We were lucky enough to have with us Gina Pilko and Peggy Morris from Fitch intermediate School in Olmsted Falls. Below are some of the questions as we (Center staff) heard them. Please feel free to commen on (or reply to) any of them.

Our school has a relatively strict set of expectations as to how we assess grade level indicators. Do you have any suggestions as to how we might incorporate UDL principles given those expectations?

We can’t ignore the standards and the fact that all students have to take the test. We try to incorporate test preparation into bellwork, warmups, and some class time devoted specifically to learning “how” to take the test. In our district, we’re trying to use unit tests that are already in place in math and language arts as our short cycle assessments. This saves us additional class time that might have been spent on separate short cycle assessments. This saves a little time for more creative UDL choices. Preassessment helps us to know which students have already met the standard, and which students still need more help. Our UDL library is still small at this point, and we can’t teach this way every day, for every lesson. However, we incorporate UDL concepts as often as we can, and try to offer kids choices for how they will get information that they need, whenever possible, even if it isn’t a full UDL lesson. We agree that standards and constant assessments are probably the biggest challenge to UDL. But, you can do both.

How did you develop your framework for understanding the principles of Universal Design for Learning and how has your team acted upon a shared understanding?

We were taught the principles of UDL from a book called Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age by David H. Rose and Anne Meyer. Also, we learned a great deal from the Center, and the speakers and experts who were brought in. The pilot team wrote an action plan to guide us, and the second year team did the same, with the pilot team’s input and help. The two teams came to the center together and worked together.

How do you resolve the tension between the desire to develop engaging lessons and the need to cover the grade level indicators?

When lessons are engaging, kids are learning and retaining that learning, in ways that don’t happen without UDL. If you make the lessons engaging, then take a little extra time to transfer that learning into the OAT assessment format, the results should be better. Try it in your classroom, maybe with a teaching partner. You do UDL, have your partner do the same thing with a traditional lesson. See how the kids do on an OAT type assessment of the indicators that you taught.

Do you have any suggestions for how to solidify our team’s committment to UDL?

Look into ways to find some grant money…it helps create interest to use great technology like Smartboards, Kidspiration, eReader, Brainpop, etc. These things are a hook for both kids and teachers. Administrative support is needed to free up time to allow you to work on planning lessons; this won’t work without time to work together. Share successes that you have in your classroom, share lessons as you design them. As teachers see students being successful, that is a big motivator.

What suggestions do you have about getting our school and district leaders to “buy into” UDL?

Administrators who have staff involved in this process need to talk to administrators in districts where they’re just starting up. As Value-Added becomes part of every district’s report card next year, making sure every student moves ahead is our goal. This should be a huge selling point for UDL, since its professional development aspect is going to improve teaching and learning for everyone.

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