What? So What? Now What?

What?

I spend an entire day at CFHS observing one teacher’s whole school day (for confidentiality purposes, I will refer to her as CC). CC has four Algebra II classes that she teaches every day. Since she is creating the same lesson for four different classes, each with different needs, she builds accommodations into her activities, a concept known as Universal Design.

So What?

I have really only heard of the phrase “Universal Design” in my Special Education class. In most classes, we learn the importance of creating modifications for our students because everyone learns differently and at a different pace, but now I am actually seeing those accommodations in action. Out of CC’s four classes, two of them are inclusion classes while a third is all ESL students. In order to keep each class on track, she plans for each class’s needs ahead of time and builds it into her lesson. When you think of this while planning, it is so much easier than trying to make arrangements during the lesson or creating multiple lessons.

When creating lessons, CC works with her co-teacher, DB, to create worksheets for the students. In these worksheets, they break things down into the smallest steps possible. They try to think of where students might struggle and clarify difficult areas. This way, learning is scaffolded by instruction.

CC also has to make accommodations for the gaps in learning achievement. Some students in her class work at a faster pace and finish the work before the end of class while others don’t pay attention or don’t understand their work. She works through these differences in the worksheets she creates for her students. She allows the students to work in groups during class after they have gone through a few examples together. She judges how many problems to give the students to solve, in which case the students who understand the material have enough work to do in class while the rest of the class, if they didn’t finish, does it for homework.

Seeing CC plan an activity for each of her classes makes me think of the diversity you can find even in one classroom. It seems so much easier to build different students’ needs into one lesson from the beginning rather than creating different approaches for each class. It takes more effort planning when you do it this way, but it makes teaching it a little easier.

Now What?

Now that I have seen this concept of Universal Design, I have a better idea of why CC does what she does and how to create accommodations into a lesson from the beginning. As I planned my first lesson to teach in CC’s classroom, I used a packet she had created for the specific topic that we were going to cover. She broke the problems down into a step-by-step process for each problem and used vocabulary they have been learning in the unit. I emphasized those terms and asked questions to make sure that students knew what the terms meant and how to use them.

It didn’t seem to take that much more effort creating the assignment. She created the first page, breaking it down and labeling steps, then copied the format for the rest of the examples and practice problems. By taking that extra effort, it was easier to teach the concept because it was already broken down into steps for me to explain and for the students to understand.

When I create lessons, from now on, I will try to think of my students’ needs and build that into the lesson. When you think of areas that students will struggle, you can think through how to explain it and create multiple approaches to it. Then, as I teach it in different classes, even from year to year, I will already have a basic foundation for my instruction that I can continue to modify as necessary.