different not disabled”  go to the Traverse City Record

To read Kate Olson’s blog about this story and the excellent conversation that follows it go to: “Kate Says”

To read more about Ira Socol’s Toolbelt Theory go to his blog: SpeEd Change. Educators should all be reading his entire blog. Also for a telling a look into life in the Special Education classroom read his book: The Drool Room. Warning – it is not for the faint of heart. I would argue, however, that the faint of heart should not be teachers…

This slide illustrates one of the basic differences between traditional planning and planning for a UDL classroom. In the first flow chart programming for students with special learning needs is added on – the lesson is retrofitted to meet the needs of diversity. in the second flow chart the needs of the students are considered during the planning phase through consultation between the classroom and resource teacher.

The division between the support program roles and the classroom teacher role blurs in a UDL classroom.

UDL is about ‘intelligent inclusion‘ When possible activities are designed to meet the needs of all students within the classroom setting. When a student or a group of students’ needs differ greatly from the needs of the group they may be pulled out to be provided with the special programming they need.

Technology makes differentiation easier teachers because we can enlarge it, turn it into etext, play video etc. etc. etc. UDL, however is not about technology. It is about designing accessible and meaningful  learning experiences for our students.

If we could always have our students working with real materials in real settings this would be superior to the use of technology. With the use of technology, however, we are able to provide learning activities that are much more similar to the real thing than we can if we teach from a textbook.

For more about this read my comments about the importance of hands-on learning experinces on by blog “Anita’s Tips, Tricks, and Weblinks“.

We have been working to create UDL classrooms at our school for two years now. We believe we are doing a good job with providing Multiple Means of Representation and Multiple Means of Engagement. This year our goal is to increase our ability to provide more opportunities for our students to have Multiple Means of Representation. It is a journey… we are moving along but there is a long path still ahead.

To read more about the great progress we saw our students make this year visit my blog post: UDL Success!!!

You can watch me talk about it on a video posted on the SET BC website: Anita Strang on Implementing UDL.

Resources:

SET BC’s BCUDL resource page

Paul Hamilton’s blog: Free Resources from the Net for (Special) Education

Paul Hamilton’s Wiki: UDL4all

UDL Toolkit

UDL4All Ning

Last January I blogged about my reflections following reading: New Directions in Education: Eliminating Ableism in Policy and Practice by Thomas Hehir. The following thoughts stuck with me and guided my practice over the past year.

• Hehir defines ableism as ” deeply held negative attitudes toward disability that are analogous to racism”.

Then I looked up “racism” according to Merriam-Webster racism is:

• “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”.
  
  YIKES!! if we superimpose ableism onto racism that is frightening!!!!
  

• In his book Hehir encourages educators to carefully consider each student individually rather than as a group of people with similar traits and capacities.

• Hehir recommends that educators to consider all planning for students with disabilities through the lens of: minimizing the impact of the disability while maximizing the child’s ability to participate.

I have moved forward since with Hehir’s thoughts and Universal Design for Learning as a lens. So much has happened over the past year some of which you can read about in the other posts on my blog but one thing that has stuck out for me…

Someone told me that all the things I am currently researching and advocating (Universal Design for Learning, accessibility, inclusion……..) are just another swing of the educational pendulum (you know the one).

This comment always makes me stop to think…

I have come to the conclusion, however, that Universal Design for Learning cannot be a swing of the pendulum … a flash in the pan … Universal Design for learning is to education what Universal Design has been to architecture — the impetus behind constructing buildings that are physically accessible to all. Are we going to suddenly go back on that?

It may be a pendulum swing but it is not one that can swing back. Will we stop constructing sidewalks with curb cuts? Will we no longer provide closed captioning? Once we begin to redesign learning activities to accommodate the need of all students it will not be possible to reverse because it is about human rights.

At the Learning Assistance Teachers Association (LATA) conference in October of 2008 David Rose talked about the “moral imperative” to provide accessibility. Because we have the technology to provide accessibility it is incumbent on us as educators to provide it.

Ableism is about expecting all people to look, act, and be the same. Our strengths are in our diversity. My favorite video illustration of this is Animal School. Here is the you tube version:

(A clearer version of this video can be found at: http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com/)

We all have our strengths – let’s celebrate them!!!

