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Arts Integration and Universal Design for Learning

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Explore the powerful alignment between arts integration and three principles that guide Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

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The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Daytime Emmy-nominated, Storyline Online, features celebrated actors reading children's books to inspire a love of reading in millions of children worldwide.

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20 Ways to Adapt the Read Aloud in the Inclusive Classroom

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Discover 20 ideas for including all students in classroom read alouds. These suggestions may work for students who need to fidget during whole-class instruction, those who need materials to keep focused, and those who require alternative ways of demonstrating attention, engagement, and interest.

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In this blog post written for Colorín Colorado, Rhode Island administrator and WIDA trainer Julie Motta walks through a read-aloud activity for first grade and highlights how she engaged the students with the story, brought in content-area connections, and included informal assessment to check comprehension. She also outlines the standards related to the activity. To see more from Julie, take a look at her previous blog post focused on making curriculum units aligned to the Common Core accessible for ELLs!

Getting Back to the Classroom

Although I have been out of the classroom for a while as I have taken on more responsibilities as a central office administrator in Rhode Island, the best parts of my job remain spending time with students inside their busy classrooms and working with their teachers to continually advance their craft, especially in the multifaceted task of implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with ELLs.

This past spring, I was in a classroom reading to eager first graders sitting attentively on their alphabet rug during Reading Week. The theme of the week was "Read around the World." The class had been hearing stories based on different cultures, so to go along with the theme, I chose a multicultural story entitled Let's Eat by Ana Zamarano. With just this simple read aloud, I was able to work on the WIDA English Language Development ELA, Math, and Science Standards while I addressed the CCSS in Reading, Speaking & Listening, and Math. The activity reminded me that many of the things that I do naturally as an ESL teacher are effective for all students, and that they also are great strategies to use in implementation of the Common Core. A table of the standards I worked with is listed below.

Reading the Story Together

Before Reading

Before I read the story, I built background with students by asking them about the make-up of their families and the ways they gathered for meals. This got them interested in the family whom we would read about. I charged them with making comparisons and contradictions to their own family practices as their purpose of listening intently.

During Reading

As I read the story, the children listened carefully. They made predictions and answered my questions. Some questions that I asked were:

Can you tell me why you think the mom was happy when everyone was at the dinner table?

What information from the story makes you say that?

Who might be missing from the dinner table on Tuesday?

Why do you think it will be that family member?

Was there a clue in the story that helped you to make that prediction?

After Reading

Once we finished the story, I used prompts for student discussion, such as:
Turn and talk to you elbow partner about why you think having dinner together is so important in this family. Be sure to use some words from the story to prove your idea is a good one.
I probed them using phrases like:

Tell me more about that.

What makes you say that?

Is there a picture in the story that is making you think that way?

I required them to provide me with evidence from the story to back up their thinking. I insisted that they give responses in complete sentences, using sentence frames with those who needed a bit of scaffolding.

Content Connections

Math

In addition to our discussion of the text, the children studied the watercolor illustrations, and we used these illustrations to do some grade level math, adding and subtracting members of the family who disappeared and then reappeared on each page of the story. Later they would write number stories using the characters names during their math instructional block.

Art

One student also explained how the class had been given a chance to use watercolor paints in art class. If I had been in the school for a longer period of time, I would have followed up with the art teacher to ask her to use the book to discuss the illustrator's purpose for using watercolors so that the children could do some deeper analysis, thus promoting shared responsibility for assisting students with meeting rigorous content standards. Additionally, if I'd had the chance, I also would have picked some additional books about families and had the children study the illustrations to compare their artistic components in exhibiting families.

Health

As each food that was mentioned in the story was described, I used Google images of the actual foods to match the descriptions. This led us to an in-depth discussion of healthy foods, and the students were able to make connections to what they had been learning about in health class where they had been listening to informational texts around healthy foods, another chance to promote the shared responsibility mentioned above. This was another opportunity for comparing the foods in the story to those that the children ate with their families on a regular basis and to analyze how healthy they were in comparison to the foods in the story.

The children actively participated as the story continued, repeating a phrase from the book that was stated in both English (What a pity!) and Spanish ( ¡Ay qué pena!), expressions that Mamá used when a family member was not at the dinner table. We talked about why the author would have chosen to use these phrases repeatedly throughout the text.

Informal Assessment

I had students self-assess using a listening and speaking rubric based on the WIDA performance definitions. They rated themselves on a scale of 1-5 using the sentences here to assess their own listening:

I can understand the words in the story.

I can understand the short sentences in the story.

I can understand the long sentences in the story.

I can understand people's ideas in the story.

I can understand the whole story that I listened to.

For speaking, they used these sentences:

I can talk using a few words about the story.

I can use short sentences to talk about the story.

I can use long sentences to talk about the story.

I can put my ideas together when I talk about the story.

I can retell the story to a friend in my own words.

I suggested following up with a writing prompt that the students could find success with. An example I gave as a suggestion was: Write (a specific number of words, phrases or sentences - based on varying proficiency levels of individual students) that explains why dinner time was so important to the mom in this story. Be sure to find (insert a number) reasons in the story that show that your idea is correct. A word bank would be provided with the prompt as well as incomplete sentences with some words missing that students with the least proficiency could fill in.

Collaboration

Finally, I was able to use this opportunity for the benefit of the teacher who had invited me as a guest to her classroom. I worked hard to model by:

asking rigorous, probing questions that required evidence to support answers

allowing for wait time

using rich, academic vocabulary including cognates

encouraging peer discussions with turn and talk

making links to informational texts that would lend themselves to extend the lesson.

The Luckiest Teacher in the World

During this lesson, I realized that implementing the Common Core with ELLs does not have to be as difficult as I had originally thought - and that a lot of what I learned how to do as an ESL teacher supports the Common Core beautifully. At the conclusion of the story, I explained to the students in this classroom that I had taught children who had just moved to the US from all over the world. I told them that I taught those children to speak English, and I named the many countries they had come from. One darling little boy squealed, "Mrs. Motta, you were the luckiest teacher in the world!" And indeed, he was absolutely correct - I was! And whether in my classroom with my ELLs or sitting on this rug in a mainstream grade-one classroom, I was providing my students with rigorous content knowledge as they acquired rich academic vocabulary in the English language. The students may have had differing needs, but the high-quality instruction was the same in both instances.

Standards Used for Read-Aloud

Math 1.0A Operations & Algebraic Thinking- Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction

1.0A Use addition and subtraction within 20 to solve word problems involving situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart and comparing.

RL 1-3 Key Ideas and Details

RL1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

RL1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson

RL1.3 Describe characters, settings and major events in a story; using key details

RL 4 Craft and Structure

RL1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses

RL 7 & 9 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

SL 1-2 Comprehension and Collaboration

SL1.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in larger groups

b. Build on others talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges

c. Ask questions to clear up confusion about the topics and texts under discussion

SL1.2 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud

SL 4 & 6 Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

L1 Conventions of Standard English

L 5& 6 Vocabulary Acquisition and Use

L.5 With guidance and support from adults, demonstrate an understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings.

c. Identify real-life connections between words and their use

L.6 Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts

Standard 1 English language learners communicate for Social and Instructional Purposes within the school setting (listening, speaking, reading)

Standard 2 English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in ELA (listening, speaking, reading)

Standard 4 English language learners communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic success in Science (listening, speaking)

Related Resources

To see more great strategies in action, take a look at Colorín Colorado's Common Core classroom videos and lesson plans for first grade featuring teacher Ali Nava in Albuquerque, NM presenting lessons based on the children's book Burro's Tortillas, a southwestern adaptation of "The Little Red Hen." Strategies and activities include:

About the Author

Julie Motta is the Assistant Superintendent of the East Providence School District in Rhode Island. Formerly the ESL Director of Pawtucket Schools, she is also a WIDA trainer and an adjunct college professor at Rhode Island College and Providence College, where she has taught courses in Second Language Acquisition, Curriculum and Methods, Social Issues, and Culturally Responsive Teaching.

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Common Core Ideas: Using Read-Alouds with English Language Learners

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In this blog post written for Colorín Colorado, Rhode Island administrator and WIDA trainer Julie Motta walks through a read-aloud activity for first grade and highlights how she engaged the students with the story, brought in content-area connections, and included informal assessment to check comprehension.

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Social Emotional Learning Read Alouds suggested for multilingual learners. tube versions.

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In this blog post written for Colorín Colorado, ELL expert Judith O'Loughlin shares some strategies for using picture books across the curriculum with students of all ages in order to master the Common Core anchor reading standards.
Whether you live in California and identify beginning ELLs as "emerging," or are from a WIDA state and identify these same students as "entering," the challenge of meeting the Common Core Anchor Reading Standards is the same. It's a daunting task to teach ELLs at this entry level as they grapple with complex text and struggle to meet the standards, as evidenced California's English Language Development Standards principle " Interacting in Meaningful Ways." Because the standards focus on reading and interacting with complex text as well as addressing the importance of interaction, collaboration, comprehension, and communication of ideas, ELLs need substantial support to meet these challenges. Picture books can help!

This blog post describes how picture books can provide ELLs access to the Common Core Anchor Reading Standards, provides suggestions for books that meet certain standards and also meet the defined skill(s) for understanding those standards, and offers a checklist for choosing picture books along with a sample lesson plan on using picture books with ELLs.

Why Picture Books?

I love picture books! Anyone who knows me knows how much I love picture books. I've used picture books in teacher training and various conference presentations to introduce topics related to the content reading challenges English language learners (ELLs) face in U.S. schools, or to explore culture and culture clashes through the lens of the second language learner. When I taught K-8 ESL in New Jersey, I focused on teaching thematically across content areas and used numerous picture books to introduce and develop concepts in topics such as Civil Rights, war, and key time periods in history, as well as to explore space, the ocean, land formations, and other earth science topics. I've even used picture books to explore mathematics concepts and health topics, such as nutrition and body battles with germs!

Although in the past picture books were used primarily by early elementary grade teachers in oral whole class readings to introduce story elements, today more and more picture books are being produced and are being used in upper elementary, middle, and even high schools to enhance instruction in social studies, science, and mathematics. To support the use of picture books in various learning contexts several published articles, such as "A New Age for Picture Books" and a few professional guides, such as The Power of Picture Books: Using Content Area Literature in Middle School, have supported the use of picture books for academic instruction with mainstream middle and high school students.

Picture Books and the Common Core Anchor Reading Standards

Recently, I've been looking at picture books through a new lens - addressing the Common Core State Standards, specifically the Anchor Reading Standards. I have focused on each anchor standard with a variety of content topics that could be used to teach ELLs using picture books.

When I started exploring how picture books could provide substantial support toward meeting the CC Anchor Reading Standards, I carefully analyzed the criteria in each of the Anchor Reading Standards: Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, and Range of Reading and Levels of Text Complexity. Through close reading and an analysis of what each anchor standard required, I was able to create a list of sample picture books that would provide a jumping off point to explore the standards.

Matching Picture Books to Content Topics and Anchor Standard

When reviewing these books to help ELLs meet the CCSS, I asked myself, "Were there picture books that would not only match a CC Anchor Reading Standard category but also provide instruction in a content topic, either as literary or informational text (or both)?" Additionally, it was important to consider the picture books needed to build necessary content background and align with the grade/subject curriculum. At first, I needed to determine if there were picture books that would meet the standard and also meet the defined skill(s) for understanding the standard. I have developed several sample lists for book choices. The table below is one example.

Sample Picture Book Choices and CCSS Anchor Reading Standards

Standard in the Strand

Defined Understandings for the Standard

Picture Book Example

Key Ideas and Details

Close reading and inference

Painted Words, Aliki

Themes and supporting details

Shin's Tricycle, Tatsuhara Kodama

How individuals, events and ideas develop

Baseball Saved Us, Ken Mochizuki

Craft and Structure

Interpret words and phrases

Amelia and Eleanor Go For a Ride, Pam Muñoz Ryan

Analyze structure of text

Streets of Gold, Rosemary Wells

Point of view or purpose

Passage to Freedom, Ken Mochizuki

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Integrate and evaluate content: diverse media and formats

Through My Eyes, Ruby Bridge (With online resources, YouTube, video clips)

Delineate and evaluate argument

Faithful Elephants, Yukio Tsuchiya

Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics

Rosa, Nikki Giovanni

Rosa's Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights, J. S. Kittinger

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

Read and comprehend complex literary and informational text

Freedom Summer, Deborah Wiles

White Socks Only, Evelyn Colemen

A Checklist of Criteria for Choosing Picture Books

Illustrations and content are free from stereotypes and caricature representations of characters, settings, and artifacts. For example, books about Native Americans may depict stereotypes or misinformation, such as the idea that all Native Americans live in tee-pees or wear feather headdresses. Others may imply that Native Americans are part of history rather than part of today's contemporary world, or focus only on one dimension of history. Buffalo Bird Girl by author S. D. Nelson (a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) is the biography of a young girl born in 1839 who was a member of the Hidatsa people living along the Missouri River on the Great Plains. The book includes information on her daily life, including her home, an earth-mound lodge. For recommendations on choosing culturally appropriate books, see the recommended resources from Colorín Colorado below.

Text and illustrations support one another. There should be a correlation between drawings, words, sentences, and paragraphs in text. In Bunting's So Far From the Sea, the illustrations on each page support the story of a family returning to a California historic Japanese internment camp for the last time before moving East.

Appropriate academic vocabulary is introduced for the topic, both visually and in print. For example, essential vocabulary and idiomatic expressions, (e.g. "bright idea") are illustrated in the pictures and used in sentences that provide sufficient context to help students understand the meaning. Sometimes the key vocabulary may be presented in a different font, color, or bold as in Johnson's Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea.

Abstract concepts are supported through visuals and controlled language. Dialogue supports both images and content concepts. For example, in Neuschwander's Pastry School in Paris: An Adventure in Capacity the concepts of measurement (liquids and solids) and an understanding capacity are carefully explained through dialogue, visuals, and a recipe.

In-depth approach to an aspect, if not the complete topic, by building background. For example, Mochizuki's Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story tells the true story of a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania in 1940 who helped Jews escape the Nazis.

How do I determine the quality and accuracy of a picture book to not only address an anchor standard but also to provide substantial support for beginning ELLs? Here are a few things I look for in picture books for content studies presented as fiction, historical fiction, or non-fiction.

Lens on Instruction: Picture Book Content Lesson

I've recently written chapters in two books in series about the Common Core where I incorporated picture books in each chapter's standards-based content lesson. In "Grade 3: What Time is It?" in Gottlieb & Ernst-Slavit's (Eds.) Academic Language in Diverse Classrooms, the lesson on elapsed time uses picture books such as Hutchens' Clocks and More Clocks to model visually, as well as in words, how to comprehend and calculate elapsed time (CCSS.Math.Content.3.MDA.1). In "Beyond History: Glimpses into the Past through Picture Books." in Spycher (Ed.), Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts for English Language Learners: Grades K-5, part of a new TESOL Series CCSS for ELLs, I focused on enhancing the topic "From Slavery to Civil Rights" with picture books. My book selections help bridge the topic from pre-Revolutionary times to school desegregation and the Civil Rights Movement.

Sample Lesson Plan: Dave, The Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave

Here's an example of how to address an historical topic for ELLs with a picture book for a reading lesson.

Topic: Slavery (1800s)

Book: Dave, The Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick Hill

Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy CCRAR.1 Key Ideas and Details - evidence and inferences from the text; CCRAR.2 - summarize the central theme, support from key details and ideas.

Generate a list of things students already know about slaves on the left side of a T-chart. Students may know, for example, that slaves were owned by a master, worked hard in the fields or house, and in general could not read or write. (For additional ideas, see the related lesson plans on TeachingBooks.net and the History Channel's photo gallery on the daily lives of slaves.)

Conduct a picture walk through the book. Ask and answer questions based on illustrations, which include steps in making a piece of pottery.

During the picture walk with students,

List information learned about Dave as a slave on the right side of the T-chart.

Generate a list of vocabulary words based on students' picture observations and questions.

Set the scene

Show a map of the stoneware region of South Carolina where Dave lived. Connect to where other slaves lived and worked.

Show pictures of potters' wheels and explain how they work.

Review vocabulary generated during picture walk. Later, after first reading, add vocabulary presented in similes (e.g., "as fast as a carnival's wheel of fortune," "like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat," etc.). Clarify what these mean through drawings or pictures and help students connect concepts in the simile to creating pots/pottery.

Read to students, asking questions about key ideas and details in the text.

Reread, having students taking turns reading the pages (organize text in meaningful chunks for individual or choral readings). Depending on the English proficiency levels of the group, the rereading should be done 1-3 times, focusing on text details and a summary of events).

Sequence - Have students explain the steps in making a pot, visually described in the pull-out pages. (CCRA - Key Ideas and Details - CCRA.R1)

Symbolism - Focus on "Why is Dave both a slave and a free man? How do you know?" Use the pictures to determine the answer. (CCRA - Key Ideas and Details - CCRA. R1 and R2)

Summarizing: Have students write 3-5 sentences summarizing what they learned.
Differentiation: Sentence stems or frames; storyboard graphic organizer (3-5 frames) or a student writes a few words/phrases (copied from a vocabulary bank) or dictates responses to a classmate who scribes the response on a graphic organizer.

Instructional Steps: This book is a biography focused on a slave who led an unusual life; he was a potter and he could read.

Conclusion

As you can see in the brief lesson summary above, a teacher can use picture books to facilitate students' comprehension of complex content concepts and aspects of historical concepts, learn content vocabulary, and understand simple similes and metaphors presented both in words and through visuals. With the visual and textual support provided in picture books, beginning ELLs can use higher-order thinking skills, learn concepts beyond their current language proficiency level, and approach, if not meet, the CCSS Anchor Reading Standards.

