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Use this sheet

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udl principle of action & expression 1280x720

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Day 1 Breakout Session: Structuring Choice Through Bounded Autonomy with Joni

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Day 1 Breakout Session: Structuring Choice Through Bounded Autonomy with Joni

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Structuring Choice Through Bounded Autonomy

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udl principle of representation 1280x720

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Download & Register for Free Premium Access 

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Download & Register for Free Premium Access 

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Read&Write for Google Chrome is a toolbar that provides text to speech, prediction, word/picture dictionaries, speech to text and support with research and organization. It functions in G Suite, Web Pages, and PDF's.

1. Click here to add the extension.
2. Click here to register your account for FREE premium access.
3. This resource was created by another user for coaching.
4. The Texthelp Youtube playlist is also a super helpful way to learn about the these tools.

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Goals should be clear and flexible. What do we mean by flexible? No products should be built into learning goals. For example, a clear flexible goal might be: Students will solve linear equations. Check out this example below from a nursing careers class!

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The students below are working on the same task (putting details from a story in their proper sequence). They are navigating through the task differently. The students on the left are using manipulatives, and the students on the right are using information from the text to create a map.

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Our learners need options for how to take in information (text, visuals, audio, video). Audio books and closed captioning are two easy ways to provide options for perception.

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Using Student Voice to Inform Your Design

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Using Student Voice to Inform Your Design

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This survey was used by a teacher who wanted to reduce threats and distractions in the learning environment and help her students develop coping skills. How could you gather input like this from your students? How might Google Forms make the data gathered easier to evaluate?

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Options for Expression and Communication

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Options for Expression and Communication

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In the picture below, a group of 5th graders demonstrate their understanding of place value in a variety of ways.

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The components of UDL curriculum are

Clear Goals

Multiple Methods

Flexible Materials

Multiple Assessments with Feedback

Use the steps and information below to step through the UDL planning process.

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Manipulatives are a great way to support comprehension and provide options for language. In this example, students are using Legos to represent punnett squares. Can you think of a way to incorporate manipulatives to help students better understand a concept?

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A science teacher noticed that her students' warm up was taking more than half of the class period on some days. She came to realize that one major issue is that students would stop working whenever they had a question. Frequently it was the type of question that would allow them to continue working while waiting for help. To help facilitate coping skills and self-assessment, she developed these tags so that students could better monitor their own progress.

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The students below are responding to essential questions in short tweet-style responses, hashtags, images, and symbols.

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Use the steps below to practice writing a clear, flexible goal.

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I love word walls (a Marzano strategy) and Frayer models to preteach vocabulary. Explore these two options below!

Read about WORD WALLS HERE!

Click here for FRAYER MODEL info! This website has a great video, suggestions for various grade levels, and ideas for extending the Frayer model into other parts of your lesson design!

Which of these could you incorporate to help preteach vocabulary? What other strategies could you use?

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How can you build in opportunities for students to set their own learning goals

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Instruction must be delivered in a variety of ways, and we must give students options in how they take in information. Digital and flexible materials can help in removing barriers to learning. Use the steps below to think about what methods and materials you would use to help students reach the goal you created above.

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One thing I love about UDL is that it doesn't ask us to throw out meaningful tools and professional learning that we've had. I bet you've used some version of the tool below. A KWL chart is great for activating prior knowledge and promoting comprehension.

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Students at every stage need support in planning, strategizing, goal setting, monitoring their progress. Check out these tips below:

Provide checklists

Develop project planning tools

Help students set benchmarks

Provide exemplars

Model strategies

Use timers

Show students how to use planners, calendars, and graphic organizers

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Students need options in how they show what they know. If you're working with a skill standard, think about how you will provide scaffolding to ensure that all learners can reach the goal. Continue with your planning process. You've written a clear goal, identified multiple methods and materials to use in delivery and instruction. Now consider how your will assess student learning and provide feedback.

