Maria Bacigalupo
Curry College
AA (Northern Essex Community College)
BA (Special and Secondary Ed, Curry College)
MS (Counselor Education, Suffolk University
MA and EdD (Administration, Harvard University)
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30 years at Curry College in PAL program
Graduate: Teach teachers in Curry’s MEd program
Undergraduate: Teach Developing Community Circles for
Education Department
Consulted with many approved private schools in MA to
develop an articulated curriculum which encourages
access to the general curriculum
Co-founded and ran the Learning Disabilities Network in
MA (18 years)
Union President 
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This session is NOT a bunch of great ideas on
how to universally design instruction in a
classroom
It is about how to articulate those great ideas
in a way that will maximize accountability and
communication for departments and colleges
◦ It shares a framework for expressing universally
designed curriculum that
 can be understood and shared: a framework helps –
now we can have a place to locate and a common way
to share what and how we teach, department wide
and/or College wide
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Normally, professors are not taught about
curriculum design nor instructional strategies
Some do their very best to gather and
implement effective strategies and try to
reach more learners
We know that Colleges are doing a better job
describing “outcomes” – good start
We need to move from articulating outcomes
to articulating curriculum and then to UDI
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Yet,
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We know that the “content” – what we teach – is only part
of a college education
It’s also about the students’ personal experience and the
milieu at college– and we have a growing diverse
population of traditional and adult students with:
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disabilities
bi-lingual challenges
diverse SES backgrounds
minority backgrounds
varying learning styles
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Until professors have a common language about
curriculum
Until professors have a structure or framework
for well articulated curriculum
They will not have streamlined ways to address
student diversity in colleges today, and
The strategies they learn from time-to-time in
workshops and the like will be
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less meaningful
less employable
less able to be articulated and shared
Short-lived
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Let’s face it
◦ Part-time professors cannot take the time to do this, so
full-time faculty in departments will have to design and
articulate a curriculum and inclusion strategies
◦ Even full-time professors do not have enough time to
discuss amongst themselves how their curriculum is
aligned within and across departments
◦ This requires release-time
◦ The benefits will be substantial
 Teaching aligned with standards, mission, outcomes
 Inclusive curriculum
 Better teaching, better learning
Prong 1 – FIRST – we must express a well-written
curriculum
◦ Build a transparent curriculum template which includes aspects of wellwritten curriculum (Handout 1 – the C&I Organizer, Page 1 and 2)
◦ Alignment with standards of the discipline (A)
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Alignment with the mission of the College (B)
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Alignment with departmental course outcomes (C)
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Articulation of level at which the course concepts are taught (D)
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Introduced
Reinforced
Mastered
Articulation of process used to teach the course (E)
Articulation of formative assessment that the professor will use to check
student learning (F)
Articulation of summative assessments used (G)
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Differentiated Instruction (DI) - Emerged from gifted education
◦ ©1999 (Handout, page 3)
◦ Articulate how the curriculum is universally designed to include the full
range of learners in the classroom along the full continuum of learners
 By Readiness
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Age
College-level
Experience
Intelligence levels
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Lecture
Group work
 By Interests
 By Learning Styles
◦ Never do ALL all at once
Content
Process
Product
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What we teach
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Content
Books
Lecture notes
Films
Overarching goals
Explicit curriculum
Implicit curriculum (hidden curriculum)
 Values
 Collateral skills
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Often left out of higher education classrooms
Time to process understandings
Embedded assessment
Time to determine if they learned what you
thought you taught!
Biology professor
Whistling cartoon
I TAUGHT
STRIPE HOW
TO WHISTLE
Two boys and a dog. One boy is pointing to his dog and saying, “I
taught Stripe how to whistle.”
I DON’T HEAR
HIM
WHISTLING
While staring at dog, second boy says, “I don’t hear him whistling.”
I SAID I TAUGHT
HIM. I DIDN’T
SAY HE LEARNED
IT
First boy, whilst pointing to dog says, “I said I taught him, I
didn’t say he learned! The implication is, is this TRUE learning?
From Checking for Understanding, King Features Syndicate.
There is nothing more unfair to students to
be treated “equally” when they are not
designed that way!
For a fair selection cartoon…
In this cartoon, 7 animals are lined up – a bird; a monkey; a penguin; an
elephant; a goldfish (in a bowl, placed atop a tree stump); a seal; and a dog.
They stand in front of a desk where a professor is seated. Behind the
animals is a tree. The professor says, “For a fair selection everybody has to
take the same exam: please climb that tree”. Only the monkey is smiling.