Resources from Colorín Colorado

About the Author

Judith B. O'Loughlin is an education consultant and teacher trainer, working with general education and ESL/bilingual teachers, school districts, and state departments on standards-based instruction and assessment, sheltered instructional lesson planning and implementation, and curriculum guidance projects. A veteran K-12 educator, Ms. O'Loughlin is the Past President of NJTESOL/NJBE and an e-list monitor for the Elementary Interest Section of TESOL.

Ms. O'Loughlin has been extensively involved in the field of second language acquisition, as a frequent presenter at state, regional, and national conferences and has published articles in NABE News, CATESOL News, TESOL's Essential Teacher and TESOL Connections. Her service to the field includes serving on the boards of NJTESOL-NJBE, CATESOL, and service on several TESOL standing committees, including chairing the Professional Development Committee. She has also been an adjunct graduate professor for online and blended graduate courses for bilingual/ESL endorsement and M.Ed. programs in New Jersey and Missouri, and currently as an eCoach for a grant project for Ohio State University. She provides training on the WIDA ELP Standards, ACCESS for ELLs®, and the W-APT™.

References

Carrick Hill, L. (2010). Dave the potter: Artist, poet, slave. New York, NY: Little Brown and Co.

Fresch, M. J. & Harkins, P. (2009). The power of picture books: Using content area literature in middle school. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Hutchens, P. (1994). Clocks and more clocks. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks, Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers.

O'Loughlin, J. (2014). Beyond history: Glimpses into the past through picture books. In P. Spycher (Ed.), Common core state standards in English language arts for English languages learners: Grades k-5. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Press.

O'Loughlin, J. (2013). Grade 3: What time is It?. In M. Gottlieb & G. Ernst-Slavit (Eds.), Academic language in diverse classrooms: Promoting content and language learning: Mathematics, grades 3-5. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Testa McCann, G. (2007). A new age for picture books. NJEA Revie w, 81(4), 4-5.

Trelease, J. (2006). The read-aloud handbook (6th ed.). Toronto, Canada: Penguin Books.

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Picture Books to Help ELLs Access Common Core Anchor Reading Standards

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ELL expert Judith O'Loughlin shares some strategies for using picture books across the curriculum with students of all ages in order to master the Common Core anchor reading standards.

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I had that nightmare again last night.

The one where I'm standing in front of my ELL class with a huge, horribly dusty old textbook.

No one is paying attention. No one turned in any homework. I say to myself, "I'm supposed to make them care about learning English with this thing?"

Then I wake up, relieved that it was all just a dream.

Part of being an effective English teacher is having the ability to capture your students' attention and make every lesson engaging. Cookie-cutter textbooks for ELL students that follow a generic learning approach tend to be boring and will turn your students into a bunch of zombies.

For this reason, you need a classroom filled with vibrant and exciting books for ELL students. But they're not always easy to identify.

If you're looking for some books that'll make teaching English a dream, stay with me. We'll explore some of the key qualities of great ELL books, plus some awesome options you can bring to your classroom, no matter what grade you teach.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

What to Look for in a Great ELL Book

Are you one of those lucky teachers who's able to choose the English books for your curriculum? If so, you'll need to know what makes an ELL book great and how you can spot it.

Choose books for your students that offer the following:

A fun and creative approach to learning English

Elements that appeal to different learning styles

Meaningful information that's relevant to students' age groups, proficiency levels and interests

Another thing to consider, especially if you're teaching students who share the same native language and background, is finding ELL books that relate to your pupils' culture. Researchers have found that ELL students learn better through culturally relevant material, so use your material as a means of cultural exchange.

More than anything, the best books for ELL students are the ones that take a student-centered approach. Let's face it, the traditional educational model is outdated, at least from a language learning perspective. Not everyone learns through reading passages and being asked scripted questions by the teacher.

To overcome this key issue, a useful strategy is to use books accompanied by film or media content. For example, in the FluentU library, you'll find many clips of Harry Potter and other famous adapted works.With a FluentU teacher account you'll be able to set homework tasks and learning goals for your students.

Give your students books filled with exciting, new information. Find books that are relevant in modern society and cover everything from recent social events to improvements in technology to celebrities. Leave those outdated ELL textbooks from 1999 where you found them, in the back of the school's supply closet.

Properly Teaching Through ELL Books

Getting your hands on groundbreaking ELL books for students is only half the battle. You still need to present them in a way that students will appreciate. Here are some things to remember to help you get the most from your ELL books:

Books don't teach themselves. Even the best ELL book requires a good teacher who knows how to create exciting lessons.

The themes covered in your ELL books are a good place to start, but you can dig much deeper. Expand upon your stories and content with activities, discussion time or related resources; it'll really get your students thinking about the material.

Plan, plan, plan. Don't think just because you teach with top-rated ELL books that you don't have to do any lesson prep. Plan your lessons thoroughly and think about what supplemental material you can add to drive new concepts home.

Also, remember that almost any book can be used for dynamic ELL lessons, not just your run of the mill ELL textbook. Story and picture books, comics and even science books can all make successful books for ELL students when utilized properly. That's why it's important that you set aside enough prep time to become acquainted with the material before class.

Now that you know a little bit about what makes a great ELL book, it's time to shop around. Here are some of the top-ranked books that'll help your ELL students take their English to the next level.

Exciting Books for ELL Students in Elementary School

The key to choosing books for this age group is to focus more on activities than actual content.

You'll be teaching an elementary English class, not applied linguistics! Your goal should be to use ELL books that help your students get more comfortable reading and using English, rather than drilling the technical details.

"Let's Go" is a popular seven-level book series that's excellent for ELL students from kindergarten up to sixth grade.

"Let's Go" takes a simplified approach to learning English, which is why it's perfect for young children. Instead of learning why specific grammar rules exist, students learn the right and wrong way of saying commonly used phrases and get question-and-answer practice. "Let's Go" also incorporates music and movement.

This makes the books perfect for teaching English without overwhelming students. If you want an effective ELL book to use alongside your current elementary English program, this is the one for you.

Sometimes the best books for elementary ELL students aren't textbooks or English books at all, but rather exciting picture books. After all, what child doesn't love looking at vivid underwater photos? "Oceans of the World in Color" intersperses these photos with facts about the ocean.

This book is great for a warmup or icebreaker activity that'll capture the attention of your young learners. Be sure to ask a lot of questions as you flip through the pages! This book also provides a nice opportunity for students to take turns reading aloud, as the pages with text are short and digestible.

Mad Libs are fun, non-traditional books that'll liven up any ELL elementary classroom. You may remember them from your childhood; there are stories with blanks left for nouns, adjectives and other words to be filled in. It's a great way to boost your students' vocabulary and get them more familiar with grammar and parts of speech, all while getting everyone laughing and encouraging creativity in the classroom.

Plus, since students draw upon their own English knowledge to fill in the story, you can re-use the same Mad Libs books and pages for multiple lessons.

Inspiring Books for ELL Students in Middle School

Remember, middle school students learn differently than their younger counterparts. They're at the age where they can think critically and be challenged to tackle problems with different perspectives. You want to make sure to choose ELL material that enables that.

Headway is a popular series of ELL books covering a range of proficiency levels. It's structured in a similar format to the "Let's Go" series, except that the material in "Headway" feels a bit more mature. With "Headway" online, you'll have access to interactive exercises, games and a "test builder" feature. This makes the series a perfect choice for middle school ELL students interested in books that strike a balance between seriousness and fun, and also adds a helpful digital element to your lessons.

Using children's literature to teach ELL students is a great way to keep them engaged and thinking critically, provided the English level isn't too difficult. This book is particularly interesting, as it touches on life in an Ethiopian village and deals with problem solving, conflict resolution and personal growth. It's an excellent book to pair with writing or speaking activities!

Now that your students are at an age where they can appreciate complex stories, have them read the instant YA classic trilogy "The Hunger Games." The series is centered on young characters, and the plot is easy to follow but also involves some complex themes to grapple with, all of which helps to draw budding readers in. You can read this trilogy together as a class, or assign individual books or chapters for independent reading.

Attention-grabbing Books for ELL Students in High School

Choosing the right material for high school ELL students is tough. You want to find resources that'll set them up for success, but keep the elements that make learning English fun and enjoyable.

Commonly referred to as "EDGE Reading," this book series takes a multidisciplinary approach to learning English. Rather than a straightforward language textbook, think of "EDGE" as an educational book designed specifically for English learners. Every chapter is filled with quality photographs and interesting articles that you can easily use to help build a top-notch English lesson.

Plus, the "EDGE" series includes tons of helpful support packs and additional materials for teachers.

Your junior and senior classes will love "face2face" because of the way it approaches ELL education. The content is trendy, witty and most importantly, up to date-that means no articles talking about irrelevant singers from the '90s and early 2000s!

Each "face2face" level includes about 80 hours of core teaching material, plus additional ideas in the supplementary teacher's book. There's also a CD with practice activities, recording capabilities and customizable tests, among other features.

It's no surprise that teenagers love to argue, so why not have them argue in a way that builds their English skills?

"Great Debates" is an excellent way to have your students build their persuasive speaking and conversational skills. It's designed specifically for ELL students and comes with a number of interesting topics to take a stand on. "Great Debates" covers everything from phone vs. email to love at first sight vs. love over time.

Try to take a creative approach to teaching as you choose books for your ELL classroom.

As we've covered here, some of the best books for building vocabulary or starting conversation aren't traditional textbooks, but instead YA novels, picture books and more.

With the right books and preparation, you'll have your ELL students reading and chatting in English in no time.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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9 Groundbreaking Books for ELL Students in Any Classroom

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I had that nightmare again last night. The one where I'm standing in front of my ELL class with a huge, horribly dusty old textbook. No one is paying attention. No one turned in any homework. I say to myself, "I'm supposed to make them care about learning English with this thing?"

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Using lit to teach friendship skills 2011.doc

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Thoughtful planning is a central part of an effective Intentional Read Aloud.

Of course, not every read aloud needs to be intentional. There's nothing wrong and a lot right with picking a favorite book off the shelf, gathering the children on the carpet and reading aloud for the sheer pleasure of it.

But reading aloud can also be a powerful instructional tool. And the only way to get the full potential out of your lesson is by careful and thoughtful planning. This planning is what makes the read aloud intentional.

When you plan, you consider:

The learning goals for your children

The language outcomes for your children

How your lesson can support other literacy practices or instruction in the content areas

Which book will support your goals

After you choose your book, take time to read through it thoroughly. Think about the background knowledge of your children, confusing parts of the text, new formats or features that you'll need to go over and vocabulary words that you'll want to introduce. Think about how you will engage your children as they are listening. Plan ways for them to talk about the text, try out new skills, and maybe even join in the reading. Use the Intentional Read Aloud planning template to write down your ideas. A thoughtfully planned read aloud will be more focused, valuable, and enjoyable for your children.

Lesson Planning Templates

The lesson planning template is your partner in planning a successful Intentional Read Aloud lesson. The template is equipped with helpful prompts that focus your attention and support your thinking through the planning of each lesson component. If you need more support, take a look at our "notes" version of the template. Use the sample lesson plans for ideas and feel free to adapt them to use in your own classroom.

Choosing Objectives

The first thing you need to consider as you are planning is the learning goal for the children. Carefully select the primary literacy objective to keep your lesson focused, meaningful, and engaging. Make sure the objective meets the needs of your children. Here are some considerations for choosing objectives:

Choose objectives for your read aloud based on your curriculum's scope and sequence, mandated learning standards, and the needs of your children.

Make sure the objective is appropriate for the majority of the children in the class (not just a few children).

Keep a list of read aloud objectives as you teach them, along with the corresponding books. This will help you keep track of the skills, strategies, and behaviors you have taught and help with future planning.

If you already have a book in mind, look at the format, genre and/or theme to help formulate your objective (while still keeping the above guidelines in mind). See the chart below for examples:

Spy on your own reading by noticing the behaviors that you engage in as you read (i.e. envisioning, decoding, monitoring for comprehension, etc.) Use this information to guide the selection of your objective.

When appropriate, select objectives that connect to other areas of literacy instruction such as writing, word study, etc. If the children are writing "how to" pieces in Writing Workshop, you could read a "how to" book and ask the children to notice what makes this type of writing unique. If they are learning about verbs in word study, they can identify the verbs that they hear during the read aloud and discuss how these words enhance their comprehension of the story.

Choose objectives that cover different areas of reading instruction - phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension, or fluency.

Most high quality books lend themselves to many different objectives. Don't get overwhelmed. Remember that you can and should return to books multiple times and reread for many different purposes.

After teaching a read aloud, reflect on the evidence of children's learning and whether or not the objective needs revisiting.

Choosing Books for Intentional Read Alouds

Children are capable of listening to books that are well above their independent reading level. Intentional Read Aloud is a good time to expose children to rich vocabulary, interesting language, and complex ideas that they are unable to read yet on their own. Increase the complexity of the text as the year goes on and your children's listening comprehension increases.

Select books that are interesting to your children. Consider their background, experiences, and culture. Take interest inventories of favorite authors and books, use your own observations, or check reading logs to see what kinds of books are appealing to your children.

Choose books that broaden children's experiences and expose them to new concepts and ideas. Introduce children to new topics, genres, and authors to widen their reading range.

Choose books that support your primary literacy objective, your curriculum scope and sequence, or mandated learning standards. For example, if your goal is to learn about characters, choose a book where the character's feelings and actions are central to the plot or theme of the story.

Connect your book selection to themes and/or content areas. See the following examples of book titles and their related connection:

Choose books that lend themselves to rich conversations. Books with themes, plots, and characters that children can connect to and find interesting will promote meaningful class discussions.

Choose high-quality books that are well written, have memorable characters, engaging plots, and rich illustrations, photographs, or graphics.

Choose texts that you love yourself. Your enthusiasm will transfer over to your children and increase their excitement during the read aloud. It will also encourage them to read books that they might not have selected before.

References:
Calkins, L. (2002) The art of teaching reading. New York: Addison Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.

Collins, K. (2004) Growing readers. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (2011) The continuum of literacy learning. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Checklist for Pre-Reading

Pre-read books before reading them aloud to your children. Become familiar with the content, rehearse pronunciation, expression, and fluency, and mark areas for think alouds and class discussion. Children will be more engaged and class discussions will go deeper if you are thoughtful about how you will read the book. Here are some things to look for when pre-reading a text:

Think about the central message or theme of the book. If there was only one thing you wanted children to understand after reading, what would it be? What can you do to help children understand the central message?

Consider the background knowledge and cultural experiences of your children. Is there anything specific that you want to highlight for them before or during reading? Are there concepts they need to support their comprehension and make the overall experience more successful?

Example: If you are reading _Goin' Someplace Special_ (a historical fiction book about segregation), you might plan to briefly mention the time period of the story and define the word segregation.

Pay careful attention to the illustrations and text features such as graphics, headings, and captions. Is there anything particularly unique or unfamiliar that you want to share with the children (or hope that they will find on their own)?

Note any language constructs and features that could be confusing or unknown. This might include dialogue, quotes, speech bubbles, figurative language, dialect, unfamiliar syntax, or foreign words and phrases. Think about how you can shelter English language learners to support comprehension.

Note any text structures that might be new or confusing such as: multiple characters, flashbacks, unique settings, shifting points of view, or a story within a story.

Make a list of possible Tier II or Tier III vocabulary words to highlight. Decide on a few words to highlight and write child friendly definitions for those words.

Notice words with unfamiliar pronunciation (i.e., different languages or dialects, scientific or other content-related words, unique names for the character, author, or illustrator) and learn how to pronounce them before reading (by asking a colleague, searching for the phonetic spelling, etc.).

Read the book out loud to practice fluency, intonation, and expression. This will help you to realize if there are areas where you need to slow down, change your voice level due to punctuation, etc.

Decide whether you will read all the print on the page and in what order. In Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind, for instance, there are book lists, speech bubbles, and other print on each page, in addition to the story text. Knowing what you will read (and in what order) will make the read aloud run more smoothly.

Use sticky notes or tabs to mark a few places in the text where you plan to think aloud, ask questions, talk about vocabulary, or add to an anchor chart.

Decide whether you will read the entire text in one sitting or separate it into multiple readings. This decision will depend on the length of the book, its content, the primary literacy objective, and the age of the children.

The Role of Anchor Charts in an Intentional Read Aloud

"We honor children and their thinking when we capture it precisely. Whether we're creating an anchor chart or recording quotes for display...authenticity is essential. The reflections, quotes, ideas, and big understandings displayed throughout a room should reflect the real voices of real kids." - Debbie Miller, Teaching With Intention, 2008

The anchor charts you create with children during an Intentional Read Aloud help you connect skills and strategies to other practices in your literacy block. Anchor charts bridge the learning from modeling to guided practice to independence.

Anchor charts make the thinking and learning of the children in your class visible. They are reminders of the skills, strategies, ideas, and vocabulary that children are learning. Create anchor charts with children to explore a skill or strategy, capture children's ideas, and connect to the literature you are sharing together.
Here are ways you can use anchor charts during an Intentional Read Aloud:

Connect the skills, behaviors, and strategies children are using to the literature you are reading. This helps children think more concretely about the skills they are learning. It gives everyone in the class a real life example to reference and helps connect concepts from book to book.

" Class, do you remember when we read Bernice Gets Carried Away? We talked about how sometimes characters change in the story. Well, we are going to do the same thing today as we read Something Beautiful. Let's see if the little girl in this book changes like Bernice did."

Encourage children to take an active role in creating the anchor charts. Capture your children's thinking by recording their ideas on the chart, or having them add to the chart directly or with sticky notes.

Use anchor charts to showcase for children, parents, and visitors the learning that is taking place in the classroom. Anchor charts should reflect the strategies being taught, the books that are being read, and the content areas and themes children are exploring.

* Build anchor charts over time. Add to charts as children's thinking grows and changes. Use anchor charts to remind children of learning throughout the year.