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Grade 6 Learning Menus: Giving Options and Independence

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Grade 6 Learning Menus: Giving Options and Independence

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Learning Menus: Giving Options & Independence

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Crystal Morey uses learning menus to provide students with independent exploration of concepts in her sixth grade math class. Each of her menus has options for an appetizer, main course and dessert task. While students work on their menu tasks, Crystal is able to pull aside a small group to work wit…

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Thought starters

1. What systems and expectations does Ms. Williams have in place to help the lab stations run smoothly?

2. How do the everyday objects help students deepen their thinking about energy transformations?

3. What are the benefits of having students explore the lab stations in groups?

School Details

Kipp Truth Academy
1545 South Ewing Avenue
Dallas TX 75216

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Exploring Real World Energy Transformations

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Brittany Williams engages her sixth grade science class in hands-on lab stations. Students work in groups to explore four lab stations where they investigate real world energy transformations. Ms. Williams has structures and expectations in place to ensure the lab stations run smoothly. She assesses student understanding at the end of class with individual exit tickets.

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How does this strategy help to build a positive class culture?

2. Why is it important to ask students to describe what the skill looks and sounds like?

3. How might you modify this strategy for your own classroom?

School Details

Horning Middle School
2000 Wolf Road
Waukesha WI 53186

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Building Class Culture with Social Skills Goals

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Enjoy your first video for free. Subscribe for unlimited access. Have questions about subscribing? Click Here to learn more. Enjoy your first video for free. Subscribe for unlimited access. Have questions about subscribing? Click Here to learn more. How does this strategy help to build a positive class culture?

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ELA.W.1.3

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

W: Writing Standards K-5

1: 1st Grade

3:
Write narratives in which they recount two or
more appropriately sequenced events, include
some details regarding what happened, use
temporal words to signal event order, and
provide some sense of closure.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

ELA.W.1.5

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

W: Writing Standards K-5

1: 1st Grade

5:
With guidance and support from adults, focus on
a topic, respond to questions and suggestions
from peers, and add details to strengthen writing
as needed.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Thought starters

1. How does process praise help students develop growth mindsets?

2. How does Ms. Stewart make sure her process praise is authentic?

3. What tips does Ms. Stewart share for how teachers can begin to use process praise in their classrooms?

Teachers

English Language Arts Math Science Social Studies Arts / Kindergarten 1 / Teacher

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Chana Stewart uses process praise to help her students develop growth mindsets. She shows us how she uses this praise during writing workshop and offers tips for how other teachers can try this type of praise.

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Math.Practice.MP1

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

Practice: Mathematical Practice Standards

MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. They consider analogous problems, and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution. They monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary. Older students might, depending on the context of the problem, transform algebraic expressions or change the viewing window on their graphing calculator to get the information they need. Mathematically proficient students can explain correspondences between equations, verbal descriptions, tables, and graphs or draw diagrams of important features and relationships, graph data, and search for regularity or trends. Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem. Mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method, and they continually ask themselves, \"Does this make sense?\" They can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

Math.Practice.MP4

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

Practice: Mathematical Practice Standards

MP4: Model with mathematics.

Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace. In early grades, this might be as simple as writing an addition equation to describe a situation. In middle grades, a student might apply proportional reasoning to plan a school event or analyze a problem in the community. By high school, a student might use geometry to solve a design problem or use a function to describe how one quantity of interest depends on another. Mathematically proficient students who can apply what they know are comfortable making assumptions and approximations to simplify a complicated situation, realizing that these may need revision later. They are able to identify important quantities in a practical situation and map their relationships using such tools as diagrams, two-way tables, graphs, flowcharts and formulas. They can analyze those relationships mathematically to draw conclusions. They routinely interpret their mathematical results in the context of the situation and reflect on whether the results make sense, possibly improving the model if it has not served its purpose.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

Math.2.OA.A.1

Common core State Standards

Math: Math

2: Grade 2

OA: Operations & Algebraic Thinking

A: Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction

1:
Use addition and subtraction within 100 to solve one- and two-step word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing, with unknowns in all positions, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.

Drawings need not show details, but should show the mathematics in the problem. (This applies wherever drawings are mentioned in the Standards.)

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How does Act 1 engage students with the problem?

