DESCRIPTION: The evidence provided to meet this Teaching Standard # 2 of inclusion, understanding of diverse cultures, and individual differences, in order to support all students to meet high standards, is derived from a six month long educational project I carried out in 2011. This was an Universal Design for Learning program in order to reach children of all abilities and backgrounds.

Working with VSA Vermont, the state arts organization on the arts & all abilities, I was hired to lead the program. As such, I was tasked with learning and implementing Universal Design for Learning instructional strategies. I received training and then led three distinct teaching residencies with different content and creative classroom collaborations.

The project referenced here occurred at The Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington, Vermont.

Please find above four documents pertaining to this evidence sample: An Overview, Curriculum Map, Unit Poster and a Math/Art Game I designed. This educational program, designed to reach different types of learners with diverse strengths and abilities was called, Adaptation, Integration, and the Arts.

I worked closely with Judy Chalmer, then Director of VSA Vermont, as my supervisor. Program funding came from the Vermont Department of Education. Its purpose: to provide learning in and through the arts for students of all abilities and to share these methods with classroom teachers, assistants, teaching artists, and school administrators. I collaborated with classroom teachers, other educators, building administrators to plan and carry out the project. Students and teachers were provided a unique opportunity to experience flexible pathways to support student achievement, creativity, innovation, and effective learning in core academic content areas through the arts and UDL (Universal Design for Learning).

This particular program (one of three I led), called, Let Your Style Take Shape, focused on math content for a 4th/5th grade class. The main artist we studied was Mr. Kong Ho from China. Mr. Ho is a renowned artist and teacher who creates abstract paintings, drawings, and murals. Kong Ho was paralyzed at the age of one due to polio. By appreciating Mr. Ho’s accomplishments, students could be inspired and could adopt an “I can do that” attitude.

Please note, while this project does not fall into the specific content area of French, it is important to highlight as I have used this methodology time and time again in French instruction as well as other content areas.

ANALYSIS/REFLECTION:

This was a rewarding and at times challenging process. It was a new program and while there was enthusiastic participation overall, it got off to a rocky start here due in part to it being a novel and uncomfortable concept for the math specialist I was paired with. She also was under pressure for her math learners to meet content standards and could not envision how this work would help them meet her instructional goals. Change is challenging for all, and upon reflection, we as the project lead from VSA Vermont, could have done a better job preparing the math specialist in terms of what to expect.

The elementary school had only recently become an arts integrated program, thus teachers were very much in the process of learning how to use the arts to bolster learning. Introducing them to Universal Design for Learning methodologies was a way to train the teachers to empower diverse styles of learning. At first, we had a planning session with myself, Judy Chalmer of VSA, the school administrator/art coach, and the math specialist to determine the theme, dates/times of the residency, integration strategies, alignment to academic content standards, and other logistics.

I had regular meetings with my supervisor from VSA Vermont to go over teaching strategies and program planning throughout the program. Together, with the school's art coach, we decided to shift gears and work with a different teacher after the first class with the math specialist and her students. The school's art teacher also came on board to act as a liaison with the classroom teacher. This was a positive decision because much collaboration was required to plan content, set instructional outcomes, design learning activities and carry out the program in a supportive learning environment to include learners of varying abilities.

Once the logistics were reshuffled, in cooperation with a 4th/5th grade teacher, we planned the program aligning to Grade Expectations for Vermont’s Framework of Standards and Learning. It was important for me to understand the student's prior knowledge and experiences when designing instruction. I also relied on the classroom teacher to share information regarding student's with specialized learning plans either in the form of IEP's or 504s. I visited the class in advance of starting to familiarize myself with the students, class layout and plan for materials, transitions and overall logistics.

The program unfolded with enthusiasm, and I met with the class 10 times. Applying both Vermont's academic content standards for math and art, we focused on their math content related to geometry. The classroom teacher and art teacher served as collaborating/support teachers during the planning and instructional portions of the program. This was crucial to provide meaningful activities and assessments for an inclusive learning environment that enabled each learner to meet high standards. I was in charge of incorporating Universal Design for Learning instructional strategies.

Students were provided diverse opportunities to show their learning through written, verbal, kinetic and artistic activities. For example, we began the program by reading an interview with Mr. Ho, asking students to take turns reading and then for their verbal reactions to the information. I asked, "what kind of challenges do you think Mr. Ho faces as an artist?" and got an array of observations that were possible. We then went on to read Kong Ho's response to the question which was:

I wanted the students to come away from this activity understanding that Mr. Ho is an accomplished artist and teacher whose physical disability has nothing to do with his skills or success. It was important for students to recognize that we all have different skills and abilities—we are all good at some things and not others. To close the opening lesson, students were given options to illustrate their learning. They could either write a brief summary about Mr. Ho, draw a picture based on his abstract style incorporating shapes, line and color or come up with their own idea.

Access to diverse instructional resources were available as well. Students could choose which brushes to use and larger handled brushes were provided for students with limited motor skills. I used images to help explain learning objectives and instructions, different colored lettering for written content to make it easier to read and separate into categories. I also posed a lot of questions to them of varying complexity and type, modeling for them to learn to ask great questions, a key skill for a life long learner.

A number of students with IEP's (Individual Education Plans), had individual support staff to help them access the activities. During the program, the classroom teacher, art teacher and myself, decided to make the final projects more personal, thus we redesigned the summative assessment to entail self-portraits.

