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Newest UDL PP Presentation...corrected.

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For those who have trouble reading, audiobooks are a powerful tool that supports improved comprehension, boosts confidence and leads to better grades.

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Audiobooks for Dyslexia & Learning Disabilities | Learning Ally

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Learning Ally solutions help struggling readers through audiobooks & support services for educators, parents, and students dealing with dyslexia. Reading accommodations

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Free Text to Speech Reader

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Dyslexia and other reading-based learning disabilities are most common among students. NaturalReader text-to-speech makes learning more accessible by assisting with any reading, taking tests and promoting independence.

Students can have any text they need to read, read aloud to them so they can read along. Having the text provided both visually and auditory, allows the student to focus less on the act of reading, and more on the comprehension of the content. Other features like dyslexia font, flexible reading speeds, and highlighted text also ease the task of finishing readings.

For most students, learning does not stop when school ends. NaturalReader EDU enables students to be more independent and assists with learning at home. Whether they're doing homework, reading at home, or just surfing the web, our Chrome Extension and Mobile Application are always available.

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NaturalReader: Free Text to Speech for Online, Mobile App, Commercial license and Education with AI voices.

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The AIM Explorer is a free simulation that combines grade-leveled digital text with access features common to most text readers and other supported reading software.

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By customizing the display of information, you can reduce the effort it takes for your learners to read the information in web pages, ebooks and other digital content. Your learners can then dedicate more of their mental resources to actually understanding the content.

The good news is that many of the features that previously required the purchase and installation of specialized software are now often included as standard options on the devices many of your learners already own. This makes the process of finding a good feature match for a learner that much easier (and less costly).

Customizing the Display of Information

A good place to start exploring the many options for customizing the display of information is the web browser your learners use to access information on the Web. Most browsers now include a reading view for removing distractions and customizing the appearance of a web page:

In Apple's Safari brower the reading view is called Safari Reader. Activating Safari Reader will show you a less cluttered version of the page, without ads and site navigation that could be distracting to some readers. Safari Reader also provides some options for customizing the appearance of the page, such as changing the background and text color and resizing the text.

In Microsoft's Edge browser, the reading view is called Immersive Reader. It includes a number of options for customizing the appearance of the information along a number of literacy supports.

In Google Chrome, a number of extensions are available to adjust the display of information. One example is the Read and Write for Google extension, which has a Simplify feature with a number of display options.

E-reading apps provide even more options, including:

Text resizing: This option will only be available for some formats, such as EPUB, that allow content to reflow. Formats such as PDF have the text size set by the author.

Font selection: Choosing cleaner, sans-serif fonts can be helpful to some readers. Sans serif fonts do not have extra ornamentation at the end of their strokes, which makes them easier to read at smaller text sizes. Some e-readers also feature special fonts such as Open Dyslexic that are designed for learners with dyslexia, but research on the efficacy of these fonts is not conclusive yet.

Themes: The default setting of a white background with dark text may not provide sufficient contrast for some readers who have low vision, but it may provide too much contrast for others who have reading difficulties. Changing the theme can help, with options such as a dark background with light text for those with low vision, and a sepia (warm tone) one for those who need less contrast. Some apps allow even more options, with color pickers that allow the reader to select specific colors.

Flexible spacing: The default spacing may not be sufficient for some readers with dyslexia who experience crowding, where lines or characters that are too close to each other appear to run into each other. Adding some spacing can help. This can be line spacing, character spacing or even word spacing in some apps.

Adjustable Margins: For some readers with peripheral vision issues, it may be helpful to increase the margins so that more of the content appears near the middle where their vision is stronger.

Justification: Justified text has additional character and word spacing added so that the text falls flush with both margins. The additional space can be distracting to some readers, who may want to turn it off and read left-justified text only.

Reading guides: Some e-readers have a special focused reading mode where only a few lines of the text are visible while the rest of the screen is masked out to remove distractions.

The Center for Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL) at CAST has done extensive research into digital learning supports as part of its development of Clusive, a flexible, adaptive, and customizable digital learning environment.

