The ABCs of UDL Implementation:

1
The ABCs of UDL Implementation
Accessibility
Bridging Barriers

• Collaboration

Jeff Crockett, Assistive Technology Coordinator,
Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Judy
Arkwright, Wayne ATRC, Assistive Technology
Consultant, Sharon Strean, Wayne RESA, High
Priority Schools Consultant
2
Our UDL Leadership Team
JudyArkwright
SharonStrean
CyndiBurnstein
JeffCrockett
3
Plymouth-Canton Community SchoolsProfessional
Learning Community
P-CCSs UDL Team, April 14, 2008
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What Does Access to the Curriculum Really Mean?
5
Some educators believe

• that access to the curriculum
• applies only to placement and that
• as long as students are placed in general
  education, students, by definition, have access
  to the curriculum.

6
Plymouth-Cantons Team Believes

• in a broader and authentic definition for access
  to the curriculum.
• General education placement by itself, provides
  only token access to the curriculum.

7
Authentic Accessibility is Dependent Upon Asking
the Following Questions
Does Our Instruction Provide

• Activities that engage student interest and
  attention?
• Sufficient background knowledge?
• Learning material consistent with
  instructional reading level?
• Learning material consistent with cognitive
  level?
• Sufficient time with the materials,
  instruction,
• and activities?

Developed by Jeff Crockett
8
Does Our Instruction Provide (cont.)

• Adequate individual feedback?
• Consideration of a student's learning preferences
  and abilities?
• Well organized learning material with key
  concepts and facts emphasized?
• Supports to bridge learning or physiological
  barriers.
• Participation of all students in all class
  activities?

9
What are your thoughts?

• What does Accessing the Curriculum mean to you
  and your students?

10
Did you know?

• Textbooks have always been a problem for our
  struggling students they always will be.
• Why?
• Research shows that todays textbooks are
  written at a level higher than the most
  proficient readers in the class can handle.

Source Don Johnston Summit 6/06
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Through all my experiences with people
struggling to learn, the one thing that strikes
me most is the ease with which we misperceive
failed performance.taken from Lives on the
Boundary, by Mike Rose
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A Youtube Video

• Former Astronaut Andy Johnson of the Johnson
  Space Center developed this video.
• It dramatically captures the effects of
  bureaucratic resistance to innovation.
• Have you ever been in the young
• scientists shoes?

13
Barriers We Have Experienced

• Gaps in technology infrastructure
• Departmental information educational silos
• Lack of collaboration time
• Lack of training time
• Construction projects
• Lack of funding used as an excuse for inaction
• Innovation seen as a threat to current practices
• Multiple levels of approval for innovation
• Limited understanding of 21st Century learning

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Where Does The Disability Really Exist?

• We need to encourage people to start thinking
  that a disability is linked to the curriculum,
  materials, methods of presentation, and
  assessment rather than to a student.
  Jeff Diedrich, Director MITS June, 2007

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Key Components ofUniversal Design for Learning

• Multiple means of representation.
• Both print digital format and information can
  be obtained from materials in a variety of ways
  (e.g., size, color, spoken).
• Multiple means of expression.
• Students can respond with their preferred means
  of output.
• Multiple means of engagement.
• Students interests in learning are matched with
  the mode of presentation and response so that
  students are more motivated.

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A Brief History of ourUDL Journey
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P-CCS UDL Development Team

• Central Administration
• General Ed Administration
• Special Ed Administration
• Curriculum Resource Consultant
• Assistive Technology Teacher Consultant
• Smaller Learning Community Teacher Coordinator
• Technology Department
• Wayne Assistive Technology Resource Center Staff
• Wayne RESA grant consultant
• Assistant Professor, Eastern Michigan University
• Professional Grant Writer
• Parent Fall 2006

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We Defined Our Problem

• 60 of our 4th grade students with disabilities
  and
• 81 of 11th grade students with disabilities
  failed to meet performance standards on the MEAP.
  
• The achievement gap in performance between
• students with and without disabilities was . . .
• 31 percentage points in the 4th grade and
• 50 percentage points in the 11th grade.
  December 2006

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We started building a UDL community Fall 2006

• Collaborated with other district initiatives, the
  Access for All Support Team (AAST) and the
  Smaller Learning Communities (SLC).
• Held UDL workshops for AAST and SLC staff.
• Consulted with Jeff Diedrich, MITS Director.

