# data[].attributes.body
Alf shokran to Anne Vermeyden for sharing Miriam Berger's piece from the Washington Post.

# data[].attributes.body
WebAIM's Contrast Checker can help you to ensure your digital content is clear.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Normal Text

The five boxing wizards jump quickly.

Large Text

The five boxing wizards jump quickly.

Graphical Objects and User Interface Components

Web accessibility testing can be difficult! The experts at WebAIM can audit your web site and provide a detailed report to help you remediate accessibility and WCAG compliance issues.

Learn more about WebAIM Evaluation Services

Explanation

Enter a foreground and background color in RGB hexadecimal format (e.g., #FD3 or #F7DA39) or choose a color using the color picker. The Lightness slider can be used to adjust the selected color.

WCAG 2.0 level AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. WCAG 2.1 requires a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 for graphics and user interface components (such as form input borders). WCAG Level AAA requires a contrast ratio of at least 7:1 for normal text and 4.5:1 for large text.

Large text is defined as 14 point (typically 18.66px) and bold or larger, or 18 point (typically 24px) or larger.

Hint: Colorzilla is an excellent tool for extracting the color value from any page element. Additionally, WAVE can analyze contrast ratios for all page text elements at once.

Use our link contrast checker to evaluate links that are identified using color alone.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mapping

We strive to map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages across the world in a way that goes beyond colonial ways of thinking in order to better represent how Indigenous people want to see themselves.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

# data[].attributes.body
Click to add your name to our map

# data[].attributes.body
Feel free to use, adapt of share as per CC BY 4.0.

# data[].attributes.body
You are welcome to use, adapt, share as per CC BY 4.0,

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
CRP in the Writing Centre_Henderson & Pez 2021

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

In this wonderful volume, Geneva Gay makes a convincing case for using culturally responsive teaching to improve the school performance of underachieving students of color. She combines insights from multicultural education theory, research, and classroom practice to demonstrate that African, Asian, Latino, and Native American students will perform better, on multiple measures of achievement, when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences and frames of reference. Key components of culturally responsive teaching discussed include teacher caring, teacher attitudes and expectations, formal and informal multicultural curriculum, culturally informed classroom discourse, and cultural congruity in teaching and learning strategies. The personal stories woven throughout enliven the deeply textured scholarly analysis. This is an excellent resource for anyone who cares about improving and recognizing the factors that shape culturally responsive teaching and learning.

Geneva Gay is Professor of Education and Associate of the Center for Multicultural Education, University of Washington-Seattle.

Comments on the Book by Leading Scholars

"From her careful analysis of the educational research and best practices literature, and her wealth of experiences from working with P/K-18 students and teachers, Gay clearly explains how culturally responsive teaching can be used to dramatically influence the academic achievement of students of color and other marginalized students."

"Geneva Gay has written a passionate and inspiring book that provides a comprehensive explanation of culturally responsive teaching and how it can make a difference in the lives of students of color. She argues that all teachers, regardless of their ethnic group membership, must have the 'courage, competence, and confidence' to teach in a culturally relevant manner."

"Written by one of the leading interpreters of diversity in the schools, this book challenges all teachers to reconsider their pedagogical and personal approaches to young people in our nation's increasingly multicultural"

Ordering Information:

Available from Teachers College Press
1234 Amsterdam Avenue
New York, NY 10027
Phone: (212) 678-3929
Fax: (212) 678-4149
https://www.tcpress.com/browse-books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, & Practice: Geneva Gay

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this wonderful volume, Geneva Gay makes a convincing case for using culturally responsive teaching to improve the school performance of underachieving students of color. She combines insights from multicultural education theory, research, and classroom practice to demonstrate that African, Asian, Latino, and Native American students will perform better, on multiple measures of achievement, when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences and frames of reference.

# data[].attributes.body
8 Competencies for Culturally Responsive Teaching

# data[].attributes.body
This is a great explainer video from Khan Academy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BONUS VIDEO | Singular They | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
VideoLink lets you share videos on YouTube easily, without distracting third-party content or advertisements.

# data[].attributes.body
Explore the menu and learn how you can take action.

# data[].attributes.headline
Tajfel & Turner's Social Identities Worksheet

# data[].attributes.subject
Tajfel & Turner's Social Identities Worksheet

# data[].attributes.body
From the University of Michigan

# data[].attributes.body
From the University of Michigan

# data[].attributes.body
Link to abstract & access options.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Seventeen years ago Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) published the landmark article "Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy," giving a coherent theoretical statement for resource pedagogies that had been building throughout the 1970s and 1980s. I, like countless teachers and university-based researchers, have been inspired by what it means to make teaching and learning relevant and responsive to the languages, literacies, and cultural practices of students across categories of difference and (in)equality. Recently, however, I have begun to question if the terms "relevant" and "responsive" are really descriptive of much of the teaching and research founded upon them and, more importantly, if they go far enough in their orientation to the languages and literacies and other cultural practices of communities marginalized by systemic inequalities to ensure the valuing and maintenance of our multiethnic and multilingual society. In this essay, I offer the term and stance of culturally sustaining pedagogy as an alternative that, I believe, embodies some of the best research and practice in the resource pedagogy tradition and as a term that supports the value of our multiethnic and multilingual present and future. Culturally sustaining pedagogy seeks to perpetuate and foster-to sustain-linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling. In the face of current policies and practices that have the explicit goal of creating a monocultural and monolingual society, research and practice need equally explicit resistances that embrace cultural pluralism and cultural equality.