* Use the anchor charts to connect learning to other practices in the literacy block. For example, you can create an anchor chart during the read aloud and use the chart to remind children of a skill, strategy, or behavior in Reading Workshop, Writing Workshop or Guided Reading.

"Remember when we made text-to-self connections when we read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day together? We are going to practice that same strategy today in our Reading Workshop."

Repeated Readings of Intentional Read Alouds

As teachers, we might groan a bit about reading the same book multiple times, but there are good reasons why children like it. Hearing the same story again and again feels safe and secure. The words, pictures, and even your intonation and expression is predictable and comforting to children.

Rereading favorite books is not just enjoyable for children, but helpful, too. Children learn through repetition. A study on language acquisition found that children pick up new vocabulary more quickly from repeated readings of the same book than when they encounter the same words in different new texts (Horst, Parsons & Bryan, 2011). This is especially helpful for English language learners. Multiple readings of the same book support them as they learn new words, phrases and sentence structures.

When you reread books to children, the conversations around them get richer and richer. Children's understanding deepens as they get to know the characters better and notice new things in the book. Their focus shifts from understanding what is happening in the story to big ideas around author's message and theme. Researchers found that children's responses to questions during rereading grow in variety and complexity. They are able to make more associations, judgements and elaborative comments. (Morrow, Frietag & Gambrell, 2009)

Sharing books that the whole class knows and loves builds a culture of literacy and sense of community in the classroom. It gives everyone a common language with which to dig into one story and a solid base for exploring new ones. (Horst, Jessica S., Kelly L. Parsons, and Natasha M. Bryan. "Get the story straight: Contextual repetition promotes word learning from storybooks." Frontiers in Developmental Psychology 2.17 .2011.: 1.11.)

Morrow, Lesley Mandel, Elizabeth Freitag, and Linda B. Gambrell. Using Children's Literature in Preschool to Develop Comprehension: Understanding and Enjoying Books. International Reading Assoc., 2009.

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Intentional Read Aloud > Instruction | LEARN - Children's Literacy Initiative

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Thoughtful planning is a central part of an effective Intentional Read Aloud. Of course, not every read aloud needs to be intentional. There's nothing wrong and a lot right with picking a favorite book off the shelf, gathering the children on the carpet and reading aloud for the sheer pleasure of it.

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Disability Awareness Books (Spring 2021) – Children’s Book Council

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This list will feature books about disability and people with disability, spreading awareness for readers wanting to find representation and/or educate themselves further on the topic

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In this guest blog post, Monica Kleekamp, a PhD candidate in the department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum at the University of Missouri-Columbia, discusses the importance of inclusive children's literature and how to critically select texts with regards to representations of disability experiences. What is inclusive children's literature? What is it not? Why is it important?
As students look to the shelves in their classrooms and school libraries, they seek representations of themselves-characters who look, feel, and experience the world in similar ways. The field of children's literature continues to problematize the ways our bookshelves perpetuate representations of white, cisgender, heterosexual, and middle-class characters. A term often added to the end of this list is "able."

Inclusive children's literature that features characters who are either physically and/or intellectually diverse-characters who have been labeled as disabled-remain few and far between. Additionally, those texts that do exist often follow tropes of pity or dehumanization. These texts have also been heavily critiqued for their over-representation of white male characters who access prosthetics.

Educators, librarians, parents, and others interested in getting high quality literature into the hands of children must give critical attention to representation in texts that feature characters with disability labels. Disability labels placed on children by school or medical professionals are never neutral. Rather, these labels bring with them histories of exclusion and a tendency to universalize the disability experience. "Disability" is an umbrella term that carries many different meanings to those in the larger public and individuals with labels. However, we tend to use the word often-without really unpacking what we mean by it, which ends up suggesting that there is only one experience of disability.

Sharing high quality inclusive literature offers an opportunity to talk with and through books that challenge ableist norms-or the standards that have been normalized over time for how bodies and minds "should" function and perform. If we seek to thoughtfully select children's literature with characters who may look, know, and act in diverse ways, it is first imperative to describe what this kind of literature is.

Inclusive children's literature is not necessarily designed to teach children about what a disability is. Instead, this literature serves as an opportunity for those with disability labels to see representations of experiences like theirs in the books they pull from our shelves. These texts also provide opportunities for students who live without labels-those who are deemed educationally typical-to see characters who experience the world in different ways. Immersed in these texts are varied and multiple bodies and minds playing active roles as main characters who tell their own stories through their engagement in authentic relationships.
How can I make an informed decision about which books to select that include disability experiences?
Here, I offer 4 Guiding Questions to consult in your selection process. They are meant to guide your interrogation of the written and illustrated narrative. These questions are not exhaustive, but they do offer entry into making informed decisions when critically selecting inclusive children's literature.

Does the author/illustrator present the character with a disability label as multidimensional?

A disability label is one identity marker-and often not one a character has necessarily chosen for themselves. Memorable main characters are multidimensional and complex. Additional layers of identity are presented in a variety of ways over the course of a story. This might be through decisions characters make, the situations they find themselves in, or the relationships they build. If characters with labels do not develop over the course of the story or do not demonstrate themselves as dynamic and varied, the reader is left with little information other than a label itself.

Whose story is this and who gets to tell it?

There is currently an over-abundance of texts that feature disability from the perspective of a sibling or friend. These characters speak for the individual with a label. In these instances, the story does not belong to the character with a disability label but rather is a narrative about them. Humanizing texts are written from a first-person perspective, centering the voice of the character with a label. There are instances when a third person narrator might also offer the character's thoughts through ideas embedded in the story.

As a reader, how have you been positioned to think about feel about the character with a disability label in this book?

Representations of disability experiences often position characters as individuals worthy of pity who need to be cared for, without offering any insight into the contributions the character makes to their community. This is especially true in texts that feature school settings, where characters with disability labels may be positioned as class pets while other students take turns supervising the individual. Humanizing inclusive children's literature may tackle moments of marginalization, but they do so in complex ways. These texts acknowledge lived moments of exclusion but also include character agency and perseverance in addressing difficult circumstances.

What opportunities does the character with a disability label have in the book to engage in authentic relationships?

Many texts with disability experiences feature one-dimensional friendships-such as the idea of individuals as class pets. In these instances, the character with a disability label is positioned as having a flat identity whose only role is to require support from those around them. This is dehumanizing and suggests that individuals with disability labels do not and cannot contribute in meaningful ways to the relationships in their lives. High quality texts offer representations of relationships in which both individuals contribute to fostering or maintaining that relationship. Humanizing literature may tackle complicated relationships in which characters grapple with peers or adults in moments of exclusion, bullying, or adversity but might also serve as models for friendships that do exist and are possible for individuals with labels.
But if I want to start selecting humanizing inclusive literature to add to my collection, where can I turn for high quality titles?
Each year, the Schneider Family Book Award, in partnership with the American Library Association, awards inclusive literature winners in the categories of teen books, middle grade texts, and books for young readers. While this is a great starting place if you are just beginning your collection, there are other places you can go to read important reviews by #ownvoices such as Disability in KidLit, or the Indigo Project, sites and blogs reserved for inclusive book reviews by individuals who identify as disabled. You might also check out the Disability Visibility Project, which addresses issues of disability representation across media including news, film and television series, etc.

About the Author: Monica Kleekamp is currently a PhD candidate in the department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her research centers the literature responses of students who have historically been classified as having significant disabilities in an effort to disrupt what counts as literacy and who counts as literate.

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How to Critically Select Children's Books with Representations of Disability Experiences

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In this guest blog post, Monica Kleekamp, a PhD candidate in the department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum at the University of Missouri-Columbia, discusses the importance of inclusive children's literature and how to critically select texts with regards to representations of disability experiences. What is inclusive children's literature? What is it not?

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A Disability Awareness Booklist for Children

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A Checklist to Evaluate Children`s Books that Address

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Free essays, homework help, flashcards, research papers, book reports, term papers, history, science, politics

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As a teacher, or parent, who works in education... we meet a lot of students with different abilities and specialties. And sure, we have Autism Awareness month and disability awareness... but it's so much more than just being aware.

(This post contains affiliate links.)

Below you'll find a curated list of books on special needs, acceptance, and tolerance. There are also books that describe children who have other differences that may make life a little challenging, like walking, hearing, seeing, understanding social cues, and more.

These are books that you can use to introduce the topics presented to other children, teachers, and adults. You'll want to read them over and over again after eagerly adding them to your ever-growing classroom library.

Uniquely Wired: A Story About Autism and Its Gifts tells us about Zak, a boy with autism. As Zak describes his point of view, young readers gain a better understanding of his behaviors and learn valuable lessons about patience, tolerance and understanding.

Who Are You?: Ella The Enchanted Princess is a story about a young princess named Ella who was different from other princesses, she has no hair. Join along this sweet story about this adorable princess!

The Invisible Boy is a gentle story that shows how small acts of kindness can help children feel included and allow them to flourish. Any parent, teacher, or counselor looking for material that sensitively addresses the needs of quieter children will find this book a valuable and important resource.

Why Am I Me? is a lovely book celebrating humanity and diversity, inviting readers of all ages to imagine a world where there no you or me, only we.

A Friend Like Simon is a special educational book to help introduce children to autism.

The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin is a book about the inspirational lives of amazing scientists!

I See Things Differently: A First Look at Autism will help children to understand what autism is and how it affects those who have it.

Emmanuels' Dream is the inspring true story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, born in Ghana, West Africa, with one deformed leg. He was dismissed by most people-but not by his mother, who taught him to reach for his dreams.

All My Stripes: A Story for Children with Autism is an encouraging story about being different from your peers, a mother who guides sweet Zane the zebra to help him understand that differences are only one of the many qualities that make him special.

Where Oliver Fits is a sweet and funny story that explores all the highs and lows of learning to be yourself and helps to show children that fitting in may not always be the best fit.

The Friendship Puzzle: Helping Kids Learn About Accepting and Including Kids with Autism is a lively and upbeat book that sends and encouraging message about the importance of friendship and inclusion.

Howie Helps Himself is about Howie, a child with cerebral palsy. Though he enjoys life, he wants nothing more than anything else... and to be able to move his wheelchair by himself.

Understanding Sam and Asperger Syndrome is a heart warming story that tells the challenges of living with Asperger Syndrome.

Waiting For Benjamin: A Story about Autism is a story about a boy named Benjamin and how his family learns that he has autism. When they learn this, they hire special teachers to teach him how to listen and talk and play.

Don't Call Me Special explores questions and concerns about physical disabilities in a simple and reassuring way. Younger children can find out about individual disabilities, special equipment that is available to help the disabled, and how people of all ages can deal with disabilities and live happy and full lives.

Ian's Walk: A Story about Autism is a sweet read about a sister who takes a walk with her brother who has autism and how he sees the world different than she does.

I'm Here reminds us that children and the friendships they make can take flight in unexpected ways!

A Rainbow of Friends is a story in verse about how all friends are special and valuable regardless of differences or difficulties.

It's Okay to Be Different targets young children first beginning to read. This book will inspire kids to celebrate their individuality through acceptance of others and self-confidence-and it's never to early to develop a healthy self-esteem.

A Different Little Doggy is a heart warming story that teaches kids important lessons about acceptance and friendship through it's beautiful and colorful illustrations and rhyming story line.

Thank You, Mr. Falker is about a girl named Trisha who realizes that the letters get jumbled when she tries to read! Her teacher, Mr. Falker sees this and helps her prove to herself that she can read and will!

Sara's Secret tells the story about Sara, who has a secret. Her younger brother has cerebral palsy.

Keep Your Ear on the Ball is a sweet story about a blind boy named Davey who tries to play kickball! Sure, he misses and tramples a base keeper at first and everyone thinks he should not play, but maybe there is a solution that will work for everybody!

Lemon the Duck is a story about a duck that was born with Neurological issues and is taken care of by a classroom of students. They learn through caring for Lemon the duck about acceptance, love, and how extra special care can go a long way!

The Pirate of Kindergarten shares the story of Ginny, a kinder girl who sees doubles of everything. With the help of her pirate patch, Ginny can read, run, and even snip her scissors with double the speed!

The Black Book of Colors is an extraordinary book giving young readers the ability to experience the world in new ways. It includes Braille letters to accompany the illustrations and a full Braille alphabet to offer sighted readers help reading along with their fingers!

Spaghetti Is Not a Finger Food is a heartwarming and charming book about (and told from the point of view of) a child with Asperger Syndrome.

Moses Goes to a Concert introduces hearing children to the ASL signs for some of the key words and ideas, in this story about Moses and his friends, who are deaf and use American Sign Language to communicate.

Leah's Voice tells the story of two sisters facing the challenges and difficulties children encounter when they meet a child with special needs, such as autism.

Tom's Special Talent encourages other children to be mindful of the differences that exist between their friends and classmates and to be aware that all children, regardless of their talents, learn differently.

The Name Jar is a sweet story about being the new kid in school and a girl named Unhei.

Strictly No Elephants is an imaginative and lyrical sweet story that captures the magic of friendship and the joy of having a pet!

The Brand New Kid is a heartwarming story about tolerance and the need to give others a chance! This sweet book will entertain and inspire all children in this area!

The Seeing Stick is the story of a little girl who is born blind. The emperor tries to find a cure for his daughter. Then, one day a wise old man with a mysterious seeing stick visits the princess.

My Friend Has Down Syndrome is a reassuring story about two children (one with Down Syndrome and one without) that learn that they are both good at different things by helping each other overcome their fears and difficulties they can accomplish a great deal together!

Susan Laughs follows Susan through a series of familiar activities. She swims with her father, works hard in school, plays with her friends - and even rides a horse. Not until the end of the story is it revealed that Susan uses a wheelchair.

47 Strings. Tessa's Special Code is an invaluable tool to help talk about Down syndrome with children as it describes in easy-to-understand language as well as with sensitivity towards the challenges.

We'll Paint the Octopus Red is a heartwarming story about Emma and her anticipation of the birth of her new baby sibling. Soon, she finds out that her little brother has Down Syndrome. Throughout the story kid will get answers to some of the commonly asked questions about down Syndrome.

Special People Special Ways combine delightful rhymes and beautiful watercolor illustrations to take the reader on a journey of discover and positive images of children with various disabilities.

Some Kids Use Wheelchairs is a great book on teaching diversity and tolerance to young readers on the topic of kids using wheelchairs. This book also helps them understand and appreciate those who have health differences.

Why Does Izzy Cover Her Ears? tells readers about Izzy, a feisty first grader, whose behavior is often misunderstood as she tries to cope with sensory overload in her new surroundings. This book creates an environment that is accepting of students with sensory modulation difficulties, including many on the autism spectrum.

Some Kids Wear Leg Braces: A 4D Book is an engaging text and full-of color photos where readers learn how leg braces can help and what daily life is like for someone who wears them.

Some Kids Are Blind is a great book on teaching diversity and tolerance to young readers on the topic of blindness. This book also helps them understand and appreciate those who have health differences.

Some Kids Are Deaf is a great book on teaching diversity and tolerance to young readers on the topic of deafness. This book also helps them understand and appreciate those who have health differences.

The Alphabet War is a realistic depiction of the long, slow process that leads to Adam's eventual success as a reader. He sees "p" as "q" and "b" as "d" ... and Adam would rather play with clay than read. His teacher wants him to practice, and so begins the alphabet war.

Hooway for Wodney Wat shares the story of Rodney Rat, who can't pronounce his R's and the other rodents tease him mercilessly. Read along with Wodney as he surprises himself and his classmates by single-handedly saving the whole class from the big bad bully.

Those Shoes is all about Jeremy, who wants a pair of those shoes, the ones everyone at school seems to be wearing. This story is great for teaching perspective and how it's okay to be different.

Daniel's New Friend (Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood) is a story about Daniel Tiger making a new friend, regardless of their differences!

My Friend Has Autism is a sweet book about two friends, one with autism and one not. But that doesn't matter because they are friends! They enjoy talking about all sorts of fun things. This sweet book brings a fresh light to accepting each other, just as we are.

You're All Kinds of Wonderful is a delightful book encouraging kids to embrace the things that make each one of them unique.

We All Have Different Abilities (Celebrating Differences) is a sweet book on celebrating the many talents and abilities that each one of us has.

Just Because is an amusing and touching story that encompasses the issue of disability in a charming celebration of sibling friendship.

What's Inside of You Is Inside Me Too is a book that informs people about Down syndrome in a fun, illustrative way. In the process, it also explains chromosomes and their role in making every living thing special.

My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay is a sweet story about a blind girl who, with the help of her friends, enjoys a fun race at school!

Whoever You Are is a beautiful book that urges us to accept our differences and to recognize our similarities - but most importantly, to rejoice in both!

My Brother Charlie is a story about Charlie, a young boy with autism, told through the eyes of his older sister.

Our Stripy Baby tells the story of Zara waiting for her new baby sibling to arrive, but when Zack finally arrives, something isn't right - he has stripes instead of spots, and he doesn't look anything like Max. It's a warm, gentle story about learning to love difference in others.

Taking Cerebral Palsy to School is written from Chad's perspective, a young boy with cerebral palsy. Children, teachers, school nurses, parents, and caregivers will learn about what cerebral palsy is, the different kinds of cerebral palsy, and special equipment that is available to help kids with cerebral palsy.

My Brother is Autistic encourage preschool-age and early-grades children to explore their feelings, deal with problems that trouble them, and understand others who have problems of their own.

I Have Asthma is the story of a child who suffers from asthma, a chronic condition that sometimes produces frightening attacks. But kids learn that with proper medical supervision and treatment, asthma can be kept under control, and kids who are affected by it can live happy, active, and normal lives.

Other books recommended by teachers:
* Benji, the Bad Day, and Me by Sally J. Pla
What other children's books would you add to this list?
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:

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60 Books about Disabilities and Differences for Kids - Mrs. D's Corner

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A list of 60 books about disabilities for kids, on special needs, acceptance, and tolerance. Use these books to educate and teach others about disabilities, beginning the conversation about awareness, respect, and acceptance of all others with disabilities. List at Mrs. D's Corner.

