Maureen Tumenas's List: Simmons AT

• hanges that wemust make in the general curriculum toprovide such access and participation.In so doing, we will create a curriculumthat is better not just for students withdisabilities but for all students.
• dis-ability from 1970 able to view the currentstatus of education for students with dis-abilities, he or she would be amazed athow far we have come.
• access, participation, and progress
• Policy changes have broughtunprecedented opportunities
• countless possibilities for allstudents.
• The assumption that there is a “core”group of learners that is mostly homo-geneous, outside of which other learn-ers fall, is itself flawed.

  • No such thing as average
• universal design
• eachersneed to offer a large number of alter-native ways to access, use, andengage with learning content
• digital media andcomputer technologies make it possi-ble
• What Is a Universally DesignedCurriculum
• barriers inthe curriculum itself are, in our view,the root of the difficulty (
• UniversalDesign for Learning” or “UDL.
• Universally designed curriculumsinclude a range of options for accessing,using, and engaging with learning mate-rials
• Students with diverse learningneeds are not “the problem”;barriers in the curriculum itselfare the root of the difficulty.
• They are to aspire to the samestandards and expectations as theirpeers
• The challenge for educators of studentswith disabilities is a moving target
• four main components of thegeneral curriculum: (1) goals and mile-stones for instruction, often in the formof a scope and sequence; (2) media andmaterials to be used by students; (3)specific instructional methods, oftendescribed in a teacher’s edition; and (4)means of assessment to measure stu-dent progress.
• mandated an education indi-vidually tailored to meet unique needsarising from or associated with disabil-ity. No child with a disability could bedenied a special education. The indi-vidualized education program (IEP)ensured due process and accountability
• Although the concept that the curricu-lum itself might need to be modifiedhas moved thinking forward, retro-fitting an inherently unsuitable cur-riculum to fit diverse learners still con-veys the message that there is a “morecorrect” or “more appropriate” way todo things and lesser or “other”options, which are needed for particu-lar learners. A curriculum that isdesigned to be accessible and support-ive from the start will improve learn-ing opportunities and reduce the stig-ma of special education. Further, itshould reduce the need for specialeducation
• civilrights issue.
• Section504 of the Vocational Rehabilitation Actof 1973 (DeBettencourt, 2002) wasinvoked as a tool to compel school dis-tricts to include students with disabili-ties in the general classroom setting
• equal protection of the rightsof students with disabilities cannot beguaranteed by merely physically plac-ing students in a classroom settingalongside age mates without disabili-ties.
• The general curriculum today islargely inflexible, because the printedtextbook remains at its core.
• f curriculum designers recognizethe widely diverse learners incurrent classrooms and build inoptions to support learningdifferences from the beginning, thecurriculum as inherently designedcan work for all learners
• This adaptabilityincreases accessibility for students withvisual, auditory, reading, or motorimpairments because they can elect toview and respond to the content in amedium and means that suit their needs.Students may choose the medium ormedia most effective for them, as long asthe learning goal is not undermined
• Clear goalsalso reduce problems likely to arisefrom inappropriate accommodationsand adaptations.
• As long as youkeep the learning goal in mind andensure that all students are challengedto do their best, the curriculum shouldoffer rich scaffolds, supports, and alter-native ways of obtaining informationand expressing ideas. Through thesealternatives, all students benefit
• Good pedagogy is atthe core of a good curriculum.
• n a UDL curriculum, teachers providematerials in a flexible format, support-ing transformation between media andmultiple representations of content tosupport all students’ learning.
• Remembering Motivation.You can alsoadjust the learning context to empha-size collaboration,
• o obtain this knowledge, we must sepa-rate the skill required to use specificmedia, such as printed text, from theskill or knowledge being assessed.
• When supporting strategic learning,you can use a UDL approach to offer• Models of skilled performance.• Plentiful chances for students to prac-tice with appropriate supports andongoing feedback.• Opportunities to demonstrate skills ina meaningful social context
• resentthe concept not simply by explainingit verbally or by assigning a textbookchapter or workbook page, but byusing many modalities and withoptions for extra support or extraenrichment
• zone of proximal development (Z
• Universally designed curriculumsinclude a range of options foraccessing, using, and engagingwith learning materials—recognizing that no single optionwill work for all students.
• CAST’s “Thinking Reader

  • wicked expensive... 1000/book
• eacherscan provide scaffolds during an evalua-tion to help students overcome media-related barriers and show what theyreally know. Even better, evaluationshould be embedded in the materialswith which students are working, sothat ongoing monitoring and feedbackcan help them stay on track
• Traditionalassessments tend to measure things thatteachers are not trying to measure (visu-al acuity, decoding ability, typing or writ-ing ability, motivation) making it impos-sible to disaggregate the causes of suc-cess or failure
• Thus the goals, methods, materials, andassessments in a UDL curriculum areaccessible to all
• Measures of progress forstudents with disabilities become thesame measures as for other students:measures of learning

  • this is a crucial sticking point for many teachers. Since UDL is not actively embraced in schools- the SPEd Kids are often far behind the typical students, therefore the testing is problematic. Also the testing, aside from a few accommodations- separate rooms, read to them or extra time... the test materials are not always suitable for all learners.
• UDL curriculummeans true engagement with learning,in pursuit of the goal that is defined forthe class as a whole.
• Importance of Clear Goals.
• Learning How to Learn.
• shifted towards the mas-tery of skills and strategies
• Allowable Scaffolds
• Using Varied Tools
• Each learner needs his or herown size.
• more strategic, self-aware, and engaged
• ; the important thing iswhether the learning for which thematerial or activity is designed is acces-sible.
• UDL offers design principles, technolo-gy tools, and implementation strategiesfor creating one curriculum that is suffi-ciently flexible to reach all students
• Progress in a UDL curriculum is cen-tered on curricular goals, not on over-coming curricular barriers.

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