August UDL Connections

Each month this periodical will 1) highlight critical UDL practices, 2) make connections to the UDL guidelines and checkpoints, 3) connect you with great tools and resources, 4) share some ways schools are putting this practice into action and 5) offer additional approaches to utilize this highlighted practice.

1. The Worked Solution Strategy (WSS):

Scaffolding Algebraic Reasoning is a great practice guide highlighting the importance of using worked solutions to engage students in higher levels of cognition and reasoning. Please look at the image below (Fig. 2) for an example.

Why it works: Reducing the cognitive load of computation to allow for higher-level thinking and reasoning.

Pros: Access to participation and engagement in high-level, grade-level thinking and reasoning for all students.

Cons: It may take a bit more prep time to prepare these worked solutions before the lesson.

Big Idea: Enhancing the student's capacity to monitor progress builds expert learners

The image below showcases an example of what this might look like and comes from the above source (Ricommini & Morano, 2019).

2. Use Mentor Text as strong examples for literacy. The Providing Writing Models resources from the Learning Variability Project and Digital Promise contain examples of Mentor Texts, including student examples.

3. The use of Text Sets, Anchor Charts, and examples as scaffolds. The Lending Library through OCALI offers curriculum kits with text sets that can be accessed for free! You just need to create an account.

The classroom examples here reference scaffolds used to support the writing of an Argumentative Essay where students answered the prompt: "Who's to blame for the loss of life on the Titanic?" Students read a text set about the Titanic that was used to build background knowledge (Amplify Unit 6F: The Titanic Collection). During the close reading of each text, the teacher and students were very intentional through the use of color coding to find evidence that supported each argument before making their own decision of who was to blame for the loss of life.

The teacher used Titanic Essay Prompt examples with different verb options to scaffold word choice, which was particularly helpful to her English Learner population, along with an Essay Writing Scaffold that helped to organize ideas and include key names, etc.

The pictures below show the lesson's I can statement, the anchor charts used, and a color coding activity modeled during the class.

In the spirit of making connections (this periodical's new name) and sharing scaffolds, I was asked to share a resource created by the implementation work group to support teams in using our Ohio 5-step process in a way that connects to our Ohio Collaborative Practice Profile.

The following graphic attempts to merge the two into a UDL Design Cycle that can be used at any level of the system (building, school, classroom, and student).

If you'd like to know more about mentor text as strong examples, you can listen to Podcast about Mentor Text here: https://archive.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/4090

Paul Ricommini will be back in Ohio this fall!

I've shared his work in a couple of periodicals and wanted to extend this opportunity to all of you!

Language Support and Fluency in the Math Classroom, K-12

Learn more about Paul and his work at https://www.retrievalpractice.org/.

Learn more about the Ohio Improvement Process from OLAC and their New Personnel Guide to OIP, which includes this quick video created by Michele Moore, SST5 Director.

Finally, check out the G-Tech Summit for great examples of multiple means.