1. Universal Design for Learning:
A Framework for Teaching All Learners
Welcome! We will include ‘diving deeper’ notes in this section of the Power Point.
Blackboard image from simplyjaki.com
Thursday, Oct 3rd & Friday, Oct 4th
Wakefield, MA
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

2. Fill out permissions sheet
Make a name tent
Sign in (sheet)
Fill out permissions sheet
The permissions sheet is helpful as we try to ‘tweet’ and use images for our CAST social media site. If you do not want to be in a photo, please remind us. Thank you!
Blackboard image from simplyjaki.com
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

3. UDL Connect: http://community. udlcenter
UDL Connect: For Online Resources & discussions
This is a free site that can be used during the workshop and indefinitely after the workshop to build online resources, tools, links and discussions.
Be sure to (1) Sign in to UDL Connect (the entire UDL Community) and (2) join our group (unique materials and discussions for this particular workshop.
You may also explore and join other UDL Connect sites that are of interest to you.
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4. 1. Sign up for the site 2. Join our group
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5. #UDL2day social media CAST UDL Center AIM Center
Do a search for our three organizations on your favorite social media sites!
PLEASE NOTE: The #UDL hashtag is just an example – choose whatever hashtag you want for the workshop you’re doing. If you do not wish to have a workshop-specific hashtag, please leave the reminder about using the #UDL hashtag in case people decide they want to tweet.
There are too many to list on the slide, it’s easier for people to just do a search for the three organizations. They’re easy enough to find on the four sites listed above (Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube). However, if people have trouble finding the sites, I’ve included the direct links below:
Connect with CAST:
CAST on Twitter: 
CAST on Facebook: 
CAST on Google+: 
CAST on YouTube: 
Connect with the National Center on Universal Design for Learning:
UDL Center on Twitter: 
UDL Center on Facebook: 
UDL Center on Google+: 
UDL Center on YouTube: 
UDL Connect Ning: 
Connect with the National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials:
AIM Center on Twitter: 
AIM Center on Facebook: 
AIM Center on Google+: 
AIM Center on YouTube: 
Use Twitter? Use #UDL2day in your tweets during the workshop!
#UDLchat: 1st & 3rd Wednesdays of the month, 9-9:30pm ET
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

6. Who are we? Allison Posey Jen Bartecchi aposey@cast.org
You can also introduce yourselves on our UDL Connect site.
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7. How many years in education?
Less than 2 years
Between 3 and 10 years
Over 10 years
Over 20 years!
Image: Dead Poets Society via
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

8. Who traveled the furthest to get here today?
Less than 5 miles, I practically live here!
Between 5-15 miles
Between miles, but felt like farther!
Over 30 miles, are you kidding me?!
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9. Where are you in your understanding about UDL?
1 = Just beginning, what does ‘UDL’ even stand for? 2 = I know a little about UDL 3 = Ask me anything about UDL: I could lead this session!
We recognize there will be variability in the understanding and background of UDL.
UDL supports to build background:
The UDL Connect site has additional background videos and articles to read, re-read to build background or to dive deeper
The notes section of the power points will provide ‘diving deeper’ options for those of you who already have a strong background. Feel free to read and explore the content.
Foster collaboration: identify other participants who may be good supports for building understanding and for discussions.
Add to the UDL Connect discussion posts or Tweets with comments and questions you have during the workshop
During work time, ask for additional help from CAST staff
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

