Chapter Eight

Focusing on the limitations of the curriculum rather than the limitations of students is the basic idea proposed in chapter eight. This chapter expounds on the UDL program implemented within the Concord school district. Ms. Palley is very adept at bringing together several different parties to accomplish the UDL goal. The results are impressive. This school system has a digital library available to all teachers. The text is already digitized and available for downloading. In addition, a teacher may submit digitized text for use by other educators. Ms. Palley is working with CAST and the CEC to create curriculum that addresses potential barriers during the development stage. This would eliminate the need to retrofit the curriculum. I think that one of the greatest challenges in implementing an extensive UDL program would be developing cooperation and collaboration among administration, teachers, parents, etc. It is very heartening that the Concord group worked together so efficiently in order to benefit the whole student body. Just a thought - I would like to see companies that develop curricular materials include digitized formats of the materials. This would compensate for the lack of technology (such as scanners) in economically challenged schools.

Chapter Six

Chapter six describes four perspectives in learning environments. The four learning environments are learner centered, knowledge centered, assessment centered, and community centered. Choosing to implement only one of the four environments would not be appropriate. A combination, or including components of each environment is essential in creating a balanced classroom. Learner centered environments prompt the teacher to consider the knowledge and experiences that each student brings to the classroom. Culturally appropriate content and assignments are also major components of the learner centered environment. Knowledge centered environments include the "big ideas" of knowledge that are so important for learners. Assessment centered environments include both formative and summative assessments. Providing feedback to the learner throughout the process. Community centered environments ensure a sense of connectedness among schools, students, teachers, families, local community, and extending outward to include the international community. Community centered environments also emphasize the relevance of learned content in the "real world" outside the classroom. The importance of combining elements from the four perspectives is in creating integrated understanding. Integrated understanding will lend itself to providing a framework for developing the skills necessary to generalize information throughout one's lifetime.

Chapter Six

Chapter six details specific instructional strategies that address each of the three networks. I really like the statement that our understanding of learning and teaching is constantly changing. This can also be said of our understanding of brain functioning. As more is discovered about how different individuals acquire, process, retain, and utilize information, instructional approaches will improve. I found three prominent words in chapter six: multiple, flexible, and choices. In multiple, the idea is to provide a variety of ways in which information is presented. Flexible refers to the ways in which learners access the information. Lastly, choices refer to students having options throughout the learning process. "Choices" is a key factor in motivation. Motivation can determine whether or not a student will apply his or herself to learning the given information. Finally, I can appreciate the idea that while we all share a common goal, each student must reach this goal by following his or her own path.

Chapter Four: UDL

This chapter was a good review of the networks and brain research discussed in previous chapters. I think that it is important for educators to have a good understanding of the ideas and research underlying UDL principles. Many times, educational programs are implemented without any knowledge of why or how the program came into existence. The beginning of UDL is well documented as an architectural innovation. The architectural innovations improve many facets of life including education. UDL is intent upon building particular qualities in learners including: recognizing essential cues and patterns, mastering skillful strategies for action, and engaging with learning. Furthermore, UDL provides a wide variety of learning opportunities and flexibility in order to address the different learning modalities. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a classroom teacher to implement the fundamentals of the UDL approach without incorporating digital media. Digital media provides a wide variety of instructional programs which can be modified and adapted to accommodate a diverse group of learners.