Thanks to the group who met virtually today in an effort to learn news approaches to provide equity and access. Their commitment to learner-centered instruction is inspiring! I look forward to your posts as you reflect on ways that you have increased equity and access for ALL your learners! Check back to read all the great ideas from this first Equity cohort.
Reflection:
ReplyDeleteFollowing the UDL methods I would like to engage my students in as many custom-made lessons, as possible. I would like to change the meaning of U from “Universal” to more “ Unique”. All my students are adults returning to school. The issue of equity often times stood on their way to attain their educational goals. They share just how difficult, year after year, it became to feel understood and welcomed, mostly because of their low proficiency in English. By entering ESL classroom, they hope for removal of this barrier. As their teacher I feel responsible to attract, but also retain ( much harder task during 2020 pandemic) their interest from the first day of school in order to retain them as learners. We need to do it with respect and in the sensitive manner. Othewise it is very easy to loose an adult student for good.
After many years, working with various demographics, I realize how important it is to look at each individual differently. Adults need to be self-directed. What works in the classroom of children, becomes an enemy of the teacher of adults.
The Learning Circle practice helps me achieve an individual approach to each of my students. I recognize their specific talents, strengths, and in return, they appreciate the multiple means of engagement and keep coming back to our lessons. During our first weeks of our class’ meetings, I ask them how did/do they like to learn while in school? Either through seeing, touching, moving, saying, doing? It was a pleasant exercise to recall all these feelings and memories from school. Sometimes they didn’t even know what their learning style was, until together we were able to determine it! To our surprise, adult learners, just like young students at age 6 or 7, love to know they were included. ESL students exhibit joy and knowing how much as their instructor, I care about their individual needs. Positive feedback I give each one of them, makes them return to our class. Once I was an ESL student, and I still remember what helped me overcome the barriers and challenges. Now, often times, I use my own experience to custom-design my own lessons.
I believe that we all benefit from introduction and application of equity in present days and I plan to continue educate myself about it, so I can be of better service to those who need it.
Thank you Sarah for helping me make this…my newest goal as an ESL teacher in Chicago, and showing me the interesting ways to practice it! We can all benefit from a better educated and more confident student.
Aga,
ReplyDeleteThanks for prioritizing learning so you can serve your learners! I so appreciate all of the efforts you have made to reach and teach your students. I'm happy to hear the learning circle has made an impact and that you are finding ways to design for all your learners. I look forward to hearing more from you as you redesign lessons to include variability.
Sarah
Thank you so much Sarah. What is your favorite website that I could use with my students: with games, tests, educational materials, where they can learn during our zooms about equity
Delete( for instance personality tests, survey about learning styles )?
Heavy sigh Aga, as I don't readily have a website to suggest (the sigh is because I desire to give you what you want). I suggest, as we learned in the training, to think about the goals (yours and your students), what the barriers are, and then search for a variety of learning options. I truly do think sometimes "what do I need?" and then I search for that. Or I ask a trusted colleague. I do recommend choice boards. This is something that I learned earlier this year during the multitude of training that flooded all our inboxes. Please check out the Promising Practices for Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning on the Excellence in Adult Ed site.
Deletehttp://www.excellenceinadulted.com/promising-practices-for-distance-education/
Please also let me know if you have any ideas to add. I would love to build this resource! I also highly recommend asking your students. What is working? What is difficult? What kept you from being able to access or complete? This helps us decide next steps. It also teaches our students self-advocacy skills that are essential for quality independence. Let's lift all the boats higher as we help each other! Thanks Aga! I love your heart for learners!
Dear Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot of things. The thing I will try in classroom for the upcoming semester is the learning circle. It allows students to think about how they learn. It makes students aware there are multiple ways to learn something. It helps teachers design lessons that helps students learn subject matter better. It also makes teacher more cognizant of variable ways to present material. The learning circle is a great tool. One I plan to use for many years to come. Thank you , Sarah! Mr.J.Butler
James,
DeleteThanks for your interest in learning how to meet your students as you reach and teach! I so enjoyed hearing about your interactions with your learners. I am glad to hear you will use the learning circle for the upcoming semester. Please ask your students for feedback following the learning circle and let me know their thoughts about this tool. I certainly hope it empowers them as learners. Keep up your important work with your learners!
Final Reflection:
ReplyDeleteFirst off I would like to copy and paste Aga's post as it reflects my feelings as well! :)
One thing that I realized while working through this session is that sometimes I overthink about what I should or should not be doing and become overwhelmed to the point of inaction. When actually I have a pretty good handle on things and do many of the things we talked about without even realizing how equitable I am being. However, one of the reasons I have a pretty good handle on being equitable is because I went through the SLN course. I definitely do not want to come across as being egotistical, rather show my appreciation for the opportunity to join communities that remind me of my own strengths and abilities. (I hope this makes sense???)
