Next Steps

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tara Gestrich on August 2, 2012 at 11:18am

I think it's great that you're thinking of UDL as an umbrella for other district initiatives!

Permalink Reply by Ann Marie Carpenter on August 2, 2012 at 2:01pm

Pittsfield Public Schools also plans to incorporate UDL principles into other district initiatives, especially our PBS and effective intervention planning and implementation.  We plan to introduce UDL language and framework into our professional development at the start of the year, as well as, utilize the framework in our instructional and behavioral problem-solving process.

Permalink Reply by Bill Knittle on August 2, 2012 at 2:14pm

Tara, at my school (Rowe Elementary - affiliated with, but not part of, Mohawk), we are having a meeting to learn what MTSS is, what we're doing at our school, and what we need to consider for our next steps. This all stems from the MTSS grant that we received. Now that Patricia Tierney and I have been at this workshop, we don't see a way to present MTSS without incorporating UDL. Your powerpoint looks like it would be a vital and necessary part of that discussion. Is there a way to get a copy of it?
Thank you.
Bill Knittle
wknittle@mohawkschools.org

Permalink Reply by Midge Wetzel on August 2, 2012 at 1:58pm

Worcester is working to identify several steps to bring UDL strategies to teachers across the District. One plan is to identify selected sites to start and target staff to be trained and act as UDL coaches.  The long term hope is that this can be carried out across all our schools.  In addition, we plan to provide smaller workshops for interested teachers with the hope of gaining their interest to move forward in adopting these strategies and maybe even taking one of the Focus Group courses.

Permalink Reply by Christopher Trombly on August 2, 2012 at 1:58pm

The group from Duxbury would love to have...

• access to ongoing, job-embedded technical support from CAST;
• grant monies from DESE to help fund such support;
• DESE work closely with colleges/universities to ensure that newly graduating teachers will be well-versed in UDL.

Permalink Reply by Lynn Dole on August 2, 2012 at 1:59pm

From Mohawk:

We had a similar approach.  We have a group of educators writing curriculum this summer and we will pilot our efforts to introduce the concepts of UDL (using some of the resources used with us, including clips like the shoe size bit from Todd Rose), with the goal of building some familiarity with a "pioneer group" of educators.  We hope to present to our full staff of educators (paraprofessionals and teachers) in the opening days of school to meet our initial goal of introducing all staff to the concepts of UDL/variation.  Our next step after "initial/universal orientation to the big ideas" is to "delve deeper" by using the jigsaw approach like we did as an activity yesterday; this too would involve all of our staff, including paraprofessionals.  Our third step is to provide smaller groups (like staff who teach a common subject) with an opportunity to examine what this might look like in practice.  This could happen in the form of "Japanese lesson study", or by sharing a common topic and brainstorming how to teach it using UDL, or by examining actual lessons and video clips.  We anticipate that subsequent work might proceed with a group of "pioneers" moving faster and getting into this deeper and serving as potential models as others begin to work with applying these ideas in their classrooms.

Permalink Reply by Paula Fitzgerald on August 2, 2012 at 2:00pm

Monson Team We think the principles of UDL will help us to unify the school community, develop a cohesive message and create a student centered learning community. UDL is the thread that will help us sew the Common Core and all aspects of our learning community together.

Permalink Reply by Barbara Tatten on August 2, 2012 at 2:02pm

In North Adams our plan is to integrate our learning about UDL with our major district initiative to improve Tier One instruction.  We will share Cast resources with staff.  We will integrate UDL with MTSS, DI and the new teacher evaluation system.