Week 14: Universal Design in the Upper Level Math Classroom

Diverse learners are not limited to elementary classrooms, 12-1-1 classrooms, or lower-level classes. I have many diverse learners in my Algebra 2/Trig classes, for which I use elements of technology aided universal design to help them (and really all students) access content. In my classes, I have a student who has hearing loss in one ear, I have a student who is LD in Math, I have students who need longer to think about things, and I have students that really need to be challenged.

The best way that I have found to accommodate the diverse needs of my students is through the use of Microsoft Excel. I have attached an example of the use of Excel for what I have dubbed "Interactive Worksheets". Students can type "h" to reveal hidden hints, or can leave them hidden if they feel inclined to conquer the question on their own. Students can work at their own pace, and can skip around to complete questions in any order that they wish. One of the greatest feature of the spreadsheet format is that students know instantly if their answer is correct or not. This eliminates students working through a whole activity incorrectly, before I am able to get to them to check and help them. Students feel a sense of accomplishment when they get a "Great Job!!" or occasional "You RULE", or whatever encouraging message I type in the code. I can include "challenge" questions, like question 3 on Tab B (BIG problems). Below are screenshots of the example attached.

Please take a minute to open the document and see how it works. If you want to test it out, the answers are below. Type these answers in to see what the kids see as they solve these problems correctly!

Tab 1: Law of Sines vs. Cosines
-S, 8
-C, 36
-S, 49
-C, 34
-C, 22
-S, 32
-C, 104
-C, 28
-S, 89

Tab 2: BIG Problems
-88
-91.5
-796

This link will take you to the Interactive Worksheet Sample

Week 11: Early Childhood Education

“Most experts believe computers are not developmentally appropriate for children under the age of three”, (Wardle, 2008). Some experts believe that children who use technology through their developmental years are robbed of social, intellectual, physical, and moral developmental opportunities.

However, there are many experts that believe that technology should be used in the early childhood classroom, to “expand, enrich, implement, individualize, differentiate, and extend the overall curriculum”, (Wardle, 2008).

It seems that for early childhood programs to strictly subscribe to one of these schools of thought would be irrational, but a hybrid model, that strikes a balance between social interactions with students in the classroom, as well as students in a virtual classroom in Asia. That encourages students to run around and play outside, as well as learn about their bodies on an interactive website. Students should learn to play music on instruments and sing with their classmates, as well as listen to music of another culture, and sing along in a language they learn from the internet (like this recording of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star: http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=312&c=50).

Most importantly however (not only at the early childhood stage, but at any stage of development) is implementation. Wardle provides some suggestions:

-       encourage children to work together

-       encourage the more advanced students to act as peer tutors

-       develop cooperative learning activities

-       teachers and other adults should resist interfering or helping the children

These are characteristics of any student-centered activity, especially when a student is trying to learn a new skill. This constructivist approach to learning is how we all learn best, by trial and error, and through our own mistakes.

Wardle, F. (2008). The Role of Technology in Early Childhood Education. Early Childhood News. Retrieved from: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=302

Week 10: English Language Learners

According to Maya Smart's article The Word and the World: Technology Aids English Language Learners, (http://www.edutopia.org/technology-software-english-language-learners), she references Reading Assistant, a program that seems incredible. She explains the benefits of the program that offers engaging stories, with multi-sensory facets that enable students to access definitions, illustrations, and pronunciations. Most importantly for teachers, she notes, is that 'the program can record audio of the students reading, makes corrections, documents errors, evaluates comprehension, and provides extensive data for monitoring student progress...With a password, she can access audio files of any district student reading aloud to monitor his or her progress over time. Teachers can even email the sound clips to parents.", (Smart, 2008). This is an incredible way to record and monitor progress of English Language Learners through the language acquisition process.

This method seems ideal for teaching small children the basics of the English Language, but it doesn't seem equipped to handle specialized, content-specific vocabulary. I have one student who is considered an English Language Learner, and he struggles with words like "less than", "complement", concepts like "probability" and "cumulative". He speaks Arabic at home, and knows very little English. When he sees a word problem in Algebra, he shuts down, and I struggle to make the content accessible to him.