One additional thing that I intend to do with my class, is offer them the opportunity to meet once a week through our break which is pretty long. It's so easy to get out of our routines and much harder to resume them. I feel that if we stay connected it will keep them working and motivated to reach their goals. I have several students that can and should start taking their tests. I do not want that confidence and motivation to disappear over the break.
I enjoyed this course and look forward to participating in some of the others listed. I have several new ways to engage my students and continue to make their learning environment, with not just me but our entire staff, a safe and enriching place to attend.
Thanks,
Amy
Thanks
Thanks Amy! Thanks for providing a space for your learners to continue to meet and learn even over break. That is so important. Thanks for understanding that confidence and motivation is an integral part of learning and essential for success. I am so happy to hear you have new ways to engage with your students. I would love to hear from you feedback from your learners following your implementation of new ways to engage with them. Thanks for all you're doing!
DeleteDesign for Equity and Access
ReplyDeleteJane Ogunmokun
Part 5
Currently, I have a student who stated that she did not know how to find the surface area of a cube. She is also not very confident as a mathematician. She is very quick to state that math is her weakest subject, she would rather do anything else.
I asked her if she remembers how to find the area of a square or a rectangle. Her response was, Oh, yes, that is easy.” She was able to tell me the formula and explained how to do it. However, when I insisted that then she knew how to solve and find surface area of a cube, she frozen. I realize it was the novelty of the concept and possibly she had never encountered surface area.
First, we discussed what surface area is in context of wrapping a present – box shaped. If we want to know exactly how much wrapping paper, we need to cover all sides and the whole box, we need to calculate the surface area of the box. All six sides have must be covered. This she understood and felt better, and I needed to inject more confidence in her.
Step 1 - I offered to give her the answer to two of the problems she deemed impossible or extremely difficult.
Step 2. – I asked her to find the area of one face/side.
Step 3. She proceeded to find the area of all 6 sides
Step 4. She added all 6 areas.
Step 5. She checked to see if her answer matched the answers given. And they did!
She stated that she was afraid of getting the wrong answers and of being frustrated trying to make corrections. She also stated that making sense of the formula scared and intimidated her. This way she does not have to rely on the formula, and she can follow the steps and still feel confident. She felt successful.
My next step, which she does not know yet, is I will have her write instructions on how to find surface are in her own understanding. Her audience will be the next learner who will have this assignment. This will be exciting!
Jane,
DeleteYou totally rocked at helping this learner to relate to what she already knew AND to gain the confidence she needed to move ahead. What an inspiration! I love, love, love the community of learning you are building by your comment, "I will have her write instructions on how to find surface in her own understanding. Her audience will be the next learner who will have this assignment." You are right - this is exciting!! Thanks for making all the difference in someone's life!
Design for Equity and Access
ReplyDeleteManuel M. Guzman
Students indicated that completing class assignments; quizzes and exams was a problem as most of the students did not have a printer to print the assignments and a scanner to scan and submit back their assigned tasks.
I started using SurveyMonkey as it has a feature that allows the end-user to create assignments, quizzes, and exams in addition to surveys.
Once an assignment, quiz, and/or exam needs to be taken/completed; a hyperlink is shared with students (tasks are date/time sensitive) so once the student is ready to take assigned task (fill-in the blank, true/false, multiple choice, and or essay) the start and, ending time, including the device’s IP address are recorded; then, student submits assigned task at which time the student receives a percentage/grade score.
Once all tasks are completed; then I can access all sorts of customizable reports for feedback to students
Manuel,
DeleteThanks for designing to reduce barriers. You have beautifully illustrated this feature of UDL. You asked your learners to identify barriers. Then you found a way to design to remove the barrier. I would love to hear from you the responses you got from your learners when you provided this new option for them. Thanks for designing for equity and access for ALL!
Final Reflection
ReplyDeleteI'm always trying to come up with ways to engage my students. With how this year has been, it's been a challenge. Thankfully, this semester we were able to continue F2F classes, however there were times that I had remote only students, which meant that I had to create online classrooms, so they could access the material. Needless to say I had never done something like that, so I just was winging it. After doing the learning checklist and seeing and discussing the different types of learning styles my students have, it made me more aware of the material that I was creating for the online classroom. I have utilized videos, reading materials, games, audio formats and google translate, so that my students had access to a variety. When we were F2F, students would still continue to use the online classroom, because they enjoyed the choices they had there. Now that we are at the end of the semester, I will once again work to revamp my online classroom to hopefully meet their needs. Since I was new to creating an online classroom, I asked for feedback from my students on what they thought that I needed to do to make it better for them. Ultimately, they told me to keep providing options, which I plan to do.