Using Read Aloud

A read aloud or text-to-speech feature can help a number of readers: those who struggle with decoding, those with visual impairments, and those who speak English as a second language. When word and sentence highlighting are available, it can also help learners focus their attention while reading. In the past, text-to-speech often required the installation of a separate program. Today, many devices used in schools include text-to-speech as a standard option:

On the iPad, the Spoken Content features (found under Accessibiility in the Settings app) provide two options for using text-to-speech: your learners can select some text to have it read aloud (Speak Selection) or they can have the entire contents of the screen read to them (Speak Screen). Your learners can turn on word and sentence highlighting, select from a number of voices and adjust the speaking rate. A feature similar to Speak Selection is available on the Mac, where it is activated with a simple keyboard shortcut once it is enabled in the System Preferences.

On a Chromebook, Select-to-speak works in a similar way: learners can select some text to have it read aloud with their chosen text-to-speech voice. A number of extensions (add-ons for the Chrome web browser) are also available. For example, the Read and Write for Google extension has a trial period, but the text-to-speech feature remains free for learners even after the trial is over.

Windows devices only include a screen reader called Narrator intended for learners with visual impairments, but text-to-speech is available within individual apps. For example, your learners can use the Immersive Reader built into the Microsoft Edge web browser and a number of Office applications to hear text read aloud.

Smart speakers running the Alexa personal assistants support a number of commands for reading Kindle books with text-to-speech or Audible audiobooks with human narration. Similarly, devices running Google Home can read audiobooks purchased on the Google Play Books store. These devices will often recognize the voices built into augmentative and alternative (AAC) apps for those learners who use them to communicate.

Try it yourself

Ready to explore some of the above features that are built into your technology? Here are some things to try.

Remove distractions while you read

A lot of web pages include content that can get in the way of keeping you focused on your reading. Advertisements are a good example of this. Wouldn't it be nice to clear a web page of everything except what you need to learn? You can! Try it.

If you use Safari on your iPad or Mac: try Safari Reader

If you use a Chromebook: try free extension such as Mercury Reader

If you Microsoft Edge on Windows: try Immersive Reader

Customize how you view the information

Most of us look at a web page without thinking about our own preferences for how it might appear. Did you know you have options? Give them a try. Be sure to make note of what works well.

If you use Safari on your iPad or Mac: try the display options built into Safari Reader

If you use use a Chromebook: try a free extension such as Deluminate or Visor in your Chrome browser

If you use Microsoft Edge on Windows: try Immersive Reader

Hear the content read aloud

Did you know your device can become your own personal reader? And best of all, it is available anytime you need it and often works along with the other options you've already explored to provide a truly personalized reading experience just for you!

If you use an iPad or Mac: try the Spoken Content features.

If you use a Chromebook: try the Select-to-speak feature built into your device or install the trial for the Read and Write for Google extension.

If you use Microsoft Edge on Windows: try the Immersive Reader.

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By customizing the display of information, you can reduce the effort it takes for your learners to read the information in web pages, ebooks and other digital content. Your learners can then dedicate more of their mental resources to actually understanding the content.

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Real-world math activities for students in all grade levels

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5.NBT.7 slant 5.OA.2 winter solstice HSS-IC.B.4 HSF-IF.C.8.b dollars spent to dollars earned cola per ounce HSN-RN Turkey total cost adding fractions with unlike denominators irrational numbers HSF.TF Starbucks HSF.IF.C.7.B Iditarod 5.MS Data conic surface area

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This site allows students to "see" their voice level.

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Bouncy Balls – Manage classroom noise with bouncing balls!

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A free classroom noise level meter, monitor and management tool. Perfect if your school kids are too noisy! Bouncing balls react to sounds from the microphone.

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Principles of Universal Design with Super Mario

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The Myth of Average:  Todd Rose at TEDxSonomaCounty

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Even the smallest things, like the living cell, become big enough to grasp in Rob Olazagasti's middle school science class, where he enables students to learn by creating, remember by experiencing, and show what they know by teaching.

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Even the smallest things, like the living cell, become big enough to grasp in Rob Olazagasti's middle school science class, where he enables students to learn by creating, remember by experiencing, and show what they know by teaching.

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Even the smallest things, like the living cell, become big enough to grasp in Rob Olazagasti's middle school science class, where he enables students to learn by creating, remember by experiencing, and show what they know by teaching.

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Jonathan Winn, San Diego's 2011 High School Teacher of the Year, has developed a high voltage classroom atmosphere that inspires students to get excited about math and excel at AP calculus.

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Masterful Teacher: Jonathan Winn Makes Calculus Cool | Edutopia

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Jonathan Winn, San Diego's 2011 High School Teacher of the Year, has developed a high voltage classroom atmosphere that inspires students to get excited about math and excel at AP calculus.

