[0:04] Okay. Well, thank you for having me, everyone, and today, as you know, we'll be talking about

[0:12] inclusive education and what that looks like in our district for our students and our educators.

[0:19] My name is Shannon Boatwright. I am the special education content facilitator in the district,

[0:25] and I've been coaching in the district. This will be my fourth year, but I have been an educator in

[0:31] district. This is my 16th year, I believe. So I've been around for a while and been able to

[0:40] practice and implement many of the instructional practices that we'll be talking about today. So

[0:47] feel free to put questions in the chat. We will have time on afterwards for questions as well.

[0:52] And if it's burning and you want to ask while we're talking, then please feel free.

[0:59] So today we're going to talk about just inclusive education and what that is, and then we'll

[1:04] follow that up with co-teaching and what that looks like in District 65, what it is and

[1:10] what it looks like, and then how we leverage universal design for learning in our inclusive

[1:16] education for all of our students and how it benefits everyone.

[1:21] So when we talk about inclusion, what we're talking about specifically is our students

[1:27] with special needs, spending most of their time if not all of their time in the general

[1:33] education setting. And I like this visual just to give us an idea, I'm a very visual learner.

[1:43] So to give us an idea of what that looks like and I think that helps us imagine what that feels

[1:47] like a little bit as well. So the first model is exclusion and that's when being the red students

[1:57] would be the specialized students, the green students, being the general education students,

[2:01] and the special education students are kept out of the general education learning environment,

[2:07] and their learning is separate. Separation, which would be the next model,

[2:14] and that's when they're provided their education in a separate environment. So within the school,

[2:20] so exclusion would be maybe just outside of the school and a whole other environment.

[2:24] and separation would be in a different learning space.

[2:27] And sometimes that's done to just respond

[2:30] to specific disabilities, specific impairments

[2:35] and it's really isolating for the students

[2:39] with disabilities.

[2:41] And then we have integration.

[2:43] And integration is when the students are mainstream

[2:46] would be a term that many of you are probably familiar with.

[2:50] And so they're in the general education environment

[2:53] but they are still not included in a lot of what's happening with general education.

[2:58] So sometimes we'll refer to that as special education in the back of the room.

[3:03] And true inclusion is when the final model when all of the students are learning together

[3:08] and educators are working to adapt or modify what's happening in the general education environment

[3:14] so that all students have access.

[3:19] So one of the things we want to keep in mind is that all of our

[3:22] students are general education students first. One of the things that we're held to by law

[3:27] is to put students in the least restrictive environment for learning and so that begins in

[3:33] the general education environment and they are general education students first. The disabilities

[3:40] ask 2004 requires that students with disability be educated in the least restricted environment as

[3:47] I mentioned before, and that they cannot be removed solely because they need the general

[3:52] education curriculum to be modified or adapted for them.

[3:57] That is not good grounds to say, the student needs to be somewhere else and can't learn

[4:02] in this environment.

[4:03] It's our responsibility to make sure that they can access what they can access in that environment.

[4:11] Our models come into sets, partial inclusion, and for that, students can be included in the

[4:17] general education for some of the time and so they may be included for oftentimes you'll see

[4:24] students included kind of across the board for physical education for fine arts for lunch and

[4:31] for recess and then they may be included in some of the constant area classes like social studies

[4:37] and science with support supports and then some of the main core curriculum I'm depending on

[4:43] and the ability of the students.

[4:45] That's kind of a typical scenario.

[4:48] And then students would be pulled out

[4:49] for some direct instruction,

[4:51] for some specific targeted skills

[4:53] that cannot be addressed in the general education setting.

[4:58] Full inclusion is when students with IEPs receive

[5:01] all of their instruction in the general education classroom.

[5:03] And they're supported by the general education teacher

[5:06] and the special education teacher.

[5:08] And that can look different.

[5:09] That can look a couple of ways,

[5:10] depending on the plan for the student. Each plan is individualized based off of the specific

[5:17] students needs.

[5:21] There are many studies that have been done across the globe about the benefits

[5:25] of inclusion and so we're just going to look at how it benefits everyone in the environment and that's

[5:31] the beautiful thing about it and I've seen this firsthand in my experience is that the benefits for

[5:36] or how to support students in learning, teaching and learning is really phenomenal.

[5:45] So for students with diverse learning needs, and we're talking about students with IEP's

[5:50] special education students, but this also includes emerging bilingual students.

[5:55] This includes students who have not been identified or evaluated for a type of disability, but

[6:02] are still striving learners.

[6:03] And those are in all of our classrooms.

[6:06] So this benefits those specific targeted students,

[6:10] but it really benefits everyone in the classroom.

[6:12] And so it improves, it supports them academically.

[6:16] They, I'm studies have shown that they have stronger skills

[6:20] and coming out stronger skills in reading and math.

[6:22] They have improved language skills

[6:24] because they're exposed to an environment

[6:26] where typical language and conversation

[6:28] and social and our accents,

[6:30] there's a lot of it as being modeled.

[6:31] and children learn so much from their peers.

[6:34] And so you will see a lot of that.

[6:37] Higher rates of attendance.

[6:38] I think a lot of that has to do with morale

[6:40] and feeling part of the community.

[6:43] And studies also show that students who are part

[6:46] of an inclusive setting compared to students

[6:48] who were in a segregated setting performed much better

[6:51] than peers who had similar needs as they did.

[6:56] It also improves your social and emotional outcomes.

[6:58] Again, students learn so much from each other.

[7:00] and so a lot of the modeling of what school looks like and feels like the school behaviors that are expected.

[7:07] And those students are more likely, one of the things we struggle with in special education is

[7:12] involving our parents and families because just like students can feel like they're not a part of the community,

[7:21] that can triple up down to the parents. And so students who are included, their parents and families tend to be more involved in the school community,

[7:29] and those children are also more likely to be involved in school groups.

[7:33] So like after school programs, which typically we don't often see some of our special education

[7:38] and emerging bilinguals participate in when they're included more in the classroom environment,

[7:44] they also participate more in some of those school groups.