I did find a glossary of content-specific words on the NY State Ed Website. Here, they offer similar "glossaries" for many different Regents courses in dozens of languages. Check to see if there is something that could help you or your students!!




Smart, Maya Payne. (2008). The Word and the World: Technology Aids English Language Learners. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/technology-software-english-language-learners.

Week 9: Technology and Emotional Behavioral Disorders

According to Bernard and Bailey students who are emotionally disturbed are characterized by having personality differences, and extreme moods and feelings that inhibit their ability to learn (Bernard and Bradley, 2007). What seperates them from normal teenagers is that "these behaviors continue over a long period of time" (Bailey and Bernard, 2007). Strategies that spoke to me, (for one reason or another) for using technology to help these students are listed below:

Point Sheets and Behavior Charts: I don't know how well this would work at the high school level, but making "contracts" with students is the same idea. The article directs the advice: "Make Rewards Motivating" at parents, and offers a "get out of time-out free card" as an example. In the spirit of giving rewards for positive behavior, sometimes in my most difficult classes I award a "free 5 minutes" card, which allows students to be up to 5 minutes late without a pass, one time only. You would be surprised at how badly they want that thing.

The Motivaider: This tool seems like something that you would buy for yourself, to try to break yourself of a habit. I cannot see myself using this on another human! (I know it doesn't administer shocks), but it sounds like an invisible fence, or something you might use with a puppy! I would never be able to use this on high school students: in a million years. 

iPod: Oh the iPod, the bain of the contemporary teacher's existence. There are plenty of uses for the iPod for educational purposes (which I allow in my classroom), but outside of this context I also let students listen to their iPods when they are practicing. For many of them, it helps them focus; in fact I would be lying myself if I said I didn't write paper and do problem sets in college without my iPod, because it helps me focus as well. What I do know (at least about myself), is that if I am trying to learn new information, I need silence, but if I am practicing a skill, or studying information that I already am remotely comfortable with, it helps. I have found the same to be true of my students. Dually, I have discovered that the key to successful implementation of this initiative is clear cut procedures for doing so.

Wii: This seems like a great idea in theory, but I cannot imagine getting anything productive done in a classroom with 25 teenagers, and a Wii!! Perhaps for younger students, or in a smaller classroom setting, playing Wii can be a good way to diffuse energy and provide tangible rewards for good behavior, however I cannot possibly see using it!

As educators, the above are tools that we can use to diffuse students in crisis, or provide short term remedies for inappropriate behavior, but I can't help but think that as a teacher of juniors and seniors in high school, that I should be teaching them self-regulation strategies. They need to learn to recognize when they are feeling emotional, and need to pinpoint discrete techniques to ground themselves. As they disembark into the world, their future employers are not going to have a Wii or a chart with stickers when they do the right thing. They will be seen as adults, and will be expected to have adult coping mechanisms. If I cannot provide them with enough support, I should put them in contact with a counselor or psychologist who can.

References: 

Bailey, J., and Bradley, S. 2007. Technology Aided Strategies for students who are Emotionally

           Disturbed. Retrieved from http://at4schools.wetpaint.com

Week 7: Assistive Technology and Universal Design: Legal Implications

Not only is the use of technology to help diverse learners access content; it is the law. The Assistive Technology Act of 2004 (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2009) enable individuals with disabilities access to assistive technology that allows them to fully participate in work and school.  The act is based on the logic that, “any development in mainstream technology would have profound implications for individuals with disabilities in the United States,” (National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, 2009).

The NICHCY website (http://nichcy.org/laws/ata#purpose) lists examples of technology that is “low-tech”, “medium-tech”, or “high-tech”, but seeks to improve access for individuals with disabilities. I expected to see the following on the list:

-wheelchairs, scooters, canes

-augmentative communication devices and speech recognition devices

-hearing aids, prosthetics

I did not immediately think of the following with regards to allowing individuals with disabilities functional capability in daily activities:

 -flashing smoke detectors, lever doorknobs

-taking ATMS

Visit the site!  You may see some things on the list that you may never have even considered.

