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BlendEDU: Peer Feedback Project Choice Board

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Taking Your Choice Boards to the Next Level - Teacher Resource

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Tips for teachers on how to take choice boards to the next level (plus a free teacher’s guide and student handout). Engage your students!

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Part 1: Getting Clear about Definitions-Similarities and Differences Among Traditional-, Standards-Based, and Competency-Based Grading Practices

This is the first in a three-part series on competency-based grading. I was motivated to write this series because of recent conversations about competency-based grading within my children's school district. I've noticed confusion about terms, misinformation, propaganda, and a general lack of high-quality resources on the subject. My goal for this series is to help guide honest and transparent conversations about key issues and best practices by:

providing a clear explanation of and any potential issues with competency-based grading,

demonstrating why grading is not a magic elixir, and

detailing the conditions and considerations around competency-based grading best practices.

In this post, I provide a detailed description of traditional, standards-based, and competency-based grading, which are the three most common grading methods. I discuss similarities and differences among the methods and highlight concerns surrounding traditional and standards-based methods that animate much of the conversation around competency-based grading.
Similarities Across K-12 Grading Methods
I thought it would be helpful to begin with a list of similarities across K-12 grading methods that stem from the purpose and use of grades. I do not claim this list to be exhaustive, but it does represent key attributes across grading methods well.

Every student gets a grade at the end of a grading period (e.g., quarter or trimester) and at the end of the year.

Grades are determined by teachers and are based in large measure on student performance on teacher-made or teacher-selected assessments.

Grades are used for reporting to parents and students about student progress towards grade- or course-level proficiency on state content standards.

Grades can undermine students' interest in learning and negatively affect student motivation and engagement if used improperly.

Traditional Grading-A Brief Description
Traditional grading is what most of us experienced in middle and high school. We received A through F letter grades based on a 0-100 point scale for each course (e.g., Algebra I, Spanish, etc.). Letter grades are typically compensatory in that higher performance on one test can compensate for lower performance on another test. Course grades are calculated using some type of average from homework, quiz, and test scores. This average may be weighted so that homework and other formative assessments contribute less and summative tests contribute more to the overall grade. Some teachers will offer 'extra credit' or allow students to retake assessments to boost students' grades. Student work study habits, such as turning in homework on time, participation in classroom discussions, and effort, are often included in grades.
Concerns About Traditional Grading
Thomas Guskey (Guskey, T. R., 2015) and others have written many critiques that raise concerns about traditional grading.

1. A 100-point scale gives the illusion of precision and objectivity. For example, are there actual differences in achievement among students who earn a score of 92 or 93; 72, 73, or 74? Moreover, often the lowest possible grade on a test is 50, but scores of 0 are given for missing homework or quizzes, which can significantly deflate an overall grade-and yet not reflect a true underlying lack of mastery.

2. Another criticism of traditional grading is that a single, overall letter grade does not provide sufficient information to students and parents on which aspects of that course the student may need additional support to reach proficiency. It also may hide significant gaps in learning because students who pass a course with a grade of 'C' or 'D' are likely to have significant gaps in learning that remain unaddressed and compound over time. Practically speaking, letter grading also makes it difficult for high schools to allow students who have failed a course to retake and demonstrate proficiency in certain aspects of the course rather than retake the entire course.

3. A final criticism of traditional grading is that the single letter grade a student receives is often affected by late work, missing homework, and other habits of work or dispositions (such as participation) that differ from mastery of academic core content. In this way, traditional grading conflates student achievement and student work-study habits, which then also makes it difficult for students and parents to have a clear understanding of student progress towards proficiency.

Standards-Based Grading-A Brief Description
Standards-based grading has become popular-particularly at the elementary level-as a result of the standards-based movement in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Because of this movement, schools wanted to report on student progress toward meeting state-adopted content standards in the early years of a student's education-prior to annual state achievement testing. Standards-based grading is more of a natural fit at the elementary level because A through F letter grades were not typically used, and the level of detail provided to parents about students' early literacy and numeracy skills is an important home-school connecting point.

Standards-based grading is the most fine-grained of the grading practices. Some standards-based report cards include lists upon lists of state content standards and require teachers to report student progress on upwards of 10 or 20 standards per content area. Other standards-based report cards group similar content standards into domains (or power standards) such that there are only 5-7 per content area. The level of detail provided is intended to help parents know where their child may need additional support or enrichment. Similar to traditional grades, standards-based grades may be based on a mixture of formative and summative assessments, homework completion, participation, and effort.

Standards-based grading typically reports on student progress toward proficiency either using a numeric or alphabetic four-point rating scale (e.g., E or 4=exceeds expectations; M or 3=meets expectations; S or 2=sometimes meets expectations; etc.). Standards-based grading can seem subjective in that it is unclear how a teacher arrives at any particular rating and there can be inconsistency among classrooms within a school and across schools within a district as there is no common definition or shared understanding of proficiency.
Concerns About Standards-Based Grading
As a parent whose children receive standards-based report cards, I have found that the level of detail provided makes it difficult (if not impossible) for me to make sense of my child's academic strengths and weaknesses. The fine-grained information is organized as a discrete list of knowledge and skills, which seems to reflect a behaviorist view of learning rather than providing information on how my child can put that knowledge and skills together to solve a problem or demonstrate competence in a domain. Additionally, student work-study habits are often mixed in with academic achievement, making it difficult for a parent to disentangle their student's progress toward proficiency from their ability to organize their materials effectively or listen to instructions.
Competency-Based Grading-A Brief Description
As some schools and districts across the United States have shifted to competency-based models of education, there has been a desire to align grading with the teaching and learning model. Schools want to report student progress on the defined competencies a student must demonstrate in a particular grade and subject area.

Competencies are generally more coarse-grained than standards and indicate not only what a student must do, but how well they must do it. In some states, students' graduation from high school is dependent upon demonstration of mastery or proficiency of each competency rather than on the number of credits received for passing courses.

