The Continuum of Voice visual above was designed by Sylvia Duckworth @sylviaduckworth. The content originally developed by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey was adapted from the research report “Motivation, Engagement, & Student Voice” by Toshalis & Nakkula from Students at the Center @StudentCntrHub. Content recently updated by Barbara. 

 

Teacher-Centered Environments

Expression
As the teacher introduces the lesson, they request students to offer background information to determine prior knowledge or to give feedback on the lesson. The teacher will design the lesson from the feedback and determine best instructional strategies for all the diverse students at the extremes based on Universal Design for Learning.

Consultation
Learners consult with the teacher to share how they learn best and have conversations about their strengths, interests, and challenges. During the consultation, the teacher and learner determine the most appropriate tools, resources, and learning strategies to support learning. This is where the students grow the relationship with the teacher that change as they learn. The learner discusses how they plan to meet their learning goals and the best way to assess what they learned with the teacher. These conversations validate them as a learner.

Learner-Centered Environments

Participation
Learners define their learning targets with the teacher, how they plan to meet learning goals and articulate how they will demonstrate mastery with evidence of learning. Learners take on more roles in decision making in the classroom and school, i.e. committees, clubs, student council, etc. The learner’s voice is encouraged because now they are more invested in how and what they learn. Each learner designs how they will meet their learning goals and demonstrates evidence of their learning.

Partnership
Learners contribute to the design of lessons and projects based on their interests and questions. You will see learners in multiple areas in the room working in pairs, small groups, one or two learners in a corner of the room, or a learner one-on-one with the teacher. Some learners are sharing information virtually. You may even notice a group where one learner is leading a brainstorming session with his or her peers using collaborative tools. The noise level changes and is beginning to sound more like a coffee shop with “controlled chaos.” You are now hearing an exciting buzz of voices from around the room.

Learner-Driven Environments

Activism
Learners have identified a problem or challenge that they want to tackle. You may see learners in the hallways or other areas in or outside of the school with an excitement about information or resources they discovered that could solve the problem. Learners are using technology effectively to make connections and build a network of peers. Learners are showcasing evidence of mastery demonstrating how they tackled the problem. They may even create a call to action in an exhibition, on a website or for their peers. This is where learners are self-advocating for themselves and are beginning to develop agency.

Leadership
This is where learners take on a leadership role around their passions, interests, or what they want to do to make a difference. They believe in the cause which drives everything they are doing now. They self-direct their learning and take responsibility for the outcomes. The teacher takes on the role of advisor, providing feedback and any support needed in finding connections and resources to meet goals around what each learner believes is their purpose for learning. This is where learners are advocating for others and what they believe in. They now have agency.

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“Young people want to be heard. They have ideas and perspective on their lives and the world around them, and when their voice is incorporated in learning, good things happen.” [Source: McCarthy, John. Activating Student Voice Empowers Learning. p.65] 

There are so many aspects of “school” where learners have not been given the opportunity to be active participants in their learning. Some learners, especially those that are concerned about extrinsic factors like grades, may not feel comfortable expressing their own opinions. Giving learners voice encourages them to participate in learning, to own and drive their learning, and eventually to discover their purpose for learning.

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Thank You to Sylvia Duckworth @sylviaduckworth (http://sylviaduckworth.com) from Crescent School, Toronto, Canada for designing the graphic of the Continuum of Voice 1/10/2016. Contact Sylvia about the graphic. If you would like permission to use or share the Continuum of Voice with your school, contact me at barbara.bray@gmail.com.

References

• Bray, B. and McClaskey, K. “Learner Voice and Choice Leads to Engagement.” Center for Digital Education. December 16, 2015.
• Bray, B. UDL and the Why of Learning. Rethinking Learning. October 23, 2017.
• McCarthy, J. Activating Student Voice Empowers Learning. Openingpaths. org
• Toshalis, E. and Nakkula, M.”Motivation, Engagement, and Student Voice” Students at the Center.