10. Find a ‘QUADRANT PARTNER’ for discussions during the institute
Getting to Know You
Find a ‘QUADRANT PARTNER’ for discussions during the institute 1 2
8 minutes total (23 min /quadrant) The goal of this activity is to get to know other participants from the workshop. We have an international group and would like to benefit from the collective expertise in the room! At different points during the workshop, discussions will target different quadrant partners. At different points during the discussions, you will be asked to hold up your hand for which quadrants you still need to fill. You have about 3 minutes for each quadrant.
Quadrant 1: discuss your job description
Quadrant 2: discuss where were you born, geographic background
Quadrant 3: discuss your favorite part of school (elementary, middle, high, college)
Quadrant 4:discuss your favorite time of day, why 3 4
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11. Begin! 2 minutes/quadrant!
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12. Institute Goals Day 1: Build background
To learn how UDL addresses challenges of learner variability
Day 2: Application
To strategize how to apply UDL to practice
To build tools & resources
To meet these goals, we will provide multiple means of representing content, of being able to act with the content, and to engage with the objectives. (we will model UDL!)
Knowing how people learn  can purposefully design learning environments
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13. Seen another way: Application Build Background Lesson Planning UDL
Throughout the workshop, we will continue to reference research that has been done in neuroscience and cognitive science in order to build your background in UDL, share the UDL Guidelines, and work to think of application to your practice & lesson planning.
Lesson Planning
UDL
Guidelines
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14. This workshop: build awareness
Analogy! This workshop is like your first visit with a travel guide… with this visit, the travel guides will tell you about UDL & a journey you might want to take. At this point, you are not signed up to take the the ‘real’ trip yet! You are just building your background.
Implementation of UDL is a process of change that can take years (even up to to 7 years!) to integrate at the classroom, school, and district level. The phases are recursive and can be revisited many times with growing understanding of UDL. For more information on UDL Implementation, visit the following site:
UDL Implementation, A Tale of 4 Districts:
The goal of this workshop is to Explore UDL.
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15. What are your goals? For this workshop?
For your professional learning?
Pause for a moment to consider why you signed up for this workshop. What are your personal and professional goals? You can write your goals and revisit often to be sure you are on the path to reach your target goals.
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16. The Marshmallow Challenge Goal: to build collaboration around design
Goal: to collaborate with peers around a design that utilizes any combination of materials in the bags to build the TALLEST structure with the FULL marshmallow on top!
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17. 18 minutes.
✦Measure the Structures: From the shortest standing structure to the tallest, measure and call out the heights. If you’re documenting the challenge, have someone record the heights.
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18. Have fun, collaborate & be creative
RULES:
18 minutes, team of 4
Build the tallest freestanding structure
Cannot be suspended
Entire marshmallow on top
Use as much/little of the contents in bag (not the bag); can break, cut…
Cannot hold onto the structure
Have fun, collaborate & be creative
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19. Begin! http://www.online-stopwatch.com/world-games-running/
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20. Let’s measure! What strategies worked well?
Could be improved?
What collaboration worked well?
What resources worked well?
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21. Variability! Strategy Engagement Representation
Variability in many aspects of the process. For example, some may prefer to just try/do while others like to plan. Some may enjoy the group collaboration, others may have preferred to work alone. Some may have had more background or have even done this challenge!
Variability is the ‘rule’– we know we will have variability in every classroom– including this workshop! There is some predictable variability that we can begin to design for even before we meet the students/participants.
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22. Watch the TED talk (optional)
✦Kids do Better than Business Students: On virtually every measure of innovation, kindergarteners create taller and more interesting structures.
✦Prototyping Matters: The reason kids do better than business school students is kids spend more time playing and prototyping. They naturally start with the marshmallow and stick in the sticks. The Business School students spend a vast amount of time planning, then executing on the plan, with almost no time to fix the design once they put the marshmallow on top.
✦The Marshmallow is a Metaphor for the Hidden Assumptions of a Project: The assumption in the Marshmallow Challenge is that marshmallows are light and fluffy and easily supported by the spaghetti sticks. When you actually try to build the structure, the marshmallows don’t seem so light. The lesson in the marshmallow challenge is that we need to identify the assumptions in our project - the real customer needs, the cost of the product, the duration of the service - and test them early and often. That’s the mechanism that leads to effective innovation.
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

23. Why begin with this exercise?
Design:
collaborative
iterative process
Goal driven
Feedback about what works, prototypes
Uh-oh  ta-da!
✦Kids do Better than Business Students: On virtually every measure of innovation, kindergarteners create taller and more interesting structures.
✦Prototyping Matters: The reason kids do better than business school students is kids spend more time playing and prototyping. They naturally start with the marshmallow and stick in the sticks. The Business School students spend a vast amount of time planning, then executing on the plan, with almost no time to fix the design once they put the marshmallow on top.
✦The Marshmallow is a Metaphor for the Hidden Assumptions of a Project: The assumption in the Marshmallow Challenge is that marshmallows are light and fluffy and easily supported by the spaghetti sticks. When you actually try to build the structure, the marshmallows don’t seem so light. The lesson in the marshmallow challenge is that we need to identify the assumptions in our project - the real customer needs, the cost of the product, the duration of the service - and test them early and often. That’s the mechanism that leads to effective innovation
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