Because many elementary schools already use standards-based report cards, the shift to competency-based grading is more natural and less fraught with parent pushback and community upheaval. This reaction is not the case with shifts to competency-based grading in middle schools or, especially, high schools.

Competency-based grading means that schools or districts have adopted or created competencies that students must demonstrate in each grade level and subject area. These competencies are typically clusters of grade-level state content standards written so students must demonstrate their ability to apply those standards in some way. Like standards-based grades, competency-based grades are typically reported on a four-point rating scale (e.g., 4=advanced proficiency; 3=proficient; 2=not yet proficient; 1=well below proficient).

Competency-based grades are not compensatory in that teachers do not average across tests to give students a competency grade; instead, teachers oftentimes give "trending" grades, whereby students are given the grade that represents their most recent level of competence. This practice is related to the reassessment allowed in competency-based education systems where students can retake an assessment to demonstrate their learning.

Homework and other formative assessments are not included in competency grades and neither is student effort or participation. Most competency-based report cards include a separate section to communicate student progress on non-cognitive skills and dispositions (also known as 21st-century skills, work study practices, student success skills, etc.).

In my next post, part 2, I'll take a deep dive into potential issues with competency-based grading to get beyond the hype and ensure students are not "harmed" by poorly designed and implemented competency-based grading practices. I highlight three issues that require close attention-comparability, sufficiency, and generalizability. I also highlight documented unintended negative consequences on student work habits and motivation resulting from competency-based grading.

Part 3 argues that the shift to competency-based grading must reflect deeper improvements in curriculum, instruction, and assessment to have any effect on improving equity and student achievement.
References
Guskey, T. R. (2015). On your mark: Challenging the conventions of grading and reporting. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

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What Do I Need to Know About Competency-Based Grading?

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This is the first in a three-part series on competency-based grading. I was motivated to write this series because of recent conversations about competency-based grading within my children's school district. I've noticed confusion about terms, misinformation, propaganda, and a general lack of high-quality resources on the subject.

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Incentives, Choice, Education, and Well-Being

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Incentives, Choice, Education, and Well-Being

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Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.

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10 UDL Observations in the Classroom.pdf

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You may know of UDL as a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. But one thing I have experienced time and time again from my experience presenting on the topic is that there are several myths and misconceptions about UDL that are common among educators. Addressing these myths may be helpful in implementing the framework in your school or district.

Myth #1: UDL is for Special Education Students

Every student regardless of variability deserves the best opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge, especially those students who have been historically marginalized. It is true that UDL grew out of efforts to help students with disabilities. The innovation came in realizing that lowering barriers for students with disabilities also lowered previously unseen barriers for other learners. This, in turn, led to a recognition that universally designed education would encompass all learners because human variability is not this/that, either/or but rather a continuum of differences that change according to context and opportunity.

All students, in a classroom that includes students with disabilities, are given options and choices so they can be equally challenged and supported. Even students who are identified as gifted and talented benefit from inclusion when three key components are met: flexibility, acceleration, and variety (Delisle, 1999). Essentially, the flexibility provides all students with options and choices for the methods they use to learn, the materials, and the assessments. Acceleration allows students to move at a quicker pace if they show competency of the material, and lastly, variety allows students to personalize their learning and create meaning for themselves as they work toward standards. All three of these conditions are required in the UDL framework.

Myth #2: UDL is Differentiated Instruction (DI)

UDL and DI are built on fundamentally different values of who is in charge of a student's learning. The primary goal of UDL is to create expert learners. UDL honors student variability and removes barriers to student learning by embracing differences.

When teachers differentiate instruction, they cater to individual student needs (Tomlinson, 2000). For example, you may take one group of students aside and ask them to read an extra piece of literature because you have evidence that they are more advanced than their peers. You ask another student to draw pictures instead of writing an essay since you know writing is challenging for him.

On the contrary, UDL proactively designs flexibility in goals, methods, materials and assessments by embracing variability and predicting barriers, and then eliminating those barriers through design. These frameworks complement each other in a multi-tiered system. When predicting variability, educators can design robust opportunities for all learners to access grade-level rigor in Tier 1 with UDL. When evidence suggests that students need additional support, intervention, or enrichment, teachers can differentiate instruction to supplement, not supplant, universally designed learning experiences.

Myth #3: UDL is just "Good teaching"

There is no variable more critical for student success than the quality of teachers (Hall & Simeral, 2017). Without a doubt, the best investment a school can make is in its human resources. Teaching is the foundation of learning, and so when we have so many students who are not successful in school, and who haven't learned standards, we have to re-evaluate what good teaching is.

UDL is an educational framework based on decades of research in learning and the brain. It takes years to master and teachers use it to strategically remove barriers in lesson design by focusing on providing multiple means of engagement, representation, and action & expression. Teachers aim to create instructional experiences that allow students to become purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal directed, also known as "expert learners." In a nutshell, while following UDL best practices is good teaching, good teaching isn't always universally designed instruction.

When UDL is successful, learners truly have ownership in their learning, as opposed to permission to make choices. One great resource to exemplify this is the UDL Progression Rubric (Novak & Rodriguez, 2018). What you will notice is that some "good teaching" strategies, where teachers offer options and choices to students, are only identified in the "emerging" UDL category. That is because UDL is all about learning, and UDL implementation is only approaching an expert level when all students, regardless of variability, are learners who understand the importance of setting goals, and creating pathways to meet those goals.

Myth #4: UDL is the Same as Personalized Learning

Many people will also say that UDL simply allows each student to go their own way and demonstrate what they know and that it results in personalized learning. Although there are some similarities, the two terms are not synonymous.