[7:47] And then long-term, students who are included in general education environments are more likely

[7:54] to complete secondary school and more likely to be employed.

[7:57] And a lot of that has to do with just being comfortable and knowing that they are a part

[8:04] of a community and that they are safe and that they do have something to offer because

[8:09] that is definitely something that we model and stress in that environment.

[8:17] It doesn't just benefit the students with special needs but also students, the typical learner.

[8:23] So students who are more likely to accept the situation that they're familiar with.

[8:30] So if they're familiar with having people with all sorts of needs and all sorts of diversity regardless of what that looks like in their learning environment, then it just becomes the norm for them.

[8:41] And so that they carry that on throughout life. And so what we see with students who are typical learners is just more acceptance and inclusivity in terms of how they work with other people.

[8:53] They have friendships with students with disabilities, they have more compassion and empathy as opposed to pity and feeling bad for them.

[9:01] We see in these cohorts and I was lucky enough to be part of a cohort of students that came into kindergarten as full co-taught.

[9:11] And I got to watch them go all the way through fifth grade.

[9:15] And it was that cohort of students was just so respectful of each other and we did have so much less of that bullying and teasing because difference was just part of the norm for them. It was part of the culture, so it wasn't something to reject.

[9:31] And in addition to that, because the learning environment is so inclusive of difference

[9:41] that students who are striving learners do well, students who are doing well do well

[9:51] as also because they're able to diverse by their own learning and they have opportunities

[9:56] to master things because they can teach and help others.

[9:59] and that's another way that we've learned is when we can teach someone what we know,

[10:03] that's another way to solidify mastery of the skill.

[10:06] Hey Shannon, just a quick, um, I forgot to mention when you joined that, uh,

[10:13] Manuel is interpreting, um, so if we could just remember to try to slow our, our speech for him,

[10:20] you could hate it. Thank you.

[10:25] Okay. And then, um, finally, it does not just benefit the students,

[10:30] but also the educators in the classroom.

[10:33] So in an inclusive setting,

[10:36] you're gonna be working with a variety of educators.

[10:39] It can be a special educator.

[10:41] It can be an emergent bilingual teacher.

[10:44] It can be a speech language pathologist.

[10:47] I've co-taught with social workers before.

[10:50] I've had occupational therapists come in

[10:53] during my station teaching and run stations

[10:55] during my writing class.

[10:56] So in all of that, we're really able to learn from each other and that

[11:02] just improves our instructional practice. It improves our ability to collaborate.

[11:08] We model for each other just like we're asking the students to do and looking for

[11:11] the students to model for each other. We do that as educators and it gives educators

[11:18] an opportunity to have a greater capacity to support all the students in their classroom.

[11:24] So teachers who may be in a co-teaching partnership

[11:28] one year and aren't the next year have gathered so many skills

[11:32] from co-teaching with a special educator that they are better equipped to support the students in their classroom.

[11:39] Again, whether you have an IEP or not, each class has a variety of learners in the classroom.

[11:45] And if we think about general educators as the content specialist,

[11:50] They know the content, they know the curriculum really well.

[11:54] Special educators are the learning behavior specialists.

[11:57] So we know how students learn bread best.

[12:01] And so when you put those two things together,

[12:03] we're really able to build off of each other.

[12:06] Special educators learning more about the expectations of general education,

[12:10] general educators, education educators,

[12:14] learning more about how learning happens

[12:17] and being able to modify and adapt in their classrooms for all students.

[12:23] In addition to that, there's higher expectations for students with disabilities.

[12:27] When not only do educators have higher expectations, but students end up having higher expectations for themselves.

[12:35] But studies show that IEPs that are written for students who are in inclusive settings

[12:39] tend to have higher expectations than IEPs that are written for students who are in separated settings.

[12:45] So that's another way and then it also shows that there's increased professional satisfaction having another adult in the classroom someone to bounce ideas off of someone to model positive relationship with someone to be a thought hardware.

[13:01] So that really helps I apologize.

[13:05] So

[13:08] one of the ways that we support inclusive education in District 65 is through co-teaching.

[13:14] And co-teaching is when two or more educators share a classroom to instruct a group of students.

[13:19] And like I mentioned, it could be two teachers, a general education and a special educator.

[13:25] But in my experience, there was one year where I had, it was myself, and I also had an occupational

[13:31] of therapists and the speech language without just coming in during my reading block to support

[13:36] the learners in there. It was really awesome. So it can be more than two educators.

[13:45] And when

[13:45] you're co-teaching, it's not just a teacher coming into the room to support a student or to help

[13:52] them, you know, complete a task. It really starts with the planning and preparation for the instruction.

[13:59] So true code teaching really has kind of a sacred time for planning where the teachers can work together.

[14:07] Do the work ahead of time.

[14:09] Think about what barriers to learning might occur and then prepare for those.

[14:14] And then think about how they'll be, how they'll deliver the instruction.

[14:17] And we'll look at some of the models of code teaching.

[14:20] Here are six models for code teaching.

[14:23] The first one being one teach and one observe.

[14:27] And the teacher who is observing is not just sitting back and relaxing, but it may be collecting data on on task behaviors, maybe watching the teacher model of particular instructional strategy, maybe just sitting back and noticing peer interaction.

[14:50] So usually it's for data collection of some sort is why the other teacher would be observing.

[14:55] The second model is station teaching, and as you can see,

[15:00] See, there's three tables and one teacher at two of the tables, and then a table where students are working independently. In this type of model, typically students would rotate through those stations so that they would be able to participate in what each of the teachers representing and then have an activity that's independent. Sometimes in station teaching, the two teachers will be teaching similar skills, but they may be adapted or modified for that.

[15:29] particular group. The station teaching is very effective in meeting the needs of all the students.

[15:37] Third is parallel teaching. In that model, you would split the class into two groups,

[15:44] maybe evenly, maybe not. And the teachers are pretty much teaching the same content.