In addition, like Amy, I am offering my students the option to continue to work over break, so they will have opportunity to use my google classrooms, and they know that even though we're not in class, I'm still available to them. Sometimes, I think that is the most important aspect of teaching these students. Just knowing that they have somebody to help them and to cheer them on when they do well on their task.
Anyway, this is my final reflection. I really enjoyed this training, and am interested to learn more ways on how to meet my students needs. Sarah thanks for everything, it's been informative.
Kendra,
DeleteSo glad you are using videos, games, audio formats, google translate, etc. to provide greater access for your learners and to provide multiple means of representation. Thanks for asking your students for feedback. This not only helps you to design in a more inclusive manner, but also teaches your learners to advocate for themselves. This is an important life and work skill that will help lead to greater independence! Thanks for taking the time to consider your students' needs. Thanks also for providing ongoing learning opportunities over the break!
Final Reflection
ReplyDeleteMelissa Rumph
Thank you Sarah for providing rich tangible content that is useful for students and instruction. I planned to use the Ten-Minute Interview for getting to know student' strengths and weaknesses. I intend on using this tool as a way to develop instructional strategies for helping students to goal set and use to plan classroom instruction.
Great Information!
Melissa,
DeleteThanks for your interest in providing learner-centered instruction. I look forward to hearing more from you on the feedback you get from your students as you help them understand their learning strengths and formulate their goals for your class.
Hello Ms. Goldammer,
ReplyDeleteI would first like to say thank for sharing the knowledge you have on equity and its use in an adult education. With that said, I will continue to do the 10 minute interview with my students each semester. I will also continue to teach my students while out for 5 weeks. Please if every facilitate another PD please let me know. I would love to attend.
Final Reflections:
ReplyDeleteSarah, this workshop was a great reminder for me, and I would assume for everyone, about the things we intrinsicallly know, but are so happy to be reminded of. We know our students are unique in their histories, their skills, their strengths and their weaknesses. We know that we need to find ways to address their weaknesses while allowing them to demonstrate their abilities using their strengths. We know that diversifying our approach to students offers everyone multiple opportunities to learn and explore. I appreciated the time we spent diving into the ideas of Equity in access to learning.
I have been thinking about how to re-invigorate my approach to the learners in my class. I have been teaching for over 27 years and I would not be honest i I didn't say that at times I feel like I am "maintaining" my skills rather than "attaining" new ones. I believe my strengths have rested in my honest care for my students' well-being. I believe the trust I can build in my class and with individuals frees learners up to explore, my mistakes, take risks, and ultimately learn more. For years I have told me Dean that teaching English, or writing, or college preparation skill are actually not the most important things to me in the class. I believe building a community of learners that can rely on me and each other not just during class, but in years to come in the future, is the most important thing. Those relationships are what allow the best learning to happen.
That said, I would like to explore ways to allow my students to express their learning in different ways. This is honestly a huge challenge when "composing an essay" may be what they really need to do to be successful in my class to prepare for an English 101 composition class where creating a short film, poem, or diorama honestly won't cut it in a composition class. I want to give students more opportunities to orally express their ideas, logic and opinions before asking them to commit ideas to paper. I've used a lot of model essays to help students and I know think I will add some color-coded ideas in these samples. RED for a hook. BLUE for a summary. GREEN for a thesis statement. Orange for topic sentences. PURPLE for supporting examples, explanation, personal experiences and references to a reading. This is a small step I can take to help students visualize writing, organization and structure to break down these elements into manageable bites.
I am also constantly trying to take myself out of the center of the class and get students to look at themselves and each other for their learning. I think I want to help "train" my students to actually deliver a "review lesson" to the class as a way to better embody and actualize ideas that we have learned. Having students teach other students offers another way for students to comprehend and also demonstrate knowledge.
Sarah, thank you again for your commitment and passion in your work with us.
Jeff Libman
Jeff - Wow! Love your idea to have your students deliver a review lesson. Having your students teach is awesome. It does check all the boxes of what you wrote that you hope to accomplish. I really like your color coding idea. You have a great thought pattern - even is you can't completely change the assignment, you can always find some way to make it more accessible and thereby more inclusive. You have demonstrated multiple times in this training that you already think inclusively. Perhaps making sure your learners understand "why" you do what you do would be a nice addition (or telling them more since I assume you already do share this to some degree). This will help your students move towards advocating and creating more inviting opportunities for themselves. As always, thanks for all you're already doing AND for all the new ideas you will implement.