Personalized learning (PL) is when educators cater to the strengths, interests, and needs of students through instructional strategies, personalized goals, and mastery-based assessments in flexible learning environments (Bingham & Dimandja, 2017). As outlined in a research paper that reported on the results of a multiyear, multimethod study of nearly forty (40) schools implementing PL, "Personalized learning is not a codified program or set of practices that schools can readily adopt." Elizabeth Steiner of the RAND Corporation explained that her recent studies of personalized learning suggest that "what's happening in the field right now is a lot of innovation and a lot of schools building their [personalized learning] models, building their curriculum, and inventing new systems" (Herald, 2017).

Using that definition, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that could be used to implement and optimize personalized learning, but it isn't explicitly required as a component of the initiative. As the field of personalized learning continues to scale, we are hopeful that UDL will emerge as the primary framework for allowing all students to thrive.

Myth #5: UDL is all about Fun!

Learning doesn't have to be fun to be effective. It does, however, need to be engaging, challenging, and worthwhile. Take a favorite hobby, for example, and consider if it's "fun" all the time. It's not. Sometimes it sucks. The Spartan Beast is a half-marathon up a mountain with 30 obstacles including delights such as getting scratched by barbed wire and lugging 40 pounds logs up a steep incline. It's incredibly rewarding and requires expert learning, but at the time - not fun.

UDL is sometimes mischaracterized as a way of teaching and learning that is fun because when teachers proactively design flexible learning experiences with multiple options, learners have choices which makes them more likely to choose tasks that they find engaging.

But thinking that the intent of UDL is fun allows a scientific framework to be brushed off as a fad or lacking in rigor. I have designed very fun UDL lessons, and I have also designed lessons where learners were working extremely hard, pushing their intellectual abilities to the limit, stressed, and engaged, but not having fun.

Myth #6: UDL is Anti Explicit Instruction

All too often educators think that there is no place for direct or explicit instruction in a UDL classroom. This couldn't be further from the truth. Direct instruction will always have a place in education, but the way direct instruction is delivered through UDL is quite different. To support the direct instruction, teachers provide students with options and choices to help support their learning and offer multiple ways to students to dive more deeply into the information covered through direct instruction, for example by choosing to read a chapter in a book, watching a video, discussing the concepts learned with a peer, or diving into an experiment. Whichever option the student chooses, there will be resources available to help them through struggles, such as scaffolds and exemplars. There will be frequent reminders about the goals of the lesson, and classroom norms to support students with finding resources when they are challenged. So, while a lesson may incorporate mini-lessons and direct instruction, UDL encourages teachers to go beyond the "sage on the stage" of the olden days and help students take charge of their own learning.
Download the Infographic: Debunking Common Myths of UDL
Ready for more? Learn about the what, the why, and the how of UDL

References:

Bingham, Andrea & Dimandja, Oluwafolakemi. (2017). Staying on track: Examining teachers' experiences in a personalized learning model.Journal of Ethnographic & Qualitative Research. 12.

Delisle, J. R. (1999). For Gifted Students, Full Inclusion Is a Partial Solution. Educational Leadership, 57(3), 80.

Hall, P., & Simeral, A. (2017). Creating a Culture of Reflective Practice: Capacity-Building for Schoolwide Success. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Herald, B. (2017). 6 Key Insights: RAND Corp. Researchers Talk Personalized Learning. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/11/08/6-key-insights-rand-corp-researchers-talk.html

Novak, K. & Rodriguez, K. (2018). UDL progression rubric. Retrieved from http://castpublishing.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/UDL_Progression_Rubric_FINAL_Web_REV1.pdf

Tomlinson, C. A. (2000a). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of all Learners. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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6 Myths about Universal Design for Learning + Infographic

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Debunking the common myths and misconceptions about Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Free Universal Design for Learning resource download.

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Planning Professional Development Using a UDL Lens

We have all been there - stuck in a PD session where we are ready to walk out (or log out!), texting feverishly to our colleagues, " Are you kiddddddding me?"

I have experienced this kind of non-compelling, lets-just-get-through-it, when it will ever be over?!?! PD too. Embarrassingly enough, I have run this kind of PD session! That was before I knew about the power of UDL and before I realized that PD for teachers, just like learning for our students, needs to be authentic, meaningful, and relevant to be engaging, thought-provoking, and useful.

We can't just start our PD saying, "You need to learn this because we are mandating it and it doesn't matter how much you already have on your plate, so listen up !" We need to understand the beliefs, motivations, and challenges of our educators in order to understand what they truly need in professional learning. We need to give them options and choices for how they learn and express their knowledge and skills. We need to meet them at their level before we help lift them up to the next.

Professional development is important to help all students grow as learners and succeed while working toward grade-level standards. But, when we turn a critical lens on our professional learning, are we practicing what we preach for students? The following three questions may help you to reflect:

How is your PD teacher-driven?

How does professional learning embrace the variability of teachers and provide flexibility, options, and choice?

What are your mechanisms for getting feedback from teachers as to whether professional learning is relevant, authentic, and meaningful? What do you do with that feedback?

If you reflect on the questions and recognize room for growth, you can improve your PD. To help you with this process, I have collaborated with Reeba Rosagaron to create a tool to help you plan PD using the UDL lens.

In this tool, we offer a list of potential barriers to explore, some UDL strategies to address those barriers and what your retooled PD may look like with this new insight. Each section begins with a discussion of "Why is this important?" so that you can do a quick check of how you are progressing as a UDL Practitioner.

Obviously, this list is not exhaustive; we have not covered every possibility but we have created a place to start, and hopefully, the tool will get you thinking about some specific barriers that you can minimize through thoughtful design.

We would love to see and hear your feedback on the tool and your thoughts on how you can use it to improve your next PD session (@KatieNovakUDL).