24. Current neuroscience about learning:
- Variability
Context Matters
Learning occurs at the
dynamic interaction between
learner & environment
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25. Variability:
For example, these three functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) are an example of individual variability. They show brain activity patterns of three different people performing the same simple, finger tapping task. The level of brain activity during performance of this task is designated using color. As you can see, each of these three individuals shows a unique pattern of brain activation.
For more information on fMRI, visit Neuroscience for Kids:
Image credit: Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning (Permission granted)
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

26. Context matters
Reflect on your practice: how does a student in one class look different when in a different context (ie: on the stage, during lunch, with their parents…)
Examples include:
Baby in water: the step reflex they do not have on land returns when in the context of water!
Tale of 2 mice: these mice are identical twins! Based on their diet, environment, they are now very different: even their DNA is different! For more information, visit (video included):
A fun, elementary age book related is: Fish is Fish book, by Lionni (1970) where fish – who cannot explore land– talks with a frog who has been on land. As the frog describes things on land, the fish constructs new knowledge based on their own current knowledge!
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

27. UDL: Variability & Context Matter What resonates for your practice?
Video: Link ( to the you tube video, Variability Matters (10:12 minutes)
Todd Rose, from CAST presented at the Cyberlearning Research Summit on January 18, 2012.
As you watch: what resonates? What new ideas were inspired? What applications can be made to practice?
To watch another video (16 min) that explores Variability, watch David Rose and Todd Rose (they are not related!):
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28. Elbow buddy discussion
Share a key take-away: what resonated?
How do concepts of variability & context relate to the Rubric cube and running shoes?
What does this mean for your practice?
Think about Todd’s argument:
The design of Rubik cube & options for strategy lead to engagement and mastery.
What happens when we design for the ‘average’? (shoes, for example)
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29. Break
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30. Started ‘in the margins’
Building Background:
Started ‘in the margins’
CAST began as a small group of neuropsychologists in the early 1980s. Based on the medical model of diagnosing individuals with ‘problems’ of learning, the initial team was ‘dissatisfied’ with their recommendations which did not seem to support the student once he/she left the clinic. They found that many of their design modifications, recommended for one student, could benefit others in the classroom as well. Initial work was to take advantage of emerging technologies that could help a student with disability overcome barriers in the environment. For example, a word processor could help a student who struggled with the fine motor skills needed to write with a pen.
“We believed that digital tools could offer the flexibility that could be powerful levers for students who most needed better leverage—students with disabilities.” © 1986 CAST, Inc.
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31. Inspired by Universal Design
… “all new environments and products, to the greatest extent possible, should be usable by everyone regardless of their age, ability, or circumstance.”
Goal for this session: to understand how UD informed UDL in thinking about design, barriers, and goals.
What are some of the barriers to ‘typical’ design?
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32. What is the goal? What are the barriers?
Identify the goal:
Identify barriers that prevent access to the building. Extend the possible barriers to individuals without the obvious disabilities, e.g. someone pushing a baby carriage will have difficulty with access; someone with a dolly will have trouble bringing packages into the building, someone for whom English is not their primary language will not be able to read the “Post Office” sign over the doorway.
Think about design, recognizing that variability is the ‘rule’ and make the design available for everyone.
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33. You can design to access, proactive planning helps
Retrofits are often ‘ugly’ and expensive… and often do not work very well!
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34. How can you design from beginning to reduce barriers so all can reach the goal?
This shows the elevator in the Louvre (Paris, France). It is beautifully designed and is easily accessible for all (and is in the same location as the stairwell!)
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35. Goal. Barriers. Design. For all.
Denver, CO
Image from:
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36. Choose one & discuss: What is the goal. What barriers does it reduce
Choose one & discuss: What is the goal? What barriers does it reduce? How do all benefit from the design?
Ramps
Curb Cuts
Electric Doors
Captions on Television
Easy Grip Tools…
It is now expected that the physical environment is designed to accommodate the broadest range of users from the start. What are other examples of ways we have reduced barriers for physical accessibility?
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

37. UD Assumptions Not one size fits all – but alternatives for everyone.
Not added on later – but
designed from the beginning.
Not access for some – but
access for everyone.
How does this challenge what you thought about learning?
What are your assumptions about learning?
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