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Summative assessment
◦ Exams
◦ Papers
◦ Projects
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Rubrics – help with communication about
teaching and learning (handout, p 4 )
◦ Students (Ex: what is Master’s level writing)
◦ Professors (Ex: what is good group instruction)
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Both Tomlinson and UConn models
emphasize this
◦ Instructional environment
◦ Building Classroom Culture
◦ EX: Tribes: a way of learning and being together
 Ex: What’s in your wallet? (Introductions, inclusive)
 Ex: Partner introductions (Introductions, inclusive
 Ex: Eliot Aronson – jigsaw (Group instruction method)
Readiness
Interests
Learning
Styles
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I yam what I yam (Popeye)
Start me where I yam
Give me access to the curriculum (where possible)
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Literary tea party
A choice of content books
A choice of articles
A choice of submitting drafts of papers
Challenge me!
◦ Bloom
◦ Objectives
This is a representation of Benjamin Bloom’s conception of the six levels
of thinking. It is in the shape of a two dimensional pyramid.
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Should be at the Generic Thinking and
Mastery levels not at the
◦ Coverage
◦ Activity
◦ Involvement levels
A stick figure is juggling a pad of paper, a telephone and envelopes, the
implication being that teachers juggle many objectives and outcomes of
learning.
Maria T. Bacigalupo, Ed.D.
5/99
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Met when the topic is “covered”
Note: Coverage is important and
necessary BUT make sure the relationship
is with concepts too
Questions:
◦ When coverage is complete, are objectives
complete?
◦ How do we know that the students have learned
what we thought we taught?
 Use embedded assessment
A stick figure is scratching its head. A question mark hovers
above its head. Implied is the notion that teachers need to
question their goals for learning.
Maria T. Bacigalupo, Ed.D.
5/99
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When work is given for a concept that was
taught
We need to provide activities for students
to master concepts
◦ But “activities completed” does not equal mission
accomplished
◦ Students should have to demonstrate that they can
apply the activity to a higher level concept
A stick figure is very actively running with its hands in the air.
Implied is the question about whether activity alone is an
adequate and laudable goal for learning.
Maria T. Bacigalupo, Ed.D.
5/99
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When we get students involved in an activity!
◦ Is the objective met if the students are absorbed?
◦ Fun does not necessarily equal learning!
◦ May not be productive learning!
A stick figure is jumping up and clicking its
heels. Its hands are up in the air. The
question whether this sort of “involvement” in
learning is an adequate goal for student
learning.
Maria T. Bacigalupo, Ed.D.
5/99
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Objectives to develop thinking skills apart
from the particular content knowledge
◦ Habits of Mind (Perseverance, Striving for Accuracy)
◦ Collateral Learning (Researching, Writing)
◦ Complex Thinking Skills (Thinking interdependently)
Questions
◦ Is this an explicit or implicit part of my curriculum?
◦ Am I grading on these skills?
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A stick figure with one hand on its hip and one pointing to the sky has
a light bulb above its head. Implied is the notion that teachers need
to include habits of mind, collateral learning and complex thinking
skills in their curriculum, and consider whether these skills are an
implicit or explicit part of their teaching and how much emphasis they
should place on them in terms of grading .
Maria T. Bacigalupo, Ed.D.
5/99
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For students to know and/or understand and
be able to do something specific at some
level of performance (introductory,
reinforced, mastered level):
Benefits:
◦ This is a challenging curriculum for all. Coverage,
activity and involvement objectives are met simply
by being there when something is “covered,” by
being involved in the activity. Mastery at a
particular level speaks to OUTCOMES!
Two stick figures are hand in hand reaching for the sky.
Implied is that objectives which seek mastery are the most
fruitful for learning.
Maria T. Bacigalupo, Ed.D.