Enjoy the adventure! Contact us to plan professional learning for your team.
Reeba Rosagaron works as a Differentiation Specialist supporting and training special educators, general educators and co-teachers. Reeba has taught in the NYC Dept. of Ed., has volunteered for an education NGO in Jaipur, India. worked as the lead high school teacher at the Academy for Precision Learning, and has worked at the Catholic Community Services of Western Washington overseeing a tutoring center for immigrant and refugee students.

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Stop the PD Snoozefest - Planning Professional Development Using UDL

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We have all been there - stuck in a PD session where we are ready to walk out (or log out!), texting feverishly to our colleagues, " Are you kiddddddding me?" I have experienced this kind of non-compelling, lets-just-get-through-it, when it will ever be over?!?! PD too.

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Gerry Brooks - Boring Staff Meeting No More

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Gerry Brooks - Boring Staff Meeting No More

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itsthatrelatablestudent on Instagram: The two-page method that will get you the grades you need this semester 😁 #… | Study techniques, Studying inspo, Student life

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Oct 31, 2022 - hi, I’m angelica🤓 shared a post on Instagram: "The two-page method that will get you the grades you need this semester 😁 #education #learning #school #study #science #student #teacher #college #quotesoftheday #teachersofinstagram #university #teachers #collegelife #learn #studyabroad #volunteer #youth #schoollife #essay #graduate #exam #teaching #studentlife #class #evolution #math #highschool #academy #mba #onlinelearning". Follow their account to see 127 posts.

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Faculty Meeting Choice Board - Hampton Meadows

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Faculty Meeting Choice Board - Hampton Meadows

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Listen to the interview with Katie Novak and Mirko Chardin:
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As a teacher, I loved the annual PTO teacher appreciation breakfast: tablecloths featuring pencils, hearts, and shiny red apples, bouquets of pink mini carnations, and a coffee and tea cart fit for a barista. And the buffet! Like mead halls of yore, long banquet tables were lined with fruit salad, homemade quiches, scrambled eggs, miso soup, and gallo pinto. Bagels, croissants, chapattis, and churros sat atop a bread table. Little folded cards identified casseroles that were gluten-free or vegan. Options for everyone! I wanted to sample every single one.

A school down the street didn't have it so good. Their breakfast served a single option-a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on a biscuit. No substitutions.

Now, I personally love a good ol' brekkie sammy, but it certainly won't meet everyone's needs. Some staff members may be vegetarian, lactose-intolerant, or gluten-free. Some may be watching their waistlines. And some will just think that the sandwich is G.R.O.S.S. We all can predict the outcome. Many will leave hungry, frustrated, and needless to say- un appreciated.

The bacon/egg/cheese saga represents the one-size-fits-all scenarios we often see in our classrooms: Every student is expected to read the same book at the same pace, listen to the same lectures, and complete the same math problems using the same materials. These inflexible solutions expect compliance and favor students who don't face significant barriers to traditional learning. Many of the "tried and true" techniques and curriculum in classrooms perpetuate privilege rather than focusing on learning, autonomy, and empowerment.

When we design the same learning pathways for all learners, we might tell ourselves we are being fair, but in fact, single pathways are exclusionary. Beverly Daniel Tatum, author of the critically acclaimed book, Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, challenges us to focus on impact over intentions. It may not be our intent to exclude our learners, but the reality is that many students do not have opportunities to learn at high levels or to access curriculum and instruction that is accessible, engaging, culturally sustaining, and linguistically appropriate.

Luckily, there is a framework that rejects these one-size-fits-all solutions and empowers educators to proactively design learning experiences so all students can increase their brainpower and accelerate and own their learning. The framework is Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

UDL is a framework for designing learning experiences so students have options for how they learn, what materials they use, and how they demonstrate their learning. When implemented with a lens of equity, the framework has the potential to eliminate opportunity gaps that exclude many learners, especially those who have been historically marginalized. If we want all students to have equal opportunities to learn, we have to be incredibly purposeful, proactive, and flexible. UDL creates a learning environment that is the least restrictive and most culturally responsive, trauma-informed environment for all students.

CORE BELIEFS OF UDL

This work begins with asset-based beliefs about students and the power of design to eliminate barriers. A UDL Practitioner believes:

Variability is the rule, not the exception. Students may need to learn in different ways, using different materials, and share what they have learned in different ways to reach the same goals.

All students can work toward the same firm goals and grade-level standards when provided with adequate challenge and support.

All students will become expert learners if barriers are removed and they are given opportunities to self-differentiate.

Belief 1: Variability

Variability is the unique mix of skills, interests, needs, and preferences each and every learner brings to the classroom. Variability goes beyond differences between students and explores differences within students, based on context. Because of variability, what students need is ever-changing and evolving. So providing options for students to reflect on the barriers they are facing and choose pathways that best meet their needs is critical to build self-awareness and expert learning.

In traditional instruction, many educators attempt to define how students learn with one-dimensional labels. For example, many educators will ask me, "What does UDL look like for English language learners/black and brown students/students with disabilities?" My answer is always the same, "The students in those groups are not the same and they don't need one-size-fits-all solutions."

Let's connect back to the breakfast buffet. Imagine you are labeled as a member of the "vegan group." As a result, every day you and the other vegans have plates set aside for you with sliced tomatoes and plain oatmeal. Here's the thing-not all vegans like or eat the same thing. You will want choices too and you will likely make different decisions depending on the day, your mood, and how your tummy feels. Intrapersonal variability matters just as much as interpersonal variability. And if none of the foods work for you, you will definitely need an opportunity to share what you need.

Belief 2: Firm Goals, Flexible Means

Every student can learn at high levels. When creating a universally designed learning experience, educators should ask themselves: "At the end of this lesson, unit, or professional development series, what do my learners have to know or what do they need to be able to do?" Once you identify the firm goal, ask yourself, "Based on the variability in my class, what barriers may prevent learners from working toward that goal and how can I eliminate those barriers through design?"

