10th Grade Learner Profile

Learner Profile - Tenth Grader: Dalton

Below is a learner profile on Dalton. As you read the profile, note Dalton's strengths as well as any barriers to engagement and achievement. Look at the "Example Strategies for Designing to the Edges" page for ideas on how to design reading instruction for Dalton.

Dalton is an easy-going 10th grader, well-liked, with an easy smile and a sociable nature. He is very athletic, especially enjoying baseball, where he is the ace pitcher on the varsity team. Dalton attends school regularly, volunteers in class, and completes assignments, earning average grades.

He displays strong decoding skills and reads most passages fluently, both silently and aloud. However, when asked specific questions, he struggles with comprehension. He often shares that he doesn't understand the passage or the information needed to answer questions. To support learning, questions are designed to guide group work, fostering understanding and connections.

Dalton's teacher observes that he focuses on incorrect details rather than key facts. Despite his strong decoding skills, he struggles to connect new information with prior knowledge. However, he makes strong connections when relating material to real-world experiences, particularly when verbalizing the information. Dalton needs instruction on reading techniques (e.g., close reading) tied to a purpose to improve comprehension and demonstrate understanding.

Dalton understands general content, basic words, and sentence structures. However, grade-level texts pose challenges. He can paraphrase and summarize, but drawing conclusions or inferring meaning is difficult. He requires explicit instruction in cognitive and metacognitive skills to improve comprehension through thinking and reasoning.

In speaking and writing, Dalton is comfortable with basic vocabulary. His teacher is helping him incorporate academic terms and word meanings (denotative and connotative). He needs additional support in applying context clues, figurative language, and word relationships through scaffolded instruction. To expand his vocabulary, Dalton is learning to use the Frayer model to connect terms meaningfully. Since Dalton struggles with using vocabulary in writing, the teacher uses rubrics so that he can track his progress. Additionally, Dalton uses a basic writing style and needs variety based on purpose. He needs graphic organizers for writing and note-taking to aid in summarizing passages verbally and in writing.

Identification: Design to the Edges

Using UDL to inform instruction aligned to B.E.S.T. Standards implementation for ALL students.
Objective: Identify evidence-based practices for using UDL principles to design reading instruction.

Accessing (e.g., method to gain access to the content being presented)

Highlight complex terms, expressions that are composed of simpler words or symbols, provide options for comprehension, and maximize transfer and generalization.

Interacting (e.g., tools used to gain knowledge and understanding of the content)

Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity, provide feedback and options for self-regulation, and self-assessment and reflection.

Demonstrating (e.g., how you will provide evidence of your knowledge and understanding of the content)

Allow options, including technology, and allow to compose in multiple media for communication and build fluencies with graduated levels of support for practice and performance.