[Prompt: How might you incorporate principles of UDL into your own classroom?]
Based on the overview of Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, it's apparent that there are 3 different components - Recognition, Strategic, and Affective networks. Therefore, I think it makes the most sense to approach each of these individually in my classroom.
Recognition deals with how a student gathers facts in order to learn, with variations such as auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners. In my future math or science classroom, I think it will be very beneficial for all of my students if the learning takes place both visually on the SmartBoard, whiteboard, projector, and handouts as well as aurally through videos, lectures, and demonstrations. I will reach the kinesthetic learners by providing avenues for movement through group activities that take kids around the classroom (like a carousel or graffiti activity) and hands-on tasks through laboratory assignments and projects where they're doing and creating. This component also deals with students who might have a "learning disability" such as being deaf, blind, or physically handicapped; all of those students would be given accommodations on a need by need basis.
The strategic component deals with performing and planning tasks. This can be approached by giving students different opportunities to tackle the assignments. It might not be feasible for a choice in every activity, but there will be opportunities to choose and other times I will give them variations. This could be done by having the students work in groups and some groups solving math problems the "conventional" way, while others attempt to solve it with a different approach. The groups could then switch for the next problem(s) so that everyone is getting a chance to work with their preferred method at some point. This will also help students be introduced to learning styles that are novel for them.
Finally, the affective portion has to do with the emotional and motivational aspects of learning. This is probably one of the most difficult areas that new and veteran teachers deal with. From a behavior management perspective, I recently saw an idea on Pinterest that uses CandyLand to motivate classes to display and maintain positive behavior by encouraging competition between the class periods. This is definitely something I would like to incorporate into my classroom, and the blog posting about it can be found here. Other things I would like to use is to break my grading policies into academic and nonacademic factions to help students focus on content mastery instead of just "plugging and chugging" their way through homework and classwork to get a good grade. I think if they're individually seeing their progress they will be more inspired to work hard.
Overall, I think UDL is a great principle and necessary in my future classroom. Some things might be a bit daunting to include up front, but it's certainly something I want to work towards during my first year of teaching and beyond.
Natalie,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog post! After a week, or maybe longer, it was a great refresher on UDL.
The way you break down each network, and describe your methods, I think you are going to make a great teacher.
Students come from very diverse backgrounds and have different ways of learning, gathering, and processing information. We as teachers, as you described in detail, need to craft lessons and information in ways that each student can grasp the material. This may mean that we will have students working on different things, and as you said, it may be a bit daunting, but it will be so rewarding. Why wouldn't we do everything possible to help students learn?
And I just wanted to add YAY for your inclusion of separating academic vs. nonacademic factors in grading policies. (I feel like all our courses are coming together nicely.) This will be different for students because of the 100+ years of traditional grading policies, but it will show both teachers and students where they are at in their learning and how they can keep moving forward.
Great post!
Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI also think it's a very daunting task to implement the principles of UDL effectively as a beginning teacher. I try to remember that each student brings new challenges, so I can't expect to always have an immediate and perfectly appropriate response to each learner's needs and goals. Of course, it will just take time for us to hone our skills as teachers.
I hadn't thought too much about grading students in academic and nonacademic factors, and I'm so glad you mention it here. I've been frustrated trying to plan lessons that incorporate content and personal or social skills in the hope that students would gain both, only to see if they weren't engaged they would miss out on both! I realize now that it might be better to create exercises or learning experiences in the classroom that would allow students to develop these other skills independent of content, at least some of the time.
In Language Arts, group work or reading exercises offer these possibilities. But for an assessment, I think it'd be great to give students their own journal or binder they can record their experiences in for grading. Instead of simply looking for mastery of content, I could ask them to record their observations of interactions in their groups, what they learned from certain assignments, or how they respond to readings in current events or literature. I really like the possibility of grades that reflect effort and progress giving students an idea of their skill levels and how to improve.