Other Continuums

• Continuum of Engagement
• Continuum of Motivation
• Continuum of Ownership
• Continuum of Purpose

Most teachers join the profession because they want to make a difference in children’s lives. They want their students to be the best they can be so they reach their fullest potential. But that is not always easy with large classroom sizes, a wide range of differences of the learners, and the constraints and barriers within the system. There is a process that teachers can do to build a toolkit by teaching to the extremes which were addressed by Dr. Todd Rose in his book, The End of Average. You can read more details about no one being average in my post: Time to Ban Average.

Anticipating Four Diverse Learners

A Class Learning Snapshot (CLS) helps you design instructional methods and learning strategies based on four diverse learners in your class or classes. What you come up with for the four learners helps you teach to the extremes instead of to the average learner. You can invite your learners to create Learner Profiles. so you have personal information about each learner. I share how Universal Design for Learning provides a process to understand how learners learn best in this post on UDL and the Why of Learning.

The CLS is about anticipating four diverse learners at the extremes that you have or will have in your class or classes. You then include their strengths, interests, and challenges using their initials instead of their names or S1, S2… I only added a few bullets for each learner. You can add more bullets or as little as you need for each learner so you can get a snapshot of all your learners.

Preferences and Needs

You can ask each of the four learners directly how they prefer or need to learn or you may just want to design this section on what you learned from the CLS.

Start Building your Toolkit

The Class Learning Toolkit (CLT) helps teachers plan for the materials and methods that they need and learners can use during their lessons and projects. When they identify the methods and materials, they then have the resources and strategies at their fingertips when they need it. Before identifying the instructional methods and learning strategies, you can review and research what tools are available and accessible that could support the four learners. Consider how the tools apply to the UDL principles. I updated this post after reading Luis Perez’s and Kendra Grant’s wonderful ISTE article 30+ Tools for Diverse Learners.

Build a List of Tools with Instructional Methods, Learning Strategies, and Skills

Teachers can create a list of tools and apps that can support their four diverse learners. They can build a chart similar to the one below and include instructional methods, learning strategies, and skills or competencies learners will acquire. These are just a few tools and ideas as examples.

Pulling the Class Learning Toolkit (CLT) Together

The Class Learning Toolkit is not only about the tools; it is also about instructional methods the teacher uses to support the learners and learning strategies and skills that the four learners will acquire to develop agency.

Becoming Future Ready

Just imagine a class where all learners are confident and self-direct their learning. The idea of creating a toolkit that includes instructional methods and learning strategies, means the teacher and learners become partners in learning. No one can be an expert on everything. When the teacher steps back and looks at the extremes in the classroom instead of what they believe teaches to the average learner. There is no average learner. Actually, there is no average teacher. This process helps the teacher universally design lessons and activities that engage all learners. If you address learning strategies for the four diverse learners then you will support most of the learners in the class. When you identify tools, skills, and learning strategies and how learners can take ownership for their learning, they build skills that help them become future ready.

Here are a few questions to consider and let me know what you think.

• Did you create a Class Learning Snapshot for four learners? What did you learn about them?
• How did a Class Learning Toolkit help you let go so learners take more responsibility for their learning?
• What tools and apps do you see as most effective with the maximum number of learners in your class?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was developed by David Rose and Anne Meyer from CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology).  The UDL principles are Multiple Means of Engagement, Multiple Means of Representation, and Multiple Means of Action & Expression. After learning more about UDL, I can see how UDL can be the framework for learning for all learners.

I love that UDL starts with the why and how learners are engaged and motivated to learn. The WHY means what learners are interested in and passionate about.

Why are learners engaged in learning?
What is their purpose for learning?
What motivates them to want to learn?
Why would they want to become independent and self-directed?

UDL Principles

I decided to explore the UDL principles from my perspective as a learner. I know that I need to be motivated first about something new I want or need to learn. I’m kind of busy. There has to be a reason or purpose for my learning. When I thought about this, I got it why UDL starts with Multiple Means of Engagement. This is what makes learning personal for me. It is not about what someone else teaches me unless I chose to take their course. I first have to be interested in what I want to learn. So I decided to add some strategies for each of the principles to help me understand what that may mean for all learners.