38. A mindset for designing learning experiences
UDL…
A mindset for designing learning experiences
all individuals can gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning
reduces barriers to the curriculum while maintaining high achievement standards for all
This is the beginning of the concept that UDL is a framework for designing curriculum. The idea is that we want to enable all learners to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning through the design of learning experiences. (‘UDL shifts the focus away from differentiating a text ‘down’ to providing access ‘up’, educator from Harvard Institute, 2013)
We do not view UDL as another initiative, but rather a framework for thinking about and aligning other initiatives.
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

39. UDL… Accounts for variability and context
Thinks of changing the curriculum, not
the student
UDL Guidelines: clarify goals, ensures
all have flexible means to access
curriculum
This is the beginning of the concept that UDL is a framework for designing curriculum. The idea is that we want to enable all learners to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning through the design of learning experiences. (‘UDL shifts the focus away from differentiating a text ‘down’ to providing access ‘up’, educator from Harvard Institute, 2013)
We do not view UDL as another initiative, but rather a framework for thinking about and aligning other initiatives.
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

40. Curriculum: ‘cognitive’ accessibility Goal. Barriers. Design
Curriculum: ‘cognitive’ accessibility Goal? Barriers? Design? Make available for all
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41. Questions, Reflections?
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42. UDL Guidelines: help design to address variability & context
The challenge to design learning experiences that can be accessible, from the beginning, for all learners can be overwhelming!
The UDL Guidelines provide strategies to design for the predictable variability that research shows will be present in any context/environment.
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43. 3 Principles
At this point, focus on the three UDL principles: does the lesson have options for representation, action & expression, and engagement to help all learners reach the goal?
If you already are familiar with the UDL Principles, you can begin to focus more attention on the individual UDL Guidelines and Checkpoints:
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44. Guiding Principles of UDL
Recognition Networks
Strategic Networks
Affective Networks
Provide Multiple Means of Representation
Perception
Language and Symbols
Comprehension
Resourceful & Knowledgeable
Provide Multiple Means of Expression
Physical Action
Expressive Skills and Fluency
Executive Function
Strategic & Goal-Directed
Provide Multiple Means of Engagement
Recruiting Interest
Sustaining Effort and Persistence
Self-Regulation
Purposeful & Motivated
Three principles provide a foundation for UDL: 1. To support students’ variability in their recognition networks, provide multiple means of representation; 2. To support students’ variability in the strategic networks, provide multiple means of expression within a cognitive apprenticeship environment; and 3. To support students’ variability in affective networks, provide multiple means of engagement (Rose & Meyer, 2002)
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45. To have a tall, freestanding structure with marshmallow on top
Team Challenge!
Re-Design the Marshmallow Activity
Think about variability & context from the start
Use UDL Guideline template to design so ALL can achieve the goal:
To have a tall, freestanding structure with marshmallow on top
Use the Marshmallow Activity handout from the morning. Redesign this activity so that ALL your learners will reach the goal of having a marshmallow on top of a very tall spaghetti, tape, string structure… in 18 minutes.
To support variability, use the UDL Guidelines:
Recognition:
how can you flexibly display the information?
How was vocabulary supported?
How was background information built?
How were critical features highlighted?
Action & Expression:
what options were there to act on the lesson?
How were different models and levels supported?
Were the goals clear?
How could you progress monitor?
Engagement:
were there options for choice?
Were distractions minimized?
Was the activity made relevant?
Were there resources for the demands?
Was mastery oriented feedback given?
Were there chances to reflect?
Image thanks to
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

46. Share ideas
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

47. Where are you in your understanding about UDL?
1 = Just beginning, what does ‘UDL’ even stand for? 2 = I know a little about UDL 3 = Ask me anything about UDL: I could lead this session!
We recognize there will be variability in the understanding and background of UDL.
UDL supports to build background:
The UDL Connect site has additional background videos and articles to read, re-read to build background or to dive deeper
The notes section of the power points will provide ‘diving deeper’ options for those of you who already have a strong background. Feel free to read and explore the content.
Foster collaboration: identify other participants who may be good supports for building understanding and for discussions.
Add to the UDL Connect discussion posts or Tweets with comments and questions you have during the workshop
During work time, ask for additional help from CAST staff
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

48. Dive deeper into UDL Guidelines!
Questions? Comments?
Coming this afternoon!
Dive deeper into UDL Guidelines!
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013

49. LUNCH 12:00-1:00 http://www.funkylunch.com/
CAST Wakefield 10/5-10/6/2013