References

Chang, Benji, Lee, Juhyung Harold. (2012). "Community-based?" Asian American students, parents, and teachers in the shifting Chinatowns of New York and Los Angeles. AAPI Nexus, 12(2), 18-36.
Google Scholar

Nasir, N. (2008). Everyday pedagogy: Lessons from basketball, track, and dominoes. Phi Delta Kappan, March, 529-532. |
Google Scholar SAGE Journals

Nieto, S. (2011). Speaking truth to power in educational research. Essays commissioned on the 2012 American Educational Research Association annual meeting theme: Non satis scire: To know is not enough. Retrieved from http://www.aera.net/2012Essays.htm
Google Scholar

Paris, D. (2011). Language across difference: Ethnicity, communication, and youth identities in changing urban schools. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar

Paris, D. (in press). Become history: Learning from identity texts and youth activism in the wake of Arizona SB1070. International Journal of Multicultural Education.
Google Scholar

Winn, M. (2011). Girl time: Literacy, justice, and the school-to-prison pipeline. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Google Scholar

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: A Needed Change in Stance, Terminology, and Practice - Django Paris, 2012

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Seventeen years ago Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) published the landmark article "Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy," giving a coherent theoretical statement for resource pedagogies that had been building throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In this article, Django Paris and H. Samy Alim use the emergence of Paris's concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) as the foundation for a respectful and productive critique of previous formulations of asset pedagogies. Paying particular attention to asset pedagogy's failures to remain dynamic and critical in a constantly evolving global world, they offer a vision that builds on the crucial work of the past toward a CSP that keeps pace with the changing lives and practices of youth of color. The authors argue that CSP seeks to perpetuate and foster linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling and as a needed response to demographic and social change. Building from their critique, Paris and Alim suggest that CSP's two most important tenets are a focus on the plural and evolving nature of youth identity and cultural practices and a commitment to embracing youth culture's counterhegemonic potential while maintaining a clear-eyed critique of the ways in which youth culture can also reproduce systemic inequalities.

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

I am working on a mixed methods research study is to better understand the impact on the academic performance, self-esteem and class participation of minority and socio-disadvantaged middle school ... [more]

View project

The current goal is to generate a survey instrument suitable for middle school students to share their experiences of culturally relevance pedagogy/teaching in their English/Language Arts class

View project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Are We Seeking to Sustain Through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy? A Loving Critique Forward

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Download Citation | What Are We Seeking to Sustain Through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy? A Loving Critique Forward | In this article, Django Paris and H. Samy Alim use the emergence of Paris's concept of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) as the foundation for...

# data[].attributes.headline
Howard Gardner, 1983   Multiple Intelligences

# data[].attributes.subject
Howard Gardner, 1983   Multiple Intelligences

# data[].attributes.body
A self-assessment tool/information for adults to identify personal intelligences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This form can help you determine which intelligences are strongest for you. If you're a teacher or tutor, you can also use it to find out which intelligences your learner uses most often. Many thanks to Dr. Terry Armstrong for graciously allowing us to use his questionnaire.

Instructions: Read each statement carefully. Choose one of the five buttons for each statement indicating how well that statement describes you.

1 = Statement does not describe you at all
2 = Statement describes you very little
3 = Statement describes you somewhat
4 = Statement describes you pretty well
5 = Statement describes you exactly

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This form can help you determine which intelligences are strongest for you. If you're a teacher or tutor, you can also use it to find out which intelligences your learner uses most often. Many thanks to Dr. Terry Armstrong for graciously allowing us to use his questionnaire. Instructions: Read each statement carefully.

# data[].attributes.headline
Katharine Briggs and Elizabeth  Briggs Myers, 1943

# data[].attributes.subject
Katharine Briggs and Elizabeth  Briggs Myers, 1943

# data[].attributes.body
Use this online site to identify your personality type.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Free personality test - take it to find out why our readers say that this personality test is so accurate, "it's a little bit creepy." No registration required!

# data[].attributes.body
Resources from Inclusive Teaching at the University of Michigan

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

The Personal Identity Wheel is a worksheet activity that encourages students to reflect on how they identify outside of social identifiers. The worksheet prompts students to list adjectives they would use to describe themselves, skills they have, favorite books, hobbies, etc. Unlike the Social Identity Wheel, this worksheet does not emphasize perception or context. It is best used as an icebreaker activity or in conjunction with the Social Identity Wheel in order to encourage students to reflect on the relationships and dissonances between their personal and social identities. The wheels can be used as a prompt for small or large group discussion or reflective writing on identity by using the Spectrum Activity, Questions of Identity.

Please be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of the page with your thoughts or experience with this activity!

Activity Goals:

When used as an icebreaker, this activity can be used to help students find common ground with their peers and learn more about one another, helping students build community.

When used in conjunction with the Social Identity Wheel, the Personal Identity Wheel can be further interrogated to consider how students' personal identities are or aren't informed by their social identities.

Application in a STEM Course:

Fostering a sense of community in your classroom can create a sense of belonging. According to a CRLT study on retention in STEM courses, "students reported that classroom climate (including their anxiety levels, how welcome they felt in class...and instructor rapport with students) significantly influenced their decisions to stay in or leave STEM disciplines." If students feel that they are part of a community, they will feel more comfortable engaging and participating in the classroom. In another study, peer interactions and support in STEM courses led to gains both academically and socially. The Personal Identity Wheel is a great way for students to engage with each other on a personal level, creating connections that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Taking the time to complete this activity at the start of the semester will help students form meaningful bonds, allowing them to better collaborate and support each other throughout the semester.

Application in a Large Course:

Cooperative learning and small group approaches in a large course can greatly benefit student learning, engagement, and overall sense of community. Research has shown that leveraging such approaches can lead to the development of key skills such as active listening, empathy, consensus building, leadership, constructive conflict management and resolution as well as decreasing racial prejudice while increasing interracial tolerance. This activity allows students in your large course to learn from and about each other and to reduce the feeling of anonymity that can be pervasive in a large course setting. By making your large course feel smaller through this activity, you are actively working toward making a more inclusive space for all students.