 The bullet points I listed may vary depending on who applies these concepts of the why, what, and how. In my first book, Make Learning Personal, UDL started with the What of Learning. Recently, Anne Meyer, David Rose, and David Gordon, co-authors of Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice, changed the order of the principles to start with the why. I agree and really believe you need to know the why before the what or how.

Learner Profile

When I put the ideas together this way, it made sense for me. I could see why it is important to start with the WHY of learning. We need a voice and choice in our learning so we have a say in how content is represented. We may all process that information differently so this is why we need to know how we learn best. UDL helps us do that.  I figured if I’m going to share this I needed to see how it worked for me as a learner. So I took the approach I used in the work I did with personalizing learning but changed it to fit the idea of starting with Engagement and the Why of Learning.

When I consider the principle of engagement, it is more than just engaging me in learning; it is how I am empowered to want to learn.  I have a more detailed survey that I use with schools I work with, but I found that sometimes less is more. I also had to show that engagement was about motivation and purpose and different than what was listed under action and expression.  I just put in a few bullet points under each section, but you can add as many that apply to you.

Why are you engaged in learning?
What is your purpose for learning?
What motivates you to want to learn?
Why would you want to become independent and self-directed?

Preferences and Needs

What I noticed is that when I started writing about my strengths and challenges for engagement, it was all about purpose. I wasn’t sure of my purpose. This was big for me. I’ve been focusing on making learning personal for years and now I wasn’t sure. It’s not about making learning personal for someone else. Each learner needs to find that out for themselves.

When I added information for me, I saw me. I wanted to share it. I shared this idea with some educators and asked them how they would use this. So they filled it out and then shared what they found out about themselves with peers. I’m going big by sharing mine with you. When I asked someone what they thought about what I wrote, they asked me questions that led to some very interesting conversations. One teacher said that when I wrote I wasn’t sure of my purpose, it helped her feel okay about being vulnerable in front of others. She thought I knew everything. No one knows everything. I definitely do not feel like an expert. Every day I learn something new and am humbled by how much I don’t know. Next step was to write what I preferred or needed to help me learn.

I only put a few ideas so you could get an idea how this process works. Putting my thoughts in writing helped me see just what I was thinking. I needed to refine my purpose and spend more time on things I’m passionate about. That’s number one. That’s my WHY. 

What do you prefer or need to learn?

Personal Learner Backpack

So I decided to go one step further by creating my own personal learner backpack, but I needed to change it by adding the skills and tools I will need to succeed and become future ready. I’m using that term for me and any learner because I believe learning is about preparing for whatever is ahead for us. I love technology and have always experimented with tools and apps. I find that there are so many apps that I reach out to others for help or ideas on how to use different apps. It doesn’t matter how young or old we are, each day is new. The backpack also includes learning strategies so we have agency which means becoming self-directed and independent learners.

What I found out was the first thing I needed was to build my self-confidence around finding my purpose. That meant changing my mindset and using the power of YET more. I can do anything I put my mind to if I want to. I am not sure even what tools I will need to learn, YET.  If I say I don’t think I can write another book, I need to add YET. If I say, I’m not sure how to do this or that, I need to add YET. I wonder what my backpack will look like in a year.

I tried this process in several workshops and keynotes. So far, the feedback was great and helpful. Like I said, I am still learning so I may even make some changes. I am curious to see the backpacks learners create and the conversations they have about their learning.

Who knows what the future will hold for us?
How will you become future ready?
What will you need to have agency?

Resources:

• CAST (Center for Accessible Special Technology) www.cast.org
• UDL Center: http://www.udlcenter.org/
• Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice by Anne Meyer, David H. Rose, and David Gordon: udltheorypractice.cast.org

Personalizing learning means different things to different people. The idea I want to share behind personalized learning is to empower learners including you as a learner to own and drive learning. That’s not easy especially when teachers have so much on their plates. It could be easier to continue with the status quo. But the teachers I know want the best for all of their learners. This post is to provide a few reasons to consider when you personalize learning.

