*UDL 101 A Final Assignment/Fall Section B
*Universal Design for Learning
MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY
Goal:
During an interdisciplinary unit in Social Studies and Writing, students will show evidence that given appropriate supports, they can persist at completing a poster project with written descriptions and at writing an opinion piece about an imaginary country. The opinion piece will contain well-developed reasons that explain why this imaginary country is a wonderful place to visit. Students will present this piece during a discussion with their peers. MA Frameworks Gr. 2 for Writing and Speaking Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section. “Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups."
a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
b. Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
c. Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion.
Given the UDL supports available in this project, students will:
1. sustain attention to writing tasks and persist in writing activities
2. make individual choices to increase creativity and engagement. i.e. design a country, give it a shape, add agricultural and geographical features, design a flag, design currency and give options for population, sports, entertainment or recreation.
3. have opportunities to learn facts about a number of foreign countries
Design:
Develop a plan for how you might present, analyze, and/or revise the unit.
Design is present in the form of teacher created materials, links to activities that support the UDL Guidelines, and feedback notes to inform my practice.
Description of the Lesson (More like a Unit):
“Imaginary Country” While working collaboratively in small groups, students will use assorted materials to create a poster with written descriptions about an imaginary country that exists on one of Earth’s 7 continents. Next, partners will collaborate on writing an opinion piece to try to convince their classmates to visit their country. Finally, students will make an oral presentation. This lesson is currently in progress.
UDL Guideline: Provide Multiple Means for Engagement:
7: Provide options for recruiting interest
7.1 Optimize individual choice and autonomy
Samples of supports to match the UDL Guideline:
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/brazil_practice.jpg
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/israel_practice.jpg
The fact sheets were included as part of a program to scaffold support for students. Many students in this class enjoy reading and memorizing content area information. At times it is quite easy for these students to state facts, but difficult for them to organize those thoughts into a written format with elaborative detail. During the past 10 weeks, the class has completed one of these fact sheets every week. Many students' written responses became more fluent when they mirrored the format on these worksheets. The worksheets provided a basic structure to enhance students comfort level while they explored new concepts and extended their thinking. The familiar format helped them to develop ideas and lay them out visually on their posters. It also helped them to become more fluent at including elaborative details to persuade an audience when they were writing. In this way, students progressed from concrete thinking to a fluid expression of well-developed ideas.
View a sample of a student's completed poster project. More samples can be viewed in the gallery below.
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/0110141410.jpg
Students will be encouraged to bring in a variety of materials and/or small objects from home to make their projects visually appealing. If they wish, they can do a brief demonstration of a dance, song or sport. There will be supports and scaffolds offered for students who do not enjoy creative projects, or who need more modeling. The supports include access to templates of flags, access to visual models of travel brochures, and opinion pieces, an opportunity to visit some travel websites in the computer room, and previous instruction and learning activities about real countries.
View a sample of creative materials that students brought from home.
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/0109140857b.jpg
7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity
Many aspects of this project are relevant to this largely homogeneous group of 2nd graders. They are just beginning to understand that children in “faraway lands” have experiences similar to their own, such as using money, playing sports, having a flag, etc.. To add further relevance, children can bring in examples of items that reflect their cultural heritage, or that family members have collected from other countries. Finally, the students will be communicating to a “real” audience when they showcase their country, and share their “travel brochures” to try to convince their classmates to come visit. Evidence of success: A student chose to name an imaginary country Philipinasia because of her family heritage.
7.3 Minimize threats and distractions
In order to reduce potential distractions while making their country, students will have an option to work alone at desks with privacy folders or collaboratively with partners at large tables around the perimeter of the classroom. Each student will have access to necessary materials, and a short, checklist of sequential, age-appropriate instructions. Students can work independently or with a partner when they write their opinion piece. In order to provide the predictability of routines, the writing segment will follow the procedure we use during regular writing workshop sessions. The oral presentation of the brochures and project will also be incorporated into our familiar, class routine for discussions about shared writing.