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Master teacher Chris Opitz shares resources for integrating social and emotional learning into math class.

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A master teacher in Anchorage, Alaska, establishes a cooperative-learning environment in an upper-elementary classroom.

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Free, standards aligned online math game

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Texthelp Free For Teachers. Get Read&Write & Equatio Now | Texthelp

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If you are a teacher, you can receive a premium license for both Read&Write and EquatIO. Simply register here to get started.

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Create your own rubrics for free with this useful tool.

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RubiStar is a tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics, but does not have the time to develop them from scratch.

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Easily create beautiful interactive video lessons for your students you can integrate right into your LMS. Track students' progress with hassle-free analytics as you flip your classroom!

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Online summarize tool (free summarizing)

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© Copyright Tools 4 noobs 2007-2018. All rights reserved. If you need a particular online tool, don't hesitate to give us a message by using our contact form, and we'll see what we can do about it.

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AEM Center - National Center on Accessible Educational Materials at CAST

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The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning at CAST provides technical assistance, coaching, and resources to increase the availability and use of accessible educational materials and technologies for learners with disabilities across the lifespan.

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Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, MD

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Magnifier works like a digital magnifying glass, using the camera on your iPhone or iPad to increase the size of anything you point it at - from a prescription bottle to a candlelit menu. For those who are blind or have low vision and want more information about their physical surroundings, Detection Mode in Magnifier combines input from the camera, LiDAR Scanner, and on-device machine learning to offer intelligent tools like People Detection, Door Detection, Image Descriptions, Text Detection, and Point and Speak.

If you're standing in line, you can use People Detection to determine a person's proximity to you. Door Detection can help you navigate by identifying doors, text, and the presence of symbols - such as a restroom symbol, a no smoking symbol, or an accessible-entrance symbol - within a few feet of you. Image Descriptions and Text Detection let you hear more about people, objects, landscapes, and text in your camera's field of view. And Point and Speak makes it easier to interact with physical objects that have text, like household appliances, keypads, or labels on files. As you point and move your finger over or under different buttons or elements, your iPhone or iPad reads the text out loud, so you can perform everyday activities and tasks with more ease and independence.

Put moments into words.

Match your levels to your location.

Look down for a heads‑up.

Pinch.
Pinch.
Chat.

AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch lets people with upper-body limb differences use their Apple Watch without ever having to touch the display or controls. Using built-in motion sensors and on-device learning, Apple Watch detects subtle differences in muscle movements and tendon activity, letting you control the display through hand gestures like a pinch or a clench. Answer incoming calls, control an onscreen motion pointer, and access Notification Center, Control Center, and more. You can also use AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch to run shortcuts with Siri to complete tasks or modify VoiceOver and Switch Control settings on your iPhone.

AssistiveTouch for iOS and iPadOS helps you adapt standard gestures - like pinch, rotate, or swipe - to make them more comfortable for you. You can make other actions, like changing volume, accessible from the AssistiveTouch menu.

Cue
magic
here.

Let your voice call the shots.

Make your own calm.

This feature speaks for itself.

Assistive Access makes it easy for people with cognitive disabilities to tailor iPhone and iPad to reduce cognitive load and suit their specific needs. Designed with feedback from individuals with cognitive disabilities and their trusted supporters, this feature helps people focus on the activities they enjoy most and that are foundational to iPhone and iPad - connecting with friends and family, taking and sharing photos, and listening to music.

Assistive Access offers a distinctive interface with high-contrast buttons and large text labels, as well as tools to help individuals and trusted supporters focus the experience in specific apps - Phone and FaceTime (which have been combined into a single Calls app), Messages, Camera, Photos, and Music. You can also choose a more visual, grid-based layout for your Home Screen and apps, or a row-based layout if you prefer text.

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Apple products and services have built-in accessibility features to help you connect, create, and do what you love in the ways that work best for you.

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You can make your Chromebook easier to use by turning on accessibility features that work best for your needs.

Step 1: Find accessibility features

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.

2. Select Settings .

3. At the bottom, select Advanced.

4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
Optional: To have quick access to accessibility features, turn on Always show accessibility options in the system menu.

Step 2: Turn on a feature

Choose the accessibility features you'd like to use:

Type text with your voice

Tap and drag your finger to move objects

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.

2. Select Settings .

3. At the bottom, select Advanced.

4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.