DeleteOne thing that I did immediately following is shift my mindset to reflect on how students were doing as individuals rather than as a group. I've scheduled conferences with each of my students over the break so that I could talk with them about THEIR assessment of their needs and make plans for how I can ensure that they have the choices that they need in EACH lesson.
ReplyDeleteSee, I realized thanks to this training that while I have been giving choices of modality across lessons, I haven't been giving choices for how students can tap into the material in every lesson. I'd been advocating student choice for a long time, but not executing it in the most effective way. I tested out a menu of activities for my last lesson of the session, where students could choose how they engage with the science content. It worked pretty well. I definitely plan to use this strategy again in future lessons. However, I found that even this was limited because some students wanted something I hadn't provided - more instruction on reading in the content areas. I had heard this before: listening while students read and hearing their struggles, reviewing questions related to readings I've assigned and finding that students who offer brilliant verbal explanations during lecture struggle with answering comprehension questions related to the reading. Students told me in so many different ways, but it was only during the activity, as I listened in during a breakout room conversation, that I finally HEARD what students were saying all along.
As a result, I'm planning to add an additional small group tutoring session on reading in the content areas. Not all of my students need it. But I think enough of them do that it makes sense to offer this as an option.
I forgot to add my name to my post. This is April Andry Rah'man. Sorry about that!
DeleteApril,
DeleteThanks for claiming this post AND for providing additional choices for your learners. I am glad to see your "aha" here and how it has affected your teaching and learning. I love how you illustrated that sometimes we hear but we don't truly internalize what has been shared. You HEARD your students and are able to meet them in a whole new way. Thanks for taking the time to get to know your students and understand what motivates them. I look forward to hearing from you how your tutoring on reading in the content areas progresses and how your students benefit.
Thank you for a wonderful class, Sarah!
ReplyDeleteThrough this course, I was able to reflect on ways that I have been providing equity and access to my ELLs while also gathering ideas on how to further provide equitable learning opportunities. A method that I am most looking forward to utilizing with my students in the spring semester is providing an intake survey where they will get a chance to detail their educational background, goals for the semester and a long term personal and work related goal. The information about their educational background will go beyond just how much schooling they have had, but more about what kind of learner they are and what type of environment and/or activities allow them to thrive. This is similar to the 10 minute interview but I am unsure how I can do such an interview with each student while teaching remotely. Additionally, most of my students know what their long term goal is but only few can really detail what their purpose in the 12 week class is. They obviously cannot master the English language in one semester, so they will be asked to look at what skills they would like to build on. This will require reflection on their part while allowing me to curate lessons for achieving those goals. While there is content and curriculum that needs to be covered in the 12 week class, my hope is to create activities and assignments focusing on their strengths and building on areas needing improvement. Further down the line, though, I’d like to find a way to conduct a 10 minute interview with each student during the first two weeks of class. The benefits of speaking to each student personally outweigh a survey, I believe.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteThank your for a great workshop. I learned a lot about how to make my classes more equitable and inclusive. I have always used student interviews and introductions, and I intend to use the ten minute interview again with some of the suggestions from Grace. I think that will help students focus on their learning goals and appreciate each other's perspectives, too. I intend to use the the learning style check list as a first or second day activity. Most of my students have never heard the term learning style, and learning their personal preference for learning new material will bring them benefits and help them mentor their own children who are in school. Most of my adult students are married and have young to teenage children at home. They can use the ideas about learning styles to help their children with their homework. At the end of the first week, I will draw a diagram of the learning circle and after an explanation,I will direct a class discussion using the talking points in the handout you gave us. I will ask students how they can use the ideas to improve their educational experience and retain information.
I have been struggling to accommodate a student who is visually impaired. Through the workshop,I have gained insight into how I can help him better. I started to read everything aloud and give him more exercise items to respond to. He has been more excited to contribute to class as a result. Unfortunately, he will need to repeat the course, but he is on track and gaining the English skills he wishes to acquire.
Thanks again for a very educational workshop.
Jim
Jim,
DeleteSo happy to hear your new accommodations you are providing for your visually impaired student. I love that he is more excited to contribute to class. Thanks also for thinking through ways to reach our students on a more personal level and to help them understand their own learning. This empowerment will be most beneficial. I'm also excited to think about your students as capable teachers for their own children. You are impacting multiple generations through your efforts! I look forward to hearing more from you about your learners' successes.
