McNish 1 Kara R. McNish Professor Michele Daly EDTC 620 4 August 2015 Universal Instructional Design is something is a concept that was created in order to minimize the learning barriers in education; not only ones that I will discuss but, all of the barriers that exist in the different classrooms today. By minimizing these barriers, you can maximize learning for all students, no matter their disability. By incorporating Universal Instructional Design, we can give all of our students the optimal learning opportunity that they deserve. A widespread problem in the public education system today is the size of the classes. In my experience, large class sizes in education are one of the most hindering factors in the success of a child in the classroom. Students are thrown into already overcrowded classes and teachers aren’t given adequate resources to provide all students with the help and support they require. This becomes even worse when the class is fully or mixed with students that have any type of learning disability (physical, mental, emotional, etc.). Large class sizes don’t only have an impact on the learning process but, the overall morale of the teacher, the students, and the classroom environment. The larger the class and the more they pack students into classes, the less one on one time the teacher can have with each student; getting to know them, how they learn, what they struggle with, and what they excel in. According to a study done by the Johns Hopkins School of Education’s, “New Horizon’s for Learning” program, large class sizes are a huge factor in how well students perform in school and on standardized tests. An optimal class size consists of about 15-20 students, a class of this McNish 2 size revealed that the students improved distinctly not only in the classroom but, on standardized state testing. Also, according to the University of Washington, they suggest one of the best accommodations for students with Autism/Autism spectrum disorder, ADD and ADHD is smaller class sizes. Speak with any teacher and I’m sure they would tell you the same information, even without the evidence of the results of the study; class size is a huge factor in everything from the learning success of the students to the overall morale of the classroom. Large class sizes are a huge learning barrier not only in my district but, many districts. Another learning barrier that exists in my work setting is the lack of motivation. Teaching at the high school level, it can be expected that a lot of teenagers don’t enjoy school. A lot of them lack the motivation to learn, complete homework and assignments in a timely fashion, participate in class discussions, and even come to school prepared. It is all a part of the teenage angst morale. It is a problem in many high school environments for all types of learners from students with disabilities, middle of the road to advanced students, most teenagers will experience a lack of motivation at some point in their high school career and it can be a huge learning barrier in the classroom. Finding a way to present the topic you are teaching in an interesting and captivating way for teenagers can be difficult. Not all subjects and topics are fun and lively but, providing a teacher with different resources may it be technology, lab equipment, facilities, sports apparatus, etc. can help the teacher break the motivation learning barrier. Often, talking to students about which classes and subjects they love, you’ll find they enjoy the classes based on the teacher’s delivery and the way in which they introduce topics, create relevant assignments, and treat the students fairly and with respect. All of these factors can help break down the lack of motivation McNish 3 barrier but, don’t always work, teenagers are difficult to motivate and each of them have different things that drive them. There are numerous ways in which I can incorporate principles from the Universal Instructional Design into my work setting. These principles will not only enhance my student’s access to learning but, augment my skills as a teacher. The first principle that I could implement would be providing my students with different options to view or display the information I give to them. Learning is impossible if the student cannot perceive the information given to them. Providing students with different options of displaying the notes, projects, assignments, and announcements can be very beneficial in helping maximize learning for all students. Using different visuals, on top of regular text notes, such as charts and graphs will help enhance the learning for certain learners who may understand a concept better through displaying it in a chart or graph format. Giving students the access to devices where they can open documents and links directly on their computer rather than attempting to read from the Smart Board, will also benefit many of them. Providing students with options for language and symbols through incorporating different types of media to enhance lessons such as videos and/or sound clips for blind students, and videos with captions or text equivalents for deaf or hearing impaired students will also help maximize learning for all students, and using subtitles or text equivalents in the native language of an English Language Learner will help all students be able to understand the concepts presented. Incorporating a lot of technology in all different aspects will not only help enhance and enrich the lesson for all students but, will help provide various options of perception for students with different disabilities. Another principle from the Universal Instructional Design that I can incorporate into my work setting in order to enhance my students access to learning would be, providing students McNish 4 with multiple options for physical action. Being a Business Teacher, all of my classes are in a computer lab where each student has access to a desktop computer. There are many different options for technologies that can aide in the means of navigation, physical response, and provide different options access options. Utilizing assistive technologies such as different mice, talk to text devices, on screen keyboards, camera mouse (a program where you can control the mouse with your head through screen instead of a mouse), AIM navigator (where students can different audio and text formats from Braille to large print and electronic text) and so many more can help all of my students succeed in my class. Furthermore, another principle that I can incorporate from the Universal Instructional Design would be providing different options in order to successfully recruit interest and sustain effort. This would also help eliminate one of the learning barriers that I had previously mentioned; lack of motivation. Providing students with lessons and coinciding assignments that are appropriate to their age and the time they live in will help them in turn become more motivated. Infusing socially and culturally