[15:51] However, it could be the exact same content. It just works better in smaller groups

[15:56] for whatever reason, or it could be slightly adapted.

[16:00] So maybe there's more visual supports.

[16:03] Maybe there are more cues and prompting.

[16:06] Maybe there are some scaffolding to lead to the skill

[16:12] that we're trying to get to in one group

[16:13] that's not happening in the other group.

[16:15] But in parallel teaching, they are teaching the same content

[16:18] to reach the same goal.

[16:20] Alternative teaching is when the class is split

[16:23] and the other group is learning something different.

[16:26] So that's when there would be a significant difference

[16:28] in what's happening.

[16:29] So for example, if I'm in a math class

[16:32] that is working on place value to the thousands,

[16:36] and I have a group that is still working on place value

[16:40] for ones and tens, in alternative teaching,

[16:43] I would pull that group.

[16:44] You still be working on place value,

[16:46] but at the instructional level of those students.

[16:49] Team teaching is when two teachers are teaching

[16:51] at the same time. That really takes a lot of planning and oftentimes a relationship that's

[16:58] kind of been established over time so that teachers can feed off of each other and really work

[17:03] together. Sometimes a teacher may be actually leading the instruction while the other one is taking

[17:07] down notes so that students can watch that teacher take down notes. Sometimes they're actually

[17:12] teaming and feeding off of each other. Sometimes they're going role playing so it can look different

[17:17] but both teachers are in front of the classroom,

[17:18] instructing at the same time.

[17:21] And then finally, one teacher and one assist.

[17:24] And so the teacher, one teacher is leading instruction.

[17:27] The other teacher is assisting by supporting students,

[17:30] maybe moving through the classroom,

[17:31] helping with on-task behavior, helping to make sure

[17:35] teacher students stay on-task, our students get started

[17:38] right away, maybe notice the thing who has it,

[17:43] who doesn't, so that they can collect some data on that.

[17:45] So the one to the system can be doing a variety of things and oftentimes teachers would switch off roles and all of these models teachers would switch off roles.

[18:01] We use student center scheduling to determine the schedules for which students would be in a code teaching model and how the educators will be able to support.

[18:13] So it's really a very detailed planning for the scheduling it involves a lot of teachers it teachers who know the students and know their needs need to be involved in this process as well.

[18:27] And the continuum looks like this so there's consultation where students just the indirect support from a special education teacher meaning they don't receive any direct instruction from the special education teacher.

[18:38] but the Gen Ed teacher would consult with this bed teacher to get ideas for how to support them best in the Gen Ed environment.

[18:46] Co-teaching light, a special educator would support the student periodically. That could be every other day,

[18:53] that could be a portion of the content area, but these students don't need that direct support all day.

[19:01] Full Co-teaching is for students who need that direct daily support in the General Education Classroom.

[19:07] to be successful. So in that model a special educator would be with would be in

[19:14] the Gen Ed class for that whole day or that particular content area that was

[19:18] being co-taught. And then finally the most restrictive environment would be when

[19:24] a student is need something just substantially different from what's

[19:27] happening in Gen Ed and they would be pulled out for some resource self-contained

[19:32] direct instruction usually for some very targeted and specific skills.

[19:37] usually foundational skills that support access to what's happening in the general education classroom.

[19:44] Hey, Shannon, there were.

[19:46] Yes.

[19:47] Oh, sorry, were you doing with that time?

[19:49] Yes.

[19:50] Okay, there were two questions about co-teaching.

[19:53] If you want to go back to the picture with the models, it might be you.

[19:57] Sorry, going wrong way.

[20:00] Okay.

[20:01] First one is which of these models are in use here?

[20:06] How do teams or the district decide which models of code teach into use?

[20:13] So all of these are in use, and when you say here I'm assuming you mean in the district,

[20:18] all of these are in use, and the teachers decide which model is used.

[20:22] And that model does not mean that this is how we do it every day.

[20:26] So, if I'm teaching in a math class, I gave you the example of the place value, and we

[20:34] would do the alternative teaching that day, but the next day, we may choose to do parallel

[20:40] teaching because, or maybe we're doing parallel teaching when we start the place value learning,

[20:46] but then because we need more models and graph-organized groups and concrete manipulations for one

[20:51] particular group, but we're doing the same content, and as we move further along, we realize

[20:55] that group needs a little bit more. So we might go to alternative teaching. In a reading class,

[21:01] I may be more likely to do some teaming so that we can model some of the strategies for reading,

[21:08] but then that we would do that for our whole group instruction. And then when it's time for the

[21:13] students to actually practice both skills, we would move into station teaching. So really, you could

[21:19] see any of these models at any given time. They do take preparation and planning. Like I said,

[21:26] it's not something that you want to just walk into the classroom that day and say, hey, today

[21:30] we're going to pair a little teach. There's a plan and that's why that planning and preparation

[21:36] is important. Does that answer that question?

[21:42] Thanks so. Okay. Yes, that was me. Yes, thank you.

[21:45] And then the next question is how is the model of alternative teaching different from main streaming also do classrooms where co teaching happens transition from one model to another or just stick to to one model, which we've kind of answered in the last question.

[22:03] Yeah, so the model would be based off of basically the concept that would guide and what our students need that would guide which model that we use.

[22:11] How does the model of alternative teaching differ from mainstreaming?

[22:17] Well, mainstreaming really is just a term that we've used a lot for students who are pushing

[22:26] into the general education environment.

[22:28] It doesn't necessarily mean that their mainstream to have a separate education in the classroom,

[22:35] although that's, I think, what people have become familiar with when they hear that term.

[22:39] So alternative teaching is, and I want to keep in mind, it doesn't necessarily mean that

[22:47] the only students, only students with IEPs are in that alternative group.

[22:53] Oftentimes there's other students in the classroom who need that same foundational

[22:56] support, and so that group can be made up of students who have IEPs, but students who just

[23:02] need some more foundational support in whatever that particular skill or task is.

[23:07] So I don't know that it differs from mainstreaming as much as the content and the skill determines

[23:19] if that model will be appropriate for the students in that classroom.

