UDL & Differentiation SAMANTHA PHILLIPS WEEK 4, DQ 1

Introduction A Few Facts  -Every student has their own background that they bring to the classroom  -Every classroom is full of diversity with different students  - Not one student learns like the other.  - All curriculum should provide learning opportunity for all students  -All parts of the brain should be met QUOTES  “ Teachers with the most exciting and effective differentiated classrooms don’t have all the answers. What they do have is, optimism and determination.”-Unknown  “Every child is entitled to the promise of a teacher’s optimism, enthusiasm, time, and energy.”-Unknown

Students demonstrating their prior background and knowledge  I personally think that the best way for students to demonstrate who they are and their background knowledge is through one of the tree ways…  1. At the beginning of the year have parents and children fill out a form about themselves. Teachers should include an introduction to every student about themselves and then ask the families to send their forms back with the child’s information. This way, the teacher can get an idea about the student’s learning styles, interests, strengths, and weaknesses before the year begins.  2. Show and Tell – kids love to bring things in that represent themselves or objects stat like. This gives them a sense of pride and they are able to share about themselves and their family background.  3. Another fun idea is doing, “Student of the Month or Week” and allowing students to share facts about themselves with the class. These can include, favorites, family background, religion, cultures, family information, and learning styles.

Engaging and motivating students  -When planning lessons, teachers should what is my goal? What do I want my students to learn?  -What are the barriers I will face? How will they interfere with teaching these goals?  - To engage and motivate my students, I will make things interesting by using different teaching methods., incorporating student centered teaching in my classroom, allowing students to work independently as much as in group work, and doing a variety of hands on creative projects.

Using Both UDI and DI  -They are both share the same goals and are pretty similar as far as ideas, classroom practices, and instruction.  -Both want to help the student’s learn and reach their highest potential.  -Both are goods to use because teachers should always be pre-planning students and their differences from the start, but also monitoring student progress and making adjustments.  - The learning centers and small group activities are important here because they can work for both DI and UDI.  -Instead of waiting for problems to arise, the teacher plans out everything ahead of time.  -If problems do arise, which they will from time to time, the teacher will incorporate new things and modify the curriculum. That’s’ where DI comes in.

Differentiation  -Lots of formative assessment  - constantly assessing students  - Figuring out what students need and how to make changes  - The learning centers and small group activities are important here because they can work for both DI and UDI.  -Planning for student diversity  - Lessons that are for individual learning, small group, and whole group.

UDI Using UDI in the Classroom  -Teachers should use representation when creating lessons. Providing multiple means to represent the content.  - Action and Expression- should be used to give students multiple ways to express what they know. Teachers should always provide feedback.  - Engagement- multiple ways to engage students should be used because what interests one student will not interest another.  UDL=Learning Opportunities For All.  -The How, Why, and What parts of the brain should be motivated.  -3 parts can be accomplished by altering the process, product, and content by incorporating the 3 key elements of diff. instruction.  -The learning centers and small group activities  - The main difference between UDI and DI is the pre-planning I think. With UDI, the lesson should be, universal. Meaning, meets needs of all students.  - The example I read was, when an architect designs a building, they design it for handicap people and even parents. They make sure before the building opens, they make sure it is going to accommodate the needs of everyone instead of not adding in the extra things and then realizing after the fact that, these things are missing.  -In lessons plans, the teacher should be plan goals, methods, and assessments for everyone.