Application in an Online Course:

Online learning can feel impersonal and disconnected, but there are inclusive teaching practices you can leverage to build community and connection in your online course. Taking the time to get to know each other's identities through this activity can help build trust between students, which is a key indicator of whether or not students feel comfortable participating. In one study, researchers asked the question, "What did graduate students who were enrolled in an online course about teaching online find most valuable about online moderation and community building?" From the study, students stated that Student Needs and Community Building were essential components to online learning. Regarding Student Needs, one student stated, "It is necessary that everyone feels safe, comfortable, and welcomed before they will fully engage, enabling them to make personal connections and grow from each other. Regarding Community Building, another student stated, "Learning communities often develop naturally in a traditional classroom environment, but in an online course, the instructor must make that happen."

Personal Identity Wheel Activity Guide:

Related Posts:

Facilitating the Personal Identity Wheel in Your Classroom:

Personal Identity Wheel starts at the 5:00 mark

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Personal Identity Wheel is an activity that encourages students to reflect and describe their identity through skills they have, favorite books, hobbies, etc.

# data[].attributes.body
Resources from Inclusive Teaching at the University of Michigan'

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

The Social Identity Wheel worksheet is an activity that encourages students to identify social identities and reflect on the various ways those identities become visible or more keenly felt at different times, and how those identities impact the ways others perceive or treat them. The worksheet prompts students to fill in various social identities (such as race, gender, sex, ability disability, sexual orientation, etc.) and further categorize those identities based on which matter most in their self-perception and which matter most in others' perception of them. The Social Identity Wheel can be used in conjunction with the Personal Identity Wheel to encourage students to reflect on the relationships and dissonances between their personal and social identities. The wheels can be used as a prompt for small or large group discussion or reflective writing on identity by using the Spectrum Activity, Questions of Identity.

Please leave a comment at the bottom of the page with your thoughts or experience with this activity and be sure to check out our other resource guides and activity guides to further your knowledge and practice on inclusive teaching!

Activity Goals:

To encourage students to consider their identities critically and how identities are more or less keenly felt in different social contexts. The classroom and the university can be highlighted as a context as a way to approach questions on barriers to inclusion.

To illuminate how privilege operates to normalize some identities over others. For example, a student who speaks English as their first language can reflect on why they rarely need to think about their language as an aspect of their identity while some of their peers may identity language as the aspect of their identity they feel most keenly in the classroom.

To sensitize students to their shared identities with their classmates as well as the diversity of identities in the classroom, building community and encouraging empathy.

Application in a STEM Course:

Fostering a sense of community in your classroom can create a sense of belonging. According to a CRLT study on retention in STEM courses, "students reported that classroom climate (including their anxiety levels, how welcome they felt in class...and instructor rapport with students) significantly influenced their decisions to stay in or leave STEM disciplines." If students feel that they are part of a community, they will feel more comfortable engaging and participating in the classroom. In another study, peer interactions and support in STEM courses led to gains both academically and socially. The Social Identity Wheel is a great way for students to engage with each other on a personal level, creating connections that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Taking the time to complete this activity at the start of the semester will help students form meaningful bonds, allowing them to better collaborate and support each other throughout the semester.

Application in a Large Course:

Cooperative learning and small group approaches in a large course can greatly benefit student learning, engagement, and overall sense of community. Research has shown that leveraging such approaches can lead to the development of key skills such as active listening, empathy, consensus building, leadership, constructive conflict management and resolution as well as decreasing racial prejudice while increasing interracial tolerance. This activity allows students in your large course to learn from and about each other and to reduce the feeling of anonymity that can be pervasive in a large course setting. By making your large course feel smaller through this activity, you are actively working toward making a more inclusive space for all students.

Citation: Cooper, J.L. and Robinson, P. (2000), The Argument for Making Large Classes Seem Small. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2000: 5-16. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.umich.edu/10.1002/tl.8101

Application in an Online Course:

Online learning can feel impersonal and disconnected, but there are inclusive teaching practices you can leverage to build community and connection in your online course. Taking the time to get to know each other's identities through this activity can help build trust between students, which is a key indicator of whether or not students feel comfortable participating. In one study, researchers asked the question, "what did graduate students who were enrolled in an online course about teaching online find most valuable about online moderation and community building?" From the study, students stated that Student Needs and Community Building were essential components to online learning. Regarding Student Needs, one student stated, "It is necessary that everyone feels safe, comfortable, and welcomed before they will fully engage, enabling them to make personal connections and grow from each other." Regarding Community Building, another student stated, "Learning communities often develop naturally in a traditional classroom environment, but in an online course, the instructor must make that happen."

Social Identity Wheel Activity Guide:

Related Posts:

Facilitating the Social Identity Wheel in Your Classroom:

Social Identity Wheel starts at the 6:46 mark

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this activity, students will identity social identities (race, gender, sex, socio-economic status, etc.) and reflect on the various ways those identities impact their lives and perceptions.

# data[].attributes.body
Pedagogy of Care, Digital Literacies

# data[].attributes.headline
Ontario's Monograph on Culturally Responsive Pedgaogy

# data[].attributes.subject
Ontario's Monograph on Culturally Responsive Pedgaogy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Capacity Building Series - Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

# data[].attributes.headline
Culturally Responsive Teaching, 3rd edition (2018)

# data[].attributes.subject
Culturally Responsive Teaching, 3rd edition (2018)

# data[].attributes.body
Bibliographic data/lnik.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Geneva Gay is renowned for her contributions to multicultural education, particularly as it relates to curriculum design, professional learning, and classroom instruction. Gay has made many important revisions to keep her foundational, award-winning text relevant for today's diverse student population, including: new research on culturally responsive teaching, a focus on a broader range of racial and ethnic groups, and consideration of additional issues related to early childhood education. Combining insights from multicultural education theory with real-life classroom stories, this book demonstrates that "all" students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through students' own cultural experiences. This perennial bestseller continues to be the go-to resource for teacher professional learning and preservice courses. While retaining its basic organization and structure, the Third Edition features: (1) New research that validates the positive effects of culturally responsive teaching. Examples that broaden the racial and ethnic groups that can benefit from culturally responsive teaching; (2) More information on the needs and benefits of culturally responsive teaching with young children; (3) More attention to the quality of life for students of color in colleges and universities; and (4) The addition of Practice Possibilities at the end of chapters that describe how culturally responsive teaching can be implemented. [For the first edition of this book, see ED441932; for the second edition, see ED510010.]