[23:25] That's what gives another question.

[23:27] There's two more that are coming now.

[23:30] Do you know what these same models are used as students moved from district 65 to 202?

[23:37] I don't know that for a fact. I don't know either, but I wonder if there's any parents on the

[23:41] call that have high school students. I mean these models are well-known and common, so if they are

[23:51] doing co-teaching, if this is something that they're trying to make part of their culture,

[23:54] I would imagine that yes, they are, to some extent, but I don't know to what extent.

[24:02] But we can try to find that answer out.

[24:06] how looped in our paraprofessionals or classroom aids into the inclusion space.

[24:13] Oh, so looped in. They're very important to my paraprofessionals where my right arm.

[24:20] So paraprofessionals are part of the planning process as well.

[24:23] So they could be leading a station and station teaching.

[24:28] They might not be giving the explicit instruction,

[24:32] but supporting when students are practicing the skill,

[24:36] they could be during the one teach one assist,

[24:40] a paraprofessional could also be the assist,

[24:42] moving through the classroom and supporting.

[24:45] At times, paraprofessionals could be the one observing

[24:47] if they're collecting data,

[24:49] depending on what that data is,

[24:51] that is something that they could potentially do as well.

[24:56] Parallel teaching is typically led by two educators,

[25:00] not as much by paraprofessionals.

[25:03] We wouldn't call it parapair, or paraparital teaching

[25:06] because typically they would be supporting practice

[25:09] of a skill that was already taught to the students.

[25:12] They would not actually be introducing a new skill

[25:14] which paraparital teaching would be more of the introduction

[25:17] and the teaching, the actual instruction.

[25:20] And then teaming, paraprofessionals could also be teaming.

[25:23] In many ways, they know the students more than we do

[25:28] because for some them they go to physical education with the students, they go to fine arts with

[25:32] the students, they're with the students for lunch and recess. And so they get to see them at times

[25:38] of the day when we don't. And they provide valuable information for us as educators on how to support

[25:44] the students best, not just in the classroom, but with social emotional needs and anything else that

[25:50] may be happening outside of our classroom that we're not aware of. So sometimes teaming can happen

[25:55] with them as well. I would just say that the main difference would be that explicit instruction,

[26:02] particularly introduction of a skill, would be coming from the educators. And anytime that I've

[26:09] had a pair of professional supporting students in station teaching or something like that, I make sure

[26:15] that they, I've already prepped them, we've already gone through, they know the language to use,

[26:20] they know, you know, what cues, when to cue and when not, what type of supports to use

[26:25] and et cetera, so that they're able to really support the learning.

[26:32] More questions? Let's just maybe try to do like two more, and then I know you want to talk about

[26:37] UDL, but just want to let you know I confirmed with a special director at ETHS that they do do code

[26:43] teaching but she got back to me right away and then do all district schools have

[26:54] co-taught classrooms no I wish would that be nice yeah we're working on it um and to some extent

[27:02] it is a you know one of the needs is professional development and helping to build the practice

[27:08] It's not enough to just say go co-teach, there's more to it.

[27:13] And so in some cases, you know, that's my job is to help teams to develop and to develop

[27:20] the relationship of trust and to really learn how to support each other.

[27:26] Again, we're merging a content specialist with a learning behavior specialist.

[27:30] So what does that look like in any relationship, it takes some learning and some work.

[27:34] And then two questions similar about step and rise about is there co-teaching there or is it more of the student going into the

[27:49] gendered classroom with the paraprofessional and are we working to build towards more co-teaching opportunities in those environments?

[27:57] That would be beautiful.

[28:00] that would be a long-term goal that I would imagine we have.

[28:03] I do know that set was attempting to do some co-teaching with special educators.

[28:10] So it was going to be two special educators that were co-teaching in a classroom.

[28:15] And so that's a step in the right direction because you still have two educators really building off of each other

[28:21] to create this environment for students where we're really building and learning and supporting each other.

[28:28] So it's starting, I would say, but I would say that's the Christopher O'Rourke.

[28:36] I'm sure you would confirm that.

[28:38] Yes, we would love to go in that direction.

[28:40] Yeah, and that's what we're working towards.

[28:44] The one last question on this, I know I said too, but we're going to add one more question

[28:48] because it's related to this.

[28:50] Is there any general rule of thumb on how long the special ed teacher holds students back

[28:55] when practicing alternative teaching to provide extra support on a skill.

[29:01] The question, no, there's no rule of thumb because each student is individual,

[29:07] each student learns of their own pace, each student demonstrates what they know in a different way,

[29:14] which we're going to talk about in a minute. And so I'll speak for myself. There is a balance that I'm

[29:24] looking for between mastery of specific targeted skills that are going to be important for them to build upon and other skills that I don't need them to master right now, but I need exposure to.

[29:39] So I'm not going to spend six months on telling time on an analog clock.

[29:45] when they have a digital clock they're going to have a cell phone all of our

[29:49] clocks you know when we walk around town now or digital so I'm not going to have

[29:53] them pull the side to be working on a skill like that mastery when it's not

[29:59] going to serve

[30:00] So I'm really thinking about which skills do I really need them to have mastered so that they can because they're important building block for them to go further. And which skills do I need them to have some exposure to? And well, I know that this is going to cycle back and we're going to be able to touch on it again. And I want to get them back into the learning. And just a point out with alternative teaching. In most cases, there's going to be a whole group lesson that addresses all of the students.

[30:29] And then when students, we pull out for that alternative teaching model, we're still

[30:33] going to be under the same umbrella of whatever the content is.

[30:37] It's just going to look a little bit different and be scaffolded and or modified differently

[30:43] for those groups.

[30:47] Okay.

[30:48] That's it for the questions for now, Shannon.

[30:50] Thank you.

[30:50] All right.

[30:53] All right.

[30:54] So, one of the ways that we're trying to support co-teaching is through universal design

[31:00] for learning.