5. Under "Mouse and touchpad," select Open mouse and touchpad device settings.

6. Turn on Enable tap dragging.

To use tap-to-select, double-tap the object and hold, then drag it to move.

Use keyboard shortcuts one key at a time

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.

2. Select Settings .

3. At the bottom, select Advanced.

4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.

5. To perform keyboard shortcuts by entering them sequentially, under "Keyboard," turn on Enable sticky keys.

To use sticky keys, press Search , Launcher , Shift, Alt, or Ctrl, whichever key starts the keyboard shortcut.

To keep a key pressed until you finish the keyboard shortcut, press the key twice.

To unpress a key, press it a third time.

Use buttons to navigate in tablet mode

You can use buttons instead of gestures to switch between apps and interact with your Chromebook in tablet mode. Learn how to change from laptop to tablet mode.

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.

2. Select Settings .

3. At the bottom, select Advanced.

4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.

5. Under "Mouse and touchpad," turn on Show navigation buttons.

6. At the bottom, the buttons will appear.

To go back to the previous screen, on the bottom left, select Back .

To go to your Home screen, on the bottom left, select the Launcher . Or press Alt + Shift + L.

To view all your open app windows, on the bottom right, select Show windows .

Get more help

To learn more about how to use accessibility features on your Chromebook, check out the Chromebook Accessibility Video Series.

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Turn on Chromebook accessibility features

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You can make your Chromebook easier to use by turning on accessibility features that work best for your needs. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s. Select Settings . At the bottom, select Advanced.

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Discover how Windows 10 is making the PC more accessible to everyone.

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The Concept

Universal Design originated in the field of architecture, with the goal of creating places and things that were accessible to as many people as possible. For example, curb cuts were originally designed to enable people with wheelchairs to move more smoothly about their community. Curb cuts not only accomplished that, but also improved access for people with strollers, bikes, and skateboards. Hence, the term "universal."

Similarly, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a curb cut for the classroom. Universal Design for Learning is a research-based framework for designing curricula-that is, educational goals, methods, materials, and assessments-that enable all individuals to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning. This is accomplished by simultaneously providing rich supports for learning and reducing barriers to the curriculum, while maintaining high achievement standards for all students.

In today's classroom, there is widespread variability of all learners. Every student arrives with a different set of skills, life experiences, and abilities, which means one size does not fit all. The Universal Design for Learning structure is research based and aims to change the design of classrooms, school practices, and coursework rather than change each unique learner. It minimizes barriers and maximizes learning no matter what a student's ability, disability, age, gender, or cultural background. It reduces obstacles to learning and provides appropriate accommodations and supports. It does all of this while keeping expectations high for all students.

The UDL framework encompasses three overarching principles that aim to minimize barriers and maximize learning. A universally designed curriculum includes:

Multiple means of engagement to challenge appropriately, to motivate, and to allow learners to express and participate in their interests.

Multiple means of representation to allow various ways of acquiring information and knowledge.

Multiple means of expression to allow alternatives for demonstrating knowledge.

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ohio center for autism and low incidence

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Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence

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Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Resources - David Arendale's Web Site: History Simultations, Peer Learning, Learning Technology, Academic Achievement, Postsecondary

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UDL transforms the classroom learning environment to support all learners by breaking down potential barriers and enriching the experience for all students. Rather than only providing enhancements to students with disabilities, those enhancements and many more are embedded into the class structure to benefit all enrolled students.

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Tes provides a range of primary and secondary school teaching resources including lesson plans, worksheets and student activities for all curriculum subjects.

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Novak Education - UDL, MTSS, and Inclusive Practices PD for Educators

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High-quality, evidence-based professional development on MTSS, UDL, and Inclusive Practices. Professional Learning for teachers and leaders.

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Explore Model UDL Lesson Plans

This section of the UDL Lesson Builder shows you customized, UDL lessons aligned to standards and tailored to include principles and practical applications of Universal Design for Learning. As you review the lessons, be sure to click on to read or hear teacher think alouds that explain applications of UDL.

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CAST UDL Lesson Builder: Explore Model UDL Lesson Plans

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This section of the UDL Lesson Builder shows you customized, UDL lessons aligned to standards and tailored to include principles and practical applications of Universal Design for Learning. As you review the lessons, be sure to click on to read or hear teacher think alouds that explain…

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Dictate in several languages without touching the keyboard. Use the "Play" button to listen to what has been typed. Save, email, or tweet

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Dictate in several languages without touching the keyboard. Use the "Play" button to listen to what has been typed. Save, email, or tweet

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Type with your voice. Dictation turns your Google Chrome into a speech recognition app.