Descriptors: Multicultural Education, Culturally Relevant Education, Teaching Methods, Student Diversity, Educational Research, Racial Differences, Ethnic Groups, Student Needs, Young Children, Quality of Life, Minority Group Students, Higher Education

Teachers College Press. 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027. Tel: 800-575-6566; Fax: 802-864-7626; e-mail: tcp.orders@aidcvt.com; Web site: http://www.tcpress.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
ERIC - ED581130 - Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice. Third Edition. Multicultural Education Series, Teachers College Press, 2018-Jan-26

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Geneva Gay is renowned for her contributions to multicultural education, particularly as it relates to curriculum design, professional learning, and classroom instruction. Gay has made many important revisions to keep her foundational, award-winning text relevant for today's diverse student population, including: new research on culturally responsive teaching, a focus on a broader range of racial and ethnic groups, and consideration of additional issues related to early childhood education.

# data[].attributes.body
Retirement, July 2020

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When Professor Geneva Gay began her career as a high school social studies teacher more than four decades ago, the concept of multicultural education was still in its infancy. No university had even started offering a doctoral program in the field.

This July, Gay will retire following a 29-year career at the University of Washington College of Education in which her internationally-recognized scholarship has advanced the field in profound ways - while making clear the essential role of multicultural education in an increasingly diverse and interconnected world.

Growing up in rural Georgia, Gay experienced what it was like to grow up with little in the way of educational opportunity. Her own family was poor and lacked much formal education.

"It was hard work and as a kid I thought there must be a better way to live," Gay said. "In high school, a couple peers were thinking about going to college and becoming teachers, and so I thought, 'Well, I'll do that too'."

After completing her bachelor's degree, Gay took a teaching position in a residentially segregated school system in Akron, Ohio.

"When I first started teaching, I was in a position with my own identity of trying to overcompensate for the notions that society had imposed on African-Americans," Gay said. "My students and I connected and bonded. We were able to achieve a strong sense of identity."

Yet Gay also felt tension in relationships with her Black students, noting that when she stepped into a "professional" role to give the school district line, students would push back. When Gay was recruited to the University of Texas to enter its PhD program, the opportunity came to make better sense of those relationships.

"At some level of consciousness, I was starting to process the feedback that students were giving me," she said. "The Geneva Gay my students were seeing was not the Geneva Gay I was trying to be. It turned out I went to Texas not to get a degree but to find out who I was."

As Gay's doctoral studies progressed, she dug deeper into why she had been more successful in bonding with her Black students than other, more experienced teachers - even though it wasn't an intentional strategy on her part.

"That ultimately led to what I do these days," Gay said. "I stumbled into what would eventually become multicultural education [and] culturally responsive teaching."

In 1987, Gay edited "Expressively Black: The Cultural Basis of Ethnic Identity," a collection of essays exploring different aspects of the Black cultural experience, including chapters on Black style, kinship and family ties, communication, leadership, art, religion, physical expressiveness and cultural continuation.

Gay's first experience at the UW College of Education came in the summer of 1989, thanks to a visiting professorship arranged by Professor Emeritus James A. Banks. Two years later, Gay, then a full professor at Purdue University, was successfully recruited to join the College's faculty.

Following her arrival at the UW, Gay would go on to write or edit several foundational works in multicultural education and coin the term "culturally responsive teaching" to define an approach that emphasizes using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters more relevant to and effective for them.

"At the Essence of Learning: Multicultural Education," published in 1994, explores the premise that good teaching and multicultural teaching are indistinguishable. In her book, Gay notes the child is the meaning-maker and that the teacher's responsibility is to build structures and create strategies that help all children gather meaning from their surroundings.

In "Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice," recipient of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education's 2001 Outstanding Writing Award, Gay demonstrates that all students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences. The bestselling text, now in its third edition, includes examples of culturally diverse curriculum content, programs and techniques that exemplify culturally responsive teaching, and an emphasis on positive, action-driven possibilities in student-teacher relationships.

As editor of the 2003 book "Becoming Multicultural Educators: Personal Journey Toward Professional Agency," Gay offers 14 compelling stories of teachers learning how to work with students from a wide range of ethnic, cultural and social backgrounds. Through their stories, readers share the struggles as these educators come to understand diversity among ethnic groups and cultures, resolve conflicts between curricular and multicultural goals, and find authentic models and mentors for their students.

Gay describes herself as a teacher-scholar, with an emphasis on her role as teacher in helping numerous graduate students enter the field and make their own unique contributions.

"The greatest contribution from my viewpoint is the number of graduate students I've been able to mentor at the College," Gay said. "I try to model and translate my theoretical notions into my own teaching. That means being accessible to students, standing toe-to-toe with them in the learning process.

"I tell them 'You don't need to mimic me, you need to be the best person at what you are going to do'," Gay said. "I want my mentees to be prepared to do the work they need to do to make an impact."

Contact

Dustin Wunderlich, Director of Marketing and Communications
206-543-1035, dwunder@uw.edu

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Geneva Gay: A legacy of elevating multicultural education to prominence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When Professor Geneva Gay began her career as a high school social studies teacher more than four decades ago, the concept of multicultural education was still in its infancy. No university had even started offering a doctoral program in the field.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
Tweets by Ready4rigor

# data[].attributes.headline
Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, 1995

# data[].attributes.subject
Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, 1995

# data[].attributes.body
Full PDF retrieved from ResearchGate.

# data[].attributes.body
From CAST (Centre for Applied Special Technology)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CAST is a multifaceted organization with a singular ambition: Bust the barriers to learning that millions of people experience every day. We do this by helping educators and organizations apply insights from the learning sciences and leading-edge practices to educational design and implementation.