[31:00] And universal design for learning is just a, it's based off of science and it's based off of how people learn.

[31:09] And the whole design is universal being the keyboard is to remove barriers so that all students have equal opportunity to access the learning and to be successful.

[31:20] The

[31:23] universal design works off of three principles, engagement, representation, and action and expression.

[31:33] And the idea is that there's so much learner variability in what we have in our classrooms every day, regardless of whether it's a classroom that has special education students or any other type of emerging bilinguals or any other type of striving students.

[31:51] but just all of our students in our classroom learn in a variety of ways and so they've isolated

[31:58] these three principles, engagement because students vary in the way that they engage in information,

[32:04] students vary in the way that they express their understanding of the information so how the

[32:10] information is represented and then taken in and processed by students and then action and

[32:16] expressions, so how they process it and then how they demonstrate that learning.

[32:20] So those are the three principles and I'm going to show a short video that just gives

[32:26] you some more information on UDL.

[32:40] Teacher needs to meet a curriculum goal and she's got a very diverse group of students.

[32:46] And so does this teacher and this one most do.

[32:53] So in fact, research shows that the way people learn is as unique as their fingerprints.

[33:01] What does this mean for teachers of today?

[33:05] Classrooms are highly diverse and curriculum needs to be designed from the start to meet

[33:09] this diversity.

[33:12] Universal design for learning is an approach to curriculum that minimizes barriers and maximizes

[33:18] learning for all students.

[33:22] Whoa, that's a fancy term.

[33:24] Universal design for learning.

[33:26] Let's unpack it a bit. Let's think about the word universal. By universal you

[33:34] mean curriculum that can be used and understood by everyone. Each learner in a

[33:38] classroom brings her own background, strengths, needs, and interests.

[33:48] Curriculum should provide genuine learning opportunities for each and every

[33:51] student. Now let's think about the word learning. Learning is not one thing.

[33:58] Neuroscience tells us that our brains have three broad networks, one for recognition, the

[34:03] what of learning, one for skills and strategies, the how of learning, and one for caring and

[34:09] prioritizing the why of learning.

[34:12] Students need to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning, and a curriculum needs

[34:17] to help them do all three.

[34:19] But every learner is unique, and one size does not fit all.

[34:22] So how do we make a curriculum that challenges and engages diverse learners?

[34:28] This is where the word design comes in.

[34:31] A universally designed building is planned to be flexible and to accommodate all kinds of users within without disabilities.

[34:38] It turns out that if you design for those in the margins, your building works better for everyone.

[34:44] Curb cuts and ramps are used by people in health chairs, people with strollers and people on bikes.

[34:51] Capturing on TV serves people who are deaf, people learning English, people in gyms, and

[34:57] spouses who get to sleep at different times.

[35:00] UDL takes this idea and applies it to the design of flexible curriculum.

[35:05] UDL goes beyond access because we need to build and support and challenge.

[35:10] So how do we use the UDL framework to make learning goals, methods, materials, and assessments

[35:15] that work for everyone?

[35:17] First ask yourself, what is my goal? What do I want my students to know, do, and care about?

[35:24] Then ask, what barriers in the classroom might interfere with my diverse students reaching these goals?

[35:30] To eliminate barriers, use the three UDL principles to create flexible paths to learning so that each student can progress.

[35:38] Number one, provide multiple means of representation.

[35:41] Present content and information in multiple media and provide varied supports.

[35:47] Use graphics and animation, highlight the critical features, activate background knowledge,

[35:53] and support vocabulary so that students can acquire the knowledge being taught.

[35:57] Number two, provide multiple means to action and expression.

[36:02] Give students plenty of options for expressing what they know and provide models,

[36:06] students, feedback, and supports for their different levels of proficiency.

[36:12] Number three, provide multiple means of engagement.

[36:15] What fires up one student won't fire up another, gives students choices to fuel their interests

[36:20] in autonomy, help them risk mistakes, and learn from them.

[36:24] If they love learning, they'll persist through challenges.

[36:27] And remember, always keep in mind the learning goal.

[36:31] Get rid of barriers caused by the curriculum, and keep the challenge rid of the laws.

[36:35] And that's it. Okay, quick recap. Show the information in different ways, allow your students

[36:42] to approach learning tasks and demonstrate what they know in different ways, and offer options

[36:47] that engage students and keep their interest. The universal design for learning equals learning opportunities

[36:54] for all.

[36:56] For more information on UDL, go to www.cast.org.

[37:02] one

[37:10] question in the chat. Okay, sorry, keep interrupting. It says these principles clearly apply to student

[37:18] populations other than kids with disabilities as well. Are your jobs limited to special ed or do

[37:26] you work with other populations as well? My job, I am the content facilitator for special education,

[37:34] So that would be my primary focus.

[37:37] However, I work closely with the

[37:40] content facilitator for humanities.

[37:42] When I am coaching right now,

[37:45] I'm coaching a couple of co teaching teams.

[37:47] So I'm working with the general educators as well.

[37:50] And as I mentioned earlier,

[37:52] as we build skill and capacity and teachers,

[37:56] then that carries on year to year.

[37:59] And we're hoping that it, you know,

[38:01] it spreads out.

[38:02] again this is something that we're doing a lot of learning around right now and we'll continue

[38:08] to do learning around and hope that it becomes part of our culture. So it is good for all classrooms

[38:14] not just the co-talk classrooms not just for special education you're absolutely right.

[38:18] Can I just add something to because even though I would say other departments are also

[38:27] bringing this is becoming again a more widespread concept in the district not just within our

[38:32] department, which is wonderful because it doesn't impact all learners, but the way we have our

[38:38] new coaching model structure and our content facilitator structure is in a way that

[38:44] at the school level they're not just relying on our wonderful expert, Miss Bolt, right,

[38:49] to be the holder of all the knowledge and train everybody for trying. So Shannon has been working

[38:55] with other content facilitators and the instructional coaches for each building. They understand these

[39:01] concepts because then the idea is then that the building instructional coaches have this information

[39:07] and are able to then coach everyone in their building on these concepts. So we'll just say that,

[39:14] you know, hopefully again, we're still I think in the early stages, but through this type of supportive

[39:19] model that will be closer to school building level, hoping that we'll we'll see it become more

[39:28] ingrained in our everyday practices.