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Visor-screen dimmer and reading aid, may help with fluency, eye-strain, concentration and comprehension while reading

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Visor-screen dimmer and reading aid, may help with fluency, eye-strain, concentration and comprehension while reading

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Screen dimmer and reading aid, may help with fluency, eye-strain, concentration and comprehension whilst reading.

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Readline-allows user to control speed of words presented on the web. Use Options to control the features

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Readline-allows user to control speed of words presented on the web. Use Options to control the features

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Select and Speak-allows user to listen to selected/highlighted text

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Select and Speak-allows user to listen to selected/highlighted text

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Select and Speak uses iSpeech's human-quality text-to-speech (TTS) to read any selected text in the browser. It includes many...

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Learn online or on the go...word of the day, quizzes, core vocab. Also an iPad app that offers voice search, audio pronunciations, word of the day, and more.

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Find Definitions & Meanings of Words | Britannica Dictionary

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Clear and simple definitions in American English from Britannica's language experts. More usage examples than any other dictionary.

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Bookshare | An Accessible Online Library for people with print disabilities

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Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.

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Universal Design for Learning Lesson Plans

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The list below contains lesson plans designed by the UDL pilot sites beginning in the 2003-2004 school year and ending in the 2009-2010 school year. We have identified six lesson plans as UDL Exemplars. The exemplars were chosen based: UDL Principles were used throughout the lesson plan; Standards were stated; Planning Pyramid was shown; Modifications for Academic Diversity was addressed.

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The UDL Implementation Rubric was authored by Melissa Toland, and you can read more about it here. This is an adapted version of The UDL Progression Rubric by Dr. Katie Novak and Dr. Kristian Rodriguez. In the original version, teachers can self-evaluate their performance on each individual checkpoint of the UDL guidelines, whereas the adapted version is less specific in scope and focuses on performance in more general terms in the following areas: multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression. You can view this rubric to see where you may be in your UDL journey across a spectrum ranging from UDL explorer to UDL idol. Click the link below to download the pdf version of this document.

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CAST UDL Guidelines The two files below outline the UDL guidelines by multiple means of representation, multiple means of action & expression, and multiple means of engagement. Knowing the UDL...

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What is UDL?

If you're new to the ideas behind UDL, the following 4 1/2 minute video from www.cast.org is a great introduction.

Some Key Points About UDL:

- We serve great diversity in the learners in our classrooms.

- We need an approach that minimized barriers and maximizes learning for all students.

These facts are the reasons why UDL is needed.

Universal Design for Learning includes some key ideas; first that learning needs to be universal - available to everyone. Every student brings their own backgrounds, interests and needs and learning must be available to each and every one of them, no matter what they bring into our classrooms. The second key idea is in the learning. There are 3 parts of our curriculum; What - the facts we want our students to learn, How - the skills and procedures we want our children to learn, and Why - the love of learning and engagement in our classrooms. In Alberta, we call these KSAs or Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes, and they form the general outcomes of most of our curricula. Being clear on what we want our children to learn is mandatory before we can ever start teaching them well. This is why we use UDL principles to design our unit and lesson plans.

Why use UDL?

By planning and designing our teaching to accommodate the variety of special needs students in our classrooms (which means providing support and challenge as needed), we are able to improve learning for all students. A support put in place to help one student may help 5 more in the class to achieve an outcome or perform a task. A challenge given to extend the learning of one student may stimulate and challenge 5 more in the same class.

In planning our units and lessons, we need to start with:

What is my goal? (What do I want my students to know, do, and care about? see graphic above )

What are the barriers to teaching and learning that I need to overcome?

1. provide multiple means of representation
2. provide multiple means of action and expression
3. provide multiple means of engagement

How can Google Classroom help to facilitate these ideas?

Google Classroom is really a great fit to help facilitate a UDL mentality in your classroom. It allows students to work at their own pace and it also really allows the students to engage with the content on their own terms and in the way that works best for them.