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20 Picture Books To Read For Disability Pride Month And Beyond by Margaret Kingsbury

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July is Disability Pride Month. Being proud to be disabled is a complicated proposal. Disabled folk like me often feel chronic pain, and the lack of accessible spaces is a constant headache (often in a very literal sense). Yet, there is something empowering about claiming the space, in acknowledging the beautiful variety of the human body, in celebrating how our disabled bodies interact with the world. It's not an easy pride to come by, for sure. But today, this disabled body of mine watched a blue jay leap from tree to mailbox and back again, sweated through a tank top in the summer heat, untangled my daughter's hair. Every day I am here, I am disabled, I am participating in this world, and I am proud.

On July 26th, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. Every July since has been unofficially celebrated as Disability Pride Month. Though I attended school mostly in the years following this act, the negative perception of disability still permeated my childhood. I never saw disabled characters on TV unless they were villains. I never read books with disabled characters, and disabled children in my elementary school were sectioned off into separate classrooms.

When I started having health problems in junior high school, it never occurred to me to seek answers or request accommodations. I suffered in silence, as I thought was the norm, until I finally sought and received a diagnosis in my twenties (and several more diagnoses following). I was an adult before I embraced the term disabled and realized I had been told a lie my entire life about what it means to be disabled. I did not know it was possible to be joyful, creative, powerful, competent, AND disabled at the same time. In a thousand and one ways, I had been sold a lie as a child.

That's what makes disabled representation in children's books so absolutely vital. Children's books can help normalize disability and accessibility, can show the nuance and joy in the disability experience. Yet, good disability representation in picture books is rare. 26% of U.S. Americans are disabled , yet disabled main characters make appearances in just 3.4% of children's picture books . Despite there being more picture books with disabled representation than there were when I was a child, it's still far from the number it should be. How can disabled children be proud of themselves when they rarely see people like them, if at all? The support of family and friends is of course essential, but so is media representation.

I tried to choose a variety of disabilities and approaches in these with disabled characters, but there could be so many more, needs to be so many more.

Many kids (and adults) with physical disabilities get bombarded with questions about their disability by strangers. In this book, disabled author James Catchpole centers a child's discomfort when other children continuously ask him, "What happened to you?" at the playground. The child just wants to play! And by the end, that's exactly what the kids do together. This is a vital picture book to begin a discussion with kids about what is and isn't polite to say when talking to disabled folk. The backmatter provides helpful information for parents and caregivers. There's even to go with it for classrooms.

Ali Stroker is a disabled Broadway star, and she wrote this joyful picture book based on her childhood. A young Ali longs to be an actress on stage, and with the encouragement of a lifeguard, decides to put on the play Peter Pan at the beach where she lives. She and her friends and Dad make costumes and sets and have many rehearsals in preparation, but on the big day, there's a terrible storm, and their costumes and set are ruined. However, with a bit of clever thinking, Ali repurposes debris after the storm and they're still able to put on the play. This book is such a fun read! I also highly recommend reading Ali's middle grade novel, The Chance to Fly.

A child with cerebral palsy enjoys a day at the beach with her mom in this vibrantly illustrated and poetic picture book. This picture book contains incidental disability representation, which means the text never mentions the main character has cerebral palsy, nor does the story revolve around her cerebral palsy, yet the child is illustrated as being disabled and uses a mobility aid. It's a perfect read before heading to the beach. The author and illustrator recently won the Schneider Family Book Award for their picture book My City Speaks, which also has incidental disability representation. The main character, a young girl, is visually impaired. Both books are equally lovely!

In this fun and sweet picture book, a young boy and his dog are having the best day ever until things start going wrong. When the dog rolls in mud and jumps on the boy, they both end up dirty and smelly. However, the boy can't stay disappointed for long with such a sweet companion, and the boy and dog are soon having fun together once more. I love how this picture book shows a wheelchair user living his normal life!

In this absolutely stunning picture book, the author describes his childhood experiences with stuttering through rich, poetic language. In class, the narrator's teacher asks him to describe his favorite place, but he's unable to respond. His father picks him up from school and takes him to a river, where the father tells him he talks like a river. This becomes a moment of epiphany for the boy as he realizes his voice can be as strong and beautiful as the river. From the beautiful language to the gorgeous illustrations, this picture book is a work of art and one of my all-time favorites.

This vibrantly illustrated picture book celebrates disabled bodies, accessibility, and disability justice. Each page spread joyously presents disabled bodies moving in the world, whether they're moving fast, waiting in line, or marching for justice. It doesn't shy away from some of the frustrations in navigating inaccessible spaces, and calls for accessibility to be a priority while still focusing on the child reader. It's such a fun read that generates lots of discussion with young readers.

Little Bear doesn't understand why everyone keeps asking him, "Can bears ski?" When Dad Bear takes him to an audiologist, Little Bear is fitted with hearing aids and realizes people were asking him, "Can you hear me?" not whether he could ski or not. While before he had hearing aids, Little Bear experienced the world through vibrations, he now has to cope with how LOUD everything is. Thankfully he has a supportive father to help him. Written by an award-winning deaf poet, this is an adorable picture book.

This is one of my favorite birthday picture books. Laila, who is autistic, has planned the perfect small unicorn birthday party. Schedules are essential for Laila; however, soon things start going wrong. First, it begins raining, and they can't do unicorn races outside. Then her mother accidentally drops the unicorn cake. Everything is going wrong, but with some readjustments to the schedule, doggy snuggles, and a little alone time, Laila has a blast at her birthday party. This is one book in Samantha Cotterill's Little Senses picture book series, which helps children process sensory overload. I love every book in the series so far.

In this STEM picture book, Holly, an autistic child, feels a little put off by the idea of making slime at school that day, even though science is her favorite class. Sometimes strange textures make her feel uncomfortable, but with the support of her family, teacher, and accommodations, she participates in and enjoys the slime-making activity. This book includes a recipe to make slime in the back.

All three children in this rhyming search-and-find picture book are illustrated as disabled: one wears a cochlear implant, one wears glasses, and one has a prosthetic leg. The three children take a walk around their neighborhood with Ranger Hamza, and along the way they play an "I spy" game. They go to the playground, the city, a garden, and notice so many things about the world around them. It's such a fun interactive book to read with kids, and I love the incidental disability representation!

The mission of the Kids Books About... series is to help empower children and powers to have meaningful conversations about diversity. This book, written by a disabled author, demystifies and normalizes disability. It provides helpful information about how common disability is and how to talk to people with disabilities. Every book in the series uses neat typography that centers on the information rather than illustrations. It's an excellent book for caregivers and children alike to start thinking more critically about disability.

Childhood depression is not often addressed in picture books, and this beautiful picture book does an excellent job of showing how depression feels and how family members can respond. Coen is depressed. Everything feels murky and heavy and blue. Instead of getting up and playing, he goes back to bed. One by one, his family tries to cheer him up and get him out of bed, but nothing works. All Coen wants to do is cocoon himself under the covers and feel his emotions. When his family gives him the space and support to do so, his feelings eventually dissipate, and he gets out of bed to play with his family.

The newest picture book in The Questioneers series (Ada Twist, Scientist) depicts a dyslexic main character, Aaron. Aaron loves stories and dreams of being a writer one day. However, Aaron has trouble reading and writing. The letters just won't hold still! Aaron despairs when his teacher Ms. Greer assigns the class a writing project. However, with the support of Ms. Greer and, most importantly, his imagination, he finds his own way to tell a story-through illustrations. This rhyming picture book is a blast to read aloud, and it's printed in a dyslexic-friendly font.

In this joyful picture book by the author of The Pretty One and creator of the #DisabledAndCute movement, Sam, a girl with cerebral palsy, goes to the mall with friends to find the perfect back-to-school outfit. When her legs get a little tired, she needs to find the perfect seat to rest and recharge. But none of the seats are as super as the ones at home. How is she going to find the ideal place to rest? This super fun picture book doesn't release until August, so keep an eye out for it!

Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah was born in Ghana with a missing right tibia. As an adult, he bicycled almost 400 miles across Ghana with one leg to raise awareness for disability rights. An activist and athlete, he's influenced perception and policy about disabled people in Ghana. In 2006, Ghana passed The Person's with Disability Act. This vibrantly illustrated picture book biography chronicles Yeboah's life and his impact on disability justice.

In this beautifully illustrated picture book, Pixar illustrator Rosana Sullivan tells the story of the special relationship between a mother and child as they play together in a Malaysian village. However, when Mommy is too sick to play, the child must play with herself. The text never states what precisely the mother has that keeps her bed-ridden. It's a lovely, lyrical read, and in the end, mother and daughter are playing once more.

In this gorgeously illustrated autobiography, Hudson Talbott relates how, as a child, he struggled with reading and writing due to his dyslexia, though he loved drawing and telling stories. He couldn't read as fast as the other kids in his class, making him feel frustrated and like an outsider. However, when he permits himself to read slowly, he discovers he can, in fact, read and that he loves doing so. Some of the illustrations in this picture book are just stunning. I love the message that taking things slowly does not lessen the joy in an activity, something many disabled people (like myself) understand deeply, though it can still often be frustrating.

This nonfiction picture book covers the 1972 case Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia and how it led to the ruling that all disabled children would receive a free public education. The author, Janine Leffler - who has cerebral palsy - was able to attend public school because of this ruling. This is an informative yet accessible read with engaging illustrations. I wish it had a section on the continued work that needs to be done, but I appreciate the historical importance of this case, and there needs to be more books like this for kids.

Lulu loves climbing trees more than anything, but she has to stay inside when she's sick. From the window, she watches the trees and longs to climb them. When the sun casts a tree's shadow on her wall, she uses her imagination to do what she loves most: climb. I love this portrayal of illness and the power of imagination. At the end, the illustrations show the child with what appears to be chicken pox, which is no longer much of an issue thanks to vaccines, but I think this picture book would be an excellent read for any child who experiences a prolonged illness.

Bea has alopecia areata, which means she can't grow hair. It's spirit week at school, and the last day is "Silly Hair Day." Bea is worried; how can she have silly hair with no hair? With some support from a friend and a little ingenuity, Bea comes up with the perfect solution. I love the colorful illustrations, fantastic story, and especially the disability allyship in this wonderful picture book.

Margaret Kingsbury posts about children's books on Instagram . She writes for and , and her essays have also appeared in Parents, The Lily, School Library Journal, and more. In her free time, she writes children's books she hopes will be published one day, hikes with her daughter, and rearranges her books.

July is Disability Pride Month. Being proud to be disabled is a complicated proposal. Disabled folk like me often feel chronic pain, and the lack of accessible spaces is a constant headache (often in a very literal sense). Yet, there is something empowering about claiming the space, in acknowledging the beautiful variety of the human body, in celebrating how our disabled bodies interact with the world. It's not an easy pride to come by, for sure. But today, this disabled body of mine watched a blue jay leap from tree to mailbox and back again, sweated through a tank top in the summer heat, untangled my daughter's hair. Every day I am here, I am disabled, I am participating in this world, and I am proud.

On July 26th, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. Every July since has been unofficially celebrated as Disability Pride Month. Though I attended school mostly in the years following this act, the negative perception of disability still permeated my childhood. I never saw disabled characters on TV unless they were villains. I never read books with disabled characters, and disabled children in my elementary school were sectioned off into separate classrooms.

When I started having health problems in junior high school, it never occurred to me to seek answers or request accommodations. I suffered in silence, as I thought was the norm, until I finally sought and received a diagnosis in my twenties (and several more diagnoses following). I was an adult before I embraced the term disabled and realized I had been told a lie my entire life about what it means to be disabled. I did not know it was possible to be joyful, creative, powerful, competent, AND disabled at the same time. In a thousand and one ways, I had been sold a lie as a child.

That's what makes disabled representation in children's books so absolutely vital. Children's books can help normalize disability and accessibility, can show the nuance and joy in the disability experience. Yet, good disability representation in picture books is rare. 26% of U.S. Americans are disabled , yet disabled main characters make appearances in just 3.4% of children's picture books . Despite there being more picture books with disabled representation than there were when I was a child, it's still far from the number it should be. How can disabled children be proud of themselves when they rarely see people like them, if at all? The support of family and friends is of course essential, but so is media representation.

I tried to choose a variety of disabilities and approaches in these with disabled characters, but there could be so many more, needs to be so many more.

Many kids (and adults) with physical disabilities get bombarded with questions about their disability by strangers. In this book, disabled author James Catchpole centers a child's discomfort when other children continuously ask him, "What happened to you?" at the playground. The child just wants to play! And by the end, that's exactly what the kids do together. This is a vital picture book to begin a discussion with kids about what is and isn't polite to say when talking to disabled folk. The backmatter provides helpful information for parents and caregivers. There's even to go with it for classrooms.

Ali Stroker is a disabled Broadway star, and she wrote this joyful picture book based on her childhood. A young Ali longs to be an actress on stage, and with the encouragement of a lifeguard, decides to put on the play Peter Pan at the beach where she lives. She and her friends and Dad make costumes and sets and have many rehearsals in preparation, but on the big day, there's a terrible storm, and their costumes and set are ruined. However, with a bit of clever thinking, Ali repurposes debris after the storm and they're still able to put on the play. This book is such a fun read! I also highly recommend reading Ali's middle grade novel, The Chance to Fly.

A child with cerebral palsy enjoys a day at the beach with her mom in this vibrantly illustrated and poetic picture book. This picture book contains incidental disability representation, which means the text never mentions the main character has cerebral palsy, nor does the story revolve around her cerebral palsy, yet the child is illustrated as being disabled and uses a mobility aid. It's a perfect read before heading to the beach. The author and illustrator recently won the Schneider Family Book Award for their picture book My City Speaks, which also has incidental disability representation. The main character, a young girl, is visually impaired. Both books are equally lovely!

In this fun and sweet picture book, a young boy and his dog are having the best day ever until things start going wrong. When the dog rolls in mud and jumps on the boy, they both end up dirty and smelly. However, the boy can't stay disappointed for long with such a sweet companion, and the boy and dog are soon having fun together once more. I love how this picture book shows a wheelchair user living his normal life!

In this absolutely stunning picture book, the author describes his childhood experiences with stuttering through rich, poetic language. In class, the narrator's teacher asks him to describe his favorite place, but he's unable to respond. His father picks him up from school and takes him to a river, where the father tells him he talks like a river. This becomes a moment of epiphany for the boy as he realizes his voice can be as strong and beautiful as the river. From the beautiful language to the gorgeous illustrations, this picture book is a work of art and one of my all-time favorites.

This vibrantly illustrated picture book celebrates disabled bodies, accessibility, and disability justice. Each page spread joyously presents disabled bodies moving in the world, whether they're moving fast, waiting in line, or marching for justice. It doesn't shy away from some of the frustrations in navigating inaccessible spaces, and calls for accessibility to be a priority while still focusing on the child reader. It's such a fun read that generates lots of discussion with young readers.

Little Bear doesn't understand why everyone keeps asking him, "Can bears ski?" When Dad Bear takes him to an audiologist, Little Bear is fitted with hearing aids and realizes people were asking him, "Can you hear me?" not whether he could ski or not. While before he had hearing aids, Little Bear experienced the world through vibrations, he now has to cope with how LOUD everything is. Thankfully he has a supportive father to help him. Written by an award-winning deaf poet, this is an adorable picture book.

This is one of my favorite birthday picture books. Laila, who is autistic, has planned the perfect small unicorn birthday party. Schedules are essential for Laila; however, soon things start going wrong. First, it begins raining, and they can't do unicorn races outside. Then her mother accidentally drops the unicorn cake. Everything is going wrong, but with some readjustments to the schedule, doggy snuggles, and a little alone time, Laila has a blast at her birthday party. This is one book in Samantha Cotterill's Little Senses picture book series, which helps children process sensory overload. I love every book in the series so far.

In this STEM picture book, Holly, an autistic child, feels a little put off by the idea of making slime at school that day, even though science is her favorite class. Sometimes strange textures make her feel uncomfortable, but with the support of her family, teacher, and accommodations, she participates in and enjoys the slime-making activity. This book includes a recipe to make slime in the back.

All three children in this rhyming search-and-find picture book are illustrated as disabled: one wears a cochlear implant, one wears glasses, and one has a prosthetic leg. The three children take a walk around their neighborhood with Ranger Hamza, and along the way they play an "I spy" game. They go to the playground, the city, a garden, and notice so many things about the world around them. It's such a fun interactive book to read with kids, and I love the incidental disability representation!

The mission of the Kids Books About... series is to help empower children and powers to have meaningful conversations about diversity. This book, written by a disabled author, demystifies and normalizes disability. It provides helpful information about how common disability is and how to talk to people with disabilities. Every book in the series uses neat typography that centers on the information rather than illustrations. It's an excellent book for caregivers and children alike to start thinking more critically about disability.

Childhood depression is not often addressed in picture books, and this beautiful picture book does an excellent job of showing how depression feels and how family members can respond. Coen is depressed. Everything feels murky and heavy and blue. Instead of getting up and playing, he goes back to bed. One by one, his family tries to cheer him up and get him out of bed, but nothing works. All Coen wants to do is cocoon himself under the covers and feel his emotions. When his family gives him the space and support to do so, his feelings eventually dissipate, and he gets out of bed to play with his family.

The newest picture book in The Questioneers series (Ada Twist, Scientist) depicts a dyslexic main character, Aaron. Aaron loves stories and dreams of being a writer one day. However, Aaron has trouble reading and writing. The letters just won't hold still! Aaron despairs when his teacher Ms. Greer assigns the class a writing project. However, with the support of Ms. Greer and, most importantly, his imagination, he finds his own way to tell a story-through illustrations. This rhyming picture book is a blast to read aloud, and it's printed in a dyslexic-friendly font.