[39:33] There's another question where are the

[39:34] co-talk classrooms in the district? I don't know if you can answer that

[39:40] specifically. Gosh, because I think I think every building has co-talk classrooms.

[39:46] Definitely all of our middle schools all of our that's why we hired so many more

[39:51] special ed teachers last year was going into this school year was because we

[39:56] wanted to be able to make sure that we had some co-teaching options in the

[40:00] in the classrooms and through that student scheduling, student centered scheduling process that Shannon

[40:06] shared, that's where our buildings tried to look at their master's schedule and try to

[40:12] group students together in a way that made sense so that special education teachers could be paired

[40:18] with like a grade level versus being spread across multiple grade levels so that they could do more

[40:25] co-teaching across fewer classrooms. So again, we're continuing to build on it and to be honest,

[40:33] all of the things that we put together that we had planned for Student Center scheduling had to

[40:39] be some principles. We were able to keep, but not everything that building principles had planned

[40:44] going into this year. The schedule had to shift due to the pandemic and are all of the shifts there,

[40:52] but that is the goal to just continue to expand it.

[40:57] But I would say every building has some co-top classroom level of co-teaching.

[41:02] Yes, I agree.

[41:05] You know, I can just quickly add to one of the things that we're trying to do this year

[41:10] is to really gather more specific data in terms of what co-teaching looks like in each

[41:16] of our buildings.

[41:17] And so we do have a tool that teams are working on this spring

[41:22] to just kind of share some of the pieces of their work, like there's research out there that

[41:31] talks about the high quality indicators of implementing co-teaching. And so we've created

[41:38] this tool and later this spring we'll have information from each of our schools which will give us

[41:44] a better sense of like what's going well, where do schools and teams feel like they need more support

[41:51] and that is going to be information that we can then use for planning for next year.

[41:59] Thank you

[42:03] Shannon. So if you'll notice if you noticed in the video, they started with number

[42:10] one as representation, number two, action and destruction, and number three was engagement.

[42:16] After some time of influencing this practice, they decided or realized might be a better word that

[42:21] engagement should be number one because if we didn't have students engaged in

[42:26] the learning everything else we put in front of them was just not going to be as

[42:30] fruitful so it has changed and actually if you look down at the guidelines here

[42:37] you'll see numbers and you'll see that representation is one two and three

[42:41] action is four five and six and engagement is seven eight and nine and so that's

[42:46] why the numbers are a little bit out of order so if you were to go to the

[42:50] website, www.mudioguidelines.cast.org, or you would see this, the guidelines for UDL.

[42:57] And you've already had an overview of the three principles.

[43:00] And this would be a tool to help guide instruction help to create a plan.

[43:08] And so there's a couple ways to look at it.

[43:10] You can look at it horizontally where you'll see the tabs on the left,

[43:15] access, build and internalize and so if you look at it horizontally you can see

[43:20] that for engagement or recruiting interest we are offering ways to display

[43:26] the information for students and we are varying the ways that they can

[43:30] respond for action and expression and then these skills build as you go down

[43:37] the columns so for engagement we're starting with individual choice and

[43:41] autonomy, we're building into very the demands and the resources, we're building community

[43:47] and collaboration, and then we're working down to have students who are able to self-regulate

[43:53] who are able to have their own personal scoping skills use strategies, whether they're learning

[43:58] strategies or behavioral strategies, and then be able to self-assess and reflect.

[44:04] For representation, we're starting with how can we display information for students, we're

[44:09] on that vocabulary and the language and helping them to gain understanding of the language so

[44:16] that ultimately they will be able to comprehend the information that's put in front of them.

[44:21] For action and expression, we're varying the ways that they can respond to what they've learned,

[44:27] we're giving them different ways to express and communicate what they've learned, and then

[44:32] ultimately we want them to be able to set goals and to be able to plan and strategize for how

[44:39] they can bring those goals to fruition. As an educator, that doesn't mean I need to be only

[44:46] in access, and I need to start in access in all three areas. As I get to know my classroom,

[44:51] I may be in the build area for engagement, but in the perception area for representation. So as I'm

[44:59] Thank you.

[45:00] Planning. I'm thinking about what do my students need? Right now, I would say for one group I'm working with, we're focusing on engagement because we have students who it's the end of the school year. We've had quite the year. We have many students who just came back to in person learning while we also have the zoomies in the roomies, right? We have some students who are still at home and some students are in person and teachers having to have to concurrently teach both of those groups. So how do I keep all of the student things

[45:29] engage. So we're focusing on that engagement piece right now. Next year they may focus on

[45:35] a different area depending on the students that are in front of them. Again this is very proactive

[45:40] and so with special education, we're progress monitoring, we're using those data points to think

[45:47] about where students are and what they need for next steps. With universal design, again universal

[45:53] as for all students, I'm looking at the curriculum or the unit or the lesson and I'm thinking about

[45:59] about what barriers are there for all of my students and thinking about proactively before

[46:05] I even get to the lesson, not after I've assessed it, thinking about how I can present

[46:10] this information in a way so that all students access it.

[46:15] Question.

[46:17] So, in the chat, does UDL affect IEP accommodations, but differently, will certain things not be

[46:25] spelled out in the IEPs if they fall under UDL.

[46:29] No, everything will be spelled out in an IEP

[46:31] that needs to be in an IEP.

[46:33] So this will not take the place of any type

[46:37] of accommodations or modifications

[46:39] that a student needs in their IEP will be on there

[46:43] so that we can make sure we implement them.

[46:46] Now could UDL address some of those accommodations

[46:51] that are needed for a student?

[46:52] Absolutely.

[46:53] in many cases, not all, but in many cases,

[46:57] the accommodation that I'm providing for one student

[47:00] is gonna help a few other students in the classroom.