1. Provide Multiple Means of Representation

At the beginning, you can start UDL implementation with increasing your awareness of the variety in your classroom. Does every day look the same, or do you change it up frequently? Some of your students absorb content from written forms very easily, and would love an article to read from a news website. Others would much prefer to learn from a news broadcast video. Still others would like to listen to the news story as presented from the radio or a podcast. Any of these sources can be saved on your computer or to your Google Drive and shared with your students to consume using Google Classroom. When you go to create an assignment, you will find the following dialogue box:

Either of the first two options will allow you to attach a very wide variety of file formats for your students to consume. Go ahead and play around with them. Try to increase the variety of content format that your students see from you. Maybe try challenging yourself to use three different means of representation each week to start, then increasing from there.

After a while, you might move to increasing the options available even within a single assignment. This is where Google Classroom can really shine. If you can find a video, an article, and an interactive website all dealing with the same content, you can very easily use Google Classroom to provide a number of sources for students to use as their information for their assignments. You could even attach a number of sources and have students choose the one or two that they prefer to use. This increase in choice is going to make your students feel more actively involved and in control of their learning.

2. Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression

- If you really look at your objectives in creating an assignment, is one of them that the students must learn how to use Google Docs, Sheets, or some other software program? If not, then why not open it up and have them create a product of their own choice and hand it in to you? In Google classroom, instead of simply opening the automatically created assignment document that is there, students can click "Create" and choose to create a Google Doc, Sheet, Slide, or Drawing to express themselves to you.

If those options aren't enough, they are able to choose "add" to create an assignment in any other app (as long as it's one that you have as well, so that you can read their work) and upload it to Classroom and hand in to you that way.

So for example, if you give students an assignment that asks them to describe the journey of a red blood cell as it travels from the left atrium of the heart back to the same location, you might have students who choose to:

write a poem (docs)

dictate a story (Docs)

record their voice as they tell a story (Garageband)

create a slide show (slides)

create a flowchart graphic organizer (drawings)

create a comic strip (comic life)

Have they met the objectives of the assignment? Yes.

Can you still mark them equally? Yes, if your rubric and evaluation are looking at your curricular objectives.

Are they engaged and empowered in their learning? You bet! (Which leads us to our next UDL principle)

3. Provide Multiple Means of Engagement

In allowing students choice, they will automatically be more engaged in your assignment. They will be able to demonstrate their skills and strengths and use their talents to demonstrate their learning. In addition, using technology alone helps to increase the relevance for many of our students in our classrooms. One of the beautiful things about Google Classroom is how it facilitates the conversational flow between teachers and students. Teachers can see what progress students are making on their assignments at any time, provide feedback and suggestions, and see the growth in real time. Students can ask questions and provide information privately to teachers instantaneously. Engagement, collaboration and communication all go through the roof.

This is where the real power of Google Classroom shows through. This technology, if used well, can truly be used to support the UDL principles.

So what do you think? Have you used Google Classroom in your class? Do you think it has supported UDL in your classroom? What new ideas and inspiration do you have? I'd love to hear from you - please leave a comment below or drop me a line at cyoshida@edu.lcsd150.ca. If I can be of any aid or support in implementing these ideas, please let me know!

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If you're new to the ideas behind UDL, the following 4 1/2 minute video from www.cast.org is a great introduction. - We serve great diversity in the learners in our classrooms. - We need an approach that minimized barriers and maximizes learning for all students. These facts are the reasons why UDL is needed.

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CAST is renowned for its innovative professional development on Universal Design for Learning. Whether you are implementing at the individual, team, school, or district level, we offer hands-on opportunities that empower you to take control of your own learning through instructional rounds, lesson design studios, design thinking activities, and other learner-centered protocols.

We work with organizations and stakeholders in a number of fields to find ways of improving learning opportunities in today's rapidly changing world. We regularly partner with organizations in the public and private sectors to explore challenging questions in education through our consultation and curriculum design services. Our team includes experts in human development, neuropsychology, instructional design, literacy instruction, learning analytics, technology design, accessibility, and more.

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CAST's Professional Learning team trains administrators, instructional coaches, and preK-12 educators to lead large scale implementation of UDL.

We offer a range of options for professional development for postsecondary institutions, including keynotes, workshops, customized consultations, coaching, and more.

Whether you want to improve your classroom teaching or transform an entire district, our learner-centered offerings give you the hands-on, practical experience you will need to breathe new life into your work.

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We'll work with you to find ways of improving learning opportunities in today's rapidly changing world.

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Teachers of middle and high school students know that these learners sometimes require pointed critical feedback on academic assignments to shape their learning. The reason that most instructors put substantial effort into providing often-detailed performance feedback is clear: to benefit the student. But many students-particularly those at risk of academic underperformance or failure-may instead misinterpret critical instructional feedback as a sign that the teacher lacks confidence in and is negatively biased toward the learner.