Learn about our mission and values

UDL-Con: International

This year, for the first time, CAST's Annual Symposium and the UDL-IRN Summit are joining forces to create the world's largest International UDL Convention.

Learn More

Upcoming Learning Events

Search all learning events

PreK-12: Instructor-Led Course

In this introductory online course for preK-12 educators, participants learn the research basis for UDL, practical applications of UDL to lesson design, and helpful technology tools that support flexible, inclusive instruction.

Monday, September 11 - Monday, December 11, 2023

PreK-12: Instructor-Led Course

In this introductory online course for preK-12 educators, participants learn the research basis for UDL, practical applications of UDL to lesson design, and helpful technology tools that support flexible, inclusive instruction.

Monday, February 5 - Monday, May 13, 2024

Postsecondary: Instructor-Led Course

Designed exclusively for higher education, this course includes strategies to remove barriers to learning for postsecondary students.

Monday, February 5 - Friday, March 29, 2024

Stories From Our Work

Learn more about our impact

News from CAST

Search all news

Visit our Newsroom

Top of Page

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find out more about CAST. We're busting barriers to learning, until learning has no limits®.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1984 was a year of exceptional promise in technology and education. While personal computers such as the Macintosh began to reshape everyday life and work, school reform became a hot topic nationwide with special emphasis on educating all learners to high standards.

The same year, a small band of education researchers founded CAST, the Center for Applied Special Technology, to explore ways of using new technologies to provide better educational experiences to students with disabilities. As CAST researchers tested and refined their principles, priorities, and vision over that first decade, they came to a new understanding of how to improve education using flexible methods and materials. They called this approach Universal Design for Learning.

Today, UDL frames all of the organization's research and development. Through strategic collaborations, CAST is seeding the field of curriculum planning, software development, state and national policy, teacher preparation and support, and education research with UDL-based solutions.

Jump to a specific year or scroll to browse our timeline:

1984

Five clinicians from North Shore Children's Hospital in Salem, MA- Anne Meyer, David Rose, Grace Meo, Skip Stahl and Linda Mensing-meet in a local pizza parlor and conceive CAST.

With an anonymous grant of $15,000, CAST is founded at North Shore Children's Hospital. The focus: How can computer technology enhance learning for students with learning disabilities?

CAST quickly extends work to children with physical and sensory challenges and provides services in a laboratory environment. The needs of the individual learners guide exploration of technology-based solutions. Apple Computer introduces the Macintosh. The term "cyberspace" first appears. Time names the computer "Machine of the Year."

1985

Anne Meyer and David Rose meet in California with Alan Brightman, chief of disability access for Apple Computer. Apple sees CAST as "inherently cool" because people's needs drive its work.

CAST establishes a Learning Lab to find or create solutions to learning challenges, offering:

Evaluations: matching student needs with computer solutions;

Computer-based tutorials: using applications and instructional software.

Classroom follow-up reveals that few schools are able to implement CAST's recommendations to improve learning, so staff begins training and consulting with teachers.

The Apple Macintosh's graphical interface and built-in text-to-speech capability provide key scaffolds for learning-disabled students.

1986

Responding to pressure from North Shore Children's Hospital to become a franchised service, CAST instead incorporates as an independent, not-for-profit organization. Independence sharpens CAST's vision and mission as a research and development organization.

CAST and Harvard University hold a one-week summer institute to train educators to use computer-based tools to meet the needs of students with disabilities. This becomes an annual event which, after a brief hiatus, continues today with a focus on Universal Design for Learning.

CAST's staff begins to grow, but almost all employees are still part-time and have "day jobs". Peggy Coyne is hired as CAST's first full-time, salaried employee!

1987

CAST moves to Peabody, MA and establishes a governing board made up of friends in the local community.

CAST's Learning Lab works to meet the needs of diverse children: Matt, a 3-year-old with severe physical disabilities; Megan, a 6-year-old with physical and visual impairments; Mason, a 7th-grade student with learning disabilities; and others.

Apple releases HyperCard. Affordable image and audio digitizing devices enable homegrown multimedia.

CAST creates accessible digital books that talk and operate with single switches. CAST sees that a single digital book, with embedded options for operation and display, can serve the needs of all students.

1988

CAST develops the Equal Access program with the goal of equalizing access to the curriculum through technology. This new focus on "fixing" the curriculum rather than addressing individual student needs sows the seeds for Universal Design for Learning.

CAST publishes Software Finder to help teachers locate appropriate computer software for use with diverse students.

Ron Mace and colleagues at North Carolina State University define universal design as the design of products and built environments that are "usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation of specialized design."

1989

Working in classrooms, CAST observes that the appeal and benefits of technology-based learning supports, such as digital talking book, extend beyond students with disabilities. CAST approaches publishers about bringing these materials to a wider market.

Don Johnston, Inc. publishes CAST's Gateway Stories and Gateway Authoring System. Gateway is the first talking e-book and authoring template with built-in options for customizing display and function. These earn the organization its first software royalties.

The World Wide Web is born in Europe as English physicist Tim Berners-Lee develops a new way to organize and distribute information on the Internet.

1990

CAST develops the Mariner Home software program and service (Don Johnston Inc.) to customize desktops for easy, flexible navigation of applications and content.

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) leads to the delivery of services to millions of students previously denied access to an appropriate education. Its emphasis on inclusion provides impetus for finding tools and methods to make inclusive education practical and manageable.

The federal Television Decoder Circuitry Act requires that closed-caption decoders be built into all new TV sets. The benefits extend beyond those who are deaf to include anyone preferring a visual display of audio content (e.g. in airports and gyms). This high-impact application of universal design informs CAST's thinking about curriculum.

1991

The New York Times cites CAST as one of 30 key institutions reshaping and improving American education.