Dear Sarah,
ReplyDeleteIt was a pleasure taking this course, and I enjoyed networking with colleagues and you and sharing ideas as we learned about ways to make our courses and assignments more universal in their design. What was particularly memorable for me was the learning survey for self-evaluation of our learning styles. While I enjoyed it, it was a revelation when I used it during the first week of a class with teachers in training. They enjoyed doing this so much that we spent a lot of time talking about what the impact of knowing about the variability of learning styles does to how we design lessons, particularly the assessment part.
We then talked about tests and how they weren't the best way to measure whether or not a learning outcome was achieved, but that in our system, it was very hard to get away from standardized tests. That said, we do have leeway and flexibility with the learning activities as part of the active learning with content before the assessments.
For example, in one of my classes, there is an assignment to read a text by Zitkála-Šá--a short section from her *Memories of an Indian Schoolgirl* where she remembers being taken from her parents and sent to a boarding school, where her long hair is cut. It's a powerful moment that most readers respond emotionally to because she explains what the long hair meant to her culturally that it represents strength. We use the text to discuss interculturality and how perceptions of dominant cultures enforce themselves on other cultures.
The learning activity is to write a summary or a reflection about the reading--this is an asynchronous discussion board response on an LMS. After taking this training, I expanded the assignment to include the following options: a. create a lesson for 5-12th grade students, giving the grade level, learning objectives, course materials and activities. b. create original music that dramatizes the events Zitkála-Šá writes about. c. Post your reflection as an audio or video clip instead of written text. d. Draw or sketch the events we read about to accompany the text and what you would like your students to learn in terms of your learning objective. e. Write your own personal experience about moving from one place to another and how you felt. Tell a story similar to Zitkála-Šá's where the new place had different values that were only perceived by you.
By opening up the learning activities to a wider range based on ways people learn, the discussion topics were filled with energy and super interesting lessons! Most of the 25 teachers in training opted for the lesson option because they could use the lesson in their classes, so the assignment moved from "busy work" to something practical they could actually try out.
I will continue to do this--personally, I very much enjoyed the option you gave us with the reflection assignment to submit a recording. I type all day, it seems, so it was fun and fast to talk instead of type! I think a lot of people feel this way--
THANK YOU, Sarah, and thank you, colleagues for a very beneficial and rewarding class. Have a well-deserved winter holiday, everyone--
Rich Powers
Rich,
DeleteThanks for giving your learners a choice. I have copied down the following and posted it where I can read it every day to inspire me: "By opening up the learning activities to a wider range based on ways people learn, the discussion topics were filled with energy and super interesting lessons! Most of the 25 teachers in training opted for the lesson option because they could use the lesson in their classes, so the assignment moved from "busy work" to something practical they could actually try out." Moving from busy work! That's the name of the game. So appreciate you, Rich, and all you brought to this training and what you continue to bring to your learners.
Sarah, I really enjoyed this training! There were a number of valuable tools that I will be bringing to my spring classes. I have a few plans for the course:
ReplyDelete1. Complete the 10-minute interview with my students at the beginning of the semester. Currently, I will be providing supplemental instruction for four students in the spring semester and would like to use the 10-minute interview with each of them to see how they learn best. I have a lot of materials already made, such as flashcards and quizzes, but I would like the learners' input as to how those tools could be more effective. I'm looking forward to expanding my bank of materials!
2. I will be teaching an online Bridge to Healthcare course, so I will have many opportunity to think about equitable lesson design. One of the biggest areas in which I want to be flexible is designing assignments and quizzes. In the past, there has not been a lot of room for flexibility in how these assignments are completed; however, I want the students to complete each activity in a way that meets their needs. My plan is to allow assignments to be submitting in writing, as videos, or as audio files - whichever the student prefers - in order to see how to best meet their needs.
3. Since the class will be online, I want to create many videos as references. I was so excited to see that Google Slides has the closed captioning tool! I had no idea it existed, and I will be using it for every class moving forward.
4. I'd also like to do one-on-one conferencing with my students, likely at the midterm and final. I think this would be a good way to do a modified 10-minute interview with my students to get ideas for what is working well/what isn't working well.
5. When I teach in person, I use many Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) to assess student learning informally. I plan to adapt these to a virtual format to receive formative assessments throughout the course.
Thanks again, Sarah!
Lauren,
DeleteSo excited to hear all of your plans and the multiple ways you will work to ensure more equitable design. I love that you also illustrated that designing for equity can and should exist in all content areas and at all levels of students. Your formative assessments will also be quite helpful in your designing efforts. I look forward to hearing more from you as you implement these ideas with your learners. Through hearing your feedback, it helps me to continue to frame training.