A factor that can contribute to students' negatively skewed view of instructional feedback is that it is often ambiguous, presented without an explicit context for understanding the intention behind it. This ambiguity leaves learners free to impose their own interpretations-for example, regarding a teacher's written or verbal feedback about an assignment as a sign either of caring and commitment or a curt dismissal of the student's abilities (Yeager et al., 2013). And, in fact, there is evidence that a tendency to construe teacher feedback in a negative light is more common among those students already sensitive to being stereotyped because of social characteristics such as race, gender, or economic class (Cohen, Steele, & Ross, 1999; Yeager et al., 2013). An African-American student, for example, might interpret a White teacher's written feedback on how to improve her research-paper draft as picky, unfair, and driven by racial bias rather than as representing a genuine desire to help the learner advance her writing skills. As a result, the student fails to heed and apply that adult feedback.

Wise Feedback: Supplying a Proactive, Empowering Explanation. Teachers can reduce the tendency of at-risk students to discount evaluative statements as biased by formatting those statements as 'wise' feedback (Cohen, Steele, & Ross, 1999; Yeager et al., 2013). The teacher structures written or verbal feedback to include these 3 elements:

Feedback description. The teacher describes the nature of the feedback being offered.

High standards. The teacher emphasizes and explains the high standards used to evaluate the student work and generate the instructional feedback.

Assurance of student ability. The teacher states explicitly that the student has the skills necessary to successfully meet those standards.

The wise-feedback strategy appears deceptively simple but is powerful in application. Wise feedback prevents the student from misconstruing teacher comments as negatively biased by proactively offering an alternative, positive explanation: the teacher is giving detailed, ambitious feedback because the standards of the course are high and the teacher is confident that the student has the skills and motivation to meet them.

Wise Feedback: Examples. Here are 3 examples of teacher critical feedback formatted as 'wise' feedback:

Wise Feedback: Example 1: Research Paper with Written Feedback

Wise Feedback: Example 2: PowerPoint Presentation with Oral Feedback

Wise Feedback: Example 3: Opinion Survey with Written Feedback

Wise Feedback: Additional Considerations. Like all teacher communication tools, wise feedback has constraints attached to its use:

Do not pair grades with wise feedback. When possible, teachers should avoid attaching grades to any student work that contains wise feedback. Students tend to view a summative number or letter grade as the 'real' evaluation of an assignment and are therefore likely to ignore comments that accompany them (Yeager et al., 2013). So grades can 'short-circuit' the positive impact of wise feedback. The reality, however, is that the assignment of grades is usually unavoidable in course work. One strategy to keep wise-feedback and grading separate on an assignment is to return the first draft of the assignment ungraded with wise feedback. The student is then directed to use the feedback to revise the assignment and submit for a grade.

Make student feedback 'ambitious'. In an attempt to bond with unmotivated students, the teacher may commit the errors of over-praising them for mediocre work or providing only easy suggestions for improving the assignment. Either strategy sets a low bar for performance and can backfire. When students sense that instructors have limited expectations of them, they can feel patronized and stereotyped, lose motivation, and further withdraw effort from academic tasks (Yeager et al., 2013). Instead, the teacher should praise work that truly deserves it and offer thoughtful critical feedback that, relative to students' current abilities, taxes them to stretch and expand their skills in a meaningful way.

Use wise feedback with large groups. Although wise feedback is an excellent tool to communicate teacher expectations to individual students, it is just as powerful (and much more efficient) when communicating with the entire class. For example, before handing back graded math tests containing detailed critical feedback, a middle-school math teacher prepares the class, saying:
(High standards) "By grade 7, students are expected to have fully mastered the many math concepts and operations taught in the earlier grades."(Feedback description) "When you look over this diagnostic math test that you took last week, you will see that I have written a number of comments highlighting where you made errors or failed to show or explain your work."(Assurance of student ability) "Judging by past work that I have seen from each of you, I can see that you all have the skills to be strong math students. My comments will point you to where you should put additional effort to ensure success in this course."

References

Cohen, G. L., Steele, C. M., and Ross, L. D. (1999). The mentor's dilemma: Providing critical feedback across the racial divide. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25(10), 1302-1318.

Yeager, D. S., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., Brzustoski, P., Master, A., Hessert, W. T., & Williams, M. E. (2013). Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interventions to provide critical feedback across the racial divide. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 804-824.