CAST develops and distributes Researchware, designed to help teachers individualize curriculum for students with and without disabilities. Researchware comprises several low-cost flexible tools to support customized teaching and learning.

CAST approaches Scholastic with a reading/writing prototype that eventually becomes WiggleWorks, a bestselling early literacy program.

The Equal Access Project is launched in Boston Public Schools to provide a national model for inclusion of students with disabilities through multimedia technology and staff development.

1992

Classroom research helps CAST recognize that current curriculum is the source of barriers for many students. CAST continues to shift its focus from individual solutions to reducing curriculum barriers.

The Pioneer Program is launched to conduct case-based UDL research in collaboration with long-term CAST clients with diverse learning needs.

CAST staff publishes conceptual articles in professional journals and the popular press for educators and parents.

1993

At a gala black-tie event in Washington, DC, CAST wins a Computerworld Smithsonian Award for Gateway Stories, the first instructional digital books with embedded supports.

CAST is featured on the PBS program Scientific American Frontiers, hosted by Alan Alda.

WiggleWorks, the first early literacy software series with UDL features, is co-developed with Scholastic and published for the K-3 classroom. Over the next two decades, WiggleWorks remains a leading literacy product in the education market, with more than $40 million in sales.

1994

CAST receives its first federal grant, from the National Science Foundation, to develop software for teachers to caption video for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

For the first time, CAST shares its message in a national policy forum hosted by Newton Minow and the Annenberg Foundation. Annenberg commissions CAST to create a multimedia CD-ROM called Communication Technology for Everyone.

First CAST website launched.

1995

Anne Meyer receives a gold medal from the National Association of Social Sciences for her work in Universal Design for Learning and is named as an advisor to the President's Educational Technology Panel.

CAST begins to articulate the concept of Universal Design for Learning in talks and presentations.

CAST publishes CAST eReader for Macintosh, UDL text-to-speech software designed to support users with reading comprehension and fluency challenges. Later, eReader, the first known talking browser, is further developed for Windows and to support DAISY and Rich Text formats.

After seven rejections, CAST wins its first grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The competition category is assistive technology, but CAST's proposal begins "Beyond Assistive Technology."

1996

CAST's research focus shifts from individual students to issues of the classroom, school, and education system as a whole. The increasing availability of flexible digital tools and content makes customizable curriculum design feasible.

With Chuck Hitchcock's leadership, CAST designs and releases Bobby, the first web site accessibility assessment tool.

CAST's first research article, "The Role of Online Communications in Schools: A National Study," is published.

The Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium is established to develop an international standard for digital talking books.

1997

After a dozen years of growth, CAST's budget reaches a milestone of $1 million per year.

Professional development programs mature into CAST's first state contracts with Texas and Maine.

CAST launches Universal Learning Technologies, Inc. (ULT), a for-profit company to take CAST software products to market. The company later acquires WebCT, a leading courseware delivery system.

CAST is invited to meet with Vice President Al Gore to discuss future directions for education.

1998

CAST joins the Web Access Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, helping to define access standards for the Web.

CAST writes its first book, Learning to Read in the Computer Age, at the invitation of legendary reading scholar Jeanne Chall. In the book, authors Anne Meyer and David Rose introduce three basic principles that will provide the framework for UDL.

CAST introduces the principles of UDL to the Council for Exceptional Children which publishes a topical brief, Design Principles for Student Access, that is often cited as the first published paper specifically on UDL.

CAST expands the impact of Bobby through sponsorships from corporations such as Aon, IBM, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, and Sun Microsystems.

CAST receives two federal grants-"Strategic Reader" (flexible digital text) and "Engaging the Text" (embedded interactive coaches)-that provide the basis for the next decade's work in UDL-based literacy learning, including Thinking Reader.

1999

Bobby is used by hundreds of thousands of web designers worldwide, wins an LD Access Foundation Leadership Award, and is a finalist for a Computerworld/Smithsonian Prize.

CAST sells ownership in Universal Learning Technologies and applies the proceeds to building and sustaining CAST's capacity for innovation.

CAST is chosen to lead the federally funded National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, a four-year, $2.5 million project. With this award, CAST officially adds policy work to its core activities.

The U.S. Department of Education commissions CAST to write a white paper for the National Technology Plan: The Future is in the Margins: The Role of Technology and Disability in Educational Reform.

National UDL Consortium launched for regular and special educators.

2000

CAST receives a Ron Mace Designing for the 21st Century Award for Bobby.

A $1 million grant supports development of the Universal Learning Center, a web-based service for the distribution of accessible curricular materials.

Under a U.S. Department of Education grant, CAST begins research and development on Strategic Reader, a supported reading environment for decoding, comprehension, and study skills.

Skip Stahl appears as an expert witness at the Web-Based Education Commission, a blue-ribbon panel appointed by Congress to ensure that all learners are able to take full advantage of the educational promise of the Internet.

2001

CAST receives an Association for Access Engineering Specialists (AAES) Excellence in Access Award. The award recognizes Bobby as a significant technical contribution to the field of access engineering.

CAST redesigns its website, adding customizing options and user supports to exemplify UDL.

David Rose testifies before the U.S. Senate on educational technology appropriations and recommends investments that are consistent with Universal Design for Learning principles.

Under Grace Meo's leadership and support of many staff, CAST begins professional development programs on UDL. The first UDL institute for educators is offered at CAST.

2002

The Tech Museum of Innovation Awards honors CAST for Thinking Reader, a software prototype with embedded reading supports for diverse learners.

CAST publishes Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning, the first full explication of UDL with practical classroom examples. An online edition with rich teacher supports and tools is published simultaneously with ASCD's print edition.

The U.S. Department of Education selects CAST to lead development of a voluntary national file format for the electronic transmission of instructional materials for students with disabilities. CAST convenes stakeholders, including publishers, disability groups, mainstream educators, and software developers to build consensus regarding the format.

Under Tracey Hall 's leadership, CAST ventures into science education with Science Writer, a technology-based approach to support students with disabilities in writing science reports.

