UDL in 15 Minutes

16: Camille shares why and how fourth grade teachers changed how they assess their ELA learners.

This special edition of UDL in 15 Minutes was recorded in front of a live studio audience at the UDL-IRN Summit on March 28, 2019. Camille is a Learning Coach at Sunflower Elementary School in Lawrence, Kansas and during this episode, she shares how she and the fourth grade teachers devised a system to help their learners show what they know in English Language Arts through their use of the UDL principle of Action and Expression. Students gained new levels of ownership, participation, and expression by brainstorming, planning, designing, and creating their creations to demonstrate their knowledge of main idea and detail.

15: Using her own teaching experiences, Melissa designs UDL PD for her district.

Melissa discovered UDL as a 7^th grade English teacher but recently transitioned to become a district resource teacher who helps other teachers learn about and implement UDL. Hear how she started weaving UDL into her classroom using small steps and how she uses that same model as she brings UDL to others. She also shares a UDL tool she redesigned to fit the needs of her adult learners.

14: How Adria Gold shifted from accommodations for some to support for all through UDL

Hear how Adria Gold, an English Language Arts teacher from Prettyboy Elementary in Baltimore, Maryland responds to her variable learners through chunking her materials. In addition, she shares how she breaks down her expectations so all of her learners know where to start and how to participate in the lesson.

13. Kim Babeu shares her system for building community at the high school level

Kim Babeu introduces us to a system she uses called SPORT which encompasses both behavior and academic supports. It has lowered barriers for her anatomy and physics students so successfully at Toltecalli High School, in Tucson, AZ that their grades have gone way up. During our conversation, Kim and I explore how the system overlaps with UDL. The associated blog dives into the intentional use of the UDL framework.

12: Dan Schmidt reflects on the power of “why not?”

Dan’s 26 years as an elementary school teacher have taught him a lot, but one of his biggest lessons was when he learned to ask, “Why not?”  Hear how combining that lesson with UDL has led him to create an incredibly flexible, open, and non-threatening math classroom.

11: Engaging 8th graders. Monica tells us that it can be done!

Monica Watson-Bedard a Grade 7 teacher at Millidgeville North School in New Brunswick, Canada, shares her lessons after conducting action research to discover how choice affects student engagement in assessments. Her take-aways have a surprise tucked into them!

10: Environment design and goal achievement in Jana Nicol's 3rd grade classroom

Jana Nicol, a 3^rd grade teacher at Island View School in St. John, New Brunswick Canada and the website author of www.theudlproject.com shares how she began her UDL journey with the design of her environment and how she supports her students to understand the goals of the day.

9: Three things that excite Ben Kelly: UDL, action research, and Minecraft

Ben Kelly, a grade 6-12 STEM teacher at Caledonia Regional High School in the Anglophone East School District, New Brunswick, Canada shares what he and his team of teacher-researchers learned about UDL when they conducted an action research study which included Minecraft as a learning tool.

8: How social justice drives Dakota’s UDL implementation

Dakota Hudelson, a 7^th grade writing and literacy lab teacher at Northside Middle School in Columbus, Indiana, shares several stories of how UDL has impacted his teaching and how he sees UDL as a framework that upholds social justice by establishing a way to equalize the classroom so all students can learn.

7: A discussion guide for UDL in 15 Minutes

This one-minute announcement shares where you can find a discussion guide for past and future UDL in 15 Minutes episodes. We will return to the regular format on Wednesday, January 16, 2019. Happy New Year!