Resources

Identify factors that impact the learning of your specific students and the navigator suggests strategies tailored to those factors. Explore without an account or create an account to save your work in the Learner Centered Design Tool and Instructional Design Tool.

Highlights: The Opportunity Myth is a fiction perpetuated throughout the educational system that places the blame for low performance on students who aren't trying hard enough when, in reality, they are not receiving key resources that are essential to their success. The four key resources are: grade-appropriate assignments; strong instruction where students do most of the thinking; deep engagement; and teachers who hold high expectations and believe that students can meet grade-level standards. Students of color and students from low income backgrounds are the least likely to be in classrooms where these resources are in place. 

My reflection: This resource pushed me to question whether I am providing the key resources to all of my students, particularly those enrolled in college prep level courses versus honors courses. In examining how I differentiate content for the leveled courses, I realized that I was reducing the rigor of content and opportunities for deep thinking rather than offering scaffolding to support all students in reaching high expectations. I also began to consider if a root cause of my students' challenging behaviors was that the content did not connect with what is important to my students in their lives outside of school and their hopes for the future.

Highlights: Discussions about equity and social justice can be difficult, but are necessary to engage in the work. This source outlines the four agreements of courageous conversations, which help establish a safe environment for participants to experience "productive disequilibrium." The agreements are: stay engaged; experience discomfort; speak your truth; and expect and accept non-closure. These are the pieces of the conversation that individuals can own and be responsible for. 

Highlights: This document describes a protocol that can be used with colleagues or with students. The process begins with each participant mapping their own identity as phrases around a central hub. The protocol proceeds with participants paired in concentric circles. A timed protocol and discussion questions give the conversation structure, ensuring that each person is able to express themself and is fully heard.

This protocol provides one example of how identity development and perspective taking can happen within the classroom. Honesty and trust within a learning community are essential for surfacing and addressing inequities. In sharing personal experiences, community members break down barriers and build relationships, thereby building a positive foundation for future courageous conversations.

Highlights: This source provides additional tips for courageous conversations. First, be confident with your concerns and don't dismiss them. Second, focus on the behavior that concerns you rather than labeling people for their behaviors. Third, be clear and specific. Don't water down your message by being vague or burying it in positive feedback. Fourth, listen to the other person without interrupting, explaining, justifying or defending. Finally, respond calmly, focusing on clarifying factual accuracies. Try to come to a resolution or compromise, but it is also acceptable to step back and take time to reflect before coming together again to work on a resolution.

Reflection: The four agreements and tips are useful for conversations with district personnel, colleagues, families and students. I used the four agreements as norms for class conversations during social-emotional skills lessons, with positive effect. I added a talking piece to ensure that each participant had a chance to speak, if they chose to. More students participated, and those who have been hurtful or derailed conversations in the past contributed more positively.

Highlights: The UDL Flowchart provides a clear, step-by-step checklist for the design thinking process as applied to the principles of UDL. It is another way of grasping the four step process of designing a UDL curriculum, as outlined in Chapter 4 of Equity by Design (which is, as noted in the chapter, a "quick and dirty" simplification of UDL). Although the flowchart is limited by being a much abbreviated summary of all that UDL offers for curriculum design, the steps provide clear checkpoints for the teacher or curriculum writer. When the response to a checkpoint is "no," the practitioner can know what aspect of UDL to investigate more deeply before moving on. 

Reflection: This flowchart has become an essential companion to me as I plan lessons. I have it pinned to the wall next to my computer and refer to it frequently as I develop unit and lesson plans. When I hit a roadblock in planning, the flowchart serves as a reminder to dig into more detailed sources to find new paths forward with UDL. 