Likewise, using technology to allow all learners access to mathematics has benefits for the average learner, but often even more so for the learner with a disability. With assistive technology, words and speech is clearer, movement is smoother and quicker. Don’t many students benefit from user-friendly interfaces and the reduction of barriers? The diagram below (Rose, D. et al., 2005, p.  509) describes this interplay between the two schools of thought, logically married to achieve the same outcome; student success!

References

National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. (2009). Assitive Technology Act. Retrieved from http://nichcy.org/laws/ata#purpose.

Rose, D., Hasselbring, T. S., Stahl, S., & Zabala, J. (2005). Assistive technology and universal design for learning: Two sides of the same coin. In D. Edyburn, K. Higgins,

Week 6: Learners with Sensory Impairments

For learners with sensory impairments (vision, hearing, or touch), tasks that we take for granted, or assign so easily to our students may be nearly impossible for some. How is a student with a vision impairment supposed to read an article printed in size 6 font? How is a student with a hearing impairment supposed to listen to a podcast? Technology. This sentiment is echoed in a publication by the University of Washington, “With appropriate computing tools and well- defined strategies for their use, the person with a sensory impairment is able to demonstrate and apply her knowledge,” (University of Washington, 2010).

If a student has electronic access to the file, they can use enlargement or speech-to-text technology to access content just like their peers. If it is the expectation that al materials are accessible on a teacher’s website, then ANY student can access them. This is a rather intuitive implementation of universal design as a way to teach diverse learners. I don’t have any students with the sensory impairments defined above, but I am in the practice of posting all my notes online. With this access, students can simply go to my website, and zoom in on the attached pdf. They do not have this access with a copy of the notes printed out in hard copy format.

While I was reading this article, and thinking about one of the most powerful tools in high school math, the graphing calculator, and thinking about how small the characters are on the TI-84 and TI-Nspire that I use in my classroom. TI makes a calculator emulator http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_smartview.html, which is far superior to the free graphing calculators available online, and consistent with the calculators that students are permitted to use on local and high stakes exams. This product is not free however, and should without a doubt be purchased for students with vision impairments. My school has purchased licenses for each math teacher, but not for students. Having access (and the ability to enlarge) the image or graph on their computer screen could help all students!

University of Washington. (2010). Working Together: Computers and People with Sensory Impairments. Do-It Publications.

Week 5: GIfted and Talented Learners and Universal Design

When we think about teaching to meet student’s needs, and providing accommodations so that all learners can access content, we often neglect the population of students who are gifted and talented. These students possess “outstanding abilities in the areas of general intellectual capabilities, specific academic aptitudes, or the arts,” (Montgomery County Public Schools Family and Community Partnerships Unit, p. C-1). Just like our lowest functioning students, these students need different opportunities in the general education classroom. Universal Design lends itself nicely to this, in that a well-designed lesson has opportunities to delve deeper into topics, approach them from a different perspective, integrate technology into investigations or discovery, and allowing assessment to manifest itself in a variety of ways. The National Center on Universal Design for Learning claims:

“First, a learning environment designed using UDL provides appropriate levels of challenge. In the case of learners with gifts and talents, they may appear to be unengaged if the activities are too easy or rigid. For example, they may need a more creative or demanding options for expressing their understanding,” (National Center on Universal Design for Learning, 2011). 

When I was in 3^rd grade I was classified as gifted and talented. I was pulled out of class weekly for “Applecorps” where a group of three of us studied architecture, journalism, pirates, robotics, Rube Goldberg contraptions, read and authored “choose-your-own adventure” science fiction books, and many more activities that now in retrospect, fostered creativity, and offered an opportunity to excel in areas that were not traditionally found in an elementary school classroom. I remember feeling bored in the regular education classroom, and the time we spent weekly in Applecorps was an opportunity to extend that. In middle school, the program was called “Enrichment” and likewise exposed us to Shakespeare, topography and map-making, and other activities that fostered critical thinking, and mostly a different arena and context in which to learn.

National Center on Universal Design for Learning. (2011). FAQs from the National UDL Task Force. Retrieved from http://www.udlcenter.org/advocacy/faq_guides/gifted_talented#question2.