2. How are students given opportunities to learn from each other?

3. How could you use Three-Act Tasks in your classroom?

Teachers

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Second graders in Sarah Dietz's class participate in a three-act task about cookies. Students begin by watching a video and wondering about the cookies. They then model how to figure out how many cookies the cookie monster ate before sharing their strategies with the class.

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. What are some ways that students use the Science and Engineering Practices in this lesson?

2. How does Ms. Cope use an interesting phenomenon in order to help students understand science concepts?

3. What examples do you see of students using evidence-based reasoning?

School Details

Burlington Elementary School
5946 North Orient Street
Burlington KY 41005

Data Provided By:

Teachers

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Students in Becki Cope's second grade class carry out an investigation to compare solutions designed to slow wind and/or water erosion from changing the shape of the land. Students make claims to support the effectiveness of their solution, construct arguments, and compare multiple solutions.

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Academic Choice: Comprehending & Retelling a Story

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On day one of this two-day lesson, students in Ms. Porfirio’s 1st grade class review the important elements of retelling a story including characters, setting, and key events. On day two, they demonstrate their understanding of these elements by retelling “Goldilocks” using a learning style they’ve…

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National Center on Universal Design for Learning

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UDL Guidelines in Practice: Grade 1 Mathematics

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ELA.RI.9-10.1

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

RI: Reading Standards for Informational Text 6-12

9-10: 9th & 10th Grades

1:
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

ELA.RI.9-10.2

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

RI: Reading Standards for Informational Text 6-\x80\x9312

9-10: 9th & 10th Grades

2:
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course
of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific
details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

|

ELA.W.9-10.2d

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

W: Writing Standards 6-12

9-10: 9th & 10th Grades

2d:
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas,
concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective
selection, organization, and analysis of content.

a. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to
make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g.,
headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to
aiding comprehension.

b. Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended
definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples
appropriate to the audience'\x80\x99s knowledge of the topic.

c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text,
create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and
concepts.

d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the
complexity of the topic.

e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to
the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports
the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or
the significance of the topic).

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. How does Mr. McComb use success criteria to help students be more self-directed in their learning while making progress towards the standards?

2. What structures and supports does Mr. McComb have in place to ensure students are engaged and productive during the workshop?

3. How does Mr. McComb formatively assess students during and after the the workshop?

School Details

Patapsco High & Center For Arts
8100 Wise Ave
Baltimore MD 21222

Data Provided By:

Teachers

English Language Arts / 9 10 11 12 / Teacher

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Making Learning Personalized & Customized

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Sean McComb engages his students in a workshop model in order to provide personalized and customized learning. Students are working on social justice projects that involve research, blog writing, and creative writing on topics of their choices. During class, students work at stations based on where they are in their projects.

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Student-Centered Learning: Building Agency and Engagement

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Peek inside a high school where teachers act as facilitators and students are directors of their own learning.

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In the quickly evolving workplace and at a time when graduates are competing for jobs and careers with others around the world, the capacity to change rapidly and apply new skills is paramount. Bottom line: Learning how to learn is a game changer in the global knowledge economy, and it's never too early to teach students how to begin to learn more independently.

Cultivating Independent Learners

Inspire student motivation for learning: Motivation to learn is key to success in school, after graduation in the global job market, and for life in a world of constant changes in technology.

Use the power of your relationship with students to show a passion for learning. When you embody passion for learning, your students are more likely to have a powerful, positive emotional connection to learning that will inspire their motivation to continue to learn. With teachers who release their passion for learning, students across all grades are free to learn new ways of learning with motivation and joy. Over time, expect self-motivation rather than compliance.

Guide students to imagine how they will feel when they learn something new. Allow volunteers to describe their feelings after they learned something. When appropriate, ask students to visualize what a finished project will look like.

Encourage students to tell a friend their learning goal and get their support. This allows students to verbalize their goal, which will help them internalize it. Students of all ages are inherently social, and getting support from a peer can be very motivating.

Coach students to set goals and develop a plan for learning: Support students in developing their own learning goals that are realistic yet challenging. Often the most motivating goals are those that allow us to use our personal strengths. Yet students often have goals set for them based on a one-size-fits-all curriculum or on their personal learning deficits-think individualized education program-which can be discouraging.