[47:03] So that's another benefit is that,

[47:05] while I'm thinking of, there's one image that I use

[47:09] for some of my other sessions talking about UDL

[47:12] where the students waiting to get in school

[47:14] and the stairs are covered with snow

[47:16] and someone is shoveling the stairs

[47:21] And there's a student in Wilshire that says, well, can you, you know, shovel the ramp and he says, what all these kids are waiting to use the stairs and he says, but if you shovel the ramp, all of us will be able to go up the ramp.

[47:31] And so it's that same design as teaching right as I provide these accommodations for some many students are going to benefit from the same accommodation.

[47:39] So I hope that answered that question. And then I see another one. How does the CCF measure the impact of UL?

[47:48] Good question. I'm actually working on that right now. Again, this is something new for us in terms of a structured approach to implementing it. So that's something that I was actually thinking about working on today is how.

[48:01] So thinking about the team that I told you, we're going to be working on engagement.

[48:06] How are we going to measure the effectiveness of the strategies that we use?

[48:11] So that's to come, that's to come.

[48:15] Well, there's one more.

[48:18] Also how are we measuring UDL, which I think will continue to problem solve that, but we do

[48:24] want to make sure that we are looking at the effectiveness of this.

[48:27] And then also their pushback from teachers about implementing UDL.

[48:34] Not so far, I think that one of the challenges is when we have new curriculum and teachers are trying to familiarize themselves with the new curriculum, then it's just an added challenge and time, I would say to then try to learn what the curriculum has.

[48:56] and then figure out how to provide and adapt that with whether it's IEP accommodations or

[49:07] modifications or UDL. So that would be the only challenge right now that I hear and see is

[49:16] that I'm learning this new curriculum, so it's a little bit difficult for me to figure out what

[49:21] works and what doesn't at this point. But other than that, no, there's no. And I wouldn't need to say

[49:26] That's pushed back. That's more of a wondering and how we work around that so and this is kind of perfect leading into this slide that.

[49:36] You know, it quality means that we're offering the same curriculum and assessment and pedagogy and challenge to all students and with the assumption that despite that learner variability that we know exists in each classroom that the outcomes should be the same.

[49:51] So by using UDL we're providing a more equitable instruction because we're making sure that all

[50:02] students have access to curriculum assessment, pedagogy, and challenge. That's appropriate for

[50:07] them and responding to the variability of the students in front of us. And so this really just

[50:13] gives us guidance on how to provide more equitable instruction for all of our students.

[50:21] And so some of the benefits of UDL is, again, it's just recognizing that each student

[50:27] is an individual and helps students to have a roadmap to proactively plan.

[50:33] And in a perfect world, because we're not thinking about, so when I'm thinking about differentiation,

[50:42] I'm typically thinking about a specific student or students who have a particular need and

[50:49] And I'm creating some sort of adaptation for them.

[50:54] With UDL, I'm thinking about barriers that are present in the curricula.

[50:58] And I'm creating an instructional plan that removes those barriers.

[51:04] So what I'm thinking is what I create for unit 4 of study sync, I'm going to be able

[51:14] to use those same strategies next year on unit 4 of study sync.

[51:18] I may have to make some slight adjustments, but because I'm proactively thinking about

[51:22] those barriers looking at the curriculum, what I'm preparing should essentially support

[51:28] all the students in my classroom from year to year with minimal variation.

[51:34] We'll see how that works out.

[51:35] We'll collect that data.

[51:37] Also it allows for the development of expert learners.

[51:41] So looking at that framework that I showed you as we move down those columns, the goal is to

[51:48] have students who are knowledgeable, students who know how to use their resources,

[51:54] students who have strong executive functioning skills and who are expert learners.

[51:59] That's really what we're teaching students. We're teaching students how to learn best because

[52:03] learning doesn't stop when they leave school, right? I'm still learning, you always still learning.

[52:07] So we're teaching them how to be expert learners and how to move from everything being external

[52:13] us giving them information and kind of, you know, they're not these empty vessels to just be pouring

[52:17] into their people who have their own sense of self and their own ideas and their own purpose. And so

[52:24] we really want to grow and water that internal motivation for them. And then finally, it fixes the

[52:33] curriculum that the learner so it's not having that deficit thinking about what children can't do

[52:38] but thinking about how this curriculum doesn't meet the needs of our learners and how we make those

[52:43] adjustments appropriately. I think I have an example of that last part relative to like say take

[52:52] a specific disability such as ADHD. So what would an example be for how that would be adjusted for?

[53:00] So for ADHD, let's just think about the representation part.

[53:06] So for a student who is not going to benefit from me just standing up and talking the whole time, maybe I'm going to have them watch a video, maybe I'm going to have them do some kind of activity or model where they can learn from their mistakes and kind of figure things out.

[53:27] it then backtrack and think and talk about it on the back end there. There may be more activities

[53:33] for movement. So in a math class, I may have some students and this is where I'm providing choice

[53:38] at this table. You can go ahead and work this out on paper. At this table, you can build a model

[53:45] of what that looks like using these materials. At this table, you may be able to draw some sort of a

[53:53] model for that. So I'm giving them different ways to express with their learning. And for

[53:59] someone with ADHD, I'm trying to keep them more engaged, give them some opportunities for

[54:04] movement and output. And really, you know, there's just a lot happening. So where can they put

[54:09] that energy and focus that energy and give them some opportunities to do that?

[54:17] I have a question. I know we're almost out of time. So, but real quick, in my experience with

[54:23] the district, which has mostly been elementary schools,

[54:25] so there hasn't really been co-teaching.

[54:27] There's never been enough planning

[54:29] between the general ed teacher and the special ed teacher.

[54:32] And so our successful years were generally

[54:34] when those two teachers kind of went out of their way

[54:36] to find that time on their own,

[54:38] or at least our most successful years in that day,

[54:40] they were, have you guys made changes

[54:42] to how that's done now with the elementary schools

[54:44] to enable, you know, so teachers don't have to

[54:47] like sort of carve it out in their lunch or extra time.

