Thursday, November 29, 2007
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.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Hi Stephanie!
I think you have a great point. Instead of having teachers create e-book and digitize all their texts, why don't companies!? I feel like there are a bunch of companies out there that do digitize but there are so many more that dont and should!
Definitely agree with your comments about the digitizing of text, but it is good that more companies are starting to do it and maybe this will only be furthered as more of us are using UDL in the classroom and the construct becomes more widely known. I really liked what you said about the chapter focusing on the limitations of the curriculum rather than the limitations of the student, I agree that Ms. Palley was doing a wonderful job of realy accomplishing this and it really is what we should all be striving to accomplish not just for students with disabilities but for all students. Regardless if a student has a "label" they may still find barriers present in the curriculum depending on their abilities and difficulties so if we can make the curriculum more accessible then we can begin to avoid the retrofitting you described in all kinds of classrooms.
Hi Stephanie!
I thought the start of the chapter when they stated that we should focus on the limitations of the curriculum and not the limitations of the students was a great. I thought that the story of the Concord school district was so great and so nice to see UDL implemented and sustained so successfully. I really think that it was because of the strong support that the teachers received. It would be nice if more schools could provide teachers with all this support and technology in more underprivileged areas. I think that you brought up a great point, that companies who develop curricular materials should start to also create digital formats. This would make using UDL easier to use for teachers who make not have the support or time to make all of their lessons UDL.
Post a Comment