1. No one is average.

In Dr. Todd Rose’s book, The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World the Values Sameness, he explains why we came to embrace the scientifically flawed idea that averages can be used to understand individuals. Rose offers a powerful alternative with three principles of individuality: the jaggedness principle (talent is never one-dimensional), the context principle (traits are a myth), and the pathways principle (we all walk the road less traveled). He explains that we are all unique and can take full advantage of individuality to gain an edge in life.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? I believe each of us is unique and all of us are learners. When I read Dr. Rose’s book, he explained about variability and why education has to change to meet the needs of each individual learner.

“Why is there no average learner?”

2. The Myth of Learning Styles.

We are all unique as Dr. Rose mentioned in his book, End of Average. Because of who we are and how we all learn in different ways, learners have preferences about how they learn. According to the authors [Riener and Willingham, 2014], whether we call it talent, ability, or intelligence, people vary in their capacity to learn different areas of content, differ in their background knowledge, and, intertwined with ability, they differ in their interests. When we identify a learner as one learning style over another, it does not follow the research about how the brain works. We use all of the modalities because that is how our brain works.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? I’ve seen so many learners labeled visual or kinesthetic so teachers differentiated instruction based on one or two labels. All of us have multiple dimensions that make us who we are. Most of us are visual learners unless we cannot see. Even blind people visualize in their heads what they are seeing. I will be writing more about this, but I hope schools rethink why they should not use learning styles to label a child.

“Why are learning styles debunked?”

3. How our Brain Learns.

Learning is a neurobiological process indicated by the growth and strengthening of connections between neurons. The brain is constantly changing which is called neuroplasticity. This means the brain can be improved and continues to adapt and learn through life even into our old age. The human potential for learning is limitless at any age. When you learn something new, your brain makes new connections. Your brain is even active when you reflect on your learning. You learn when your brain is active especially when learners ask questions, investigate, create, or reflect on their learning. Passive exposure or listening to a lecture does not necessarily lead to learning.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? Our brain is constantly changing as we learn. When a school or parent believes that a child is born with certain traits or talents, this can cause the child to believe that’s all they are. This happened to me. I was told I wasn’t very smart. I believed that during most of my school. My parents always believed in me and fought for me. And, on my own, I read and was hungry to learn. So I did. I was lucky to have parents who believed in me and a teacher who believed in my writing. I finally realized that I could learn anything if I put my mind to it. So now I write, share, and learn something new every day. I know that every child can learn because their brain is growing and learning every day. All children can learn if we give them opportunities and the support they need.

“How does the brain work?”

4. Universal Design for Learning® as the Framework

David Rose and Ann Meyers from The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) founded Universal Design for Learning® (UDL)  based on decades of brain research and the neuroscience of individual differences, human variability, and how we learn. UDL is about reducing or eliminating the barriers to learning and optimizing levels of support to meet the needs and interests of all learners in the classroom. They realized that the curriculum, not the learner, was the problem. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional methods, materials, and assessments that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? We need to put more energy into finding out how children learn best. Universal Design for Learning does that. The three principles, Multiple Means of Engagement, Multiple Means of Representation, and Multiple Means of  Action and Expression, pave the way. All three of the principles work together, but when you start with the “Why” of what engages you to want to learn, nothing can stop you. It is about encouraging curiosity and wonder. That passion to learn is what is so exciting about personalized learning.

“How can we reduce barriers to learning?”

5. Accountability vs. Responsibility

The word “responsibility” tends to be interchangeable with the word “accountability.” In many cases, teachers feel they are the ones responsible for students to learn. The reason is that the system seems to hold them and the school accountable for what students learn. “Accountability” refers to making, keeping, and managing agreements and expectations where “responsibility” is the feeling of ownership. So this means that each learner needs to be held accountable for what they learn by taking responsibility for their own learning.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? If the teacher is the hardest person working in the classroom, then who are the people really learning? Learning is not about passively receiving information. When the teacher is the one held accountable for what kids learn, then learning becomes work, not fun for both the teacher and learners. When our kids have a voice and choice in what and how they learn, they want to learn. They are motivated to learn. When they realize learning is for them not for a grade or for the teacher, they own it and develop agency.