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2006-2007 Establishing UDL Awareness

• UDL Training
• Media Specialists
• After school UDL training for special ed
  department by
• Kevin Johnson of Don Johnston, Inc.
• Small Learning Community Teachers (60) training
  on
• Alphasmarts,
• Kurzweil text reading software,
• Smartboard, and
• Classroom Performance Systems (CPS)
• District Staff Development
• 50 teachers attended Smartboard break-out session
  led by 2 special ed/special ed teams
• Smartboard Observation in Chelsea, MI HS science
  classes

21
DeRoy Testamentary Foundation Grant 60,000 Over
Three Years
We Applied to Private Sources and Were
Successful! Spring 2007

• Implement Universal Design for Learning
  strategies and tools
• Assess the impact on achievement
• Create a UDL professional learning community

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Implementing UDL Summer, 2007

• Presented at MITS Summer Institute
• Trained 1500 9th graders UDL tools resources.
• Participated in Harvard Graduate School
• of Education, Summer UDL Institute
• Showed online tools to Parent Academy
• Purchased netTrekker student home access
• Purchased Smartboards, ceiling mounts
• data jacks for projectors/laptops
• Received one year grant
  Premier Technologys
  Accessibility Suite

23
Continuing to Implement UDL Fall, 2007

• Smartboard
• Installation of 7 Smartboard systems at Canton HS
• Trainings Sharon Hoatlin, City Animation
• Publication of UDL article in Fall MACUL Journal
• Plymouth-Canton Community Schools Our journey
• From assistive technology access to achievement
• UDL Presentations Board of Education Meeting
• high school staff meeting, Harper Woods
• Consultations
• Elizabeth Bauer, Michigan Board of Education
• Jeff Diedrich, Director, MITS
• Judy Arkwright, AT Consultant, Wayne ATRC
• Fredi Frost, Assessment Consultant, Wayne RESA
• Created Edublog for elementary AAST committee

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UDL Expands Winter, 2008

• UDL Lesson Plan Unit development with teachers.
• UDL Presentation to high school staff on MLK Day.
• Formed HS Instructional Technology Committee.
• UDL Lesson Planning and Ability Awareness
  presentation to Access for All Support Team.
• netTrekker presentation to Central Administration.

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UDL Activities Spring Summer, 2008

• Develop UDL lesson units.
• Video taping of Teachers and Students
  during classroom UDL Curriculum units.
• Development of ePark.
• Presented at MACUL 3/08
• Premier-To-Go Software project
• with parents and students.
• Presented at MDE Lansing Workshop 2/08
• Present to DeRoy Foundation
• MITS presentation 6/08

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2008-2009 UDL Activities

• Purchased four Smartboards for Salem HS
  classrooms (09/08)
• Core Team attended Denise DeCoste UDL workshop
  (11/08)
• Grant Awarded
• MDE Models of Demonstrated Proficiency
  (12/08)
• Parent/Student Training for Premier-To-Go
  software (12/08)
• Attended MITS Accessible Materials Workshop
  (12/08)

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2008-2009 continued

• Identified 12 teachers to participate in ePark
• through Summer 2010 (1/09)
• Established grant leadership team (1/09)
• U of M Office of Disability Visit (1/09)
• Project Based Learning Workshop (1/09)
• Provided Smartboard training for 15 staff
  (2/09)

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Our Successes To Date

• Expanded UDL awareness at the high school level
• Steadily growing UDL Professional Learning
  Community Networking across state.
• Identified two Central administration liaisons
  for UDL
• Implemented UDL pilot projects with six science
  teachers, five math teachers, three english
  teachers, two social studies teachers and four
  special education teachers.

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Our Successes To Date cont.

• Identified committed Project Based Learning
  teachers
• Started development on ePark
• Presented at MACUL 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009
• Presented at MITS 2007, 2008, and 2009
• Began a collaboration with Hamtramck High School
• Won an MDE Models of Demonstrated Proficiency
  grant with Hamtramck Public Schools

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Project Based Learning
Lead TeacherCyndi Burnstein
Teachers

• Dayna Lang HS English
• Darrin Silvester HS Social Studies
• Margaret Landis HS Biology
• Noreen Parker HS Special Education

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Project Based Learning (PBL)

• Our MDE grant team is pleased to be consulting
  with Wayne RESA staff Beth Baker and John
  McCarthy.

PBL is a systematic teaching method that engages
students in learning knowledge and skills through
an extended inquiry process structured around
complex, authentic questions and carefully
designed products and tasks.
Project Based Learning Handbook Buck Institute of
Education, 2003
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Project Based Learning Timeline

• January 12-13, 2009
• PBL Training from Beth Baker and John McCarthy,
  RESA
• March 5, 2009
• PBL Team Leader Cyndi Burnstein sends
  announcement of PBL Grant Interest Form to all
  high school staff.
• April 1, 2009
• Teachers submit Grant Interest Form.
• April 8, 2009
• Interested Teachers notified of grant planning
  sessions
• April 20 - May 1, 2009 Teachers draft proposals.
• May 1, 2009 Visit New Tech High in Indianapolis
• May 8, 2009 Deadline for grant proposals to be
  submitted
• May 15, 2009 Announcement of success grant
  proposals

