We have heard them before, “whole language”, “phonics”, “research based”, “differentiation”, “RTI”, “data”, and on and on. . . the buzzword rotation in education cannot be denied. Right now I am afraid that teachers are so conditioned to the buzzwords phasing in and out that some may be overlooking UDL as just another phrase or phase, just another new “thing to do”. When I hear a search committee ask about a teacher's understanding of UDL, then set her off in a room without any support materials (adequate curriculum, manipulatives, alternate seating, sufficient or even functioning technology options) that certainly corroborates the “buzz” notion.
There is sometimes a lack of true understanding around UDL at the administrative level some of who seem to use UDL as an excuse or means to reduce staff or corral a heavy “load” into a classroom and call it inclusion. In a district where administration supports UDL practices I hear teachers not sure, “What is it really?”, “How can I do it?”, “I’m going to give them a choice board so it looks more UDL when admins come in”, or “Is this just a feather in the cap for admin?” As with any would be buzzword, there are many interpretations and misunderstandings, and mostly the feeling that UDL is another one of those, “just one more” items that they just don’t have time to “do”. I for one find that heartbreaking.
I find it heartbreaking because, in the last forty five years or so, our country has noted many times over that our public education system doesn’t always work for everyone. Since IDEA was introduced in 1975, we have grappled with ways to meet the needs of different learners. We have noted “gaps” in growth indexes between students who live in poverty and those who do not, between kids whose parents graduated college and whose did not. In the early 90’s, We implemented standards to ensure rigorous curriculum, and followed suit with rigorous testing before the “rigorous standards” were
fully understood and implemented. Yet the gaps persist. I find it heartbreaking. We researched best
practices for reading instruction, yet are still struggling to consistently put them into play within
schools, or across districts, and across the nation. We have more information available to us than ever before about how the brain learns, the role of emotions in learning, and how to best leverage memory to maximize learning, and yet teachers are still struggling with distracted learners, a lack of engagement, and teaching that doesn’t stick. I find it heartbreaking.
There is sometimes a lack of true understanding around UDL at the administrative level some of who seem to use UDL as an excuse or means to reduce staff or corral a heavy “load” into a classroom and call it inclusion. In a district where administration supports UDL practices I hear teachers not sure, “What is it really?”, “How can I do it?”, “I’m going to give them a choice board so it looks more UDL when admins come in”, or “Is this just a feather in the cap for admin?” As with any would be buzzword, there are many interpretations and misunderstandings, and mostly the feeling that UDL is another one of those, “just one more” items that they just don’t have time to “do”. I for one find that heartbreaking.
I find it heartbreaking because, in the last forty five years or so, our country has noted many times over that our public education system doesn’t always work for everyone. Since IDEA was introduced in 1975, we have grappled with ways to meet the needs of different learners. We have noted “gaps” in growth indexes between students who live in poverty and those who do not, between kids whose parents graduated college and whose did not. In the early 90’s, We implemented standards to ensure rigorous curriculum, and followed suit with rigorous testing before the “rigorous standards” were
fully understood and implemented. Yet the gaps persist. I find it heartbreaking. We researched best
practices for reading instruction, yet are still struggling to consistently put them into play within
schools, or across districts, and across the nation. We have more information available to us than ever before about how the brain learns, the role of emotions in learning, and how to best leverage memory to maximize learning, and yet teachers are still struggling with distracted learners, a lack of engagement, and teaching that doesn’t stick. I find it heartbreaking.
