Genius Hour Blog - Week 2
Hello Friends!
Welcome back to 'Teaching with Miss G'. It is great to 'see you' again! Thank you for joining me for week two of my Genius Hour Project series. For those of you who have yet to read my first post, you can view that by clicking here. Reading the first post in this series will help you follow along with all that I will be discussing in today's entry. So, without further adieu, let's get started!
This week I delved deeper into the probing question for my Genius Hour series: How can I, as a future educator, integrate literacy strategies into the regular classroom that equally benefit all types of learners? In order to effectively answer this question and in turn, meet the goals I set out for this project, I determined that researching the topic at-hand would be the best starting point. So I took to the web, and summarized findings for today's post.
The major finding in my research was a concept and teaching approach entitled 'Universal Design for Learning'. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is best known as an approach to learning that gives all students within a classroom equal opportunity to succeed (see more on UDL here.). The ultimate goal of UDL is to incorporate various teaching methods into the classroom in order to remove barriers to learning. Awesome, right? UDL follow three basic principles for success:
1) Engagement
2) Representation
3) Action and Expression
Engagement consists of providing multiple means of engagement within the classroom. This means that, under UDL, teachers should: provide some element of choice and autonomy for students, pay close attention to student needs and wants, and create a supportive environment for all students. Ensuring that teachers are measuring engagement correctly can be done in many ways. For example, a grade four teacher could provide their students with a survey to complete regarding their interests, strengths, and needs. From their, this teacher could integrate their survey results into lesson plans.
Representation consists of providing multiple means of representation within the classroom. Teachers should consider whether they have considered options for how content can be displayed (e.g., text, pictures, charts, etc.). Additionally, teachers should actively reflect on whether they provide options to support students who may require alternate forms of representation. For example, the use of technology within the classroom can assist students by providing the option to adjust elements like font size, and background colour.
Action and Expression consists of providing multiple means of action and expression within the classroom. This principle requires teachers to be flexible with timing and pacing, consider tasks aside from those done with pencil-and-paper, and to encourage the use of assistive technology within the classroom. For example, students should have the opportunity to show what they know through a variety of formats (i.e. through a written paragraph, audio clip, poster, etc.).
UDL is the framework under which my Genius Hour series will be operating moving forward. UDL principles will allow me to ensure that I am designing educational plans and resources that meet the needs of all students (including those with multiple exceptionalities). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is particularly relevant to literacy as many students require accommodations and modifications to the way literacy is taught during the school day. Additionally, literacy affects all other subjects making it all the more important to ensure that students are provided with multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression.
When assessing UDL as a framework for my Genius Hour series, I was fortunate enough to not come across any difficulty with incorporating this research into my project. If anything, UDL helped me to determine the next best steps in making my plans and resources effective. Throughout the next week, I will begin to create plans and resources under the principles of engagement, representation, and expression. The following questions will guide the next week of this project:
- How can a single literacy resource provide multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression?
- In what ways can literacy plans be adjusted to meet the needs of all students in the classroom while ensuring that all students are completing the same task?
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