[54:50] Yes. So the work we did last summer was we worked with someone who really focused on meeting

[55:00] with each school and having that student center schedule so that the slide that I showed

[55:04] you that talks about consultation, co-teaching, like co-teaching, the students, the teachers

[55:09] who knew those students plugged in, which students needed what level of support. And then we started

[55:16] there, the students with the greatest need, we started there. And then we built the schedule

[55:19] around them. And in that schedule, it was imperative that the teachers had planning time within

[55:27] the school day. So yes, we made sure that they had protected planning time for those teams

[55:33] who were full teaching. And so, you know, it does take some really intricate and creative planning

[55:40] because you do have teachers who are co-teaching with multiple grades and maybe co-teaching with

[55:45] two teachers, and I need time with both teachers.

[55:48] And so we really had to build that up.

[55:50] As mentioned earlier, the pandemic happens, you know,

[55:54] things change so we didn't get to implement those models

[55:57] the way that they were designed,

[55:58] but we do have a really good framework

[56:00] for how to do that moving forward.

[56:02] And yes, I agree with you completely that is,

[56:05] there's no co-teaching without co-planning.

[56:08] I have a question if that's okay.

[56:10] I kind of have the opposite question

[56:12] And then as the ADHD question I have an autistic eight year old who is very, very easily overwhelmed,

[56:20] you know, overwhelmed by the number of kids in the classroom, overwhelmed by the number of steps in a task,

[56:25] in a task overwhelmed by, you know, what's coming next and thinking about that.

[56:29] You know, when you're thinking about UDLs, why do you address that?

[56:34] That's a good question.

[56:35] And my mind first goes to the classroom structures,

[56:42] outside of the actual instruction,

[56:44] but the classroom structures and routines

[56:46] that we would be supportive of your child,

[56:49] and would build around those.

[56:52] And so when I think about UDL and coupling those ideas,

[56:56] I would be thinking about how UDL can fit

[57:00] into my structure and routine.

[57:02] So, for example, I would always have two choices for how students can demonstrate their learning.

[57:15] Or I would always have an option to how the information is represented so that I'm not changing and switching things up too often and causing anxiety.

[57:29] So that's kind of off the top of my head, I think that that would be the case where we kind of have to merge that differentiation and universal design for a student who has more specific needs to make sure that we are removing barriers but still providing what that student needs.

[57:46] So more visual support, more checklist, more kind of orders of operations of how we're going to go through this particular lesson and how things are going to be done.

[57:55] so making sure that it's presented in an organized way so that they know what to expect.

[58:02] To build on Jacqueline's question, can you address, is there specific, is there training that

[58:09] the Gen Ed teachers in these co-taught classrooms receive about specific disabilities? Because I know

[58:15] there's very little in teacher prep programs and college about, you know, like from my experience,

[58:22] It's dyslexia or ADHD that people are just learning these things on the fly in their job.

[58:30] So can you talk a little bit about if there is any specific training for the code teachers?

[58:36] I think in many cases that comes from the pairing of the code teaching team, that the special

[58:43] educator, again, being the learning behavior specialist is the one who would help grow the

[58:48] capacity of the general education teacher, being the one who's the expert on different learning

[58:53] behaviors. So I don't know if either the directors want to address that, but I would say in most

[58:59] cases, it would be that pairing where a lot of that learning would happen for the general

[59:05] education here, unless the district were offering some professional development around something

[59:11] that was specific and they were able to partake in that or wanted to do some learning independently

[59:16] on their own. I would just add that I know as new like curriculons are rolled out that thinking

[59:25] about how to differentiate or support all students in the classroom like it's not specific to

[59:31] just supporting students with disabilities but thinking about supporting various learners. That's

[59:37] part of those types of training. We do have a professional development coordinator now. Actually,

[59:43] So we were just talking today about next year's learning lineup

[59:46] and thinking more about how we can continue to work

[59:50] to not operate in silos, but integrate our learning experiences

[59:54] for our generally teachers and our special teachers.

[59:58] So I think...

[1:00:00] I accept for the new teacher orientation, Ms. boatwright, where you do give that presentation

[1:00:07] to all the new agenda teachers who are starting specifically about supporting students with disabilities

[1:00:14] in their classroom. I can't think of another training this year that we did specifically

[1:00:20] for agenda teachers outside of what was built into some of the curriculum trainings, but it

[1:00:27] It is something that we know is a need because we do want to continue to emphasize that the

[1:00:33] Jenna teacher is a big part of the students experience and we are looking for shared ownership

[1:00:39] and they have to take some responsibility for that and can't rely solely on a special

[1:00:43] teacher to do all of those things.

[1:00:46] So like what Shannon said, a lot of it does happen naturally through that collaboration and

[1:00:51] and I think through coaching, but we want to try to keep it so that it's not separated

[1:00:57] and more integrated.

[1:00:59] We do a few years back, there are some teacher leaders who presented at different schools

[1:01:05] on autism, I presented at different schools on trauma informed teaching, so there have

[1:01:10] been some occasions like that where more specific disabilities have been addressed, but great.

[1:01:23] Well, it is a little past our time, and I do want to be respectful of everybody.

[1:01:29] I want to thank you, Ms. Foltri, for sharing your expertise with all of us tonight.

[1:01:34] I think this was really informative and helpful, and I will save the recording,

[1:01:42] and I can share it with this group in my summary email.

[1:01:45] We now have 40 people signed up on our email list, so I just checked,

[1:01:49] So I will send a summary email. How will we tomorrow that just outline the again includes the parent interest form and

[1:01:59] The nomination form and just some of our next steps. The congratulations. This group of people are the start of our the district 65 first CPAC. So

[1:02:10] Thank you for being here and thank you for being a part of it.

[1:02:14] Thank you for your presentation. That was great.

[1:02:16] appreciate it. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. All right. Thank you

[1:02:24] everybody. I will end the recording.

Untitled meeting

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