View Sample of a chart routinely used during writing workshop:
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/organize_facts_on_chart_paper.jpg
Student exemplars will be provided with a rubric, so students can have a visual model of what the country project, and opinion piece could look like. Students will have already completed a series of previous lessons where they viewed similar models of actual countries and placed them on our “Country Tree”.
View the Country Tree.
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/country_tree.jpg
8: Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
8.1 Heighten salience of goals and objectives
Student-friendly learning goals are regularly written on the board, read out loud, and revisited for understanding during daily routines. That same procedure will be followed with this lesson. Students will be directed to refer often to the student checklist, rubric, and exemplar, to see if they are making progress toward their goals.
View Rubric
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/my_country_rubric_photo.jpg
8.2 Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge
The creative, fluid, nature of this project allows for differences in the degree of difficulty. Students are free to take advantage of the various tools and scaffolds they are offered. They can elect to create, and write about as few as 4 or as many as 10 exciting features about their country. Because many students enjoy art, the visual, and tactile sensations of the country project, will help to activate their thinking prior to writing. Opportunities to use oral language will also help them to construct their thoughts before they write.
8.3 Foster collaboration and community
Most students in the class enjoy doing partner work. They will be paired with students they have enjoyed working with in the past. Strong writing skills qualify some to work as peer tutors to support others who need help. Due to the cooperative learning arrangement in the classroom, students have had a lot of experience working collaboratively. Most of the students understand the expectations for group and partner work. They use strategies for taking turns, give respectful listening looks,, and using positive words. Some students are able to view disagreements as an opportunity to prove or disprove facts, or to see another perspective. Other students are working toward this important skill.
24 student desks are arranged in 6 groups of 4 students in each group. Each group is named after a continent.
8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback
Mastery-oriented feedback will be focused on acknowledging and recognizing:
· Attention to task
· Perseverance
· Evidence of adherence to the goals/checklist/rubric/exemplar
· Cooperative behavior
Many attempts are being made to give specific, mastery oriented feedback. This includes praise for maintaining attention to task, for perseverance, and for completing work within reasonable time frames. Most of the students in the class respond well to this feedback. This is evidenced by students final projects. The majority of students achieved a grade of 4 on the scoring rubric. (see rubric below)
9: Provide options for self-regulation
9.1 Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation
Adhering to the principals of a growth mindset, I will look for evidence of success and provide students with prompts, reminders, and feedback about the good things they are achieving.
Students will be encouraged to visualize what success will look like and feel like. The peer coach is adept at this, so she can model the process of setting and achieving goals.
View Website Homepage to see samples of 9.1 feedback for all students and parents:
/
Feedback to inform my practice: A few below level students worked well with peer coaches. Interestingly, the peer coaches only gave two forms of support: 1. They reminded partners to look at the exemplar so they could visualize the format. 2. They were cued to raise their hand if partners stopped working.
9.2 Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies
Prior to the writing activity, students will participate in a short series of role plays with stuffed animals. The role plays will simulate a frustrating “choking” writing experience. Students will have opportunities to brainstorm and use the animals demonstrate coping mechanisms to help regain internal controls. “Grittier” stuffed animals will demonstrate an ability to persist to the extreme. They will be available for support to place on students’ desks as requested.
9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection
One goal of this project is for students to become more aware of elements that motivate them to write. In order to help them think metacognitively, each student will have access to a small self-regulatory list with mini stickers. First, we will discuss and model use of the list. Next, we connect it to the stuffed animal role plays. Then, at any time during the project, the students will be encouraged to give themselves stickers when they can write or draw something on their list that helped them to either work through a “choking” moment, act gritty, or to persist even when things felt difficult.
