New post, same framework. There is an immense amount of information on UDL. I find myself locating different details all the time and I feel compelled to share it with others. My last blog focused on Teaching Every Student and some practices used by educators to do so. This time we will examine the site UDL Toolkits: Planning for All Learners (PALS).
What is the PALS Toolkit?
When I first read it, I was wondering the same thing. I believe it is a great source and by the end of this blog I am sure you will too. The PAL Toolkit applies UDL to planning and developing curricula in ways
that promote access, participation, and progress in the general
education curriculum for all learners. The PAL Toolkit provides specific planning steps,
guidance, mentoring, model lessons, tools, templates, resources, and
links to other educators using the PAL Model. So, let's go over the PAL Model.
There are four basic steps in PAL process: Set Goals, Analyze Status, Apply UDL, and Teach UDL Lessons. All these steps are imperative to the PALS process and build off each other. One could not analyze the status of curriculum and practices used before setting goals because you would not know what practices to analyze to reach a non existent goal. Each step has great resources to use and directions to follow to help you in the planning process. For example in the setting goals section of the site, there is a goal setter tutorial that steps you through the process of analyzing learning
standards and benchmarks through the lens of UDL. The tutorial uses a selected set
of standards and benchmarks to help you learn to analyze
what is essential to a goal and what can be changed and varied to
support different learners. Sounds extremely helpful, doesn't it. There are supports of that nature offered for all the steps in the PALS model. The PAL model makes it a simple to task to gather all the information together to include all the types of learners one might come across in the classroom. As the end of the school year is coming, I think this kit was a great find. Every teacher gets a fresh start in the beginning of the year and this kit will help us all plan the right way, for every student. I hope to be able to use the kit ideas in the beginning of the year in my own classroom. I believe taking bits and parts of the information to create my own lessons will make me a better educator. Please follow this link to a Prezi presentation created by Heath Peine in March of this year for more information on UDL and the PAL toolkit.
While looking at this site, I stumbled across another kit on the National Center of Universal Design for Learning. It is called the Internet Inquiry Toolkit and I found the idea very interesting. Internet searching is becoming the way of life for most Americans. We no longer do research by going to the library to find a book or locating an encyclopedia. Those research techniques are archaic and children and adults have turned to the internet to gather information. Students need to learn how to go about completing research online as it is not an easy task. Not all information on the internet is correct and not all sources are credible. The toolkit helps educators educate students on internet searching using the UDL framework.
Internet Inquiry Toolkit
"The Internet Inquiry Toolkit is a resource for language arts, content area, and special education teachers (grades 5-10) who recognize that finding information on the Internet has become an essential literacy task for today's students. This toolkit provides guidance, mentoring, model units and lessons, ready-to-use materials, resources, and opportunities to connect with colleagues." (Internet Inquiry, 2012)
There are six steps in the Inquiry toolkit and like the PAL toolkit there are numerous resources listed on the website to assist with the creation of a Internet Inquiry lesson based in UDL principles. These six steps are not for educators to follow in creating a toolkit but the educators are to instill these steps into their students brains. The students will use these steps when researching online to make better decisions.
With the information packed curriculum teachers must follow to prepare students for state test, internet inquiry strategies may seem not as important. It is possible however to combine internet inquiry fluency with other traditional literacy skills because many are needed to carry out the strategy appropriately. Students will need to utilize their decoding, skimming, comprehension, and summarizing skills while learning to search the internet. This task is necessary for the various learners in our classrooms and having a UDL based form already provided is wonderful.
I hope you have enjoyed examining these two tool kits to help you use UDL in your classroom. Until Next Time!
Peine, Heath. (2013). Elementary PD Spring 2012 UDL. Unites States: Prezi.
Internet Inquiry Toolkit. 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2013. http://www.udlcenter.org/implementation/classroomresources/toolkits.
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