2003

CAST moves to Wakefield, MA, and designs its office space to reflect a collaborative working style.

Private and federal funding for the Literary by Design project, a partnership with the University of Maine, enables CAST to explore a new area of research: effective learning environments for individuals with cognitive disabilities.

CAST eReader 3.0 is released with added DAISY-format capability. It is the first text-to speech program with human voice and synthetic speech in a supported environment.

CAST's research and development expands with the work in interactive diagrams and animated pedagogical agents in literacy and science projects, as well as literacy for English-language learners.

2004

More awards! CAST's web site is named one of the 101 best by ISTE; Thinking Reader wins Best Software award from eSchool News; David Rose is named one of education's "Daring Dozen" by Edutopia magazine.

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) is incorporated into IDEA 2004 to guide the production and national distribution of accessible digital instructional materials; the U.S. Department of Education funds a $3.5 million center at CAST to advance the application of the standard.

Tom Snyder/Scholastic publishes Thinking Reader, a UDL-based learning environment which embeds rich and engaging reading supports for diverse learners into widely read middle-school novels.

With a $1 million anonymous donation, CAST begins a 4-year multimedia initiative to develop core learning tools and to integrate multimedia applications into CAST's projects.

2005

Thinking Reader wins multiple awards, including the prestigious Codie Award from the Software and Information Industry Association.

CAST's first Advisory Council meeting is held.

CAST research and development expands into multimedia composition for struggling writers as well as content literacy in history, math, and science.

Harvard Education Press publishes The Universally Designed Classroom: Accessible Curriculum and Digital Technologies, edited by David Rose, Anne Meyer, and Chuck Hitchcock.

Work on making large-scale assessments more accessible and accurate begins with grants from the LD Access Foundation, and collaborations with Pearson Education Measurement and the National Alternative Assessment Center.

CAST wins the EdTech Nonprofit HERO Award from the educational technology industry for innovation and leadership.

2006

CAST launches two free web-based tools- UDL Book Builder and UDL Lesson Builder -to help teachers and curriculum developers apply UDL.

UDL gains national and international momentum: NIMAS Version 1.1 is published in the national register; blue-ribbon commission on NCLB seeks testimony from CAST.

Harvard Education Press publishes A Practical Reader in Universal Design for Learning, edited by David Rose and Anne Meyer.

CAST launches Project Monitor, the first rigorous experimental research project (with more than 800 students) to examine the combination of curriculum-based measurement and UDL.

Independent of CAST, more than 15 leading education and advocacy organizations form the National UDL Task Force in Washington, DC to promote UDL in policy and practice.

2007

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awards CAST, EDC, and University of Michigan a 4-year research grant to support the creation of high-quality, UDL science curricula.

The federal Institute of Education Sciences awards CAST and the University of California-Berkeley a 4-year grant to develop a UDL digital science notebook.

CAST's national role expands as U.S. DOE awards CAST $4.9 million to head the 15-state AIM Consortium to improve the quality, availability, and timely delivery of accessible instructional materials to qualifying students.

At the first National UDL Summit in Washington, DC, CAST convenes stakeholders education policy, practice, research, and publishing to strategize ways to grow the UDL field.

CAST designs a web-based literacy environment for TelecomPioneers, a volunteer organization that tutors struggling readers across the U.S. and Canada. The program, Power Up To Read, includes multilingual, just-in-time supports for tutors as well as students.

2008

CAST issues the UDL Guidelines 1.0, many years in the making, to provide clear recommendations and a research foundation for the growing field of UDL.

The Council for Exceptional Children asks CAST to lead a symposium on UDL at their annual convention.

In collaboration with Google, Carnegie Corporation, and UNESCO, CAST releases two new online resources- UDL Editions and CAST Strategy Tutor -in celebration of World Literacy Day.

The Tremaine Foundation sponsors the formation of the National UDL Center to provide leadership and resources in the fields of policy, research, and practice.

The federal Higher Education Opportunity Act includes the first statutory definition of UDL and provides for implementation in post-secondary settings and pre-service teacher preparation programs.

With the support of the Massachusetts Department of Education, CAST launches UDL Curriculum Self-Check, a free web-based tool to aid instructors in assessing their curriculum for applications of UDL principles.

2009

CAST releases Science Writer, a free online tool to support students in writing effective science reports.

The National Center on Universal Design for Learning (UDL Center) launches as a hub of UDL field-building and showcasing.

CAST releases UDL Online Modules, two modules designed to introduce the theory, principles, and application of UDL to current and future educators.

Harvard Education Press publishes A Policy Reader in Universal Design for Learning, edited by David Gordon, Jenna Gravel, and Laura Schifter.

2010

CAST Co-Founder David Rose is invited by the US Department of Education to join a blue-ribbon panel to write the National Educational Technology Plan, which gives a strong endorsement of UDL principles.

CAST creates a UDL exemplar of the National Educational Technology Plan to demonstrate the power of UDL principles applied in a digital format. CAST also creates a NIMAS version that allows the document to be transformed into different accessible formats, including Braille, large print, audio, and etext.

2011

UDL Guidelines 2.0 are released with new language and checkpoints based on user feedback.

CAST UDL Book Builder released in Spanish; English-language UDL Book Builder passes 1,000-mark in books written and publicly shared by teachers, parents, students, and other authors.

2012

Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom: Practical Applications, edited by Tracey E. Hall, Anne Meyer, & David H. Rose, is published (Guilford Press). The book aims to support educators in implementing UDL by drawing on practical lessons from CAST's experiences over the past decade.

Release of UDL Curriculum Toolkit, an open-source tool that lets curriculum developers create universally designed instructional materials that support all learners.

A Research Reader in Universal Design for Learning, edited by Gabrielle Rappolt-Schlichtmann, Samantha G. Daley, & L. Todd Rose, is published by Harvard Education Press. The book considers the major research areas that underpin UDL and calls for further exploration in the years ahead.