“Who owns the learning?”

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All learners can learn. It is our job as educators to provide the environment and support system so learners have a voice and choice in their learning. These are just a few reasons for you to consider if you go on the journey to personalize learning for all of your learners. I plan to write more posts that explain each of these reasons in more detail and discuss learner agency in depth in several posts.

Bringing Makerspaces into Classrooms to meet STEM and STEAM

Post by Jackie Gerstein, Ed.D. @jackiegerstein, and Barbara Bray @bbray27 

If there is a makerspace in your school, it may be down the hall, in the library, or in another building. If there is someone other than the teacher managing the makerspace or there is a schedule for the school, your kids may only be able to use it once a week or month. Some makerspace activities may be focusing on how to use the resources available and may not be connecting the activities to the curriculum or around a real world problem. If this is how the makerspace is set up in your school, then your kids may not have access to the resources, materials, and tools when they need them, especially for STEM or STEAM.

In deciding what resources you need based on the learners you have, you may first need to determine how your learners learn best, what projects you plan to do, how you can set up a makerspace in your classroom, and much more. This is why we decided to create a planning tool for makerspaces in the classroom for you using the Design Thinking Process and Universal Design for Learning®.

The Design Thinking Process

Design thinking is an approach to learning that includes considering real-world problems, research, analysis, conceiving original ideas, lots of experimentation, and sometimes building things by hand. The projects teach students how to make a stable product, use tools, think about the needs of another, solve challenges, overcome setbacks and stay motivated on a long-term problem. The projects also teach students to build on the ideas of others, vet sources, generate questions, deeply analyze topics, and think creatively and analytically. Many of those same qualities are goals of the Common Core State Standards. (What Does ‘Design Thinking’ Look Like in School?)

We adapted the Design Thinking Process to include additional phases based on our own experiences in schools with educators and kids.

Define the Problem: The educator along with the learners generate possible authentic problems to explore within their local community (classroom, school, social, community) which includes identification of the intended audience.

Empathy and Perspective Taking: Learners interview clients to gain an understanding of their needs and to see the problem from their perspective. The educator can assist learners in the interview process including how to develop interview questions.

Idea Generation: Learners, typically working in small groups, generate lots of ideas and questions to ask to solve the design thinking problem or challenge. Each generated possible design is analyzed as to its potential to resolve the design challenge.

Sketch Design: A blueprint or sketch of the selected design is created through pencil and paper or through an online tool such as Google Draw or Sketchup. This design can be pitched to another group for constructive feedback.

Prototype – Test – Refine: This phase is the actual creating and building of the product. To get the product to work as the plan often takes several iterations of prototype, test, and refine. Learners are encouraged to use the tools and building processes that work for them.

Feedback from User: The final design is presented to the users for their feedback. The designers ask the users about the degree to which the design met their needs asking specific questions about what worked and what still needs improvement.

Final Reflection: Learners reflect on the process in a way that works best for them – blogs, photo essays, video recording, podcast, sketchnotes, illustrated ebook.

Share Out: A goal of the design thinking process is sharing learning out to a broader public. This is typically done by sharing documentation of learning and final reflections through social media.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) developed by David Rose and Ann Meyers of the Center for Assistive Special Technology (CAST) was designed to reduce the barriers to the curriculum and maximize learning. UDL provides a framework for all learners to help them become self-directed and independent expert learners. UDL has reordered the principles and guidelines, to begin with, Multiple Means of Engagement, the Why of Learning that compliments how the Design Thinking Process involves learners in identifying an authentic problem or challenge.

• Multiple Means of Engagement (Why) is the affective network that explains how interest and purpose engages and motivates learners to want to learn.
• Multiple Means of Representation (What) is the recognition network how content is represented and how learners process information.
• Multiple Means of Action and Expression (How) is the strategic network involving how learners monitor progress and demonstrate and reflect evidence of learning.

http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html

The National Center on Universal Design for Learning goes deeper referring to the alternate version of the UDL Guidelines found in the book UDL Theory and Practice by David Rose and Ann Meyers where the order of the principles and the guidelines have changed to start with the WHY. The UDL Guidelines provide a deep dive into each of the principles to checkpoints that provide resources, examples, and research. We pulled together the phases of the Design Thinking Process and identified specific options under each principle to create a Design Thinking Process and UDL Planning Tool for teachers.