For example, if the firm goal is "Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence," you may predict that some students will struggle with organization. Worry not! You can create a buffet with flexible means to support learners. If you proactively provide a graphic organizer, an annotated exemplar with notes about organization, a resource that includes words, phrases, and clauses to help clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons, and the opportunity to sign up for small group instruction on organization, you can empower students to choose what they need to organize their writing.

Belief 3: Expert Learning

In his book, Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn, author Mike Anderson discusses the concept of incorporating student choice into every lesson. Many educators are afraid of handing over the reins to their students, believing they won't make the best choices. The truth is they are right to be afraid; students may make poor choices about their learning, particularly when they are first given this power.

For example, a student may choose to work in a group with his friends in which he becomes distracted instead of working alongside the teacher, where he would have been more successful. But the evaluation of that choice is where the real teaching moment comes into play. Through Anderson's "choose, do, review" method, teachers transition their roles to the facilitator and can provide feedback that guides students to understand and self-evaluate their choices, determine what works for them and what doesn't, and give them opportunities to make better choices in the future and provide feedback about learning design.

If students don't have these opportunities to "choose, do, review" their way to expert learning, they will become what Zaretta Hammond has coined as "dependent learners." Dependent learners are overly reliant on the teacher to carry the load of cognitive tasks and are unsure of how to tackle new tasks because they aren't given opportunities to learn how to be expert learners.

UDL IN ACTION

Imagine this scene in a 6th-grade health classroom: Students are sitting quietly at their desks. The learning target written on the board notes that students will identify ways to reduce their risk of spreading or contracting communicable disease. The agenda outlines classroom activities: (1) watch a CDC video and (2) write an essay on how to reduce the risk of spreading and contracting COVID-19. The lesson is aligned to grade-level standards and features a high quality resource, so what is the problem? The learning experience will not meet the needs of all students because it is one-size-fits-all, so let's give it the UDL treatment. For a lesson to truly be "universally designed," it must meet the following criteria:

Provide Multiple Means of Engagement

Learners differ in the ways they can be engaged or motivated to learn. Because there is not one means of engagement that will be optimal for all learners; providing options to build interest and commitment is essential. At the beginning of the class, the teacher projects a list of communicable diseases including the common cold, strep throat, COVID-19, and Influenza A (the flu). Each disease is paired with a visual. Some learners take out their phones to look at their throats and ask their friends, "Does my throat look like that?" The teacher asks if anyone wants to add a communicable, or spreadable, disease to the list. One student offers, "mono," so she writes it down.

For the next 10 minutes, students have the option to work independently, with a partner, or in a small group with the teacher to list as many symptoms as they can for at least one of the diseases. Students have the option to write words or draw images to represent symptoms on a provided graphic organizer. As they work, they are encouraged to use their devices for research and to find a place conducive to their learning. Two students work at a standing desk while others grab clip boards and gather on the floor with their devices.

Provide Multiple Means of Representation

The second principle of UDL reminds educators to provide multiple means of representation to build knowledge and comprehension in all learners. Not all learners comprehend information in the same way, have the same background information or funds of knowledge, or have access to the same language. When teachers present information, they often use a single representation. This is often done in a lecture, by playing a video, assigning text, or teaching vocabulary, etc. Because there is significant variability in students, they differ in the information they need to learn.

In the health lesson, after students complete the activator, there is a mini-lesson unpacking target vocabulary: risk, communicable disease, and community spread. One student's father is a nurse, so the teacher arranges for a short Zoom call where Dad talks about the importance of washing hands and wearing masks. The closed caption feature is used and students are encouraged to ask questions.

After a short discussion, the teacher provides options for students to learn more about how to prevent the spread of communicable disease: watch the CDC video in English or Spanish, read an article on Newsela, review pamphlets from the nurse's office, or explore a combination of these resources. They are provided with essential questions to support their learning. As students work, the teacher checks in with each of them, asks questions, and provides feedback.

Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression

It is devastating when students aren't able to express their understanding because of inflexible assessments. Traditionally, students have been asked to share their understanding using only a single pathway, like a multiple-choice test, essay prompt, and/or project without any flexible scaffolds or supports. When teachers provide students with multiple options that are authentic and personalized, learners are able to practice executive functioning skills as they analyze the task and choose the best option to demonstrate that they met the intended outcome.

After learning about how to reduce their risk of spreading or contracting communicable disease, students are provided with numerous options to share what they have learned. They can write a response, record a video or podcast, create a pamphlet or infographic, or suggest an alternative. The teacher provides a word bank with the target vocabulary, a single-point rubric, and a checklist so students can self-assess their work before submitting it. One student asks if he can write and produce a rap as long as it meets the rubric. "Absolutely," the teacher replies. "I can't wait to hear it."

ARE UDL AND DIFFERENTIATION THE SAME?

You may be reading this and thinking, "This sounds a lot like differentiated instruction." The frameworks are similar, and complementary, but they are not the same.

Carol Tomlinson leads the field of differentiated instruction, As Tomlinson shares in her book The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners, teachers in a differentiated classroom begin with their current curriculum and engaging instruction and then adapt the content, process, product, and environment to ensure that students receive the targeted intervention, support, and enrichment they need. This responsiveness is incredibly important, but may not set students up to reflect on their learning and make choices for themselves.

In the breakfast buffet analogy, you don't want to be a part of the "vegan group" where decisions are made for you. Even with the buffet, hosts need to be responsive and reflective, noting when some people aren't eating and figuring out how the buffet could be designed differently the next time. When differentiation is combined with the practices and principles of UDL, students have opportunities to reflect, make choices, and build ownership of their learning; they also benefit from more explicit support when necessary.

Unlike differentiation alone, UDL empowers students to self-differentiate their learning and build autonomy and independence; this sends a powerful message. In her book Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning, Andratesha Fritzgerald notes that this kind of design honors our students, that when we provide them with choice and voice, we communicate these things:

You are more important than the systems we serve.