In this joyful picture book by the author of The Pretty One and creator of the #DisabledAndCute movement, Sam, a girl with cerebral palsy, goes to the mall with friends to find the perfect back-to-school outfit. When her legs get a little tired, she needs to find the perfect seat to rest and recharge. But none of the seats are as super as the ones at home. How is she going to find the ideal place to rest? This super fun picture book doesn't release until August, so keep an eye out for it!

Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah was born in Ghana with a missing right tibia. As an adult, he bicycled almost 400 miles across Ghana with one leg to raise awareness for disability rights. An activist and athlete, he's influenced perception and policy about disabled people in Ghana. In 2006, Ghana passed The Person's with Disability Act. This vibrantly illustrated picture book biography chronicles Yeboah's life and his impact on disability justice.

In this beautifully illustrated picture book, Pixar illustrator Rosana Sullivan tells the story of the special relationship between a mother and child as they play together in a Malaysian village. However, when Mommy is too sick to play, the child must play with herself. The text never states what precisely the mother has that keeps her bed-ridden. It's a lovely, lyrical read, and in the end, mother and daughter are playing once more.

In this gorgeously illustrated autobiography, Hudson Talbott relates how, as a child, he struggled with reading and writing due to his dyslexia, though he loved drawing and telling stories. He couldn't read as fast as the other kids in his class, making him feel frustrated and like an outsider. However, when he permits himself to read slowly, he discovers he can, in fact, read and that he loves doing so. Some of the illustrations in this picture book are just stunning. I love the message that taking things slowly does not lessen the joy in an activity, something many disabled people (like myself) understand deeply, though it can still often be frustrating.

This nonfiction picture book covers the 1972 case Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia and how it led to the ruling that all disabled children would receive a free public education. The author, Janine Leffler - who has cerebral palsy - was able to attend public school because of this ruling. This is an informative yet accessible read with engaging illustrations. I wish it had a section on the continued work that needs to be done, but I appreciate the historical importance of this case, and there needs to be more books like this for kids.

Lulu loves climbing trees more than anything, but she has to stay inside when she's sick. From the window, she watches the trees and longs to climb them. When the sun casts a tree's shadow on her wall, she uses her imagination to do what she loves most: climb. I love this portrayal of illness and the power of imagination. At the end, the illustrations show the child with what appears to be chicken pox, which is no longer much of an issue thanks to vaccines, but I think this picture book would be an excellent read for any child who experiences a prolonged illness.

Bea has alopecia areata, which means she can't grow hair. It's spirit week at school, and the last day is "Silly Hair Day." Bea is worried; how can she have silly hair with no hair? With some support from a friend and a little ingenuity, Bea comes up with the perfect solution. I love the colorful illustrations, fantastic story, and especially the disability allyship in this wonderful picture book.

Margaret Kingsbury posts about children's books on Instagram . She writes for and , and her essays have also appeared in Parents, The Lily, School Library Journal, and more. In her free time, she writes children's books she hopes will be published one day, hikes with her daughter, and rearranges her books.

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20 Picture Books To Read For Disability Pride Month And Beyond by Margaret Kingsburyhttps://static.wixstatic.com/media/f6baa3_3076e2aad69b4b87b5326087b7dd1f3c~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/f6baa3_3076e2aad69b4b87b5326087b7dd1f3c~mv2.png https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f6baa3_3076e2aad69b4b87b5326087b7dd1f3c~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/f6baa3_3076e2aad69b4b87b5326087b7dd1f3c~mv2.png July is Disability Pride Month. Being proud to be disabled is a complicated proposal. Disabled folk like me often feel chronic pain, and the lack of accessible spaces is a constant headache (often in a very literal sense). Yet, there is something empowering about claiming the space, in acknowledging the beautiful variety of the human body, in celebrating how our disabled bodies interact with the world. It's not an easy pride to come by, for sure. But today, this disabled body of mine watched a bhttps://static.wixstatic.com/media/f6baa3_3076e2aad69b4b87b5326087b7dd1f3c~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/f6baa3_3076e2aad69b4b87b5326087b7dd1f3c~mv2.pngJuly is Disability Pride Month. Being proud to be disabled is a complicated proposal. Disabled folk like me often feel chronic pain, and the lack of accessible spaces is a constant headache (often in a very literal sense). Yet, there is something empowering about claiming the space, in acknowledging the beautiful variety of the human body, in celebrating how our disabled bodies interact with the world. It's not an easy pride to come by, for sure. But today, this disabled body of mine watched a b

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July is Disability Pride Month. Being proud to be disabled is a complicated proposal. Disabled folk like me often feel chronic pain, and the lack of accessible spaces is a constant headache (often in a very literal sense).

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Representation Matters: 10 Children's Books With Disabled Characters

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Children's books with disability representation is important becasue

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The inclusiveness of a book collection can be viewed through the lens of this quote: whose experiences are being left out of the collection and, as a result, whose experiences are being highlighted?

The development of children's literature is not a socially neutral process. Systemic, societal structures privilege some voices over others. When reviewed through an inclusion lens, children's book collections will likely reveal a biased representation that favors those who hold power in a society. A recent study done in the US, for example, showed a persistent over-representation of white males in children's books.

Inclusion in books matters because literature conveys sociocultural norms that can shape children's beliefs and aspirations, and influence how they see and understand themselves and their place in the world. As a source of learning, children's books offer a "means through which we either address, perpetuate, or entrench structural societal inequalities" (Adukia et al, 2021).

Besides, having children's lived experiences portrayed in the books they read is good for learning overall. An emotional connection to a book can motivate readers, especially reluctant ones.

Inclusive book collections also build global citizenship and foster empathy, contributing to target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals: to promote a "culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity".

Books are a window to the world. As Rudine Sims Bishop put it: "books may be one of the few places where children...may meet people unlike themselves. If they see only reflections of themselves, they will grow up with an exaggerated sense of their own importance and value in the world - a dangerous ethnocentrism".

4 suggestions for inclusive children's book collections

To develop children's books with an inclusive lens, there are a few things to keep in mind during book creation:

1. Avoid tokenism: The inclusion of characters from marginalized communities should involve them having meaningful roles in the story. It is not inclusive to have these characters as inactive observers. In an analysis of more than 1,100 award-winning children's books in the US, female characters were "seen more than heard", indicating a symbolic inclusion in pictures without a substantive inclusion in the story (Adukia et al, 2021).

In the South African story, The Suitcase, by Mbongeni Nzimande, illustrated by Elizabeth Pulles, the protagonist, Lwazi, needs something to wear to participate in a dance competition. Not only is Lwazi an albino child, but the reader would not know this without the illustrations.

The story focuses on something universally relatable: wanting something that one does not have. This emphasis on the humanity we all share, regardless of our differences, builds empathy for marginalized communities.

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How to make children's book collections more inclusive

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Inclusion in books matters because literature conveys sociocultural norms that can shape children's beliefs and aspirations, and influence how they see and understand themselves and their place in the world. Here are some suggestions to make children's book collections more inclusive.

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Resource Padlet for Membership and Belonging

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10 adapt for SW complex needs w-worksheet 2019

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Barriers Routines Planning Materials 2023

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7 Strategies to Support and Fairly Grade Participation in Spanish Class * The Engaged Spanish Classroom

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There are certain students who forever stay in our hearts. One of mine is a student I'll call Tim. When Tim started at my school, he was a 5th-grade student within our autism program.

The first year I taught Tim was rough on both of us. In the beginning, he spent most of the class period folded in half, hiding under his desk engaged in repetitive behaviors. I worked diligently with his paraprofessional to get him to do anything. We found that he liked the iPad, so we would have him work on my iPad for most of the class, but there were still times he had to be removed from the room. By the end of 5th grade, he was doing better and we were able to work on "regular" projects, using the iPad as a reward.

6th grade was better, and most of the time he would create the projects as assigned. By the time he left in 7th grade, you wouldn't have known him to be the same student. He asked questions, verbalized his plans for his projects, and wrote about his creations. He worked with classmates, and he handled the crazy, unstructured flow of the art room with grace.

While I know that most of his growth was due to the amazing teachers and paraprofessionals that worked with him day in and day out, I also know that through art, he was able to find his voice and become a successful student. His growth had me choking back tears when he gave me a brief hug after telling me how excited he was about finishing his final clay project.

Teaching children with autism presents some unique challenges because of the range of behaviors. No two students will react the same way in the same class on the same day. While not every student with autism I have taught has had the same success as Tim, I have learned a few things about working with the unique needs of these special students.

How to Work with Students with Autism in the Art Room

1. Be willing to change your lesson.

Many children with autism are fixated on specific topics. Simply allowing them to adjust the subject matter of the project to reflect their passion will help them invest in your class. This year I have a student who has found a way to incorporate Mario and Luigi into every single project. The creative thinking required to finish the projects while including his favorite subject is impressive. Here is his geometric shape quilt.

2. Set aside a special workspace.

Remember that the child with autism's senses are often heightened. Bright lights, loud classmates, clicking pens, and uncomfortable chairs can often overwhelm a child with autism. Remembering that they might need to work at a smaller, quieter area is important to their ability to be successful. I try to have my students with autism work at tables with two other students versus the usual three. I also like their tables to be located near the back of the room, by the window, or by the door so they have a little more "space" from their peers.

3. Use simple, specific directions and limit choices.

Because the child with autism's mind is processing all of the stimulus from the outside world while listening to the teacher, they can struggle to remember a long series of directions. Giving your students shorter, more specific directions will help them. They likely won't understand your idioms or sarcasm, but they will be able to process a short, specific to-do list. Students with autism can also be overwhelmed and lost when given open-ended questions or tasks. Limiting them to a few choices makes it easier to process the concept and, therefore, to be successful.

4. Understand your students' skill levels.

Like all students, students with autism will fall on a wide spectrum of artistic ability. Some students won't possess the fine motor skills necessary to make typical grade level work. On the other hand, some students with autism will be the most talented students you'll ever teach. It's important to understand where your students' skills are and meet them there.

5. Allow time to adjust to new things.

Changes in class or routine can be challenging for the student with autism. Having a set routine and allowing time for students to adjust to the new room, classmates, and subject matter is important for their success. You may be blessed, like I am, to have incredible paraprofessionals that help students settle in. However, if you're flying solo, you could try something as simple as having a coloring sheet or blank free drawing paper at their seats every time they come to class.

6. Use peer modeling.

As my students progress through the art room and become more adjusted, partnering them with other classmates can be beneficial. It seems that one or two students in each class naturally show themselves to be helpers. These students are willing to sit with my students with autism and provide assistance. They accept the unique behaviors of their classmates and help them feel included.

7. Accept stimming.

Stimming is a series of repetitive behaviors that students with autism may display. This can include flapping, rocking, tapping, and more. Accept it. They don't do it to be rude or disrespectful, rather, these behaviors help students with autism deal with the stimulation that is overwhelming. Understand that students with autism may behave differently than other students. I once worked with a student who needed to touch my hair while listening to the demonstration. While I wouldn't be comfortable if most students did this, I knew that it was what he needed to be able to focus. He could handle being surrounded with other people and focus on the lesson if he could touch a section of my hair.

Tim has moved on to the high school now, and I don't get to see him in class anymore. However, I still get a big "fist bump" when I see him around town. If I had been unwilling to make a few adjustments to my class, this story could have ended very differently. Working with students with autism will require you to understand their unique personalities and needs, but it also gives you the opportunity to work with some truly amazing students. A few adjustments to your art room will make the process easier on you and on them. It can also leave you with some special people forever in your heart. If you are looking for even more information about working with students with autism in the art room, be sure to check out our class Autism and Art where you'll work to create customized resources to use with your specific students.
How do you accommodate for students with autism in your art room? Do you have some favorite memories to share?

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How to Work with Students with Autism in the Art Room - The Art of Education University

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There are certain students who forever stay in our hearts. One of mine is a student I'll call Tim. When Tim started at my school, he was a 5th-grade student within our autism program. The first year I taught Tim was rough on both of us.

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Want to read music? Does your child or music student have a hard time reading notes? Color coding music notation can help. Learn more!

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Introduction

Classroom teachers have used graphic organizers for years to help students gather, sift through, organize, and share information. Graphic organizers are appealing because they have a wide range use and adaptability for many different topics and subjects. General education teachers are familiar with common layouts for graphic organizers but may not be as familiar with how to adapt graphic organizers for students with varied learning needs. This TIPs sheet will expand on the traditional graphic organizer formats to show how they can be differentiated to meet the needs of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities through the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Evidence

Although graphic organizers are commonly used by both general education teachers and special education teachers, teachers must consider what aspects of the graphic organizer might present barriers given the diversity of student characteristics in an inclusive classroom. For example, a student with cerebral palsy and a significant cognitive disability who has an orthotic brace on her arm will need adaptations to participate when students are writing into a graphic organizer. It is not sufficient to simply pair the student with a general education peer and have her watch the peer write in the graphic organizer, but rather materials will need to be adapted so the student can actively and independently manipulate word cards or objects to place them into a graphic organizer. This could still be done with a peer but the two would be working with the adapted materials together.

In a recent evidence-based practice review by Saunders et al. (2020), graphic organizers were found to be a promising practice for use with students with significant cognitive disabilities for academic instruction in inclusive settings. In this review, graphic organizers were used to teach reading comprehension of text in subject areas such as science (Jimenez et al., 2012) and social studies (Wood et al., 2015). Although positive effects were observed in these two studies for the use of graphic organizers during instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities, additional research is needed to promote the use of graphic organizers to a research-based practice (i.e., more participants, research teams, and geographical regions). The implication for practitioners is that graphic organizers can help students with significant cognitive disabilities show higher level thinking skills that are aligned to the complexity of the grade level academic standards.

Teachers have many variables to consider when thinking about how to design accessible graphic organizers in an inclusive classroom. Students come with various levels of performance, preferred modes of learning, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and prior experience, which can all affect how each student learns (Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014). Teachers must decide, based on learner characteristics, how to implement UDL principles when designing lesson plans involving graphic organizers, so all students have access to the content through multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression. When applying the UDL framework, no student, including students with significant cognitive disabilities, should be defined by their perceived impairments and support needed to access to learning in the inclusive classroom (Hartmann, 2015). Teachers serving inclusive classrooms can think of the UDL framework as one way to address learner variability, in which a student with a significant cognitive disability is an expected part of the natural diversity and should be embraced using the teachers' skill set in universal design (Hartmann, 2015).

Definition and Examples

Graphic organizers are an instructional tool used to aid in comprehension or to organize key information. They can be used as an activity to help students retain information they've learned for a longer period of time. Students, including those with emergent literacy skills, limited English fluency, and diverse learning styles can often process information in a graphic organizer more easily than from traditional text. Graphic organizers can help students focus their thoughts for planning, decision making, and writing. They help students see connections, patterns, and relationships. They can also help students show understanding of the "big picture" from a lesson or book.

The table below describes common graphic organizers types, with the purpose and the essential feature of each. These essential features are non-negotiable. They must be present when using these graphic organizers. However, as adaptations are made to the graphic organizer, the purpose and essential feature must be kept intact. See the implementation section for how adaptations can be made to increase accessibility for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

Table 1: The Purpose and Essential Features of Common Graphic Organizers

Cause and Effect

Cause and effect chain

Problem and solution map

Fishbone diagram

Analyze a series of events or processes, potentially for a complex topic

Classifying

Web (Bubble map)

Classification table (T-Chart)

Sort or classify items into different categories

Comparing and Contrasting

Venn diagram

Compare-contrast matrix

Identify similar (overlapping) and different characteristics of items

Describing

Identify examples and non-examples of vocabulary terms/connections between vocabulary terms

Sequencing

Flowchart

Series of events chain

Cycle

Timeline

Break down important steps or events in a process or sequence

Implementation

Graphic organizers often incorporate higher level thought processes and can easily be modified for all learners using principles of UDL. Planning is key for successful implementation of differentiated graphic organizers because teachers must think ahead for all of their students to make sure they can access the content in a universal way by considering representation, expression, and engagement.

For students who may require an adaptation to traditional graphic organizers, teachers should consider adaptations based on students' ability to perceive, engage, and respond with the graphic organizer and the content they are synthesizing with it. Providing multiple means of representation with a graphic organizer could involve customizing how it is displayed, including the use of objects or symbols. Providing multiple means of engagement involves promoting student interests, choices, and the relevance of the task. Lastly, providing multiple means of action/expression involves allowing variability in student response modes. This is especially important for students with complex communication needs. See Table 2 for suggestions for adaptations to graphic organizers for students in general, including students with significant cognitive disabilities.

Table 2. Suggested Graphic Organizer Adaptations Using Elements of Universal Design for Learning

Elements of Universal Design for Learning

Graphic Organizer Adaptations

Adaptations for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

Representation

making the graphic organizer less detailed

offering a digital version of the graphic organizer

using tactile supports to build graphic organizer (wiki sticks, hula hoops)

laminated materials for repeated instruction/experiences

Action/Expression

providing a word bank

using pre-cut out words to sort

providing all the information that needs to go in the graphic organizer on the graphic organizer

allowing the use of technology to create

using color coded index cards for sorting items into categories

providing a word bank with visual supports

offer choices other than writing in graphic organizer (dictating to a scribe, choice making, sorting words/pictures/objects, use of AAC)

having the student use color coded stickers on preprinted cards to organize by category

using larger, laminated options with Velcro

Engagement

incorporating student interest

offering choice when appropriate

allowing open notes

providing page numbers to look back in their books

having a few answers filled in already

offering examples/nonexamples

incorporating technology

appropriate prompting and reinforcement to allow student to experience success

incorporating the use of peers to build a permanent product

incorporating technology

The following are examples and descriptions on how these adaptations might be applied for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities across a range of skills.