Thanks Diary of a Goldfish for the focus on combating Disablism – I am eager to read all the other bloggers’ posts!!

• Our appreciation and thanks to the BC Ministry of Education and to SET BC for their role in bringing the UDL movement to BC. We are very excited to be a part of this shift in paradigm.
• That this project is perfectly timed with a change in the questions educators are asking about technology. In the past educators questioned “why” and “should we” use technology in education. Now educators are asking “what?” and “how?”. Universal Design for Learning provides a framework within which teachers can make informed decisions about the use of technological tools to help students succeed at school
• The amazing progress our students have made in gaining reading skills since we began the project, and what we believe to be the reason for their success.

I uploaded the presentation slides to SlideShare:

Click the like above to view and/or download this presentation on SlideShare.

The blogs / web resources I referred to in my presentation were:

• SET BC’s BCUDL site
• BC UDL Project Wiki
• BC UDL LOR (Learning Objects Repository) – a growing collections of Universally designed lessons
• BC UDL Weblinks – links to a variety of resources including Smartboards
• David Rose – LATA Presentation October 2008 – Marlborough Elem. Burnaby
• Ira Socol’s site: SpeEd Change – His Toolbelt Theory is a must read for all educators
• Paul Hamilton’s Wiki – udl4all – Great collection of freeware and web based tools for classrooms
• Paul Hamilton’s Blog – Free Resources from the Net for (Special) Education
• UDL4All Ning ~ Join the UDL Conversation!!
• Lisa’s Lingo: The Successful Inclusion Program
• “Kate Says” Blog ~ read her post and the replies: “Power of a Word”
• Our Smartboard Forum site

Get your twitter mosaic here.

I used a series of tests but the most exciting results were in reading. Many of the students have made more progress than would be expected over the time period measured. Some made more than a year’s progress since the last assessment.

This is far more impressive progress than we typically see for this subgroup of students. It really got me thinking about what we have been doing differently as we work towards developing Universally Designed learning activities for our students.

In the past we have determined which students needed support and have pulled them out a few times each week to work on helping them acquire the skills they are missing (we were trying to ‘fix’ them). During the pull-out time I taught various things – reading, phonemic awareness, sight-word practice, writing, etc. etc. etc. This year we are providing support for these students quite differently…

Short-term Pull-out groups with a purpose

When we wrote our students’ IEPs in October we noticed a subgroup of students at the grade 4 and 5 level who lacked phonemic awareness. Being that this is a skill that they would not naturally receive support for within their classrooms, we determined that a pull-out program was necessary. I instructed these students using the Vowel Circle (part of Lindamood-Bell’s LiPS program which has a strong research base). The group meets about 3x per week but is scheduled daily so we can skip so they don’t miss special classroom activities.

Most of the students who have been involved in this group are currently demonstrating an improved understanding of sound-letter relationships. Some of them are spontaneously beginning to apply these skills while others are not yet. In the next term students who need this type of support will be involved in a small group which will learn to apply the Vowel Circle to reading and spelling.

In Class Support

What was most interesting to me about the progress made by our students was that many of the students who made the largest gains received only occasionally pull-out support to monitor their progress. How do we account for the success of these students???

Accessibility

Classroom teachers are working collaboratively (with special ed teachers and other classroom teachers) to build supports into their lessons in order to make the learning experiences are accessible.

Using Technology as a tool

Our teachers and students are experimenting with a variety of software tools (much of it freeware) to ensure that students are able to access the curriculum (see Paul Hamilton’s blog “Free Resources from the Net for Special Education“). For example, if we are working on comprehension within a story, students who are not able to decode at grade level may use a text reader so that they can participate fully in the learning activities.

Visual Information & Background Knowledge

Many of our students’ Psycho-educational testing recommends that they be provided with visual information along with verbal, and/or that they be provided with background information. This has become so much easier to do through the use of technology. The teachers of these students use their Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) strategically to embed the visual information and background information the students require into their lessons.

Joint Attention

I also believe that many students with diverse learning needs benefit from the ‘joint attention’ environment the IWBs create which increase the likelihood that all students are attending to the salient details within the lesson.

