Week 5

 Part 1

This week’s reading covered Universal Design for Learning:Guidlines for Accessible Online Instruction (Rogers-Shaw, C., Carr-Chellman, D.d., &Choi 2018).  There were several things that really stuck out to me and connected to the lesson that I am currently working on.  

The first connection was the Goldilocks metaphor (Edyburn 2010).  This tied learning to the classic children’s story. Learners need to try multiple avenues until they find the one that works best for them.  Sometimes they need to try several different ones until they find the “just right” one.  In my lesson plan, I present the materials several different ways.  The students will be able to watch exercises stressing proper throwing mechanics, they will have the opportunity to listen to a subject matter expert speak about the importance of and some exercises stressing proper throwing and mechanics, and thirdly they will be presented with a handout that shows in graphics the proper motions for throwing mechanics.By presenting the information in multiple ways, the goal is that all students will find a way that speaks to them best so that they can learn and retain the knowledge presented.  They will also be able to express their knowledge in different ways.  One way will be through the written exercise prescription. The second will be when the students are to demonstrate the exercises that they have chosen to include in their own prescriptions.

Another part of the reading that really stuck out to me was where it spoke about the timing of the adjustments to curriculum (Rogers-Shaw, C., Carr-Chellman, D.d., &Choi 2018). I loved how they stated that the curriculum should be built with diversity built into it rather than trying to make adjustments on existing curriculum.  No two learners are the same and should not be treated as such.  The idea of having a curriculum that exposes all students to various ways of learning and encouraging them to find their own strengths speaks to me.  I have a son with executive functioning issues so normal classroom settings and traditional strategies do not normally work for him even though his IQ is extremely high.  These students are not less than their peers, their brains work differently.  Although my lesson plan centers in a Physical education atmosphere rather than a traditional classroom, I feel that it is important to look and address these issues as well. 

Part 2

There were many great strategies on the CAST Universal Design for Learning website.  The two that I chose to look at in connection to my lesson plan were Physical Action and Self Regulation.

Physical Action stresses the importance of providing materials to all learners to interact with.  So in my lesson plan I will be providing all of the students with the tools needed to physically manipulate and show their learning.  This is the easy part since this is a PE class where we will be covering throwing mechanics.  The students will be provided with multiple forms of learning content.  One of those will be through physically going through the motions that they will be learning about. One of the checkpoints in Physical Action (CAST UDL) states that the methods should vary for response and navigation interact with tools and environments that make learning physically accessible to all.  This will be achieved by having the students go through multiple learning opportunities to learn the same information, some will be written, other physical, oral, and visual. 

The second strategy that I concentrated on was Self Regulation, specifically checkpoint 9.3.  THis checkpoint  is the learner should develop self assessment and reflection.  This strategy is met when the students will create their exercise prescription. They will need to evaluate their current mechanics, asses their needs and then create the prescription that will help them to reach their goal of proper mechanics.  Throughout the season, the students will also be able to update, change, and move their benchmarks as they progress goals.

References

Universal Design For Learning ( CAST website)

Rogers-Shaw, C., Carr-Chellman, D.d., & Choi (2018) Universal Design for Learning:Guidelines for Accessible Online Instruction. Adult Learning. 29 (1), 20-31