Highlights: This webinar highlighted the three key principles of UDL. The first powerful idea is that learner variability is fluid rather than static. The same learner will have varying levels of interest, perseverance and self-regulation from day to day and context to context. One might have high comprehension and comfort with the language and symbols of one context and low comprehension and comfort in another. Aspects such as need for or limitations to physical action, communication methods and executive functions can also vary. It is essential to recognize that there are no inherently "high-achieving" or "low-achieving" students because everyone has this variability. This variability goes beyond academic skills and disabilities to include students' diverse identities and life experiences. Furthermore, the barriers students experience are contextual. This is the second principle of UDL. We can make predictions about what barriers our students may experience and plan accordingly to eliminate the barriers, but we cannot pigeonhole students with labels and assume their needs are static. Dr. Novak sums up this idea when she says, "What is necessary for some students is provided as a tool for all." The third principle of UDL is that we must have the same high expectations and firm goals for all while providing flexible means for learners to carve their own pathways to those goals. If we lower our goals, we are in effect excluding students from the learning environment. 

Reflection: While these principles seem straightforward at first, the more I reflect on them, the more I realize that fully living them in my classroom requires an intensive re-examination of every aspect of my planning and teaching. I have found it easy in the past to slip into the habit of mentally putting students into labeled boxes: distractible, disengaged, high-achieving, ready for a challenge, weak writer, strong speaker, etc. The reality of learner variability means that I have to break this habit and think instead of the collective variability that is likely to show up on any given day for any student. Breaking out of the box also means reimagining scaffolds and supports that I used to provide to a few students as tools that all students should have access to and be taught to use. Lastly, as I previously discussed in relation to The Opportunity Myth, I need to hold firm with high expectations for all learners, putting my energy into offering flexible means for students to reach lofty goals. I need to give up control over the pathway that students take and serve as a coach who offers options and helps them make the best choices for themselves. In this way, students will become self-sufficient, independent learners. 

Highlights: This source provides an overview of how EF weaknesses manifest in school, sometimes in ways that surprised me. For example, flexible thinking is essential for strong reading comprehension because it "requires a student to go back and forth between the major themes and supporting details and to sift and sort information while reading" (p. 14). 

Reflection: A number of the strategies listed for each EF area were new to me or a reminder of strategies that I had forgotten. Because EF skills are key to effectively exercising choice and voice, I need to be sure that I include these strategies in my planning and share them with students when coaching them in their work.

Highlights: This resource offers the Inventory Matrix as a structure for teachers to document the funds of knowledge students possess and identify classroom connections. 

Reflection: The concept of funds of knowledge fills in a gap in my prior experience with Expeditionary Learning (EL) and its focus on service-oriented project-based learning. EL emphasizes connecting with students' local communities and making curricular connections to their lived experiences, hopes and values. As a teacher of a world language that is not spoken by most of my students' families, I found it difficult to envision a curriculum that felt relevant to my students. The Funds of Knowledge Inventory Matrix is a tool that I can see myself using to identify classroom applications for what I learn from activities that surface students' funds of knowledge, such as the Circles of Identity protocol and Funds of Knowledge activities discussed above. The specific examples provided in themes such as technology, cooking, entertainment, religion and agriculture are connections that I could imagine making with the themes of my courses. I can also picture further funds of knowledge areas from what I already know about my students, such as childhood and family relationships. 

Highlights: As the authors state in their introduction, this checklist "is intended to help make the concept of a culturally responsive classroom concrete and to provide an opportunity for reflection and self-assessment"(p. 1). It is organized in levels from 1: Contributions Approach through 4: Social Action Approach, reflecting a deeper integration of culturally responsive pedagogy at each level. 

Reflection: The specific examples identified in each section made it clear that my current practices are mostly at level 1 and 2, with some level 3 practices. For example, I routinely include resources and texts and present multicultural perspectives. But I do not yet consistently provide the resources and instruction for students to view themes from the perspectives of diverse ethnic, racial and cultural groups. I anticipate using this checklist as a guide that will lead me toward more culturally responsive practices as I re-imagine my curriculum and lessons. 

This three step lesson planning tool asks questions to guide you through thinking about the design of your lesson. Examples of how to plan with the tool can be found here.