In this example the general education teacher asks students to use a t-chart to show examples and non-examples of the value "4". General education peers are asked to write examples of "4" and "not 4" using written or drawn examples. Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities in this classroom engage with this graphic organizer by sorting pre-cut paper with examples and non-examples of the value "4" on a T-chart.

In this example the general education teacher asks students to explore properties and attributes of three-dimensional shapes by categorizing them as round, flat, or both. The majority of the class uses printed pictures of three-dimensional shapes by cutting and pasting them into their math journals where they have to draw their own Venn diagram. For students with significant cognitive disabilities, sorting tangible objects may be the best way to categorize each of the shapes.

In this example the general education teacher asks students to do a literary analysis of Moby Dick using a concept map. Some of the students in the classroom in the general education population begin to do so on a blank sheet of paper following the concept map format the teacher gives with each major headings filled out. Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities can utilize wiki sticks and preprinted cards to build a concept map.

Frayer Model. In this example the general education teacher asks students to review properties of lines and angles. The students in the classroom take the laminated cards the teacher made and copy them into their math notebooks. Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities are supported by having a more succinct definition and example graphic organizer, such as the triangle Frayer model below.

Here is an additional example video demonstration of differentiated fishbone graphic organizer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUqfwv3izO4 . This video clip shows how one teacher uses the Fishbone for first grade students by modifying it for all the students in the classroom. The adaptations include requiring less text in boxes instead of lines and opportunities to draw examples. Although a student with a significant cognitive disability is not included in this video example, the teacher could extend the modification given to the whole class by having preprinted images for placement in the modified fishbone graphic organizer.

In each one of these examples, students with the most significant cognitive disabilities were considered in the design and implementation of the adaptations within each of the traditional graphic organizer formats. It is important to note that these adaptations can be used for a wide variety of students, not just those with significant cognitive disabilities. Teachers must seek to avoid "islands in the mainstream" (Biklen, 1992, p. 148), by carefully creating adaptations that maintain the essential features of the task (see Table 1). The goal of providing adaptations to graphic organizers in an inclusive classroom for students with significant cognitive disabilities is to help them engage with the content and participate alongside their peers, not separate from them.

Summary

Graphic organizers are a flexible tool that have applications across academic content areas and populations of students with and without disabilities. General education and special education teachers can work together to match the materials and formatting to fit individual student needs; however, when planned with UDL, all students can access content through the use graphic organizers.

TIPS Series: Tip #10, August 2020

The information in this Brief is not an endorsement of any identified products. Products identified in this Brief are shared solely as examples to help communicate information about ways to reach the desired goals for students.

All rights reserved. Any or all portions of this document may be reproduced without prior permission, provided the source is cited as:

Reyes, E. N., Wakeman, S., & Bowman, J. (2020). The Use of Graphic Organizers in Inclusive Classrooms for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities (TIPS Series: Tip #10). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, TIES Center.

TIES Center is the national technical assistance center on inclusive practices and policies. Its purpose is to create sustainable changes in kindergarten-grade 8 school and district educational systems so that students with significant cognitive disabilities can fully engage in the same instructional and non-instructional activities as their general education peers, while being instructed in a way that meets individual learning needs. TIES Center is led by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) at the Institute on Community Integration, University of Minnesota, and includes the following additional collaborating partners: Arizona Department of Education, CAST, University of Cincinnati, University of Kentucky, University of North Carolina - Charlotte, and University of North Carolina - Greensboro.

TIES Center is supported through a Cooperative Agreement (#H326Y170004) with the Research to Practice Division, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Education or Offices within it. Project Officer: Susan Weigert

TIES Center

University of Minnesota

Institute on Community Integration

2025 East River Parkway

Minneapolis, MN 55414

Phone: 612-626-1530
www.tiescenter.org
This document is available in alternate formats upon request.

The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity employer and educator.

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TIES TIPS | Foundations of Inclusion | TIP #10: The Use of Graphic Organizers in Inclusive Classrooms for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

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Classroom teachers have used graphic organizers for years to help students gather, sift through, organize, and share information. Graphic organizers are appealing because they have a wide range use and adaptability for many different topics and subjects.

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Small Group Rotations with Moderate/Severe Special Education Students

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by Nathan Bond, Ph.D

The face of the average learner in a LOTE classroom is changing. In previous decades only college-bound students studied foreign languages; however, today a rich array of students with a range of needs, ability levels and expectations fills the modern classroom. This influx of learners, including mainstreamed special education students, can be attributed to some school districts requiring all students to complete advanced high school graduation degree plans, which often include two years of study of a foreign language. Sadly, studies show that only 30% of general education teachers feel adequately prepared to work with mainstreamed students (Scruggs & Mastropieri, 1996). LOTE educators, however, are carefully examining their instructional practices and beefing up their repertoire of strategies to meet the demands of teaching a more diverse student population. One promising approach appears to be differentiation.

Carol Ann Tomlinson (2001), the nation's most noted scholar in the area of differentiation, states that to meet the needs of all learners, teachers can vary three curricular elements: content, process and product. Her model proposes a flexible flow of instruction as students move through a series of wholeclass and cooperative group activities to master information. The purpose of this article is to offer both global and specific ways that LOTE educators can differentiate the "process" to meet the needs of special education learners. In order to differentiate the "process" focus on the following:

Maintain a positive attitude about working with special education students, and focus on their abilities, not just their disabilities. In a qualitative study that examined novice teachers and their perceptions of diverse learners, Tomlinson found that "In virtually no instance was there reference to what a special education student or struggling learner can do. Nearly total focus is on what the student cannot do" (Tomlinson, Callahan, Tomchin, Eiss, Imbeau & Landrum, 1997, p. 279).

Establish strong lines of communication with the student, parents, special education teacher and other faculty. Another expert on differentiation, M. B. Doyle (2000), encourages teachers to talk directly with the students to determine their strengths and interests. Furthermore, teachers should collaborate with other teachers who work or have worked with the special education student to learn which instructional techniques were successful. Lastly, portfolios of student work along with IEPs can provide the teacher with great insight into the abilities of the special education learner.

Teach explicitly. When teachers follow a structured instructional approach, they state the purpose of the lesson, model the knowledge or skill, and then provide students with ample, creative and hands-on opportunities to interact with the information. Teaching explicitly does not imply a simplistic and superficial view of teaching or learning. Instead, Tomlinson, et al (1997) state that teachers should prioritize information by identifying the essential concepts and teaching them well. They state, "Don't focus on coverage, but developing deep conceptual understanding of a topic (p. 277). Also, teaching explicitly does not imply a singular approach to teaching or learning. Stradling & Saunders (1993) state, "But this does not mean that they [the special education learner] should not also be encouraged to learn in new and more efficient and effective ways. Learners need to be encouraged to develop a broader repertoire of learning strategies" (p. 131).

Teach thinking skills. Academically successful students enter the language learning process with elaborate cognitive strategies that help them to make sense of unknown information or tasks, and teachers accustomed to these students devote little instructional time to teaching thinking skills. On the other hand, special education students typically lack well-developed thinking skills. Bender (2002) urges teachers to strengthen students' metacognitive abilities. For example, either the teacher or other students can "think aloud," or orally explain the steps taken when approaching listening, reading, writing and speaking assignments in the foreign language. Another way to teach thinking skills is to show students how to simplify or break down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. And finally, the teacher can show students how to use graphic organizers, acronyms and mnemonic devices to master a foreign language (Paivio & Desrochers, 1981).

After reading this list of suggestions, LOTE educators should feel encouraged, since many of these ideas already comprise current definitions of effective foreign language instruction. Other proven methodological approaches should be remembered. They include: teaching information that is relevant to students' lives; making learning active through the use of manipulatives, dialogues and role-plays; using authentic tasks and materials; assessing learning with formative, traditional and alternative techniques; motivating students with rewards; providing scaffolding or instructional support throughout the lesson; and establishing a structured classroom management system with clear rules and procedures. Adherence to this advice should aid teachers as they differentiate instruction for the special education learner in the LOTE classroom.

References

Bender, W.N. (2002). Differentiating instruction for students with learning disabilities: Best practices for general and special educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Doyle, M.B. (2000). Transition plans for students with disabilities. Educational Leadership, 58(1), 46-48.

Paivio, A. & Desrochers. A. (1981). Mnemonic techniques in second-language proficiency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 73, 780-795.

Scruggs, T. E. & Mastropieri M.A. (1996). Teacher perceptions of mainstreaming / inclusion, 1958-1995: A research synthesis. Exceptional Children, 63(1), 59-74.

Stradling, B. & Saunders, L. (1993). Differentiation in practice: Responding to the needs of all pupils. Educational Research, 35(2), 127-137.

Tomlinson, C.A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Tomlinson, C.A., Callahan, C.M., Tomchin, E.M., Eiss, N., Imbeau, M., & Landrum, M. (1997). Becoming architects of communities of learning: Addressing academic diversity in contemporary classrooms. Exceptional Children, 63(2), 269-282.

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Differentiating Instruction in the LOTE Classroom

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by Nathan Bond, Ph.D The face of the average learner in a LOTE classroom is changing. In previous decades only college-bound students studied foreign languages; however, today a rich array of students with a range of needs, ability levels and expectations fills the modern classroom.

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PE Central: Adapted Physical Education Web Sites

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PE Central is a web site that provides information about developmentatally appropriate physical education practices and programs.

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Schoolyard Blog | Teacher Resources | School Specialty

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Physical Education *

If you are a physical educator, you no doubt have had students with disabilities in your class. In many instances, you may be not be aware of which students have a disability because the disability doesn't affect their participation in your class. Other times you are well aware of those students and are looking for better ways to keep them challenged, and they end up having a successful and fun experience in your class. "Inclusive PE" is the term used for a General Education (Gen Ed) physical education class in which ALL students are included. This includes any student with a disability who may or may not also be receiving Adapted Physical Education (APE) by a special APE teacher. (APE is provided to students with disabilities as part of the special education services they receive.) Inclusive PE is part of the Gen Ed services and involves placing students alongside their peers with support and proper accommodations to help make everyone successful.

Inclusive PE incorporates everyone who can safely be included in a general PE class. Most students with disabilities (92% at elementary and 88% at secondary level) are mainstreamed into general PE classes. The greatest percentage of students with disabilities falls under the group "specific learning disabilities" (~45%) followed by "speech and language disorders" (~19%). The rest of the students with disabilities fall into the categories of "Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)," which can include emotional disturbance, hearing impairment (including deafness), intellectual disability, orthopedic impairments, other health impairments, traumatic brain injury, visual impairments (including blindness) and multiple disabilities.

Inclusive PE has benefits for all students. Students with disabilities gain valuable social skills when working and playing in the Gen Ed environment. All students learn appropriate behavior from a variety of their peers whether they are disabled or not. Students with disabilities have more opportunities to participate in age-appropriate physical activities in an inclusive PE environment compared to APE. Students develop relationships with their Gen Ed peers. Oftentimes, higher expectations lead children with disabilities to achieve more, gain confidence, and develop a stronger sense of self. On the other hand, the Gen Ed students also gain many advantages from inclusion. First, as they are exposed to children with disabilities, they tend to become more understanding of and develop more positive attitudes toward others with differences. They are less likely to see disability as an impairment and more likely to see it simply as a difference and accept them more readily. It has also been shown that when students are given the chance to be an "expert" in an area and become peer tutors, it helps them and increases their abilities in that area. In addition, when teachers create opportunities for students to learn in a variety of ways, it helps not just those with disabilities, but all students. There is no evidence at all that Gen Ed students lose academic or social skills as a result of inclusion. All evidence points to a win-win situation for all students.

As a PE teacher your goal is to help your students reach their full potential. An inclusive environment will help them get there. Be emphasizing respect, acceptance and cooperation as core values in class, you will create an environment that recognizes the value of differences and helps everyone focus on what they can do. The following strategies will help you build a more inclusive environment:

Talk to your class about inclusion

Have a conversation about expectations and etiquette. Students will have questions and concerns, so give everyone an opportunity for discussion. Help them to understand that all people have needs and rights and that everyone is different.

Use "People First" language

By putting the individual first and the disability second you are helping to create mutual respect. (E.g. "My student with autism" as opposed to "An autistic student.")

Get to know your students

Find out about their abilities, strengths and challenges, rather than making assumptions based on their disability. Find out about their learning needs and which specific strategies work for them.

Consult with specialists

Specialists such as PTs, OTs, APE teachers, speech and language therapists, and others with more experience or education regarding working with students with disabilities can be a very effective resource.

Engage your students when adapting activities

Help them see that there are many ways to adapt to help them be successful. Guide them so that eventually they will know best how to adapt for themselves.

Adapting rules and instructions

If students are having difficulty following rules, simplify so there are fewer rules to remember. Make instructions clear and add resources where needed (e.g. white board, demonstrations, minimize background noise, etc.)

Modify activities

Sometimes students will need modifications and sometimes they won't. It will depend on the student and the activity/skill/game being taught. Don't assume that if a student has a disability they will always need things to be modified. The following are some general ideas for adapting activities:

Let partners/peers assist

Eliminate time limits

Allow balls to be stationary

Modify the purpose of the activity

Use models to show the activity

Reduce number of players per team

Slow the pace of the activity

Provide rest periods as needed

Define boundaries clearly

Modify the activity area

Use a variety of sizes, weights, densities of toss/catchables

Make lower/larger goals

Use lighter equipment

Provide balance support

If you are looking for ways to adapt your teaching to better suit students with varying disabilities, Sportime carries an Inclusive PE Equipment Pack that can help your students with disabilities reach their potential in PE.

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How to Make Your Physical Education Class More Inclusive

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If you are a physical educator, you no doubt have had students with disabilities in your class. In many instances, you may be not be aware of which students have a disability because the disability doesn't affect their participation in your class. Other times you are well aware of those students and are looking [...]

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Universal Design for Learning in Physical Education

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UDL is a way of thinking and acting that may change the way you approach student learning. Rather than thinking a student needs to change, UDL looks at the learning environment. Consider what within the environment is a barrier to learning. Is it that space itself? Is it the equipment you are using?

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National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD)

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has emerged as a framework that uses a variety of teaching methods to remove barriers and increase access to learning to provide ALL students equal opportunities to learn and succeed. The UDL framework, developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) is an evidence-based educational framework that benefits all learners, including, but not limited to, students with disabilities. UDL holds particular value during this time of shifting teaching modalities as a result of the pandemic and teachers' needs for instructional delivery under challenging conditions. As a result, the National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD) in collaboration with the National Consortium for Physical Education for Individuals with Disabilities (NCPEID) has created the interactive visual resource Laying the Foundation for Universal Design for Learning in Physical Education to provide general information on the core components of UDL. In addition, the tool suggests recommended strategies to facilitate the implementation of UDL in all physical education settings-no matter what the teaching modality.

How to use the infographic: The core components of UDL are depicted as part of the solar system. The sun represents the UDL framework and the planets, stars, and constellations represent the core components of UDL. The images on the infographic are connected to a hyperlink that has information related to its title. For example, UDL will have a hyperlink to a separate one-pager with information specific to the definition of UDL. Click on each image to access the related information.
https://www.nchpad.org/fppics/NCHPAD_Universal%20Design%20graphic.pdf
After exploring the interactive infographic, use this link to download all of the information and resources in our UDL for PE Toolkit.

Special thanks to Dr. Michelle Grenier, Dr. Lauren Lieberman, and NCPEID for their help with this resource.

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Laying the Foundation for Universal Design for Learning in Physical Education : NCHPAD - Building Inclusive Communities

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has emerged as a framework that uses a variety of teaching methods to remove barriers and increase access to learning to provide ALL students equal opportunities to learn and succeed. The UDL framework, developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) is an evidence-based educational framework that benefits all learners, including, but not limited to, students with disabilities.

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This video is part of a Creativity at the Core Module: Music Instruction and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Grades TK-6

Developed by Humboldt County Office of Education, Orange County Department of Education, and Stanislaus County Office of Education

For full module go to: www.ccsesaarts.org
California County Superintendents Educational Services Association

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There are many ways to construct art lessons that involved multiple representations, expressions, and engagement. In the following lesson plan, I merely present on e example of an elementary,...

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UDL Implementation In the Music Classroom

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UDL Implementation in the Music Classroom Instructional Planning Evident to Introduction Ms. Potochnik used: signs and posters verbal reminders to assess background knowledge of music and the piece for the students in her class Most of Ms. Potochnik's teaching was implied, or

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Music Math Choices Take The UDL Plunge Multi-Cultural Options Options For Language, Mathematical Expressions, and Symbols Options UDL In The Music Classroom Options For Language Translator Application Card Design Answer Design Universal Understanding

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Active Listening in Elementary General Music — Victoria Boler

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Listening is the primary way we interact with music - both in formal learning and informal learning, as well as inside and outside the music classroom. Because listening is such a substantial way of musical knowing, how can we encourage students to develop their listening skills in our music classr

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In this post we talked about why we need options for music education that are as accessible as possible to all our learners. We discussed the three brain networks that impact how students show up in our classrooms (Affective, Recognition, and Strategic), and some general strategies to consider when it comes to UDL.

Today we'll zoom in on the Affective brain networks. In this model of brain research, the Affective networks are responsible for the level of engagement students experience in learning, as well as their motivation level to become a lifelong musical learner. We'll look at concrete examples of providing multiple means of engagement in elementary general music.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it can get us started in thinking through practical applications of UDL in music.

Let's jump in.

Do I Need to Add More Means of Engagement?

For some of us, UDL is a framework we learned in a recent teacher training course. For many of us, we're learning about this approach after many years already in the classroom. When we hear about a new approach in education, we might wonder if we really need to add one more thing to our list of things to think about.
How will we know if students are being provided enough means of engagement?
The answer might be more simple than we think. It doesn't come down to what our principals say we need to do, or a checklist from a PD session, or a trend in education.