You are more important than my personal preferences.

You are more important than the way the content is packaged.

I am willing to learn about you to help you reach your life goals.

You are important and I will honor you with instruction that holds you accountable and empowers you to take ownership of your own learning.

Proactively designing curriculum and instruction through the lens of UDL, and supplementing that design with differentiated instruction, is a pathway to equity-one that will have an incredible impact on learners.

As Mirko Chardin and I shared in Equity by Design: Delivering on the Power and Promise of UDL, "Educators hold incredible power: power to design learning experiences, power to set expectations for students, power to elevate and celebrate student voices, power to inspire and motivate students, the power to create consequences, and the power to allow for choice and personalization. We have to understand that all of us carry that power and privilege and we must use it as a tool to confront and dismantle inequities so all students have equal opportunities to learn."

Universal design is one path toward dismantling those inequities. Start your UDL journey now.

Learn More

As a next step, here is a buffet of high-quality resources to learn more about UDL and educational equity. Just like the Teacher Appreciation Breakfasts that I loved so much, check out your options, and choose what's best for you. And if you're like me and you want to try a little bit of everything, treat yourself!

Read It

Read this blog, written by Mirko Chardin and I, that shares that the time for equity (and UDL!) is now.

Read Chapter 1 in UDL Theory and Practice: Re-Envisioning Education through UDL (free with free login). The book is a universally designed text book, so you can read, have it read to you, or watch videos that explore concepts more deeply.

View a PDF copy of the UDL Flowchart, which is a tool to think about UDL lesson design. If you'd like to read a blog that introduces the flow chart, you can access it here.

View the UDL Progression Rubric to determine what UDL looks like at each phase of implementation.

Use the UDL Implementation Rubric to consider where your current practices are within UDL. There are no right or wrong answers. This is simply an opportunity to reflect on your current implementation. Choose the descriptor that best meets your practice and consider how you can continue to grow in UDL to create more equitable, personalized learning experiences for your students.

Read "Equity in Our Schools: A Pretty Little Lie" an article co-written with Andratesha Fritzgerald, the author of Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning.

Listen to It

Listen to this podcast on Cult of Pedagogy, Ten Ways Educators Can Take Action in Pursuit of Equity, featuring Pedro Noguera, Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.

Listen to this podcast from Paula Martin Johnson, where she shares concrete strategies for how educators can create a climate and curriculum that reflects students' racial and economic backgrounds, languages, religions, funds of knowledge and family structures.

Watch It

Come back for more.
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This framework rejects one-size-fits-all teaching and offers options for how to engage, what materials to use, and how to demonstrate learning.

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When I am presenting on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an education framework routed in offering options to students to help them take control of their own education, teachers often tell me they have been doing it already for years. I ask them to explain.

What follows is often a description of Differentiated Instruction (DI). Like UDL, DI is also an education framework based on providing options to students. However, there are some critical differences that differentiate (pardon the pun!) the two frameworks from one another.

The Dinner Party Analogy

I like to explain the differences by asking teachers think about hosting a dinner party. Let's say you have invited over thirty guests. Several of these guests have food allergies, another few are gluten-free, some are vegetarian or lactose intolerant, and your brother is exclusively Paleo. You want to be the perfect host, and you want to accommodate everyone.

Scenario 1: You decide to make individual meals for each guest so that each of them has the perfect dish. That is a lot of juggling to do. In the end, you are exhausted from all of the cooking, made a few mistakes because it is nearly impossible to get everyone's individual meal perfect, and didn't enjoy yourself. At the same time, you are frustrated that some of your guests preferred other's meals when you had made a special dish JUST FOR THEM.

What I just described is the dinner party equivalent of DI. DI is presenting options, but those options are directed by the teacher. For example, you may take one group of students aside and ask them to read an extra piece of literature because you can tell they are more advanced than their peers. You ask another student to draw a picture instead of writing an essay since you know writing is challenging for him. You are presenting options, but those options are governed by you and it's possible you haven't chosen the right options for the right students. You are burnt out from trying to create so many individualized lessons.

Scenario 2: Let's go back to the dinner party. Rather than preparing thirty individual meals, why not put out a buffet? Include lots of variety, but let the guests choose what is best for them, what they believe will work with their individual diets, and satisfy them. You don't witness guests peering at other's dishes wishing they had been made the same thing. You are relaxed and engaged. You have saved your energy for interacting with your guests, instead of wasting it preparing imperfect options.

UDL offers students a "buffet" of options. The options are offered by the teacher but they aren't individualized for specific students. Through the UDL framework, students are intended to become self-directed learners and choose the options that work best for them, not the other way around. With UDL, students learn to take responsibility for their learning. They are learn the "why" of learning as we turn on the affective network of the brain by providing multiple means of engagement. They learn the "what" of learning as we ignite the recognition network of the brain by providing multiple means of representation. And they learn the "how" of learning as we turn on the strategic network of the brain through multiple means of action & expression.

If you are feeling exhausted by creating individualized learning plans for each of your students through the DI framework, you are not alone. UDL can help you provide options but allow you to maintain your creativity and energy while developing a classroom full of curious, self-directed learners. It isn't a framework you can implement overnight, but once you see it working its magic in your classroom, you will become just as hooked as I am.

To learn more about the UDL framework, and read up on concrete examples of how you can implement it in your classroom, explore our guide to UDL and feel free to pick up a copy of my book, UDL Now!

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Outlining the critical differences that differentiate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI) from one another.

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If you've had a chance to review the UDL Progression Rubric, you probably recognize that UDL isn't a framework that you can implement overnight. It takes years - not weeks or months - to reach expert level and it's easy to see how anyone, even the most experienced teachers, could get overwhelmed. For those just getting started, evaluating where you are in the UDL implementation process on a checkpoint by checkpoint basis might simply be too much.