If you have students who currently lack motivation to learn, consider helping them to develop learning goals based on their personal learning strengths. For example, a personalized goal for some learners might be to design movement breaks for the class. Another student might set a goal to complete his or her appreciation or gratitude journal with photographs or illustrations. For another student, Pinterest offers ideas that might aid them in becoming curious about new topics to learn about. Teachers can support students in becoming aware of their strengths and figuring out how to set personal goals.

Teach students how to best structure their independent learning time. Our brains did not evolve to do several hours of physics without a break. We encourage students to plan a shift in focus after every 20 minutes of independent study. At least every hour or so, they should get up and move. When learning new material, they should utilize different locations. For example, we use an outside patio table, a particularly comfortable chair, an inside office desk, and different local cafes as places to work. Because memory for locations is powerful, using several locations for learning aids memory.

Encourage students to become self-disciplined learners. Support them in making a commitment to themselves to get started on achieving their goals. Assist them in affirming their commitment to organize themselves, manage their focus over time, and limit time-wasting distractions. Help students learn to consistently define themselves as people who commit to and achieve their goals. It will probably be necessary to remind them time and again that along the learning pathway, successful people forgive themselves when they make mistakes and then continue on.

Teach students to self-assess: Ask students to write a letter to a student who will be in the class the next year. Upon completion of a project, unit, or chapter, ask students to summarize what they have learned and tell the future student how they have overcome any learning challenges. This strategy provides an opportunity for student reflection on virtually any topic.

Have students pair up and take turns sharing what they have learned. This activity-we call it "brain buddies"-gives students opportunities to learn from each other. For example, each partner may remember different aspects of a lesson. And they may have different points of view, so when they share, each partner can learn to better understand a variety of perspectives.

As your students practice independent learning, encourage them to notice changes. For example, when we asked students to discuss changes in achievement, one student said, "Now I get assignments turned in on time, and my grades have improved." Another said, "I enjoy school now because I know how to make better grades." Over time, statements like these become a part of students' positive identity for school success.

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Guiding Students to Be Independent Learners

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In the quickly evolving workplace and at a time when graduates are competing for jobs and careers with others around the world, the capacity to change rapidly and apply new skills is paramount. Bottom line: Learning how to learn is a game changer in the global knowledge economy, and it's never too early to teach students how to begin to learn more independently.

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EquatIO is a Google Chrome extension that makes math digital and accessible. Teachers can get premium access to EquatIO for free.

The EquatIO toolbar allows learners to use speech input, handwriting recognition and digital manipulatives to show their work digitally. It provides learners with all of the options we would probably provide in a language arts classroom, but NOW for math too!

1. Click here to add the extension.
2. Click here to register your account for FREE premium access.
3. Visit the Youtube Playlist to learn more about each tool.

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Learning designers empathize and seek to understand, define challenges and decisions to be made, share and value all ideas, create prototypes for iterations of their work, test their iterations to determine what works and how to move the design forward, and value the learner as the center of design.

Many instructional frameworks, including Universal Design for Learning, promote student voice and choice in the learning environment. As instructional designers, the idea of sharing power and relinquishing some control might feel daunting. More important than simply providing choice is providing the RIGHT choices - those that move learners toward agency and autonomy and promote expert learning. In order to design those kinds of learning opportunities, educators and instructional designers must have an understanding of bounded autonomy and its key components: task, turf/space, technique, time, and team.

5 Components of Bounded Autonomy

Instructional designers and educators must determine with each learning opportunity which of these components will be theirs to manage, and which components they will allow their learners to manage. In allowing learners to manage some of these components, we give them much needed practice in decision-making. The choices we give learners within bounded autonomy are intended to remove barriers to learning and to promote agency and expert learning.

We work with teachers and instructional designers who frequently express frustration or concern about students making choices based on what they like (working with friends) or on what is easy (making a poster vs. writing an essay). To build student competence and confidence in making choices, we must coach learners in to make choices. In order to make good choices for themselves, learners must understand

Autonomy - What they control

Value - What they are interested in

Needs - What skills they most need to work on

Parameters - How much time they have, tools available to them, etc.