Class Size

In our district staffing is allocated to each school based on a funding formula. Schools then determine how much will be used for classroom teachers and how much will be used for student support ‘resource room’ type services. This year we decided to put as much staffing as possible into classroom teacher positions in order to reduce class sizes. This year our grade 4 and 5 classrooms average 23 students (they are usually up around 30). While this greatly reduced the amount of learning assistance / resource support classroom teachers could expect, it provided them with more time to support students within the classroom setting.

Shift in Paradigm (for teachers and students)

I truly believe that the most powerful change we have made is the message we have communicated to our students. In the past we have inadvertently taught our students with diverse learning needs that the instruction they needed to be successful could not be found in the same learning environment or be provided by the same teacher as their peers. What they needed was special instruction provided in an alternate setting.

Our students are now learning that their teachers can teach them, and that they can learn throughout the day in their classroom alongside their peers. They are learning that there are tools they can use to in order to access the curriculum. They are learning that being different and doing things differently is not just acceptable, but that it is encouraged by their teachers. They are learning that they are valued and supported members of their classroom and their school. They are learning that they belong.

The next steps on our UDL Journey…

What about the kids who are not making great progress?

While the data in the graphs of our students’ reading achievement indicate overall success, there are students that have not made much progress. For those students we must continue to experiment in order to find effective tools for them, and effective interventions.

Short-term Pull-out groups

Many of the students now understand phonemic awareness but need assistance to apply their knowledge. A group has been formed that will focus on applying the Vowel Circle to spelling and reading.

Project-Based Learning & Self-Directed Learning

We have focused on and made great progress in providing our learners with Multiple Means of Representation, and Multiple Means of Engagement,  we are now investigating methods for providing Multiple Means of Expression. One of our teachers has been involved in a District learning team investigating Project-Based Learning and she is sharing what she has learned with us. Others are investigating Self-Directed Learning models. It will be exciting to see where this takes us next…

The process is gradual but it is nice to see some success in our first few steps!!

My first discovery is a bit embarrassing but here goes… I always thought (assumed) what I was teaching was obvious. I wasn’t convinced that simply stating the learning intention would make a great deal of difference. One day I was teaching phonemic awareness to a small group but hadn’t planned ahead to discuss the learning intention. On the fly I decided to do this. One problem… I quickly realized that I was unable to articulate it in a way that would make sense to my students. I realized at that moment that the lesson I had planned did not have a clear intention, that I was actually intending to teach my students a whole bunch of things. Being that I work with students with learning disabilities who have not been able to gain phonemic awareness from classroom lessons, I instantly knew this could not go well. This was the turning point for me in my understanding of backward design – beginning with the end in mind. After all – how can we expect to get to our destination if we are not clear about where we are going. 

My second discovery has been about how clearly articulated learning intentions make it easier to make adaptations for students when necessary. One of our students has autism. He is currently on an adapted program (he is working towards the same learning outcomes as his classmates but may need to learn and show his understanding differently). Adaptations have been far easier since his teacher has begun adding the learning intention to the classroom agenda. When I walked in to work with this student the other day the class was working on a math sheet. Because I had missed the lesson, the worksheet the students were using made no sense to me. Being that this student is not currently able to make sense of verbal instructions, the lesson had probably not have made much sense to him either. Luckily the learning intention was to ‘make things balance’. I quickly found a balance scale and some cubes and got him involved in adding cubes into the baskets until the scales balanced. His activity looked quite different from his classmates’ activity, but he was still working towards the same learning intention. Had the learning intention not have been stated I would have had difficulty determining an appropriate adaptation. In an attempt to accommodate this student I may have selected a different aspect of the task to focus on. 

In a perfect UDL world the teacher and I would have met prior to the lesson, discussed the activity, determined the barriers within the lesson for learners including this one, and found ways to remove the barriers. In our world where on-the-fly happens more often than we care to admit, the simple act of articulating the learning intention makes a huge difference for our learners.

This is an excellent tool at: http://bookbuilder.cast.org/ to make your own accessible texts.

This was created (very simply!!) in Wordle: http://www.wordle.net/. This would be a fun project for kids using their name and descriptors about themselves. It was simple and fun to play with.

This is rough – just messing around but it only took me 15 minutes to put together.

Cool!!