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Dayna LangHigh School World Literature UDL
Dayna represents a new generation of teachers who
grew up with technology and are comfortable using
technology in their classrooms.
Creating traditional vs. UDL lesson plan.
Dayna embeds UDL strategies in all her
lessons. UDL teachers will never go back to
traditional instruction.
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UDL Choice Project applied to Romeo and Juliet
Romeo Juliet
adapted by Dayna M. Lang
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Multiple Project Options Romeo and Juliet
21th Century

• Students explore the aspects of culture and
  literature pertaining to Romeo and Juliet that
  most interests them in order to make lasting
  connections.
• Project-based assessment that includes a
  presentation, speaking component and a writing
  piece.
• This leads to authentic writing about the choices
  they made in completing the project and what it
  meant to them rather than plagiarized examples of
  literary analysis.

36
UDL Project Choices
1. Costume book
2. Globe blueprint
3. Design and sew costumes
4. Draw scenes on post boards
5. Create a comic book.
6. Create a quilt.
7. Make a game board.
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24/7 Access to CurriculumDaynas Moodle Site
38
Quote from Winston Churchill

• However beautiful the strategy, you should
  occasionally look at the results.

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UDL Class Data English 9

• 1st Hour 9th Grade English
• 27 students 5 getting a D or lower 5 of 5
  completed the
• project, though they hadnt done much else all
  year
• 5 of 5 received 90 or above.
• 2nd Hour 9th Grade English
• 29 students 6 getting a D or lower
• 5 of 6 received 90 or above.
• 3rd Hour 9th Grade English
• 26 students 9 getting a D or lower
• 6 of 9 received 85 or better.

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For Dayna Langs Short Story Class
Chase Woolners Zeus and Io
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Darrin SilvesterHigh School History Darrins
passion for local history led to a project to
clean up an overgrown local cemetery.

• Research led to the record of a speech given in
  1873 by the brother of a boy buried in the
  cemetery.
• An early newspaper article,
  provided an idea for a story.
• Two students, wrote a story about a
  young girl who lived in the late
  19th
  Century in Plymouth.
• Footsteps in History, was beautifully
  illustrated and published through
  Authorhouse.
• Footsteps in History is available on Amazon.com.

42
Margaret LandisResource Room Teacher Biology
Unit
Margaret created a Biology Unit that included a
televised, interactive, live open heart
surgery. It took a year to setup the first
broadcast. Her students had to score 80 on a
test to participate. Everyone, including
special ed students, participated.
43
Noreen Parker, High School PoetryPassionate
about PBL

• Noreen teaches students with emotional
  impairment in a categorical classroom.
• On a classroom field trip to the Detroit
  Institute of Arts, students selected a work of
  art for the subject of a poem.
• The quality of the poetry so impressed her that
  Noreen published the work called Nightmare and
  Other Reflections on lulu.com.

• Her students held a bake sale for the Gleaner
  Food Bank that raised enough funding for 1000
  meals.
• To promote the sale, she and her class created a
  hip hop music video that was broadcasted to the
  entire high school.

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Can You Tell Which Was Written By A
Student With A Disability?
I am a tree I stand tall and proud I can see
beyond a crowd When the wind runs by I hold
tight As my leaves dance in the breeze. I feel
the hot sun through the day I stretch my arms
inviting all into my shade I am a tree
Impressions of Standing Women Tall screaming
women, Cracked and weathered flesh, Fear in every
pore, Burning needs to be seen, To be.
Source Noreen Parker and Kathleen Churchill,
Canton High School Teachers
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• An online digital curriculum with 24/7, 365 days
  a year access to students, parents, teachers

• Leadership Team Jeff Crockett, Judy Arkwright,
  Carol Isakson
• With support from Director of Technology Jim
  Casteel

46
20th CENTURY CLASSROOMS
Provide Learning Snapshots But

• No repetition of the learning
• No variety in approach
• One teacher one point in time
• When its over, its over
• Not scalable for diverse needs
• Difficult to share

Credit Sharon Strean
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21st Century ClassroomsProvide Learning Albums

• Digital Albums offer
• many different snapshots which can be viewed
  again and again in many different ways.

In addition, our ePark Albumwill provide
snapshots adjusted to the needs of the learner,
accessed on demand whenever or wherever on the
web and easily shared.
21st Century Classrooms are open 24/7, 365 days
Credit Sharon Strean
48
Our Students are

• Digital natives
• Born with technology
• All 21st Century learners.

We need to ask ourselves

• Are we delivering instruction that engages 21st
  Century students?
• Is this instruction accessible to students with
  diverse needs?
• Is this instruction available beyond the school
  day?

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What will ePark do for Teachers?