When we coach learners into using these four guides in their decision-making, we move them out of the loop of meaningless decisions that frequently move them away from their learning goals and into strategic, goal-directed choices.

Download the PDF version of Designing for Choice & Autonomy here and share it freely with your colleagues, PLCs, and online professional learning networks!

Connect with DTour professional learning at jonidegner@gmail.com or drrevdean@gmail.com for follow up conversations and professional support!

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Learning designers empathize and seek to understand, define challenges and decisions to be made, share and value all ideas, create prototypes for iterations of their work, test their iterations to determine what works and how to move the design forward, and value the learner as the center of design.

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Designing Choice for All Learners...and Getting it Right.

American architect and Mid Century Modern design icon Charles Eames famously defined the new era of design by saying, "Beyond the age of information is the age of choice." As educational designers moving more deeply into learner-centered design and Universal Design for Learning, we must understand a few things designing choices for learners:

As we move into the Exponential Age, it will be less and less imperative for learners to be curricular experts and more and more critical for them to experts in their own learning. This approach to learner outcomes does not disregard curricular mastery. For instance, learners must still have a grasp on numeracy, mathematical operations, and problem solving using various mathematical methods; however, as learners are faced with new problems and opportunities to innovate, they also must be poised to go out and get new learning. Learners need to be able to find purpose, and to conjure up their own motivation for learning even when the easiest path eludes them. Learners must be able to draw on their own prior knowledge, to assess what they still need to know, and to be resourceful enough to chase down information and learning in a way that best suits their needs, task and environment. Lastly, learners need to be able to set goals that are challenging and meaningful, to monitor their own progress toward those goals, to call on strategies or parts of strategies that have worked for them in the past, and to develop new strategies when the work demands it.

As we move toward providing learners with choice, we must remember that leaner-centered experiences begin with a clear goal and a mindset that acknowledges that there are many paths to get to that goal - in how learners engage and find relevance in the goal, in how they get access to and comprehend the learning, and in how they express and communicate mastery of the learning goal. Structuring choice for learners also means understanding how learning will be managed. Educational designers can successfully structure choice for learners through the componenets of bounded autonomy and by coaching learners into making good choices for learning. In our article Designing for Choice and Autonomy, we detail these five components of bounded autonomy and the conditions necessary for learners to make good choices.

Educational designers frequently ask us, "What is the right number of choices to provide?" And we frequently hear, "I've tried to give my learners choice, and they just don't make good choices." While there are no magic formulas for providing the right choices, these are 6 common pitfalls we can all avoid:

The research around psychological safety and choice is both interesting and abundant. Each night I get on Netflix and surf for at least 20-30 minutes. Each night I watch reruns of The Office. No kidding. Almost every night. Why? There's psychological safety in that choice for me. I know I like the characters and the writing, and I know I'll always find it to be smart and funny. If you have run into this pitfall with providing learners choice, and if you've ever found yourself saying, "Oh my gosh. This kid always makes a poster," then it's time to ask why that learner makes that choice each time and coach him/her into a different choice by looking at autonomy (what the learner controls), values (what the learner likes and takes interest in), needs (what skills the learner really needs to master and develop...perhaps this task is a chance to do that), and parameters (how much time the learner has, tools available to the learner, etc.).
2. Excluding learner voice and feedback.
As we provide learners with choice, we must also incorporate their voices and feedback in our design. Let learners help you design choices in learning. For instance, in the planning phase of the learning experience, I can approach my learners for input: "I want to provide you with some choices in the resources we use next week when we are learning about the scientific method. I have a couple of resources I want to provide you, and here they are. I'd love for you to do a little research tonight and see if you can come back with some resources that look like they would be interesting and valuable to you." In that same spirit of incorporating learner voice in the design, we must also seek feedback to continue improving our design. Again, this can be as simple as asking, "From the resources we used to learn about the scientific method, which ones did you find to be most effective and why? Which ones did you find to be most difficult and why? Are there any resources that you looked up on your own that we should include in the future?" ( Click here for 10 practical ways to incorporate learner voice.)
3. Eliminating choice when things don't go as planned.
When things don't go as planned with learners and choices, sometimes our initial reaction is to pull the plug and go back to making all the choices. We must not fall victim to this. It goes against our desired outcomes! It moves learners away from being expert learners and into being expert students - those who simply comply, consume, and don't think critically. Instead of eliminating choices when things don't go as planned, see #2. Stop. Reflect. Get feedback. Go back and get feedback from learners about why some choices didn't work. Ask yourself, "Did I coach learners into making good choices? Did I refresh them on the four conditions of how to make a good learning choice?"
4. Mistaking variety for choice.
As educational designers, we seem to know intuitively that we have to change things up in order to keep learners engaged. While a predictable structure to learning minimizes threats and distractions, doing the same thing with the same tools and resources day after day is a sure way to lose many learners, particularly when the tools and resources are not universally designed. When I was first introduced to Universal Design for Learning and Multiple Means of Representation, I looked at the examples and said to myself, "I'm already doing that. I already use audio, video, text, images, and graphics to communicate learning." And I was. That was no lie. Some days we all listened to the audio book. Some days we watched a video. Some days we read aloud with graphic organizers. That's not choice. That's variety, and it's teacher centered. In a learner-centered approach, I would have laid out all of those options and allowed learners to make choices for their learning with my coaching and guidance.
5. Not coaching learners into making good choices.
We aren't born knowing how to make good choices. We have to learn it somewhere. If educators are always the ones making the choices, learners simply don't get the opportunity to practice making choices which is absolutely necessary to their success and future-readiness. Our learning environments provide the very best opportunities for learners to practice making choices, to experience what a not-so-great choice feels like, and to be coached into making better choices for their learning. Our environments provide low-stakes places for learners to fail, get back up, and try again with a new choice. Post-secondary settings, new jobs, and innovative start-ups are entirely too high stakes for learners to be testing their abilities to make choices for the first time. By the time they get to these settings, they need to be expert learners (purposeful & motivated, knowledgeable & resourceful, strategic & goal-directed) so that they can find success as problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and innovators.
6. Neglecting accessibility in the choices provided.
When we design choices for learners, we must ensure that we are designing them for all learners. Mindy Johnson, accessibility expert and Director of Digital Communications & Outreach at CAST, tells us, "Providing only one choice that's accessible is not providing choice. In fact, it suggests that we don't value learners who require accessibility." As educational designers, we must design for all learners. We must consider the full human experience in learning and design to the edges of learner variability. So how do we do that? Johnson suggests designing for accessibility with POUR. Learning materials and experiences must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, R obust.

The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) further defines these four qualities of accessible user experience:

Perceivable - make sure learners can see and hear your content

Operable - make sure learners can interact with your content with a variety of tools

Understandable - make sure learners can understand your content and enjoy a predictable experience

Robust - ensure your content works with current and future technologies.

Visit the AEM Center's page on Designing for Accessibility with POUR for deeper learning and actionable steps in each of these for qualities of accessible user experience. Take advantage of their free self-paced course Making Everyday Curriculum Materials Accessible for All Learners.

Although most of us have probably already experienced some or all of these common pitfalls in providing learners with choice, being cognizant of these barriers as we design learning opportunities for all learners will improve our designs and open the door for expert learning. In addition to avoiding these pitfalls, choices must be relevant to the learners and meaningful to the learning goal. Choices must be designed universally through the components of bounded autonomy. And most importantly, all learners must be provided with ample accessible opportunities here and now to make choices for themselves and to be coached in making good choices for their learning.

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Designing Choice for All Learners...and Getting it Right. American architect and Mid Century Modern design icon Charles Eames famously defined the new era of design by saying, "Beyond the age of information is the age of choice."

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Tips:
1. Focus on one area at a time (go by principle or by row).
2. Rate yourself on these areas of focus.
3. Read the indicators for the next level up and work on putting the suggestions into practice.

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CAST Professional Publishing - Until learning has no limits®

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CAST Professional Publishing produces books that help educators at all levels improve their practice-and change students' lives-through Universal Design for Learning (UDL).