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How to Help Students Accept Constructive Criticism: 'Wise' Feedback

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Teachers of middle and high school students know that these learners sometimes require pointed critical feedback on academic assignments to shape their learning. The reason that most instructors put substantial effort into providing often-detailed performance feedback is clear: to benefit the student.

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Carol Dweck-A Study on Praise and Mindsets

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Carol Dweck-A Study on Praise and Mindsets

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Carol Dweck - A Study on Praise and Mindsets

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Learning Style Profile

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VARK Questionnaire version 8.01
Choose the answer which best explains your preference and click the box next to it. Please click more than one if a single answer does not match your perception. Leave blank any question that does not apply.

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VARK Questionnaire: How do you learn best?

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Fill in the VARK questionnaire to find out your learning style - do you prefer to use Visual, Aural, Read/write or Kinesthetic learning strategies, or a combination?

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Clearing the path for those with special needs, clears the path for ALL.

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Make you own talking pictures!

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Voki | Speaking Characters For Education

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Voki is a fun tool that students can use for homework, classwork or projects. Customize their appearance and what they say, and share with others!

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Welcome

Welcome to the Tar Heel Reader, a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches. Click here to learn more about alternative access methods.

You may write your own books using pictures from the huge collection at Flickr or pictures you upload. All books should be complete, edited, and revised to the best of your ability before publishing them to the site. While you are working on them, please save them as drafts.

Note the little well icon in the upper left corner of the page; clicking it will allow you to access the main menu. You can also click the settings icon to change settings on some pages.

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This site is also available in other languages. To help with translation, contact us.

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Welcome to the Tar Heel Reader, a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches. Click here to learn more about alternative access methods.

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Bookshare and Learning Ally Eligibility 2019

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Bookshare and Learning Ally Eligibility 2019

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Online Dictionary for Kids with Pictures - Kid Picture Dictionary

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Online Dictionary for Kids with Pictures - Browse by category: Animals Appliances Body Parts Clothing Food Event House Numbers School Sports Things Place

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Advertisement. EnchantedLearning.com is a user-supported site.

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To browse through the dictionary, click on a letter in the alphabet at the top of the window and you'll see a page of words that start with that letter.

2,511 illustrated dictionary entries! Each word is used in a meaningful example sentence. Most entries have links to a related web site. Just click on an underlined word (or its accompanying picture), and you'll link to a related page.

The LITTLE EXPLORERSTM picture dictionary makes surfing the Internet very easy. A picture-dictionary format is used to link to hundreds of carefully-chosen child-friendly sites around the world. Since the pictures are links, even pre-readers can surf with a minimum of help and guidance from their favorite adult. Older kids can use Little Explorers as a school reference.

This is the English version; just click to use the different versions:

Please bookmark this page and come back often.

Have fun exploring and learning!

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By Jeananda Col

Dictionary Classroom Activities:
Scavenger Hunts

Search for words in the dictionary to answer questions - dictionary scavenger hunts!

Vocabulary Map Printouts

Vocabulary maps are graphic organizers that can be useful in helping a student learn new vocabulary words. Labeled cells in the printouts prompt the student to write the word, its definition, its part of speech, a synonym, an antonym, do a drawing that illustrates the word's meaning, and write a meaningful sentence containing the word.

Dictionary Definition Worksheets

Read the definition of a word, then answer multiple-choice questions about the word.

Write the abbreviations for common dictionary terms, including noun, verb, adjective, Greek, etc. Or

Dictionary Term Abbreviations go to the answers.

Countries with the most English-language speakers:

Country

Number of English Speakers (approximate; X=1,000,000 people)

USA

237.7 million

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

UK

58 million

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Canada

18 million

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Australia

15.5 million

X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Ireland

3.72 million

X X X X

South Africa

3.7 million

X X X

New Zealand

3.3 million

X X

Jamaica

2.5 million

X X

Trinidad and Tobago

1.2 million

X

Guyana

0.8 million

X

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LITTLE EXPLORERS Picture Dictionary by EnchantedLearning.com

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Little Explorers Picture Dictionary-A multi-lingual picture dictionary with links to educational activities and games. Even preschoolers can surf carefully chosen kids' sites on the web. The format is an easy-to-use, illustrated word book. The pictures and words in this on-line illustrated dictionary are links to educational activities, games, and nursery rhymes.