Look at the Students

If students are off task and unengaged in learning, it may be time to try out some new methods of recruiting interest, motivation, and self regulation. If there are students who struggle to participate in musical tasks - for whatever reason or whatever perceived reason - we can brainstorm more ways to engage them.

We can also ask students about their experiences in our classrooms and listen to their feedback. If their answers show that they don't feel particularly interested in our curriculum, way of teaching, or level of ownership they're given, it might be time to explore some new ideas.

Our goal is for students to be purposeful, motivated, and musical in our classrooms. Providing multiple means of engagement is how we can partner with elementary musicians so they make as much music as possible.

The Guidelines for Engagement:

Recruiting Interest
We like to learn about things that are interesting! How can frame or rework our presentations to nurture more student interest?

Sustaining Effort and Persistence:
Musicianship takes practice over time. How can we help students be attentive through the whole process?

Self Regulation:
When we self regulate emotional responses, we contribute to a classroom environment that's conducive to learning. How can we help students regulate their behavior so they're set up for success?

These are guidelines from Cast, with examples of how they can be applied in elementary general music.

We like to learn about things that are interesting! These are ways we can partner with students to engage them in classroom activities. Much of this has to do with the repertoire we select, but it also has to do with student roles in the classroom. Are students active participants in musical tasks, or are they only being asked to follow teacher directions quickly? Here are some ideas for adjusting our learning environments to be more interesting to students.

Optimize individual choice and autonomy (7.1)

Provide learners with as much discretion and autonomy as possible by providing choices:

When we build lessons with student choice embedded, we not only strengthen our overall musicianship expectations, but we put students in a better place to take ownership of their part in learning. This starts with clear goals in our curriculum planning. From there, we can be flexible and creative about how students will show their learning. There are so many opportunities for student choice in the music room! Students can choose whether they will tiptoe or slide to their spots. They might choose to clap the rhythm of the words or pat the steady beat. They could choose to come in 1st or 2nd in a two-part round. They might choose to play an ostinato or clap the rhythm of the main song. Let's imagine we want to expand students' melodic vocabulary by exploring new melodic patterns that use low la in the extended pentatone. Early in this vocabulary building phase, we'll want students to show melodic contour of a specific pattern. Students can choose if they'll show the melody through movement or through body percussion. Since both options in this scenario move students toward our learning objective, we don't need to dictate how students show melodic contour. Both pathways give us the evidence we need to move learning forward.

Allow learners to participate in the design of classroom activities and academic tasks:

Students can help us create arrangements for sharing activities like informances or other presentations. They can also help create arrangements just for fun to be performed in class. If letting students create class arrangements is new for you or your students, an easy way to get started is with rhythmic building blocks. When we work with a folk song, students can use rhythmic building blocks to create their own rhythms in small groups. With their rhythms created, we can decide as a class if the rhythms will be a B section the class plays all together, or if a few of them will be ostinati that happen throughout the whole song.

Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity (7.2)

Vary activities and sources of information so that they can be age and ability appropriate:

Among other criteria, repertoire we engage with in the music room should be repertoire we expect students to enjoy! We can select repertoire that is age appropriate, and then see how students respond over time. Students can also suggest repertoire to be used in the music room. Using student-provided repertoire requires more time and creativity from us, but the buy-in from students makes it a worthwhile endeavor.

Design activities so that learning outcomes are authentic, communicate to real audiences, and reflect a purpose that is clear to the participants

When our musical tasks are authentic, they can be transferred to real-world scenarios outside of the music classroom. In an active musical learning environment, students learn music by musicing - by actively embodying musical ideas - not by simply being in the room while a teacher talks about musical ideas. This emphasis on active musicing engages students in authentic, real-world activities. When we think beyond things like worksheets and memorizing the lines and spaces of the staff, so many new possibilities open up like singing, playing instruments, speaking, moving, reading, writing, improvising, composing, arranging, and listening.

Minimize threats and distractions (7.3)

Create an accepting and supportive classroom climate:

From the first day of class, we can make sure our classrooms are safe places to learn. Our music classrooms should be places where student mistakes are welcomed and encouraged, and where forward motion is praised. Students might need coaching on the specific language to use in group work or in other classroom sharing activities when peers perform musically so the feedback is process-oriented.

Vary the social demands required for learning or performance, the perceived level of support and protection and the requirements for public display and evaluation:

Music engagement requires vulnerability on the part of us and our students, specifically when it comes to specific performance tasks such as singing or improvising. Because we learn by actively musicing, it's possible for the performance aspect of our classrooms to cause nervousness in some students. When we compare music learning to a traditional math class, this difference is highlighted well. When students learn math in a traditional classroom, they often sit at their desks while the teacher talks about math. When it's time to show their knowledge, students often write down an answer on a worksheet. If a student has trouble with a specific math skill, their peers won't know. In contrast, in an active music room students perform musical tasks to show their knowledge. The emphasis on authenticity can also cause anxiety for some students who can be concerned that if they don't perform a skill well, everyone will know. We can help minimize threats and distractions by scaffolding skills well and lesson planning with intention so students aren't put in a vulnerable position before they're ready. When it's time to do a skill like singing or improvising, we can practice as a whole class, we can inner hear answers in our heads, we can practice with small groups, and then with partners all before necessarily asking students to perform alone.

The Takeaway:
We can offer students choice, make learning active, and scaffold tasks strategically to engage more student interest.

Sustaining Effort and Persistence (Guideline 8)

When we learn a new skill, we need a combination of challenges to move us forward and assistance to help us meet those challenges. Thoughtful practice over time and internal motivation are both necessary to create lifelong musical learners. How can we partner with students so they're self-aware and motivated to persevere as they build musicianship over time? Because we see (on average) ages 5 - 11, the answers to this question will change as our students change with age, interest, and life experiences.

Heighten salience of goals and objectives (8.1)

Engage learners in assessment discussions of what constitutes excellence and generate relevant examples that connect to their cultural background and interests:

Students can be involved in the creation of goal setting and evaluation in the classroom! In preparation for an informance or another sharing event, students can think about what an excellent final product would be, and come up with a list of criteria to know they've reached the goal. Class-created rubrics can be helpful to get the whole group of musicians on the same page.

Use prompts or scaffolds for visualizing desired outcome:

As we work toward an aural picture of musicianship, there are many ways we could achieve our desired outcomes! We could listen to field recordings. The teacher could demonstrate. We could listen to peer ideas. We could inner hear our desired vocal sounds. We could mime playing the instrument while inner hearing. We could map out the form of our arrangement on the board. There are many possibilities to provide an aural and visual image of the final musical goal!

Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge (8.2)

Vary the degrees of freedom for acceptable performance:

When we're clear on our long-range and short-term learning goals, we get clarity on how much room we have for individual choice within those learning parameters. For example, if students are asked to perform a B section with rhythmic building blocks using patterns containing and beat and beat subdivision, there are many options embedded! Will students perform on text or on rhythm syllables? Will they clap the rhythms as they speak? Could they put the rhythms on body percussion? Will they add movements for each rhythm item? Will all cards have two beats or will some have four? Will students come up with the rhythms or will we provide them? We can consider what parameters we will set as teachers and what freedoms within those parameters students will have after we clarify our specific learning goals.

Emphasize process, effort, improvement in meeting standards as alternatives to external evaluation and competition:

Why should students be interested and engaged in our learning tasks? Is it to see their class score on a behavior chart? Is it the threat of punishment or potential for a reward (both two sides of the same threat-based coin)? Thoughtful practice over time and internal motivation are what create lifelong musical learners. We can help deemphasize stickers, charts, pizza parties, and competition by emphasizing student progress, effort, and improvement. Instead of "Yessss your class is winning the good behavior competition between the 3rd grade classes! One step closer to free choice day in music!" we can try "I think our class rondo sounds even more expressive after today's class! Let's compare the audio I just recorded with what I recorded three classes ago and see what we think. After you listen, talk to your shoulder partner about what we can do next."

Foster Collaboration and Community (8.3)

Our classrooms aren't isolated contexts. Elementary music students have a lot to learn from each other, and it's important that they leave our classrooms able to listen and collaborate with other people.

Create cooperative learning groups with clear goals, roles, and responsibilities:

In an active music classroom, information is shared from teacher to student, student to teacher, student to student, and students to community. This is an important part of deemphasizing the teacher as the source of all musical knowledge, and reframing the teacher's role to the musical guide while the students construct their own knowledge. Students can work in small groups to figure out how to play a melodic pattern on barred instruments by ear. They could create a group ostinato. They could brainstorm ideas for a B section. They could discuss the meaning of the text in a song, book, or story.

Create expectations for group work:

Like us, young musicians can have conflict when working in groups. What are the expectations for listening to ideas? What are the expectations for trying those ideas? Creating rubrics or checklists for students to work toward in small groups can be helpful to establish boundaries and goals.

Increase mastery-oriented feedback (8.4)

Musical skills are built, not born. Despite the wide-spread myths around innate talent and creativity, our students become better musicians when they are motivated to thoughtfully practice over time. All of us are motivated to keep learning when we feel we're making progress. One of the teacher's jobs in the UDL classroom is to help students approach challenges through mastery-oriented feedback.

Provide feedback that encourages perseverance, focuses on development of efficacy and self-awareness, and encourages the use of specific supports and strategies in the face of challenge:

When students encounter challenges to things like pitch matching, we can give them specific supports such as vocal sirens, inner hearing the melodic contour while moving, or singing with a friend. Instead of "Grace, you have such a beautiful voice!" we can try "Grace, did you hear how your voice changed after we did the sirens together?!" One implies an innate ability. One implies building skills over time through strategic support and self-awareness.

Provide feedback that models how to incorporate evaluation, including identifying patterns of errors and wrong answers, into positive strategies for future success:

In preparation for an informance or another sharing scenario, students may be working on a whole class ensemble arrangement of (just as an example) Engine Engine Number Nine. In this arrangement example, as one group is moving like a train, one group is playing a steady beat on tubanos, and one group is playing the rhythm of the words on rhythm sticks, it's possible to get off from the steady beat. When that happens, we can say something like "hmmmm let's do that again and listen across the room while we perform. When we're done, we'll tell someone next to us what we notice." Students perform the arrangement again, discuss with their shoulder partner, then share a few comments with the class. If steady beat matching is identified as a problem, students can brainstorm solutions that the teacher writes on the board (inner hear and pretend to play your part, play quieter, watch the other groups, etc.). Students choose their strategy, then discuss whether or not it helped the ensemble.

The Takeaway:
We can create safe learning environments where students create goals, explore freedom within boundaries, and get process-oriented feedback from us.

Provide options for Self Regulation (Guideline 9)

Students differ in how engaged they are in specific tasks and how aware they are of their behavioral reactions to emotion. We can build in checks to strategically help students monitor their behavior, motivation, and engagement. The more we circle back to these internal motivation checks, the more opportunities we provide for students to be successful.

Promote expectations and beliefs that optimize motivation (9.1):

It can be challenging for some students to wrestle with their current musical skill level in comparison to where they want to be. It's possible for students to act out of frustration when musical tasks are beyond their reach the first try.

Provide prompts, reminders, guides, rubrics, checklists that focus on elevating the frequency of self-reflection and self-reinforcements:

It can be helpful for students to have checks with group or independent work so they're not alarmed or panicked when time is up. This idea is one I adopted from my Orff level 1 instructor, Alicia Knox. When student group or individual work time is nearing its end, the teacher plays an attention-grabber (bell, clap, chimes, etc.) and students hold up fingers for the number of minutes they still need to complete the task. The teacher scans the numbers quickly, then shares how many more minutes (if any) students will work before moving on with the lesson. When we ask students what they need, we give them an opportunity to mentally check in on their own musical progress and make an statement on what they need next.

Support activities that encourage self-reflection and identification of personal goals:

As we work on individual or group assignments like compositions, it can be helpful for students to create their own goals for independent work. When working on a composition or other extended project, students can turn their paper over and fill in the blank to two simple prompts: "Today I ___ (write what was worked on)____. Next class I will ___ (write the next steps)___." Students can also discuss these goals with a shoulder partner before writing. This helps keep the whole class focused on the next steps.

Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies (9.2):

We all have times we feel sad, nervous, or angry in music class. Managing responses to emotions may come easier to some students than others, but there are ways we can help all students move toward managing their emotionally reactive behavior.

Provide differentiated models, scaffolds and feedback for appropriately handling subject specific phobias and judgments of "natural" aptitude:

When we feel uncomfortable, anxious, or embarrassed, it's normal to behave in a way that helps us avoid those feelings. Often that behavior isn't conducive to the classroom environment we want to build. For example, students might react to these feelings by throwing mallets, yelling, shutting down, using comical voices or gestures, attempting to leave the learning space, or using hurtful words. Other guidelines in this post have mentioned the importance of scaffolding musical tasks and offering choices so students are challenged appropriately. We can also help students clarify their wording from "I'm not good at music" (a thought that can trigger an unproductive emotional behavior response) to "I didn't play the 16th notes the way I wanted this time, but what if I try with a slower tempo?" (a thought that can move toward more positive and musical behavior).

Develop self-assessment and reflection (9.3)

Offer devices, aids, or charts to assist individuals in learning to collect, chart and display data from their own behavior for the purpose of monitoring changes in those behaviors:

I taught a particular musician who found it incredibly difficult to go through class without verbal outbursts. These were harmful to the learning environment and I wanted to partner with the student to see how we could find alternative ways of expression. The first step was simply helping this musician see what I was talking about when I referred to "verbal outbursts." We came up with a system where the musician would keep track via written talleys for the number of outbursts in the class. There was no punishment for more talleys and no reward for fewer talleys. At the end of class the musician would share their numbers with me quickly before going to baseball practice. In those conversations, we mostly talked about what the student thought about class that day, and how baseball was going. The outbursts lowered dramatically in those weeks, and my relationship with the student improved.

The Takeaway:
We can help students monitor their thoughts and behaviors by incorporating regular check-ins and opportunities for reflection.

In this post we've discussed many different angles for providing multiple means of engagement in Elementary General music.

Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list! The purposes just to get us thinking about some practical applications of Universal Design for Learning in elementary general music.

As teachers we are learners first. When we learn about a new framework for education we have an opportunity to try on new ideas, new philosophies, and new practices. Sometimes we also get to connect those new philosophies to actions that we're already doing in the classroom. Most of us we are likely already implementing some of these UDL ideas, so perhaps we decide to highlight those practices moving forward. Perhaps there are some things that we could tweak just a bit to enhance the types of engagement we offer.

If you have thoughts about Universal Design for Learning or this particular pillar of multiple means of engagement I would love to hear from you. You can drop a comment below, shoot me an email, or find me on instagram.

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Multiple Means of Engagement in Elementary General Music (UDL in Music Part 2) - Victoria Boler

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In this post we talked about why we need options for music education that are as accessible as possible to all our learners. We discussed the three brain networks that impact how students show up in our classrooms (Affective, Recognition, and Strategic), and some general strategies to consider when

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As elementary music teachers, we see hundreds of students a week - sometimes hundreds of students a day.

Within our student population there are dramatic differences in how students learn and how they will be the most successful musicians they can be in our classrooms. All our learners have learning differences because all our learners are unique, individual musicians with distinct backgrounds, preferences, thoughts, learning strengths, and learning challenges.

How can we set up our classroom learning environments to be as accessible as possible to each of our students?

Universal Design for Learning is an approach more and more educators are turning to in order to serve their students better. In this post we'll look at who we teach, why Universal Design for Learning is necessary in elementary general music, and the core principles of this approach to teaching and learning.

Who Do We Teach?

Variability in Elementary Music Students:

The collection of factors that make students unique from each other is called variability.

Here are a few of the many ways the students we work with on a daily basis differ from each other:

Age: Many music educators work with students ranging from ages 5 - 11. The developmental differences that occur during these ages are drastic!

Musical Preferences: Our students each have musical preferences that can change from year to year. We work with students who light up at the chance to sing, and others who shy away from that particular mode of musicing. We also work with students are enthusiastic about playing recorder, and others who find the timbre of the instrument to be unpleasant. Our students also have different preferences when it comes to musical genres, artists, and specific musical works.

Skill development: In each individual class, there is a range of musical skills including aural perception, vocal development, fine motor skills, and more. Each of these has a dramatic impact on how students engage in our classrooms.

Social Interactions: Students have classmates they prefer to work with, and classmates they don't necessarily prefer. Like adults, their relationships with peers are dynamic and evolving based on each interaction in the day.

Background: Students come to us from dynamic backgrounds. Each individual home and home life is unique. Cultural backgrounds, family dynamics, SES, parent and child roles, spiritual beliefs, family hobbies, and levels of Collectivism all play a part in how students engage with the social and musical aspects of our classrooms.

These are the variables educators are used to considering on a daily basis.

However, brain researchers have looked deeper into three important networks and how they have a direct impact on our students' learning experiences.

Variability and Brain Networks

There are other types of variables we may not be used to considering when we think about our students.

One particular model of how the brain works can be helpful when demonstrating the variability we all have as learners. Our brains are made of complex networks, and variability in any of these areas can have a profound impact on how students engage in our music rooms.

In this model of the brain, here are the basic network areas that impact learning:

Affective: These are the networks that impact how motivated and engaged we are in a particular task

Recognition: These networks take in information and turn that information into knowledge

Strategic: These networks are responsible for planning and organizing intentional action

When we align our teaching with each network of the brain, we have students who are motivated and engaged (affective network), understand musical ideas (recognition network), and can put their knowledge into action over time (strategic network).

Variable, not Fixed

These areas of the brain aren't static. They variable based on the individual, the individual over time, and the learning environment. In any one class of learners, we're working with 25 or so complex humans with complex brain networks that change and adapt to the learning situation.

The "Average" Myth

With this understanding of variability, we can easily see the problem with grouping students into general categories of good at music or untalented, a good student or a behavior problem, normal or disabled. Each of us has a wide range of variables that are constantly in motion.