relevant activities and sources of information for examples can help students better conceptualize concepts and lessons. Updating the curriculum on a consistent basis and making it overall more relevant to the changing times, backgrounds, lives, and minds of the students of today would help teachers like myself, better recruit interest and sustain effort in the classroom. One class I teach that I feel like I can easily implements parts of the Universal Instructional Design best would be Personal Finance. A particular lesson I had in mind is a lesson on budgeting. In this class we are giving the students the background knowledge for them to be able to make smart financial decisions when they leave high school. It is now a state mandated class. In my lesson on budget, I usually start with a YouTube video on budgeting that McNish 5 is a little bit silly but grabs their attention. Then we go into the short lecture on the concept of budgeting, parts of a budget, standard percentages for parts of a budget, paying yourself first and so on. After giving students notes, we create a simulated budget together as a class on the computer using Excel, based on a teacher given budget scenario. We create the budget in Excel utilizing formulas and creating graphs and charts with the finished budgets then, analyzed the budget together. We utilized this as a working example and then the students broke off into groups, picked from a box to reveal their budget scenario, and worked as a group to complete their budget the same way we did it in Excel and analyze it based on the questions provided by the teacher. How can I make this lesson universal? Providing students with different formats of the notes from just printing them, printing them with larger font, giving them access to the document on the computer so they can change the color, size, layout etc., providing students with software that can read the notes from the computer to them, or providing a note taking device or a person to scribe. Another thing I can do is provide captions on the video I used in class, provide subtitles, printed text from the video, and giving students access to the videos on their own computers. Using groups to work on the assignment will help accommodate to a lot of student’s specialized needs. Also, setting up my classroom to provide certain students with preferential seating (i.e. closer to the teacher, projector, door, and more personal space) is an easy accommodation that can be made to help students. Additionally, providing my students with different assistive technologies as different mice, talk to text devices, on screen keyboards, camera mouse, AIM navigator will benefit them greatly. Lastly, in order to recruit more interest in this lesson, creating budget scenarios that can be current and relatable to the students will help recruit more interest and keep them interested throughout the entirety of the lesson. All of these McNish 6 implementations can help make a wide range of student more comfortable and successful in my classroom thus, making it more universal. Making these changes in this particular lesson, I would be accommodating many disabilities including: blindness, low vision, deaf, hard of hearing, mobility impairments, attention deficits, health impairments, learning impairments and overall students with special needs. Making changes to a curriculum to adopt a new concept is going to be hard but, what I think would be the hardest strategies to adopt are: purchasing the assistive technology programs, layout of the classroom, and getting any type of extra manpower (scribe, para educator, etc.). Purchasing anything in a school district is quite the challenge between budget cuts and dividing the money up equally, it seems like we never have enough money for the budget but, purchasing assistive technology would be even more difficult than the norm. It would be more difficult mainly because it is so expensive. One way to help would be to research and apply for specific grants for special education and assistive technology in the classroom; these are a great way to aide in paying for the assistive technology. Changing the layout of the classroom to better accommodate for certain students needs sounds like an easy task but, being that I am in a computer lab that makes the task much harder. We have access points and lots of cords and wires, making it difficult to really change the layout of the classroom. Once these access points and Wi-fi hubs are put in, we don’t really have much of a choice on where to put the desks and computers. Lastly, extra manpower from scribes or para educators is very difficult. Not only are positions cut and we have less and less help but, being that I am an elective teacher, it is not required for the students to have para educators in my class. With all that being said, I think there are some adoptions that would be easier to make. Utilizing technology to help students format text to be able to better interpret it is very easy for McNish 7 me because I am in a computer lab environment and they always have access to the computers. Providing students with different forms (printed, electronic, etc.) of notes or any supplemental materials is also very simple. Lastly, teaching Business classes makes it a little easier to make topics and lessons relevant to the students and have the assignments relate to them, which can help recruit interest and sustain effort. Our content area is more relatable to them and their lives outside of school; it is also more practical and we can help them visualize and conceptualize how they will use it once they are out of school or even right now in their personal life. These are the implementation strategies that I would find to be the easiest to adopt in my particular classroom environment and district. All in all, Universal Instructional Design is a great concept and one that can do wonders for our education system. I believe that in the state we are in, in New Jersey, with overcrowded classrooms, budget cuts, and no respect from our local government officials, we would have a hard time implementing this concept efficiently and effectively. It is a shame that it isn’t easier to do because, it does minimize barriers and maximize learning for all different types of students, disabilities or not, and, that should always be the main goal. McNish 8 Works Cited Access STEM. 2015. http://www.washington.edu/doit/health-impairments. July 2015. CAST. n.d. http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html#.Vb-7M_lVhBc. July 2015. National Center on Universal Design for Learning . 2012. http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl. July 2015. Rios, Robert J. "Johns Hopkins School of Education." July 1998. New Horizons For Learning. http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/Transforming%20Education/Articles/Class%20Size/. July 2015. Sousa, David A. How The Special Needs Brain Learns. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, 2007.