My own children are growing up in this world of standards and standardized testing and their experiences have varied from teacher to teacher. Some of the biggest complaints are too much
teacher talk, too many work sheets, too much expectation that all the kids are going to fit in the same box, or the saddest, “I didn’t really learn anything new.” I’m not sure how many teachers expect kids to fit in the box though. Maybe they lack the time, understanding, or determination to chase down materials or create lessons that meet the needs of everyone in their class. Whatever the reasons,
while working in different schools and districts in a variety of capacities over the last several years, I
have seen the same looks of disengagement on kids faces, the same poor attitudes toward school and
learning, and the same types of students sent to sit in time out, to take a break, on walking breaks, and
in buddy room chairs from preschool to middle elementary. I have seen this in large and small schools in and around the county where I live where tiny rural schools still exist within 10-25 miles of larger ( but not huge) city schools. I know teachers know it too, bc teachers are questioning student attitudes toward school daily on Facebook, Twitter, and even in PLC’s reading to find out where the joy has gone. I find it heartbreaking.
I still remember when my mom advised me, “College is where you learn how to learn.” And she was right, back then. ( @1992) I am guessing that is at least a part of why standards based education took hold. I know I hadn’t learned a lot about how to learn in my 12 years of public school, and I hope you don’t doubt for a minute that, upon hearing my mom speak those words, I asked myself, “Why is that? What was the actual point of those 12 years anyway? Why aren’t we teaching kids how to learn?” When I graduated with my preliminary teaching certificate in the mid nineties, I
remember wishing I had more information about how kids actually learn. I found it heartbreaking
even then.
I took workshops that had brain in the title in hopes of opening a magic door to learning. I studied how to integrate the arts in a standards based curriculum, and backwards design before they called it that, because we knew back in 1992 that the arts were a great way to engage the brain. We knew that teaching kids to read involved phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. We knew kids needed support to learn to read, balanced with autonomy to make reading choices that mattered to them, and we were teaching writing all across the curriculum. Then something happened in education, testing became an all consuming entity, teacher autonomy gave way to scripted curriculums, and for the next twenty years our achievement and achievement gaps
have stagnated, or in some cases gotten worse. I find it heartbreaking.
So fast forward to the last several years. As the Information Age has grown, the need for
discriminating consumers of information, problem solvers, and designers of solutions has also
increased. The Current standards really embody the idea of teaching students To be thinkers and consumers of information. We know more and understand more about emotion, memory systems, learning and the Brain than ever before! We have resources to support teachers scaffolding in the classroom, Keys to Literacy, Comprehension, Vocabulary... We have graphic organizers out our ears. We have books full of engagement strategies, Teach Like a Pirate, and strategies for how to encourage student centered practices in Learn Like a Pirate. We know readers should be wild about books, The Book Whisperer, and that they still need teaching, Reading Strategies and Writing Strategies, through mini lessons and small group work and conferences. We require SEI endorsements in our state to ensure teachers understand how to best work with students who speak other languages, are bilingual, and bicultural We have access now to online tools like Epic, Pebble Go, Story Bird, and News ELA, just to name a very few!
In my current district, we also have UDL Now!, handed out to teachers and staff last year. When I read it, I thought “yes!” I recognized the many great teaching practices I had read of, taken workshops on, learned and tried throughout the book, with Universal Deign in Learning as the framework to make sense of them all and give them a rightful place in our collective teaching pedagogy. I have joined the Design Team in our district, attended last year’s cast symposium and completed my first online UDL course, but a lot of the teachers I have talked to haven’t even read the book yet. I find that heartbreaking.
And now...now we have the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines to give all this amazing
information, all these amazing resources, and all our tools for best practice, a framework to make them work for everyone in our classes. Not just the kids who we know need help or learn different or whose barriers to learning are visible or obvious in some way, but also those kids who we might not know learn differently, or whose parents are for whatever reason unable to advocate for them. In my thinking, UDL is SO much more than a buzzword. UDL is so much more than the next hot topic. UDL provides a framework for thinking and teaching focused on planning. The guidelines provide us with a structure to build on, to not just teach our students but teach them how to be learners and problem solvers and achievers. UDL fills me with hope.