In sum, this project underlined for me the importance of offering options in teaching, being flexible and that inclusive practice takes different forms . It is important to help learners figure out their own strengths in order to explore them, and to determine weaknesses in order to learn to work with them, sometimes even as opportunities. Since this project, in order to keep improving my practices of inclusion, I work on assessing if the learning environment supports adaptations necessary to meet all students' learning. The evidence presented demonstrates my mastery of teaching standard #2 because of the instructional activities successfully planned and carried out with the UDL framework. Additionally, highlighting an artist with a disability provided a positive role model for the students of someone that was successful in spite of having physical challenges. As I develop as a teacher, I look forward to working with and learning from other educators who have created successful inclusive learning environments.

#2a: Work of a youth I worked with at Bellcate who had traumatic brain injury.

DESCRIPTION: Throughout my teaching career I have had the opportunity to work with diverse students of varying backgrounds and capabilities. I will describe here instances when I was teaching youth on the autism spectrum as well as others, and how I worked to adapt, include and enable these learners to meet high standards.

ANALYSIS/REFLECTION: I have worked in a number of places with students on the autism spectrum. One being at Wingspan Studio, my own working and teaching studio. Another was at Bellcate School, a small independent program built around a therapeutic model and as well in public school settings.

At Wingspan Studio I have had a number of students with autism attend, some have come with a support teacher and others not. There is always attention to sensory inputs such as light and noise, which can be overwhelming and physically painful if turned up too much for someone with sensory sensitivities. Some youth are under-sensitive. Everyone is different thus it's important for me to communicate with their adult/parent/organization ahead of time. In the past I have collaborated with the Howard Center who was helping to place one of their clients in a sensory friendly vacation camp program.

In the image on the cover of this section, one of the students is on the spectrum. Since they were very high functioning this student was not assisted by a support person. When support people are involved I encourage them to participate with us and look to them for important information, potential triggers and tips. An environment of acceptance is cultivated and there is no room for judgement.

I have had another teenager youth attend with a support person. This kid had a great sense of humor and to this day I still see his mom and sometimes him. He may be "stimming" or talking to himself, and his mother does a great job advocating for all to engage with him. He now is in his early 20's and is able to live independently.

At Bellcate I learned a lot about working with students on the spectrum as well as other neurodiverse learners. Here we usually worked with one to three/four students at a time that may have behavioral, developmental or physical challenges. I worked with one young teenager who was experiencing some intensive symptoms and always had a support person with her. It took a bit of time to develop a connection with her, but when we did, one of her favorite activities was setting up her own hair and nail salon to welcome other students. Another student I worked with at Bellcate, here for behavioral needs, while not on the spectrum, needed an environment that was soothing to diminish the stress and trauma she experienced in her childhood to meet her instructional goals. We worked with visualizations to calm the nervous system before embarking on literacy work through art and story telling.

The student work displayed above is from a high school level youth I worked with who had a traumatic brain injury. The first image is of a drawing of a light in a cafe we were in, showing beautiful use of color, line and space, helping him to regenerate spatial awareness. The next image is an artwork showing his learning about social class in America. It was inspired by an exhibit of Fulani art we visited at The University of Vermont. Fulani are nomadic peoples that have been important in economics, history, and culture in western Africa for over a thousand years. I pushed him to do much of the writing himself, and he shared with me, that I held him to higher standards than previous teachers who he was able to get to do much of his work for him.

In the public school settings I have worked in, and for example at Edmunds Middle School where I was the French teacher in 2017, I have had a couple of students on the spectrum who were highly functioning, thus referred to as having Asperger's syndrome. One in particular thrived in French . During collaborative projects, he preferred to work with one other student he connected with. They worked well together and served as resources for one another.

I had the chance to see renowned scientist, author and autism advocate, Temple Grandin speak in Essex Junction, Vermont to an overflowing crowd. She spoke about the persistence and hard work it took to get into doors that were otherwise closed. She has designed industry changing cattle structures that elevated standards and are used for half the cattle in the United States today. Her life and work are inspiring, and thanks to her work and that of others, in 2013, the American Psychiatric Association revised the diagnostic criteria for autism. This decision widened the spectrum to include brilliant artists, musicians, scientists to an individual who cannot dress herself. She has a problem with labels as do I. While they are necessary to have a common vocabulary, she states, “one of the problems today is for a kid to get any special services in school, they have to have a label. The problem with autism is you’ve got a spectrum that ranges from Einstein to someone with no language and intellectual disability...Steve Jobs was probably mildly on the autistic spectrum. Basically, you’ve probably known people who were geeky and socially awkward but very smart. When does geeks and nerds became autism? That’s a gray area. Half the people in Silicon Valley probably have autism.” She shares her message as the number of children diagnosed with autism grows. Basically, she urges us to make room for "differently-abled-brains," and goes on to assert that, "rigid academic and social expectations could wind up stifling a mind that, while it might struggle to conjugate a verb, could one day take us to distant stars." Retrieved from her website https://www.templegrandin.com/ .

Trauma informed learning spaces are important as well and learning about trauma informed teaching practices. According to Dr. Juliette Longchamp, who I took a class from and attended a training with this spring, the number of youth showing up to school with trauma backgrounds is on the rise. In the end, it usually brings socio-emotional balance to all learners and creates an overall positive learning environment.

On this note, while doing my teaching internship at Middlebury High School this winter, I noticed that for the end of class bell, music was played over the loudspeaker. I think it helped all to transition with more ease. I look forward to creating a sensory and trauma informed space when a public school French teacher and will continue to learn more about the unique neuroscience of us all. According to this article on the National Autistic Society's website, small changes to the environment (click on text to read more) can make a difference. This evidence of working with students on the autism spectrum, reflects my mastery of understanding individual differences to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards. In the future I would like to attend a class on trauma informed teaching practices.

Click here for Teaching Standard #3