*Universal Design for Learning
MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY
Goal:
During an interdisciplinary unit in Social Studies and Writing, students will show evidence that given appropriate supports, they can persist at completing a poster project with written descriptions and at writing an opinion piece about an imaginary country. The opinion piece will contain well-developed reasons that explain why this imaginary country is a wonderful place to visit. Students will present this piece during a discussion with their peers. MA Frameworks Gr. 2 for Writing and Speaking Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section. “Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups."
a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion).
b. Build on others’ talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others.
c. Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion.
Given the UDL supports available in this project, students will:
1. sustain attention to writing tasks and persist in writing activities
2. make individual choices to increase creativity and engagement. i.e. design a country, give it a shape, add agricultural and geographical features, design a flag, design currency and give options for population, sports, entertainment or recreation.
3. have opportunities to learn facts about a number of foreign countries
Design:
Develop a plan for how you might present, analyze, and/or revise the unit.
Design is present in the form of teacher created materials, links to activities that support the UDL Guidelines, and feedback notes to inform my practice.
Description of the Lesson (More like a Unit):
“Imaginary Country” While working collaboratively in small groups, students will use assorted materials to create a poster with written descriptions about an imaginary country that exists on one of Earth’s 7 continents. Next, partners will collaborate on writing an opinion piece to try to convince their classmates to visit their country. Finally, students will make an oral presentation. This lesson is currently in progress.
UDL Guideline: Provide Multiple Means for Engagement:
7: Provide options for recruiting interest
7.1 Optimize individual choice and autonomy
Samples of supports to match the UDL Guideline:
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/brazil_practice.jpg
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/israel_practice.jpg
The fact sheets were included as part of a program to scaffold support for students. Many students in this class enjoy reading and memorizing content area information. At times it is quite easy for these students to state facts, but difficult for them to organize those thoughts into a written format with elaborative detail. During the past 10 weeks, the class has completed one of these fact sheets every week. Many students' written responses became more fluent when they mirrored the format on these worksheets. The worksheets provided a basic structure to enhance students comfort level while they explored new concepts and extended their thinking. The familiar format helped them to develop ideas and lay them out visually on their posters. It also helped them to become more fluent at including elaborative details to persuade an audience when they were writing. In this way, students progressed from concrete thinking to a fluid expression of well-developed ideas.
View a sample of a student's completed poster project. More samples can be viewed in the gallery below.
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/0110141410.jpg
Students will be encouraged to bring in a variety of materials and/or small objects from home to make their projects visually appealing. If they wish, they can do a brief demonstration of a dance, song or sport. There will be supports and scaffolds offered for students who do not enjoy creative projects, or who need more modeling. The supports include access to templates of flags, access to visual models of travel brochures, and opinion pieces, an opportunity to visit some travel websites in the computer room, and previous instruction and learning activities about real countries.
View a sample of creative materials that students brought from home.
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/0109140857b.jpg
7.2 Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity
Many aspects of this project are relevant to this largely homogeneous group of 2nd graders. They are just beginning to understand that children in “faraway lands” have experiences similar to their own, such as using money, playing sports, having a flag, etc.. To add further relevance, children can bring in examples of items that reflect their cultural heritage, or that family members have collected from other countries. Finally, the students will be communicating to a “real” audience when they showcase their country, and share their “travel brochures” to try to convince their classmates to come visit. Evidence of success: A student chose to name an imaginary country Philipinasia because of her family heritage.
7.3 Minimize threats and distractions
In order to reduce potential distractions while making their country, students will have an option to work alone at desks with privacy folders or collaboratively with partners at large tables around the perimeter of the classroom. Each student will have access to necessary materials, and a short, checklist of sequential, age-appropriate instructions. Students can work independently or with a partner when they write their opinion piece. In order to provide the predictability of routines, the writing segment will follow the procedure we use during regular writing workshop sessions. The oral presentation of the brochures and project will also be incorporated into our familiar, class routine for discussions about shared writing.