Each of us has strengths and challenges to learning.

The Takeaway:
There is no single profile of an average elementary musician. All elementary musicians have learning differences.

Instead of trying to make all students learn in the same way at the same pace, what if we made our classrooms as accessible as possible for all learners?

Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning poses an interesting question to consider: instead of looking at our students as having a deficit, what if we wondered if our curricula and learning context are disabling?

When a student is unsuccessful in our classrooms, what if our first step were not to look at the individual student and think about what they need to change in order to reach the demands of our curriculum? What if instead we first looked around the student at the larger context: our demeanor, our environment for learning, our curriculum, our expectations? And what if we were to think about how the curriculum and the context can be adapted so the student is set up to be successful?

This doesn't mean we're taking away accountability on the part of the student. In fact, it's just the opposite. It means that we view ourselves as partnering with students to help them be more successful and take charge of their own learning.

What Makes it Universal?

Universal Design for Learning is not meant to be implemented for the sake of one single student population or one type of learning approach. When we design our teaching practices to engage more learners more deeply, everyone benefits. This is the universal part of universal design. This approach isn't exclusively for students with IEPs, or self-contained classes, or students formally diagnosed with a learning difference.

This philosophy has its roots in the physical design for buildings, so that makes a good starting point to illustrate this idea.

Many buildings have automatic doors. If a person in a wheelchair wants to enter a building, automatic doors make it much more convenient. But automatic doors are not exclusively for people who move in a wheelchair. They're an accommodation that benefits caregivers trying to move in and out of the building while carrying young children. They're for people leaving business meetings with their hands full of papers and memos. They're for people leaving the store with a shopping cart. A person who moves in a wheelchair can benefit from automatic doors. But the automatic doors aren't only for a person who uses a wheelchair. It's an accommodation that universally is more inclusive.

In the classroom, universal design for learning is not for one specific population of students. All students benefit when we make our teaching practices and the learning environment more accessible.

What if instead of writing the same lesson segment on half notes we always teach and then going back to retrofit it for specific students, we began planning learning experiences by thinking of ways to make learning experiences more accessible for all our students?

What if we began planning learning experiences by looking at variabilities first instead of retroactively thinking of disabilities?

The takeaway question:
How can our classrooms and teaching practices reach as many students as possible with as much of an impact as possible?

Three Pillars of Universal Design for Learning

The developers of this approach synthesized findings in the fields of brain research, education, and child development to come up with three basic pillars of Universal Design for Learning.

Multiple Means of Engagement:

Whyshould students be engaged in the material we teach? This pillar deals with the Affective networks of the brain, which impact how motivated and engaged we are in a particular task.

We can offer many different opportunities for students to be interested in what we teach! This is one of the reasons elementary music teachers use multiple media (singing, speaking, moving, and playing), skills (improvising, arranging, listening, reading, writing, etc.), and processes (creating, performing, responding, connecting) in lessons.

Multiple Means of Representation

What are students engaging with in our lessons? This pillar deals with the Recognition networks which take in information and turn it into knowledge.

We can offer many different opportunities for students to interact with information in our classrooms! Instead of simply asking students to memorize the shapes of musical notation symbols, we can lead them on a student-centered discovery-based sequence of learning where we explore many musical ways to represent sound - not just through standardized Western visual notation.

Multiple Means of Action and Expression

How will students show what they know? This pillar deals with the Strategic networks of our brains which are responsible for planning and organizing intentional action.

We can offer many different opportunities for students to showcase their learning! This is one of the other reasons choices in musical media (singing, speaking, moving, and playing) are so important. This is also why we scaffold musical concepts in an intentional sequence so students can create musical responses many times throughout the learning process. When we partner with students to focus on this part of the brain, they are also encouraged to use executive functions to manage impulse control.

Universal Design Action Step

In the next post we'll look at each pillar of Universal Design for Learning and break down more ways to apply the principles in our elementary general music teaching.

For now, we'll begin with a UDL audit.

UDL Audit

The next time you teach students - whatever that lesson structure looks like - make a note of how many variables you notice in the classroom.

Which students seem to be motivated?

Which students seem to recall information from last class?

Do you notice some students showing self control or a lack of self control?

UDL Audit:
In other words, we'll begin by asking the question we asked at the top of the article: Who do we teach?

How to cite this post:

Boler, V. (2021, February 16). Universal design for learning in elementary general music. Victoria Boler. https://victoriaboler.com/blog/universal-design-for-learning-in-elementary-general-music

Sources and Recommended Reading:

Dalton, E. M. (2017). Universal Design for Learning: Guiding principles to reduce barriers to digital & media literacy competence. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 9(2), 17-29. https://doi.org/10.23860/jmle-2019-09-02-02

Darrow, A., (2016). Applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning in general music. In C. Abril & B. Gault (Eds.), Teaching general music (pp. 308-326). Oxford University Press.

Hourigan, R., (2015). Understanding music and Universal Design for Learning: Strategies for students with learning differences in the 21st century. In C. Conway (Ed.), Musicianship-focused curriculum and assessment (pp. 89 - 112). GIA.

McCord, K. (2013). Universal Design for Learning: Special educators integrating the Orff approach into their teaching. Approaches: Music Therapy & Special Music Education, Special Issue 5(2), 188-193. Retrieved from http://approaches.primarymusic.gr

Meyer, A., Rose, D. H., & Gordon, D. (2013). Universal Design for Learning: Theory and practice (1st ed.). Cast Incorporated. http://udltheorypractice.cast.org/

Quaglia, B. (2015). Planning for student variability. Music Theory Online, 21(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.21.1.6

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Universal Design for Learning in Elementary General Music (Part 1) - Victoria Boler

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As elementary music teachers, we see hundreds of students a week - sometimes hundreds of students a day. Within our student population there are dramatic differences in how students learn and how they will be the most successful musicians they can be in our classrooms. All our learners have learni

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Universal Design began as a result of the first laws that required buildings to be accessible for people with disabilities in the mid-1970s. Architects decided it was more cost-efficient to design buildings that were naturally accessible than to add on wheelchair ramps and other accommodations for people who might use public buildings.

The same concept can be applied to education.

Teachers write lesson plans, but what happens if a new student who joins in ensemble happens to be blind? If the teacher has been teaching music from notation, he or she may have to figure out some alternative activities or outside help for the new student. Music can be exclusionary or awkward for students with disabilities who want to participate without feeling singled out or different from their peers who may notice they aren't learning the same way. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a way of planning, teaching, and assessing instruction that is naturally inclusive of all possible types of learners. In the process, typical learners will learn better, too, because they are being tied with more flexibility.
The three main principles of UDL to be considered when designing lessons are:

Multiple means of representation

Multiple means of action and expression

Multiple means of engagement

This requires the teacher to be flexible and to think about what is most important that the student understands from the lesson. If it is rondo form, the different ways to represent rondo form should be considered (listening, playing, or singing a piece in rondo form, moving, or composing). Representing the concept through different learning modes (aural, visual, and kinesthetic/tactile) could help engage all learners. Teachers tend to teach primarily through their own preferred learning modes. A teacher may be a visual learner who writes on the board, uses visuals, and even uses language that is visually descriptive. He or she may have classroom students who learn better if they have new information verbally explained or if they pat rhythms on their thighs. Typical students do better when concepts are presented through different learning modes, but a student with vision loss is going to especially need teachers who make heavy use of visuals to represent concepts through their stronger learning modes (aural and kinesthetic/tactile).

Students, such as those who are nonverbal, need flexibility in how they demonstrate their understanding of what has been taught. The first national standard for music education states that all students should be able to sing alone and with others. If a student can't sing because she has a communication disorder, how can teachers assess her in regards to matching pitch? There are many ways flexible UDL teachers can assess in the situation: student demonstrations of the correct Curwen hand signs for soland mi, for example. A student who is hard of hearing my demonstrate pitch matching through written notation rather than voiced singing.

Finally, differentiated instruction requires teachers to know their students well and think about how to best engage them. Many students with Asperger Syndrome have passionate interest in specific areas. For example, if a student loves maps and collects roadway signs, he might more easily remember that fine means stop if given a visual of a stop sign drawn around the word, as well all the other students in the class! A student with Attention Deficit Disorder might be more successful during a long rehearsal if he is allowed two seats in the classroom and permission to get up and move between the two seats.

Allowing students choice and empowering them to advocate for their own best learning is a valuable tool for success in the world. Students who are engaged and aware of their abilities and learning needs are more easily able to advocate for themselves-this is self-determination, a very important skill students with disabilities need to learn.

Accessing Music is a revolutionary new book designed to help special education teachers assist students with disabilities to participate in music to achieve their individual, fullest potential. Based on the philosophy of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)-a way of planning, teaching, and assessing instruction that is naturally inclusive of all possible types of learners- Accessing Music explores alternative and creative ways to reach disabled students in the classroom. Classroom-tested, the innovative strategies, examples, and visuals presented have successfully tackled challenging areas, such as notation, fingering charts, holding instruments, assessment, manipulatives, and much more. This fully reproducible book also includes a comprehensive list of valuable, related resources, and the Data Disk CD allows for printing and classroom sharing. Help students get more from the classroom, and spark a lifelong interest in music and music-making with Accessing Music!

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Teaching Music Students with Disabilities

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Teachers write lesson plans, but what happens if a new student who joins in ensemble happens to be blind? If the teacher has been teaching music from notation, he or she may have to figure out some alternative activities or outside help for the new student.

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Universal Design for Learning in Physical Education

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UDL is a way of thinking and acting that may change the way you approach student learning. Rather than thinking a student needs to change, UDL looks at the learning environment. Consider what within the environment is a barrier to learning. Is it that space itself? Is it the equipment you are using?

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Overview

Welcome to Module 20: This module is about expanding access to music education and integration for students in Grades TK- 6 with diverse abilities through Universal Design for Learning.

The Presentation Chart will give you an entire overview of the module (available under Downloads).

Click here for an Introduction to Module 20.

California school districts have been undergoing change, incorporating Multi-Tiered System of Supports into their schools and district. This has decreased the population of students with IEPs in Special Day Classes, increasing the inclusion of students in classrooms throughout the district. Based on data attained from educator and administrator surveys, teachers, both general classroom and certificated specialist teachers, would like to learn how to provide quality arts instruction to all students in their classroom. They need the instructional strategies needed to allow the various types of learners access to arts learning, and would like to receive more professional learning in this topic.

Planning your Professional Learning (Content Outlines)

This professional development module will focus on three specific points:

Developing teacher understanding of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, creating a flexible learning environment, instruction and assessment to accommodate individual learning differences.

Expanding teacher knowledge of the characteristics of various learning barriers and styles of students with diverse abilities and strategies to support learning.

Increasing teacher ability to create and deliver a music lesson incorporating UDL Guidelines, providing Kindergarten, 2nd , and 5th Grade music lessons as a supporting example
Module Outcome: Teachers will be able to develop and deliver music education or integration lessons incorporating UDL to support access to curriculum and learning for students with diverse abilities in their class.

Research

In the Research document you will find web and book resources under Downloads.

Standards

Read about the Music standards in the Standards document under Downloads.

Credits

Amy Bultena - VAPA/STEAM Coordinator, Stanislaus County Office of Education
Address: 1100 H St, Modesto, CA 95354

Steve Venz - Former Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator, Orange County Department of EducationAddress: 200 Kalmus Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92628-9050

Stacy Young - Visual and Performing Arts Program Manager, Humboldt County Office of Education
Address: 901 Myrtle Avenue, Eureka, CA 95501

Other Education and Arts Contributors:

Rhoda Bernard, Ed. D., Managing Director, Berklee Institute for Arts Education and Special Needs

William Houchin, M.M. ed, Instructor, Berklee Institute for Arts Education and Special Needs
Tags: Elementary Music, Music, Music instruction, UDL, Universal Design for Learning

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Module 20 - Music Instruction and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) - Grades TK - 6 - CCSESA Arts Initiative

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Module 20 - Music Instruction and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) - Grades TK - 6 - CCSESA Statewide Arts Initiative is part of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA) representing 58 California County Superintendents of Schools and their staff. Its mission is to strengthen and expand arts learning for all students in California public schools.

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Class Accommodations Matrix Full Example 2012

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Additional Student Profile Format Examples

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Positive Student Profile Info, Ex, Template

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All students, regardless of ability, should get the recommended 60 minutes or more of daily physical activity. Schools can help all students meet this recommendation by providing equal opportunities for students with disabilities. 1 Creating an inclusive culture for physical education and physical activity helps every student learn to lead a healthy and active lifestyle.

Inclusion means that, "All children, regardless of ability or disability, have the right to be respected and appreciated as valuable members of the school community, fully participate in all school activities, and interact with peers of all ability levels with opportunities to develop friendships." 2

Inclusive physical education and physical activity:

Includes students with disabilities in regular physical education classes. Specifically, teaching strategies, equipment, environments, and assessments have been adapted to meet the needs of all students.

Supports students with disabilities who want to participate in other physical activities before, during, and after school.

Encourages students with disabilities to have the same roles and experiences as their peers who do not have a disability during physical education and other physical activities.

Federal law requires states, districts, and schools to provide children and adolescents with and without disabilities equal opportunity to participate in physical education and physical activity. 3

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)external icon bans discrimination on the basis of disability.4 Therefore, schools are required to comply with the accessibility requirements of the ADA and provide appropriate physical education and physical activity opportunities for students with disabilities.

Most school districts require schools to meet the physical education needs of students with disabilities by 8:

Including accommodations in physical education in 504 plans or IEPs (98%).

Mainstreaming into regular physical education as appropriate (97%).

Providing adapted physical education as appropriate (91%).

Among schools that have students with disabilities, 91% include physical education in IEPs or 504 plans for these students. 9

Among schools that have students with disabilities, 62% require students with long-term physical, medical, or cognitive disabilities to participate in physical education. 9

However, 52% of schools exempted students with cognitive disability, and 86% exempted students with long-term physical and medical disability from physical education. Both percentages increased between 2000 and 2014. 9

More information and data can be found in CDC's research brief, Inclusion in School Physical Education and Physical Activity pdf icon [PDF - 697 KB] .

Below are six actions state leaders can take to promote inclusion in physical education and physical activity at the district and school levels.

Share any state laws, policies, and guidance for participation in physical education and physical activity for students with disabilities with district and school staff. This includes policy language around inclusive physical education and physical activities, adapted physical education, professional development for administrators and staff about building a culture of inclusion, and certification of staff working with students with disabilities.

Share your state-level data about students with disabilities with educational and health leaders. The National Survey of Children's Healthexternal icon provides an interactive data query site that you can use to identify state estimates about students with disabilities. Starting in 2020, CDC's School Health Profiles survey will have two questions related to inclusion.

Identify and reach out to state and district partners that are already leading inclusion efforts and look for opportunities to collaborate. Potential partners include state disability program staff, Special Olympics state affiliates, local university departments working on adapted physical education and inclusion, state Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America affiliates, adapted physical education specialists, adapted sport programs or clubs, and allied health-occupational, physical, and speech therapists. CDC funds 19 states under the State Disability and Health Programs.

Conduct a brief assessment of current activity and needs. This assessment should identify any current activities for inclusion at the state and district levels (e.g., programmatic efforts, built environment improvements, funding, professional development) and any needs at the district and school levels for inclusion. The National Center on Health, Physical Activity, and Disability's Community Health Inclusion Indexexternal icon is an example of an assessment tool. It is designed to collect information about healthy living resources and the degree to which they are inclusive.

Provide training to district and school staff on how to create an inclusive Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP) to ensure that physical activity opportunities are accessible and inclusive before, during, and after school.

Engage partners and university programs to train current and future school leaders, physical education teachers, and classroom teachers on best policies and practices for inclusion. This could include learning about how to make adaptations and accommodations to facilities, rules, equipment, instructions, and assessment.

Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA), 33 § 1400-1482 (1990).

National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability. Discover Inclusive School Wellness. Birmingham, AL: National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability; 2016. https://www.nchpad.org/fppics/NCHPAD_Discover%20Inclusive%20School%20Wellness(1).pdf pdf icon [PDF - 4.4 MB] external icon . Accessed December 18, 2019.

U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs. Creating Equal Opportunities for Children and Youth with Disabilities to Participate in Physical Education and Extracurricular Athletics. Washington, DC: US Dept Education; 2011. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED524248external icon . Accessed December 18, 2019.

Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S. Code § 12101 12102 (2009).

Section 504, Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 701, as amended through P.L. 114-95 (2015).

SHAPE America; American Heart Association. Shape of the Nation. Status of Physical Education in the USA. Reston, VA: SHAPE America-Society of Health and Physical Educators; 2016. https://www.shapeamerica.org/advocacy/son/2016/upload/Shape-of-the-Nation-2016_web.pdf pdf icon [PDF - 1.4 MB] external icon . Accessed December 18, 2019.

National Association of State Boards of Education. NASBE State Policy Database. https://statepolicies.nasbe.org/external icon . Accessed December 18, 2019.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results from the School Health Policies and Practices Study 2016. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept of Health and Human Services; 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/shpps/pdf/shpps-results_2016.pdf pdf icon [PDF - 1.5 MB] . Accessed December 18, 2019.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Results from the School Health Policies and Practices Study 2014. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept of Health and Human Services; 2015. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/shpps/pdf/SHPPS-508-final_101315.pdf pdf icon [PDF - 1.9 MB] . Accessed December 18, 2019.

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centers for disease control and prevention

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Inclusive School Physical Education and Physical Activity

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All students, regardless of ability, should get the recommended 60 minutes or more of daily physical activity. Schools can help all students meet this recommendation by providing equal opportunities for students with disabilities. 1 Creating an inclusive culture for physical education and physical activity helps every student learn to lead a healthy and active lifestyle.

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Modified Rules for Games (Adapted Physical Education)