Design Thinking and UDL Planning Tool

In the initial phase of defining the problem, the teacher involves learners to generate possible authentic problems within their local community. The problem can be defined by the teacher to encourage learner interest. We connected the UDL principle Multiple Means of Engagement to this phase by providing options for recruiting learners’ interest through optimizing relevance, value, and authenticity. To understand the problem, the teacher activates learners’ background knowledge and invites them to highlight patterns and critical features around real world problems that impact them.

The UDL connection to Engagement to the second phase of Empathy and Perspective Taking made so much sense to us. The UDL connection involves learners having options for sustaining effort and persistence by fostering collaboration and community. This phase is where learners gain an understanding of the needs of specific people about a problem from their perspective. They may interview, do observations or survey them about the problem.

Some lessons can involve a specific problem identified by the teacher who first wants to encourage empathy. We provide one example around an Egg Drop and the Design a Squishy Circuit for a Classmates (see these examples at the end of this post).

The middle phases of the Design Thinking Process involve the iterative steps related to idea generation and prototype-test-refine as well as getting feedback from the users.

As can be seen in the UDL Connections column of the Design Thinking and UDL planning tool, representation and action and expression can be explicitly addressed. Representation or the What of Learning is a strong focus during the Idea Generation and Feedback from Users phases as the educator helps learners highlight patterns, critical features, and relationships of their discoveries. The Action and Expression or the How of Learning emerges most strongly during the Creating a Blueprint and Prototype-Test-Refine Phases as learners include their own personal touches and preferred means of expression.

The final phases of the Design Thinking Process involve reflection on the design and making experiences and then sharing out the results to a broader audience.

The UDL connection to Action and Expression is especially strong in the final phases of Reflection and Sharing Out. During the reflection phase, learners are given the option to express what they learned during and because of their STEM, STEAM, Maker Education experience in a way that makes the most sense to them given the nature of the task; and their preferred means of expression. This is especially relevant given all that technology and online tools provide.

For example, students can write a blog, create a photo essay with a caption, record a podcast or video, do a hand-drawn or online sketch, create a comic.  Learners, many being savvy at the use of social networks, can then choose how they want to share out their reflections. This serves several purposes related to Action and Expression: (1) it gives learners an authentic audience, and (2) it helps other makers learn from their personal experiences.

Two Examples of STEM, STEAM, and Maker Education Activities using the Design Thinking and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Planning Tool

We hope the Design Thinking and UDL planning tool we developed helps you guide the design of learning activities that focus on STEM and STEAM and brings makerspaces into your classrooms.

We welcome any comments, ideas, or questions.

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Dr. Jackie Gerstein’s byline is, “I don’t do teaching for a living. I live teaching as my doing . . . and technology has amplified my passion for doing so.” Dr. Gerstein has been teaching in-person and online for several decades. Currently, she teaches master’s level online courses in educational technology for Boise State, Walden, and Western Governors’ Universities as well as gifted elementary education where she focuses on STEM, STEAM, and Maker Education

She believes that one of the roles and responsibilities of the 21st-century educator is to share resources, ideas, and instructional strategies with other educators.

Jackie actively blogs at  https://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/ and tweets at https://twitter.com/jackiegerstein

This post is also cross-posted on Jackie’s website at https://goo.gl/bnu1NB.