When Melissa Toland of Ocean View School District reached out suggesting a simplified version for the time-strapped or overwhelmed teacher, I was totally sold. I love collaborating with others who are equally inspired by the promise of UDL and loved her quick-start so much that I wanted to share it with you all.

This rubric is a great tool for self-evaluation and self-reflection in regards to big picture UDL implementation and also serves as a fantastic reference tool for remembering overall themes of UDL. When you are ready to get a little more granular, the UDL Progression Rubric builds upon this one.

When Melissa introduced the rubric to her district's middle school educators, she encouraged them to use the tool as a road map for next steps to incorporate the principles of UDL into lessons and units.

As you review the tool, Melissa recommends thinking about:

What are your next steps in terms of implementation?

Based on your current level of practice, what is one goal you have for today?

Making commitments to yourself after you self-evaluate is a wonderful way to get started with the process. Remember, UDL implementation is a learning process, one that takes engagement, motivation, grit, resourcefulness, and creativity. You are not alone on this journey. You deserve the same tools, resources, and support that your students will get from you as you implement UDL.

We are always open to sharing new ideas and tools for UDL, so if you have something like this to share, please reach out!

Download the .

Ready to take your UDL game one step further? Enroll in one of our online courses and experience UDL first hand from UDL experts.

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UDL Implementation Rubric - Novak Educational Consulting

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If you've had a chance to review the UDL Progression Rubric, you probably recognize that UDL isn't a framework that you can implement overnight. It takes years - not weeks or months - to reach expert level and it's easy to see how anyone, even the most experienced teachers, could get overwhelmed.

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[Resource] Start Class with Community Building Conversations 

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Open Source Content-based ELA and Math Curriculum

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Open Source Content-based FREE curriculum

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The Core Knowledge Curriculum Series™ provides comprehensive, content-rich learning materials based on the Core Knowledge Sequence. Student readers, teacher guides, activity books, and other materials are available for Language Arts, History and Geography, and Science. Materials for Math are in development.

Free Downloadable Core Knowledge Curriculum

By making many of our Core Knowledge curriculum materials freely available, we work to put into practice the principle that every child in a democracy should have access to shared, enabling knowledge.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or newer to view our materials, which is available as a free download on the Adobe website.
Download Free Curriculum
Language Arts Curriculum

The Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum provides comprehensive materials to teach reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. The program is free to download and available for students in Preschool through Grade 6.

Learn More and See Tips on Implementation

History and Geography Curriculum

Through our History and Geography curriculum, Core Knowledge offers comprehensive materials to teach world and American history and geography. The curriculum follows the Core Knowledge Sequence to help students build knowledge of diverse civilizations, cultures, and concepts.

Learn More and See Integration with Other Subjects

Science Curriculum

The Core Knowledge Science curriculum offers comprehensive materials to teach scientific concepts and develop scientific practices through hands-on activities. Based on the revised Core Knowledge Science Sequence, the curriculum helps students build knowledge in the life, physical, and earth/space sciences, as well as engineering design.

Learn More and See Science in Action

Math Curriculum

The Core Knowledge Mathematics curriculum offers comprehensive materials to support conceptual understanding and procedural fluency for student success in math. Units for the middle grades 6-8 are being developed now.

Learn More and Get Started with CKMath

Recommended Titles by Other Publishers that Enhance Core Knowledge Implementation

We offer this grade-by-grade list of books sold by other publishers for schools that may be interested in adding these titles to their school or classroom libraries. All books have been reviewed by Core Knowledge staff.

Grade-by-Grade Recommendations for Additional Titles by Other Publishers

More in the Store

Visit the Core Knowledge Store to explore other content-rich materials, including the popular What Your ___ Grader Needs to Know series. Looking for print editions of items in the Core Knowledge Curriculum Series? As they become available, you'll find those in the Store as well.

Terms of Use for Free Core Knowledge Curriculum

The materials made available for download are freely available for anyone to use, adapt, and share (with attribution). No one is permitted to extract any images included in our PDF materials for use in any other way; to do so would be a violation of the agreements under which the images were licensed. No one is permitted to sell either the original program, an adaptation of it, or lesson plans that reproduce any part of it. For more information, see the Guidelines to Core Knowledge and the Creative Commons License.

Are you ready to join the Core Knowledge Community?

It uses tools like Facebook Groups and Pinterest Boards to give teachers a place to share their ideas and resources, ask questions, learn from each other, and connect with other schools teaching Core Knowledge.

Learn More and Join the Conversation

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Download Core Knowledge curriculum, including teacher guides and activity books, for Language Arts, History and Geography, and Science.

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Open Source Content-based SCIENCE-focused FREE curriculum

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"It's deeper, and a lot more rigorous, than what they've been used to. But my kids have really been doing well, and I feel like a better teacher when I'm doing it."

Josel Williams, 3rd grade teacher School 8, Rochester, NY

"We're leaving the workshop seeing the possibility of brilliance in every student in every school, every day."

Participant Professional Development Session

How is our curriculum structured?

K-2 Language Arts Curriculum

Each module in grades K-2 is comprised of two one-hour blocks of content-based literacy (Module Lessons and K-2 Labs) and the third hour of structured phonics (K-2 Reading Foundations Skills Block). Together, these three hours of curriculum teach and formally assess all strands of the Language Arts standards for each grade level.

Grades 3-5 Language Arts Curriculum (Second Edition)

Each module in our grades 3-5 second edition curriculum consists of two one-hour blocks of content-based literacy instruction. Together, these two hours of curriculum teach and formally assess all strands of the Language Arts standards for each grade level.

6-8 Language Arts Curriculum (Second Edition) New!

Each module in our grades 6-8 second edition curriculum consists of a 45-minute block of content-based literacy instruction. Built to the needs of middle school learners, our new block teaches and assesses all of the Language Arts standards for each grade level.