2013

CAST issues two math puzzle games, MathScaled and MathSquared, for use on the Apple iPad. The games teach essential math reasoning and problem-solving skills in response to a growing need to improve algebra instruction.

UDL Exchange released to help teachers make and share resources.

CAST releases UDL Studio, an authoring platform that helps educators make their own flexible curriculum materials.

2014

CAST issues Universal Design for Learning: Theory & Practice, a multimedia book on UDL with updated insights from a decade of research and practice.

CAST Professional Publishing is launched to provide exceptional media for the education field.

2015

CAST receives $2.5 million grant from the US Department of Education to scale the use of digital science notebooks in grades K-6.

UDL is defined and endorsed in the Every Student Succeeds Act passed by Congress with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Obama.

2016

CAST releases CAST Figuration, an open source CSS/Javascript framework for creating accessible, cross-device, interactive websites.

Linda Gerstle is named Chief Executive Officer following a national search.

2017

CAST Co-Founder David Rose is honored with the Special Education Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council for Exceptional Children.

CAST and partners are awarded a $5 million grant to develop a system for customizing digital open education resources. The Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL) is funded by the US Department of Education.

David Rose, CAST's Co-Founder and Chief Education Officer, retires.

2018

CAST unveils a new online home for the UDL Guidelines with a responsive design and new resources to support teacher practice.

In partnership with Stanford University, CAST announces the UDL Innovation Studio at Stanford's Schwab Learning Center to provide a hub where researchers, faculty, clinicians, students, and technology developers can work together to develop new education models and practices.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1984 was a year of exceptional promise in technology and education. While personal computers such as the Macintosh began to reshape everyday life and work, school reform became a hot topic nationwide with special emphasis on educating all learners to high standards.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
20200502 Why UDL Is Essential to Higher Ed's New Normal

# data[].attributes.body
TESL Ontario, 2019

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Jim Cummins presents a theoretical framework for analyzing minority students' school failure and the relative lack of success of previous attempts at educational reform, such as compensatory education and bilingual education. The author suggests that these attempts have been unsuccessful because they have not altered significantly the relationships between educators and minority students and between schools and minority communities. He offers ways in which educators can change these relationships, thereby promoting the empowerment of students, which can lead them to succeed in school. (pp. 656-676)

During the past twenty years, educators in the United States have implemented a series of costly reforms aimed at reversing the pattern of school failure among minority students. These have included compensatory programs at the preschool level, myriad forms of bilingual education programs, the hiring of additional aides and remedial personnel, and the institution of safeguards against discriminatory assessment procedures. Yet the dropout rate among Mexican American and mainland Puerto Rican students remains between 40 and 50 percent, compared to 14 percent for Whites and 25 percent for Blacks (Jusenius & Duarte, 1982). Similarly, almost a decade after the passage of the nondiscriminatory assessment provision of Public Law 94-142 we find Hispanic students in Texas overrepresented by a factor of 300 percent in the "learning disabilities" category (Ortiz & Yates, 1983).

I have suggested that a major reason previous attempts at educational reform have been unsuccessful is that the relationships between teachers and students and between schools and communities have remained essentially unchanged. The required changes involve personal redefinitions of the way classroom teachers interact with the children and communities they serve. In other words, legislative and policy reforms may be necessary conditions for effective change, but they are not sufficient. Implementation of change is dependent upon the extent to which educators, both collectively and individually, redefine their roles with respect to minority students and communities.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework for examining the types of personal and institutional redefinitions that are required to reverse the pattern of minority student failure. The framework is based on a series of hypotheses regarding the nature of minority students' educational difficulties. These hypotheses, in turn, lead to predictions regarding the probable effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of various interventions directed at reversing minority students' school failure.

The framework assigns a central role to three inclusive sets of interactions or power relations: 1) the classroom interactions between teachers and students, 2) relationships between schools and minority communities, and 3) the intergroup power relations within the society as a whole. It assumes that the social organization and bureaucratic constraints within the school reflect not only broader policy and societal factors, but also the extent to which individual educators accept or challenge the social organization of the school in relation to minority students and communities. Thus, this analysis sketches directions for change for policymakers at all levels of the educational hierarchy, and in particular for those working directly with minority students and communities.

Click here to purchase this article.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jim Cummins presents a theoretical framework for analyzing minority students' school failure and the relative lack of success of previous attempts at educational reform, such as compensatory education and bilingual education. The author suggests that these attempts have been unsuccessful because they have not altered significantly the relationships between educators and minority students and between schools and minority communities.

# data[].attributes.body
ASCD's curated UbD resources.

# data[].attributes.body
From the University of Florida

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is Social Identity?

Social identity is a person's sense of who they are based on their social group memberships. When there is a positive social identity, people are motivated to feel positive about themselves and maintain their self-esteem. The emotional investments people make in their group memberships results in their self-esteem being tied to the social standing of their social identity groups.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Module 1.1 - Understanding Your Identities - UF Counseling and Wellness Center (CWC)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Social identity is a person's sense of who they are based on their social group memberships. When there is a positive social identity, people are motivated to feel positive about themselves and maintain their self-esteem. The emotional investments people make in their group memberships results in their self-esteem being tied to the social standing of their social identity groups.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Education for Sustainable Development Goals_ learning objectives - UNESCO Digital Library

# data[].attributes.body
From the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, this is quite helpful.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gender Pronouns | LGBTQ+ Resource Center

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
First, let’s start off with the most frequently asked questions about Personal Gender Pronouns (PGPs).

# data[].attributes.body
Blank template from PBS

# data[].attributes.body
From Vanderbilt's Center for Teaching

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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...

# data[].attributes.body
This calendar is one way to promote global awareness.

# data[].attributes.headline
Hall's Iceberg Theory Worksheet with concepts

# data[].attributes.subject
Hall's Iceberg Theory Worksheet with concepts

# data[].attributes.body
Sample completed activity