A UDL Lesson? Thoughts?

UDL BDA FF – A Favourite Lesson Plan of Mine, Hope You Like It!

Kerry Armstrong April 17, 2012

What you need to start:

Picture book that you can project to the whole class (‘Elmo’ or scan and powerpoint) Pictures need to be BIG!

Rubric – we use the Performance Standards from http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/perf_stands/writing_g7.pdf (for this lesson, we use the Reading Quick Scale…students are familiar with this already and they know that this lesson will be to practice responding to reading in a powerful way. We are practicing ‘inferring’  or some other higher order reading skill.

BDA FF – This is a piece of paper that students fold in half (not quite in half  - leave a little bit of paper on top to make it look like a file folder)…so that it looks like a File Folder (FF). The put the name of the book and the date and their name on the top part of the paper

BDA – stands for Before, During and After Reading…something strong readers do!

*I like this lesson because I can prepare by finding a great picture book and asking students to take out a paper and pen…or many of my students use laptops or IPads etc. whichever writing tool they prefer (more UDL!)

Students each need a learning partner.

Before Reading

Ask a question that relates to something important in the picture book and that relates to what you want students to focus on.

Model a story from my life of how that question relates to something in my life (you have not started reading or even shown the book yet)…accessing prior knowledge!!

Ask students to record their thinking on the first part of their BDA FF. If they don’t have anything to write, they can copy/share their friend’s but no talking just thinking and writing…or drawing pictures or mindmaps or writing songs or poetry or….

Students can share with their partners and then give them more time to record more thoughts!

During Reading

Students open their papers to the big part of their of their BDA FF’s and take notes…record their thinking that answers the question as you read aloud. Stop at important parts and you can even model and record your thinking or just say it aloud. (students can share with partners and even volunteer to share with the class) this gives all students a chance to write something in response to reading!)

*Multiple means of representation…aural, oral, reading, writing, pictures, social engagement and sharing

*Multiple means of expression…students can use images, copy (we always say SHARE not Copy!) others words and phrases, aural, oral, writing (high tech or low tech)

*Multiple means of engagement…each child knows the goal, each child has supports, each child gets to enjoy a story at their level.

After Reading

Students are asked to respond to the story and answer the original question. Students are reminded to refer to the Rubric on reading responses.

We go to the computer lab and use the Word tools such as spell check, grammar check (set to formal writing) and the best tool ever – Readability Statistices level   http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/outlook2010/Adding-Readability-... so Word tells students if their writing is at a Grade 7 level or a Grade 12 or a Grade 3 level! (one must write a whole paragraph for this to be a useful tool but it sure motivates students to write, rewrite and rewrite again!

Assessment Practice

Students hand in their work and I get to go home and read their brilliant responses – such joy! I do choose from my smorgasbord of ‘not marking papers techniques’.

1. Highlight examples of something we are working on that the student has done well…for example: inferring, using strong examples…etc
2. I write a feedback paragraph
3. I choose a few strong examples and I cover up the names of the writers and I take them to class the next day and we give positive feedback using the rubrics..I might carefully give positive criticism of how to improve the work…then I return the students’ work and they assess themselves. They can then do it again with improvements or simply demonstrate what they have learned from the exercise and then apply it to the next time we do BDA FF
4. I just put a number on the assignment 1-4 these numbers correspond to the performance standards…this would be after we had done 1-3 many other times and it was time for some summative evaluation.

I should mention that students can respond with pictures, digital picture programs (Clicker) and mindmaps; however, no matter the IEP and no matter the child’s abilities, they must respond and participate.

Any feedback around how to make this more effective would be most welcome!