• Enable all teachers at any time to
• Share new ideas electronically
• in a more dynamic environment
• of virtual learning.
• Create efficiency in aligning resources directly
  to the high schools own curriculum (less random
  looking for ideas
• on the Internet).
• Create a new kind of electronic professional
  learning community (PLC) that facilitates
  communication of ideas and sharing.

50
What will ePark do for students?

• Enable students to access ALL information about a
  given subject, beyond their own teachers
  resources, 24/7, 365 days a year.
• Allow students to see information in a variety of
  formats, ones that enable ALL of them to access
  the curriculum.
• Opportunity to review resources again and again.

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What will ePark do for parents?

• Enable them to access a variety of resources that
  will help them support their student(s).
• Take the mystery out of the curriculum because
  they will see a variety of resources to help
  their son or daughter understand the material.

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Structure and Description

• Individual Teacher courses (since 2005)
• Managed by a teacher for all sections of a single
  course
• Constructivist activities
• Restricted to students taking that class.
• Metacourses for specific courses of study (2009)
• Variety of resources to support the common
  curriculum
• Supports UDL and differentiated learning
• Restricted to students taking that class.
• Department Level Resources (next year)
• Open to all students
• Provides broad range of general resources to
  explore

53
http//web.pccs.k12.mi.us/pceplrc
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Categories from Program of Studies
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Science Example
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Individual Teacher Course
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Metacourse for World Literature
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Students enrolled in an individual teachers
course are automatically enrolled in the
metacourse
Reference materials, textbook links, general
static resources
Metacourse
Teachers courses contain more specific
interactive, graded materials
Individual teachers
59
Department Level ResourcesOpen to Everyone
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P-CCS UDL Unit Plan Template
Course Name Unit Title Developed by State
Standards Instructional Goals Clearly Defined
Expectations Length of Unit Overview of
Unit Methods Background Knowledge
Building Establish Big Idea Relationships Comprehe
nsion Supports Vocabulary Supports Supports for
Memory and Transfer Self Pacing and Self Study
Supports
Materials Standard Text Supplemental
Text Images/graphics, Idea Organizers Slide
Shows, Video Model Examples Model of Internal
Process to Obtain Examples Multiple Levels of
Varying Student Levels Assessment Pre-test Clas
sroom Comprehension Checks CPS Self Regulated
Preparation for Testing Formative
Assessment Summative Assessment Alternate Project
Options Resources
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Accessible Text Projects
95 station network, over 80 books scanned,
available mostly in special ed rooms. We use a
Fujitsu high capacity scanner in a central
location and scan into Kurzweil files.
We have distributed 18 PTGs to high school
students for use at home or school and provided
training to both students and parents.
We recently signed up as a participating district
and registered 18 students but do not expect to
dowloading etext until next school year.
62
Writing Supports Talking Word Processor Word
Prediction
63
Reading Comprehension Supports www.Sparknotes.com
Universal Reader
64
Online Tools
We subscribed for three years to provide
netTrekker d.i. and Hotmath to our high school
students at home.
netTrekker d.i. provides filtered internet
content appropriate for students and includes
both a text reader and
Hotmath provides step by step solutions to
problems in most of the major secondary text
books.
Our library web site links students to free
educational resources such as the Michigan
Electronic Library.
For the past two years, we have passed out at 9th
grade orientation a reference guide to a number
of recommended online tools.
65
Issues To Be Resolved

• Current departmental structure impedes cross
• disciplinary initiatives such as UDL and PBL.
• No UDL administrative coordinator.
• Old technology lingers in many classrooms.
• UDL still viewed as a satellite initiative by
  some.
• UDL is not generally considered in other
  initiatives.
• Funding and time for staff development are
  limited.
• Sharing materials is not supported by all
  teachers.
• System for archiving and sharing UDL Units is
  still in
• development.

66

• Contact Information

Jeff Crockett, Assistive Technology Coordinator
crockej_at_pccs.k12.mi.us Judy Arkwright, AT
Consultant, Wayne ATRC, arkwrij_at_resa.net Sharon
Strean, WCRESA High Priority School Consultant,
sws0310_at_aol.com Cyndi Burnstein, Teacher
Director, Smaller Learning Communities
burnstc_at_pccs.k12.mi.us Jim Casteel, Director
of Technology, casteej_at_pccs.k12.mi.us Jeff
Blakeslee, English Teacher, blakesj_at_pccs.k12.mi.us
Dayna Lang, English Teacher
langd_at_pccs.k12.mi.us Darrin Silvester, History
Teacher silvesd_at_pccs.k12.mi.us Carol Isakson,
Moodle Coordinator isaksoc_at_pccs.k12.mi.us
Margaret Landis, Special Education Teacher
landism_at_pccs.k12.mi.us Noreen Parker, Special
Education Teacher parkern_at_pccs.k12.mi.us