Additional Resources referenced from Jackie’s blog:

• Introducing Design Thinking to Elementary Learners
• Video Game Design with Elementary Learners
• Student Voice Comes With Teachers as Listeners
• Giving Students a Voice Models High-Quality Learning Processes
• Today’s Education Should Be About Giving Learners Voice and Choice.
• Show Learners The Possibilities and Get out of the Way

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Barbara Bray worked with Jackie to design the Design Thinking Process and UDL Tool. This is Barbara’s blog so all the information about her is under the about tab. Barbara blogs and invites guest posts here, hosts podcasts at Conversations on Learning and co-authored two books on personalized learning with Kathleen McClaskey: Make Learning Personal and How to Personalize Learning,

Follow Barbara on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bbray27 

by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is used to design curriculum, lessons and instruction based on the diversity of the learners in their classroom. The three principles of UDL are:

• multiple means of representation
• multiple means of expression and action
• multiple means of engagement

When a teacher understands his/her learners through the UDL lens, he/she creates a flexible learning environment and provides opportunities for learner voice and choice. When lessons are designed using the UDL model, the lesson includes goals, methods, materials, tools, and assessments to reach and support the maximum amount of learners in the classroom.

Learners can use this model to help them understand how they learn best and what learning path they can take to become an independent expert learner, leveraging their natural abilities in the process. This process helps the learner create their personal learning profile that is understood by both teacher and learner.

The importance of this strategy is that both the teacher and the learner understand who the learner is and how they learn best. The learner and the teacher uses the UDL lens to personalize learning. So what does that look like? Here are two eighth grade students and their Personal Learner Profiles.

Susan

• is an avid reader, likes to write descriptively, and enjoys drawing.
• is anxious when she speaks in front of others.
• forgets the sequence, moral and message of the story.
• wants to ask questions but is uncomfortable voicing her concerns.
• works better individually or in a small group.

Justin

• reads and writes at a third grade level.
• requires projects to be broken down into smaller segments.
• has a difficult time organizing and little ability to interpret concepts.
• needs to know purpose behind reading assignments.
• loves to draw and is interested in multimedia.

For US History, eighth graders study the Civil War.  There is so much information on the Civil War. The teacher and learners  needed to choose one essential or anchor standard. In this case, they determined that the main issue learners had problems with was analyzing text and making connections to a concept.

Essential or Anchor Standard

> Key Ideas and Details (Informational Text)

RI.8.3. Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).

After determining the essential standard, the teacher and learners identified supporting standards for the history topic: Civil War. The power of using historical information such as primary and secondary sources is that learners can use visual information in multiple forms to understand the concept. They also were going to choose one subtopic to do a short project.

Supporting Standards

> Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (Integration of History)

RH.6-8.7. Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts

> Comprehension and Collaboration (Speaking and Listening)

SL.8.1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

> Research to Build and Present Knowledge (Writing)

W.8.7. Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.

> Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas (Speaking and Listening)

SL.8.5. Integrate multimedia and visual displays into presentations to clarify information, strengthen claims and evidence, and add interest.

After the teacher and learners chose the standards, they brainstormed questions about the Civil War. They worked in pairs to prioritize questions until they chose one essential question.

Essential Question

What are the causes of the Civil War?

Learners then paired with another learner to come up with supporting questions. The pairs prioritize those questions until they came up with one question that they will research and answer for their project.

Supporting Questions:

• Why did southern states secede from the union?
• What events or publications sparked the start of the Civil War?
• Was slavery the main issue for the war’s beginning?
• What other factors contributed to the civil war beginning?
• If slavery began in 1619, why did it take 200 years for it to become an issue?
• Why did the South believe that they needed to continue slavery?

The learning strategies Susan and Justin used were based on their learner profiles to help them meet the Common Core and demonstrate what they know and understand. Because Susan and Justin understand how they learn best through their UDL lens, they were able to make choices for themselves. Those choices included how they access information, how they are engaged with the information, and how they like to express what they know.

To personalize a unit of study like the Civil War, it is more than just memorizing battles, events, people, places, and times. The essential and supporting questions push the investigation of history further. This project encourages diverse learners to own and direct their own learning about the Civil War. Susan and Justin have diverse learning challenges, yet both of them have a passion for drawing. Because they were able to choose how they respond to the question, they were more motivated to design a title graphic and a Prezi presentation that utilized their creative talents. They were responsible for  their learning by choosing the question, the direction of their presentation, and which one of them did each of the tasks to complete their project.

Universal Design for Learning is the guide for schools for personalizing learning to meet the Common Core State Standards.