5/99
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Self-explanatory
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Let Mgt majors do one project (where possible)
Let Ed majors do another
Let CJ majors do a third
All relevant to the coursework and their field of
study
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Professors should choose a framework for
differentiating using learning styles:
◦ Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences (handout, p5)
◦ Bernice McCarthy (Why, what, how, what if)
◦ Gregorc
 concrete v abstract
 random v sequential
◦ Some like Meyers-Briggs – has limitations
Content
Process
Product
Readiness
Readiness
Readiness
Interests
Interests
Interests
Learning
Styles
Learning
Styles
Learning
Styles
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Very important
◦ Might work on process one semester and increase
number of embedded assessments
◦ Might work on offering differentiated products
(assignments) another term
◦ Might work on building class culture another
◦ Might work on better array of content choices
another
1.Equitable use
2.Flexibility in use
3.Simple and
intuitive
4.Perceptible
information
5.Tolerance for error
6. Low physical
effort
7. Size and space
for approach
and use
8. A community
of learners
9. Instructional
climate
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9 Principles of Universal Design
By Scott, McGuire and Shaw © 2001
Arose out of disabilities movement
“UD” – Architecture
◦ Need no further adaptations
◦ Happy side-effect – beneficial to many non”disabled”
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Constraint: not complete framework for
understanding
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To multitude of ideas
◦ Take the Jigsaw strategy –
 ah! Principle 7, 8 and 9 (U Conn), and
 Content and Process by readiness and interests
◦ Take the Literary tea party strategy  Ah! Principle 1
 Content by readiness and interests, maybe learning
styles
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Improves communication (across disciplines)
about teaching and learning
◦ Inclusive and universal principles
◦ Classroom environment
◦ 3 elements of teaching and 3 elements of inclusion for
ALL learners
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Content
Process
Product
Readiness
Interests
Learning styles
◦ Challenges students to proficient and above level of
performance
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Instructional environment: faculty-student
interaction
◦ Examples:
 Establishing a few democratically established
agreements how to be in class
 Establishing management by 4 teams
 Jigsaw groups
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Instruction climate: welcoming and inclusive
◦ Examples:
 Partner introductions
 What’s in your wallet
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Develop a community of inquiry amongst
faculty and in/across departments
◦ Within departments and university-wide
◦ Share the same (similar) teaching and learning
vocabulary
◦ Share the templates within the departments
 Amongst those who teach the same course
 Will inform those who teach other courses in the
majors and minors
◦ Share across departments
 Articulates how courses inform one another
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We have a community of inquiry started at
Curry at this time
◦ Professors of
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Nursing
Philosophy
African American Studies
History
English Literature
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Accountability
◦ Civil Engineers: Research to avoid accidents
 Intersections
◦ Health and Safety Committee: mishaps
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Focus on agreed-upon essential
understandings, not detail after detail
Efficient and Effective Curriculum
Communication within and across
departments
Ways to share successful strategies under
rubrics or headings: ex: community/climate
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Once I thought teaching professors about
how to accommodate all (as in each and
every) student with a different disability made
sense
ADD
Reading
Math
Writing
Language disorders
Non-verbal LD
Organizational/Executive Function
Blind
Deaf
Physical disabilities
etc
Co-existing:
Depression
Substance abuse
OCD
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BUT: the teacher professors connect most
primarily to their field of study
Our field of study (disabilities) is not theirs
This broader approach – writing a full
curriculum and reaching out to all learners
resonates better with professors
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Too much to ask
Too much to expect
BUT
◦ What if we could design curriculum that
accommodated a large range of learners?
◦ That could work!
◦ BUT
◦ We need a simple framework for understanding
 on which to hang ideas
 There are two: U Conn and Tomlinson
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Start small
Involve interested faculty
Share
Tie to “outcomes” assessment
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Classroom Culture:
◦ Aronson, E. (2000). Nobody left to hate:
Teaching compassion after columbine.
NY: Worth Publishers.
◦ Gibbs, J. (1995). Tribes: A New Way of
Learning and Being Together. Sausalito, CA:
CenterSource Systems, LLC.
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Blythe, T. & Associates (1998). Teaching for
understanding guide. San Francisco: JosseyBass.
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Eisner, E. (1994). The Educational Imagination.
NY: MacMillan.
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Ericson, L. (1998). Concept-based curriculum
and instruction: Teaching beyond the facts.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
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Gregory, G. H. & Chapman, C. (2002).
Differentiated Instructional Strategies: One Size
Doesn’t Fit All. Place ? :Corwin Press.
Heacox, D. (2001). Differentiating instruction in
the regular classroom: How to reach and teach all
learners, grades 3-12. Place ? :Free Spirit
Publishing.
Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The Differentiated
classroom: Responding to the needs of all
learners. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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Scott, S. S., McGuire, J.M. & Shaw, S.F. (2001).
Principles of universal design for instruction.
Center on Postsecondary Education and
Disability, University of Connecticut.
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Marzano, R. J., et al (1993). Assessing Student
Outcomes. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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Maki, Peggy (2004). Assessing for Learning:
Building a Sustainable Commitment Across the
Institution. Stylus Publishing.
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What are 3 pearls of wisdom from this
session?
What from this session would or could you
take to stakeholders on your campus?
How does this session inform the 2-5 year
outlook on your campus?
How does technology play a role here?