Available Now

Your Curriculum Companion: The Essential Guide to Teaching the EL Education K-5 Language Arts Curriculum

Our "must-have" companion guide to the EL Education curriculum. This essential guide is one part roadmap to the curriculum, one part orientation to its instructional practices, and one part coach--to answer your questions, relieve your stress, and put you and your students on the road to success.

Get updates about our new K-5 curriculum as new materials and tools debut.

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"It's deeper, and a lot more rigorous, than what they've been used to. But my kids have really been doing well, and I feel like a better teacher when I'm doing it." Josel Williams, 3rd grade teacher School 8, Rochester, NY "We're leaving the workshop seeing the possibility of brilliance in every student in every school, every day."

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Text Sets and Curriculum

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Open Source Content-based FREE curriculum

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Implemented in Three Daily Blocks

Bookworms consists of three 45-minute segments that can be scheduled in any order:

1. English Language Arts

- Teachers read above-grade level text, modeling inferential thinking and comprehension strategies.

- Focused grammar instruction and related written responses require students to write about what they're reading.

- Students read grade-level texts out loud with support of the teacher to foster fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

3. Differentiated reading instruction

- Teachers use assessments to group students and provide targeted instruction to help them excel.

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ELA Curriculum | K-5 Reading & Writing English Language Curriculum

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Implemented in Three Daily Blocks Bookworms consists of three 45-minute segments that can be scheduled in any order: 1. English Language Arts - Teachers read above-grade level text, modeling inferential thinking and comprehension strategies. - Focused grammar instruction and related written responses require students to write about what they're reading.

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Resources for Learning Disabilities

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Child Mind Institute | Transforming Children’s Lives.

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The Child Mind Institute is an independent nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of children struggling with mental health and learning disorders.

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Project Based Learning (PBL) is a teaching method in which students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

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Cite this guide: Bowen, R. S. (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/.

Overview

Understanding by Design is a book written by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe that offers a framework for designing courses and content units called "Backward Design." Instructors typically approach course design in a "forward design" manner, meaning they consider the learning activities (how to teach the content), develop assessments around their learning activities, then attempt to draw connections to the learning goals of the course. In contrast, the backward design approach has instructors consider the learning goals of the course first. These learning goals embody the knowledge and skills instructors want their students to have learned when they leave the course. Once the learning goals have been established, the second stage involves consideration of assessment. The backward design framework suggests that instructors should consider these overarching learning goals and how students will be assessed prior to consideration of how to teach the content. For this reason, backward design is considered a much more intentional approach to course design than traditional methods of design.

This teaching guide will explain the benefits of incorporating backward design. Then it will elaborate on the three stages that backward design encompasses. Finally, an overview of a backward design template is provided with links to blank template pages for convenience.

The Benefits of Using Backward Design
"Our lessons, units, and courses should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities with which we are most comfortable. Curriculum should lay out the most effective ways of achieving specific results... in short, the best designs derive backward from the learnings sought."
In Understanding by Design, Wiggins and McTighe argue that backward design is focused primarily on student learning and understanding. When teachers are designing lessons, units, or courses, they often focus on the activities and instruction rather than the outputs of the instruction. Therefore, it can be stated that teachers often focus more on teaching rather than learning. This perspective can lead to the misconception that learning is the activity when, in fact, learning is derived from a careful consideration of the meaning of the activity.

As previously stated, backward design is beneficial to instructors because it innately encourages intentionality during the design process. It continually encourages the instructor to establish the purpose of doing something before implementing it into the curriculum. Therefore, backward design is an effective way of providing guidance for instruction and designing lessons, units, and courses. Once the learning goals, or desired results, have been identified, instructors will have an easier time developing assessments and instruction around grounded learning outcomes.

The incorporation of backward design also lends itself to transparent and explicit instruction. If the teacher has explicitly defined the learning goals of the course, then they have a better idea of what they want the students to get out of learning activities. Furthermore, if done thoroughly, it eliminates the possibility of doing certain activities and tasks for the sake of doing them. Every task and piece of instruction has a purpose that fits in with the overarching goals and goals of the course.

As the quote below highlights, teaching is not just about engaging students in content. It is also about ensuring students have the resources necessary to understand. Student learning and understanding can be gauged more accurately through a backward design approach since it leverages what students will need to know and understand during the design process in order to progress.
"In teaching students for understanding, we must grasp the key idea that we are coaches of their ability to play the 'game' of performing with understanding, not tellers of our understanding to them on the sidelines."
The Three Stages of Backward Design
"Deliberate and focused instructional design requires us as teachers and curriculum writers to make an important shift in our thinking about the nature of our job. The shift involves thinking a great deal, first, about the specific learnings sought, and the evidence of such learnings, before thinking about what we, as the teacher, will do or provide in teaching and learning activities."

The Backward Design Template

A link to the blank backward design template is provided here ( https://jaymctighe.com/resources/), and it is referred to as UbD Template 2.0. The older version (version 1.0) can also be downloaded at that site as well as other resources relevant to Understanding by Design. The template walks individuals through the stages of backward design. However, if you are need of the template with descriptions of each section, please see the table below. There is also a link to the document containing the template with descriptions provided below and can be downloaded for free.

Backward Design Template with Descriptions (click link for template with descriptions).

References

1. Sample, Mark. (2011). Teaching for Enduring Understanding. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/teaching-for-enduring-understanding/35243.

2. Wiggins, Grant, and McTighe, Jay. (1998). Backward Design. In Understanding by Design (pp. 13-34). ASCD.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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by Ryan S. Bowen Print Version Cite this guide: Bowen, R. S. (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/. Overview The Benefits of Using Backward Design The Three Stages of Backward Design The Backward Design Template Overview Understanding by Design is a book written by Grant Wiggins and Jay...

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A type of Bloom's Taxonomy that includes SAMR and Apps that facilitate each level of learning. Amazing!