Welcome Letter with Pre-Conference Details
Session Evaluation
Goal Setting Organizer
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning by removing barriers in the environment. Participants in this session will understand the foundational assumptions of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and learn how the UDL guidelines addresses learner variability.
As educational leaders, we aspire to build great systems in a landscape of barriers. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) allows us to do just that and universally designed leadership allows us to apply proven principles of learning to successful leadership practices to support the success of all students. After this session, you will:
In this session, participants will become a part of a CAST pilot study to explore how a case-based teaching approach can be used to support educators to explore the complexities of UDL implementation. Participants will be asked to read the case of Mountain View Elementary and offer a brief reflection prior to the session. During the session, participants will assume an active role in wrestling with the real-life challenges and dilemmas that Mountain View Principal Kathy Thomas and her colleagues are facing as they wrestle with how to support diverse learners at their school. We ask that participants come willing to engage with us as co-researchers! We are excited to explore the potential of a case-based approach, and we will save time at the end of the session for your feedback.
This session will be capped at 20 participants. Please email Jenna Gravel (jgravel@cast.org) if you are interested in joining us. We are hoping to videotape this session and take field notes. We will ask all participants for their consent to be included in this data collection prior to the start of the session.
In this interactive session, three staff members from the International Baccalaureate (IB) will share how the IB show a commitment to social justice for all students and specifically in this session for language and learning and assessment. Language Learning is at the core of the IB mission and this session will help participants to understand how the IB plans for language learning from the implementation of its programmes to their delivery: making spaces for people and their multilingual diversity and for social justice. Universal design is incorporated into the development of summative IB assessments and the presenter will discuss this process and share examples with the audience. The presentation will be underpinned by two questions ‘What are the opportunities and challenges that arise for the IB in terms of increasing access and participation for underserved learners?’ and ‘What is and could be the role of UDL in removing barriers to learning for IB students?’ Participants will be challenged to consider who the underserved learners may be in the context of an IB education and will be invited to share their expertise in helping to shape how UDL could be used in the future.
Session Goals:
New Hampshire has determined that it is possible to develop a deeper understanding of how to use the principles of Universal Design for Learning to educate underserved learners, and to embrace new philosophical ideas from which to design for social justice based on concrete plans to put into action in which networks of educators will unite to ensure that learning has no limits for every student.
The New Hampshire Department of Education’s NH Vision 2.0: - A Blueprint to Scale Competency-based Education across a PreK-20 System,” is a culmination of intensive planning where we pushed ourselves to answer the question: What would need to be true in New Hampshire to prepare all of our students for the complex future that awaits them?
Within the New Hampshire Department of Education, the NH Office of Student Wellness is committed to the development of the whole child. The Office of Student Wellness works, in collaboration with local communities, school districts, and individuals, to support students as they become fully productive members of society.
Student Wellness is the recognition by which schools, districts, and educational professional concur that there are many factors that impact a student’s academic attainment. The dimensions of wellness include: Emotional, Personal, Intellectual, Physical, Environmental, Occupational and Social factors.
The New Hampshire Department of Education promotes family and student voice via meaningful partnerships between school/district personnel, parents, students, and community members. This is based on evidence based and culturally responsive practices that include principles of effective partnerships.
The New Hampshire Department of Education’s Frameworks for Universal Design for Learning and Family and Student Voice build the foundation to continue to engage districts to implement current initiatives including the New Hampshire Accessible Educational Materials (NHAEM); the New Hampshire Universal Design (UDL) Academy; The New Hampshire Assistive Technology Initiative; The New Hampshire UDL Rural Teacher Literacy Project, and the New Hampshire State Pyramid Model activities to improve outcomes for preschool children with disabilities and their families.
In order to leverage change and to maximize and sustain state and local efforts in all of this justified work, the New Hampshire Department of Education created a Universal Design for Learning State Plan Network to provide technical assistance and training to educators and families regarding federal statues, policy guidance, and evidence based practices based on the implementation of the principles of Universal Design for Learning and the five phases of Universal Design for Learning implementation based on the National Center for Universal Design for Learning. The Network builds state and local capacity to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles based on a valid framework for guiding educational practice that provides flexibility in the ways information is presented, in the ways students respond or demonstrate knowledge and skills, and in the ways students are engaged; and reduces barriers in instruction, provides appropriate accommodations, supports, and challenges, and maintains high achievement expectations for all students, including students with disabilities and students who are limited English proficient and those with accelerated learning needs.
Measureable Goals: Examples of anticipated outcomes and UDL Considerations
Participants will be asked prior to the conference questions they might have about how to implement a UDL State plan that addresses social justice to support youth as they become fully productive member of society.
Participants will learn the essentials of identifying stakeholders, generating common goals and collaborating to explore , implement and sustain work to connect UDL and Family ad Student Voice to be the vehicle design for social justice based on concrete plans to put into action, and networks of educators who will unite to ensure that learning has no limits.
Participants will acquire information about the UDL State Network and Office of Student wellness and the Family and Student Voice Project so they can explore both entities potential to be implemented in their schools, districts, and states.
Participants will actively engage with a staff from the New Hampshire Department of Education: New Hampshire Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut, Mary Steady Administrator of the Office of Student Wellness and Mary Lane from the Bureau of Special Education to hear their successes, struggles, and problem solving solutions to promote and sustain change designed to unite social justice and UDL to ensure that learning has no limits.
Participants will increase their knowledge of UDL and Student wellness to identify their needs and develop goals and processed to begin their journey.
“A great teacher understands that not all students learn the same way. Gives their students options in learning and in class work.” 8th Grade Student from Susan B.Anthony Middle School, Revere, MA.
Middle school students can be bold and opinionated, but too often they feel like no one listens to what they have to say. Failing to listen to our students' voices creates barriers between students and teachers and causes learners to become passive participants in their own education. Instead, what if we learned from students to hear how we can better engage them in their own learning?
With Universal Design for Learning as our school's focus, we began incorporating student voice in different areas of our school with the goal of creating more engaged learners and citizens. During this session we will share our UDL journey and provide examples of how we increased student voice in three major areas: in staff-wide professional learning, in individual classrooms, and in school-community activities. Participants will have opportunities to share their own ideas, reflect on current practices and personal goals, and hopefully gain ideas for next steps in their own implementation process.
There are many challenges for those wishing to pursue further academic studies, at fellowship and doctoral level, for example. However, students who have Dyslexia, or other so-called disabilities, meet further challenges which are not recognised in the system, nor countered imaginatively and fairly using UDL perspectives and strategies to allow equal access and expression for all students. The label of ‘dyslexia’ can get in the way of acknowledging the ability and potential success of individual students, particularly in the context of fulfilling their educational promise.
This presentation sets out to chart the journey of a Marie Curie Fellow with Dyslexia and shows how he has successfully overcome unnecessary barriers throughout his educational journey, from primary to tertiary level. The session will ground our thinking theoretically in the fields of UDL and Social Justice. It also provide practical strategies for supporting all students and suggestions about the professional development of teachers.