View Sample of a chart routinely used during writing workshop:
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/organize_facts_on_chart_paper.jpg
Student exemplars will be provided with a rubric, so students can have a visual model of what the country project, and opinion piece could look like. Students will have already completed a series of previous lessons where they viewed similar models of actual countries and placed them on our “Country Tree”.
View the Country Tree.
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/country_tree.jpg
8: Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
8.1 Heighten salience of goals and objectives
Student-friendly learning goals are regularly written on the board, read out loud, and revisited for understanding during daily routines. That same procedure will be followed with this lesson. Students will be directed to refer often to the student checklist, rubric, and exemplar, to see if they are making progress toward their goals.
View Rubric
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/my_country_rubric_photo.jpg
8.2 Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge
The creative, fluid, nature of this project allows for differences in the degree of difficulty. Students are free to take advantage of the various tools and scaffolds they are offered. They can elect to create, and write about as few as 4 or as many as 10 exciting features about their country. Because many students enjoy art, the visual, and tactile sensations of the country project, will help to activate their thinking prior to writing. Opportunities to use oral language will also help them to construct their thoughts before they write.
8.3 Foster collaboration and community
Most students in the class enjoy doing partner work. They will be paired with students they have enjoyed working with in the past. Strong writing skills qualify some to work as peer tutors to support others who need help. Due to the cooperative learning arrangement in the classroom, students have had a lot of experience working collaboratively. Most of the students understand the expectations for group and partner work. They use strategies for taking turns, give respectful listening looks,, and using positive words. Some students are able to view disagreements as an opportunity to prove or disprove facts, or to see another perspective. Other students are working toward this important skill.
24 student desks are arranged in 6 groups of 4 students in each group. Each group is named after a continent.
8.4 Increase mastery-oriented feedback
Mastery-oriented feedback will be focused on acknowledging and recognizing:
· Attention to task
· Perseverance
· Evidence of adherence to the goals/checklist/rubric/exemplar
· Cooperative behavior
Many attempts are being made to give specific, mastery oriented feedback. This includes praise for maintaining attention to task, for perseverance, and for completing work within reasonable time frames. Most of the students in the class respond well to this feedback. This is evidenced by students final projects. The majority of students achieved a grade of 4 on the scoring rubric. (see rubric below)
9: Provide options for self-regulation
9.1 Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation
Adhering to the principals of a growth mindset, I will look for evidence of success and provide students with prompts, reminders, and feedback about the good things they are achieving.
Students will be encouraged to visualize what success will look like and feel like. The peer coach is adept at this, so she can model the process of setting and achieving goals.
View Website Homepage to see samples of 9.1 feedback for all students and parents:
/
Feedback to inform my practice: A few below level students worked well with peer coaches. Interestingly, the peer coaches only gave two forms of support: 1. They reminded partners to look at the exemplar so they could visualize the format. 2. They were cued to raise their hand if partners stopped working.
9.2 Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies
Prior to the writing activity, students will participate in a short series of role plays with stuffed animals. The role plays will simulate a frustrating “choking” writing experience. Students will have opportunities to brainstorm and use the animals demonstrate coping mechanisms to help regain internal controls. “Grittier” stuffed animals will demonstrate an ability to persist to the extreme. They will be available for support to place on students’ desks as requested.
9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection
One goal of this project is for students to become more aware of elements that motivate them to write. In order to help them think metacognitively, each student will have access to a small self-regulatory list with mini stickers. First, we will discuss and model use of the list. Next, we connect it to the stuffed animal role plays. Then, at any time during the project, the students will be encouraged to give themselves stickers when they can write or draw something on their list that helped them to either work through a “choking” moment, act gritty, or to persist even when things felt difficult.
Students viewed this video in the computer lab. It stimulated their interest and showed them a fun way to convince people to travel to a foreign country.
Click on photos to view "pop-up" descriptors.
Copy of Homework Directions and Photo of the creative materials brought to school.