teacher talk, too many work sheets, too much expectation that all the kids are going to fit in the same box, or the saddest, “I didn’t really learn anything new.” I’m not sure how many teachers expect kids to fit in the box though. Maybe they lack the time, understanding, or determination to chase down materials or create lessons that meet the needs of everyone in their class. Whatever the reasons,
while working in different schools and districts in a variety of capacities over the last several years, I
have seen the same looks of disengagement on kids faces, the same poor attitudes toward school and
learning, and the same types of students sent to sit in time out, to take a break, on walking breaks, and
in buddy room chairs from preschool to middle elementary. I have seen this in large and small schools in and around the county where I live where tiny rural schools still exist within 10-25 miles of larger ( but not huge) city schools. I know teachers know it too, bc teachers are questioning student attitudes toward school daily on Facebook, Twitter, and even in PLC’s reading to find out where the joy has gone. I find it heartbreaking.
I still remember when my mom advised me, “College is where you learn how to learn.” And she was right, back then. ( @1992) I am guessing that is at least a part of why standards based education took hold. I know I hadn’t learned a lot about how to learn in my 12 years of public school, and I hope you don’t doubt for a minute that, upon hearing my mom speak those words, I asked myself, “Why is that? What was the actual point of those 12 years anyway? Why aren’t we teaching kids how to learn?” When I graduated with my preliminary teaching certificate in the mid nineties, I
remember wishing I had more information about how kids actually learn. I found it heartbreaking
even then.
I took workshops that had brain in the title in hopes of opening a magic door to learning. I studied how to integrate the arts in a standards based curriculum, and backwards design before they called it that, because we knew back in 1992 that the arts were a great way to engage the brain. We knew that teaching kids to read involved phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. We knew kids needed support to learn to read, balanced with autonomy to make reading choices that mattered to them, and we were teaching writing all across the curriculum. Then something happened in education, testing became an all consuming entity, teacher autonomy gave way to scripted curriculums, and for the next twenty years our achievement and achievement gaps
have stagnated, or in some cases gotten worse. I find it heartbreaking.
So fast forward to the last several years. As the Information Age has grown, the need for
discriminating consumers of information, problem solvers, and designers of solutions has also
increased. The Current standards really embody the idea of teaching students To be thinkers and consumers of information. We know more and understand more about emotion, memory systems, learning and the Brain than ever before! We have resources to support teachers scaffolding in the classroom, Keys to Literacy, Comprehension, Vocabulary... We have graphic organizers out our ears. We have books full of engagement strategies, Teach Like a Pirate, and strategies for how to encourage student centered practices in Learn Like a Pirate. We know readers should be wild about books, The Book Whisperer, and that they still need teaching, Reading Strategies and Writing Strategies, through mini lessons and small group work and conferences. We require SEI endorsements in our state to ensure teachers understand how to best work with students who speak other languages, are bilingual, and bicultural We have access now to online tools like Epic, Pebble Go, Story Bird, and News ELA, just to name a very few!
In my current district, we also have UDL Now!, handed out to teachers and staff last year. When I read it, I thought “yes!” I recognized the many great teaching practices I had read of, taken workshops on, learned and tried throughout the book, with Universal Deign in Learning as the framework to make sense of them all and give them a rightful place in our collective teaching pedagogy. I have joined the Design Team in our district, attended last year’s cast symposium and completed my first online UDL course, but a lot of the teachers I have talked to haven’t even read the book yet. I find that heartbreaking.
And now...now we have the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines to give all this amazing
information, all these amazing resources, and all our tools for best practice, a framework to make them work for everyone in our classes. Not just the kids who we know need help or learn different or whose barriers to learning are visible or obvious in some way, but also those kids who we might not know learn differently, or whose parents are for whatever reason unable to advocate for them. In my thinking, UDL is SO much more than a buzzword. UDL is so much more than the next hot topic. UDL provides a framework for thinking and teaching focused on planning. The guidelines provide us with a structure to build on, to not just teach our students but teach them how to be learners and problem solvers and achievers. UDL fills me with hope.
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