Homework this week is to study the vocabulary and spelling words for a test on FRIDAY. In school, on Thursday, and Friday, the children will be inventing their own countries and making posters similar to the example about Brazil. Please read the "4" section on the rubric, and brainstorm ideas for your project. For extra credit, you can make a neat, organized list of your ideas, and bring stickers, materials and or pictures you would like to add. You can include ideas about songs, dances, sports and other activities. Do you have some ideas that come from your own cultural heritage? Remember, your goal is to convince your classmates to want to visit your country. Please do not worry about the grade, just feel free to use your great imagination
SUMMARIZE
In my study of UDL, I was particularly motivated by two videos. One was “math as a social activity”. The other was the cell video. These resonated with me because they provided ways to make learning more accessible for students.
The teacher in “Math as a Social Activity” demonstrated through a fishbowl activity how I could view students in a classroom as a resource for providing scaffolded support as well as for providing multiple pathways for action and expression. During my lessons I capitalized on my students' wealth of diverse abilities. Students became living resources. Some were exemplars of social/emotional intelligence. Widely read, knowledgeable, students contributed facts about countries they have read about. Others did extra credit research homework which they shared with the group to ignite their interest. Some children contributed a wide variety of materials like glitter glue, feathers and photographs which they shared with others. A few students demonstrated a wonderful ability to organize their writing. We all learned from them as they shared their descriptions and opinion pieces.
The cell video from class convinced me that emotion impacts cognition. Heightened excitement was evident on the expressions of the faces of the science teacher's students in the video. I wanted my students to have a similar experience. The video motivated me to invest more time in planning activities that would keep students emotionally engaged. This worked very well! In particular, I focused on multi-sensory activites, creative activities, fun visuals like the video about Brazil, and partner work. The children appeared to benefit enormously from these types of activities. They clearly heightened their sense of enjoyment. If there was a downside, it was only that they would disengage during subsequent lessons that did not include quite as many beneficial activities.
Here is a sample of a student's persuasive writing in progress:
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/0115142222.jpg
This was written during writing workshop in 1/2 hour with only an exemplar and a peer helper for support. I think it illustrates how UDL is helping students to bravely dive deeper to find those precious diamonds. Next week the students will read their completed pieces and try to convince each other to visit their imaginary countries. Surf's up at the Diva Islands.
In my study of UDL, I was particularly motivated by two videos. One was “math as a social activity”. The other was the cell video. These resonated with me because they provided ways to make learning more accessible for students.
The teacher in “Math as a Social Activity” demonstrated through a fishbowl activity how I could view students in a classroom as a resource for providing scaffolded support as well as for providing multiple pathways for action and expression. During my lessons I capitalized on my students' wealth of diverse abilities. Students became living resources. Some were exemplars of social/emotional intelligence. Widely read, knowledgeable, students contributed facts about countries they have read about. Others did extra credit research homework which they shared with the group to ignite their interest. Some children contributed a wide variety of materials like glitter glue, feathers and photographs which they shared with others. A few students demonstrated a wonderful ability to organize their writing. We all learned from them as they shared their descriptions and opinion pieces.
The cell video from class convinced me that emotion impacts cognition. Heightened excitement was evident on the expressions of the faces of the science teacher's students in the video. I wanted my students to have a similar experience. The video motivated me to invest more time in planning activities that would keep students emotionally engaged. This worked very well! In particular, I focused on multi-sensory activites, creative activities, fun visuals like the video about Brazil, and partner work. The children appeared to benefit enormously from these types of activities. They clearly heightened their sense of enjoyment. If there was a downside, it was only that they would disengage during subsequent lessons that did not include quite as many beneficial activities.
Here is a sample of a student's persuasive writing in progress:
/uploads/2/2/3/4/22349496/0115142222.jpg
This was written during writing workshop in 1/2 hour with only an exemplar and a peer helper for support. I think it illustrates how UDL is helping students to bravely dive deeper to find those precious diamonds. Next week the students will read their completed pieces and try to convince each other to visit their imaginary countries. Surf's up at the Diva Islands.