(gentle music) - Hello, everybody. Thank you so much for coming to our presentation. Our title is "Universal Design for Learning in Physical Education."
I'm sure many of you have heard of universal design and physical education and I'm sure some of you are doing it but we just want to give you a little bit more exposure and maybe teach you something new. My name is Lauren Lieberman. I'm a distinguished service Professor from SUNY Brockport in Brockport, New York. And I am the founder of "Camp Abilities."
And I also wrote several books. One of them is "Universal Design for Learning in Physical Education." - Hi everybody. Thanks for joining us today.
Much appreciated. I am privileged to work with Lauren Lieberman. We have again, worked together to write a book on universal design for learning. I am a faculty at the university of New Hampshire in the department of Kinesiology and I've been heavily invested in inclusive practices what teachers do and how teachers students can really access learning. So again, thanks for joining us today. And I want to begin this presentation with the slide and talk a little bit about this.
So if you look at this student he was getting ready to compete in a swim meet. And I happened to be on the side and just listening to him, talk to his mother. He's like, "I don't want to do this. I don't want to get into this." You know, and his mother's like, "you've trained really hard. You've worked really hard for this.
You've got to do it." So finally he summed up enough courage and he was at the edge of the pool and they put these flippers on him, you know so he could just enhance his kick. And he also used that noodle.
But bear in mind too that he is competing against young men who are probably two and a half times his size. So you can understand his intimidation. However, after watching him, I realized a he gave 110% effort and he stayed right with his peers during that swim meet. And as he emerged from the pool you could see the biggest grin on his face having done that. And so when we talk about universal design for learning we're really talking about equitable practices and we're talking about how we enable and provide opportunities by reducing barriers for our students to access there. And so again, I just want to reinforce universal design for learning a lot of teachers that I talked to.
They're like, I'm not really sure what it is. I don't want to take on anything more than I'm already doing but really I say to them, you're doing it as I imagine all of you who are listening to us right now are doing it. So yeah, you can say to your principal. Yes, of course I do universal design for learning and really what it is again, is making access available providing equitable opportunities for your students. So they're not sitting on the side, so they're not keeping score.
So they are participating in physical education and physical activity by really reducing the barriers. And so Lauren and I are going to go through a little bit about what UDL is. So you, as an educator can think about how you do embed this in your practice or you can consider even expanding your practice so that all students have access to your curriculum. - And so what we want to do is speak to every single person in this presentation, you are the change agents.
You are the ones who are going to help your students and you're going to help your peers. Other teachers understand universal design for learning. So start with the question how are you making your curriculum accessible for every student, every child that walks into your room how are your students demonstrating what they know what they've learned and how are you delivering the information to meet that diverse heterogeneous range of students in your class? So the change agents are you right now it's time to enhance the delivery and the way that you plan and teach all your students. And hopefully we'll help you with that. - (indistinct) 680. - And so UDL emerged from the Americans with disabilities act as started in architecture.
The UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities recognizes access to information communication technologies as a basic human right. And so section 504 of the American Rehab Act of 1973, discusses a great deal about the need for inclusion, regardless of ability. So this has stemmed back even beyond 1990. And so again, the origins of universal design for learning are from the architecture field consider the needs of the broadest possible range of users from the beginning. So it's all students, it's not for that one child. We don't make modifications anymore for this child.
It's for everyone. And you have to plan from the beginning. It's not reactionary, Oh "we need to get out this variation for this child."
It's for all students. - That's great. And again, as Lauren had mentioned UDL emerged from the field of architecture.
And when you think about architecture, it's like how can we access? How can we access buildings? And I want you to take a look at these two pools. The one on the left is a little older style pool. It has a ladder in, and if you can imagine even a pool with a lift that for someone let's say with cerebral palsy who had limited mobility in their lower body they may needed to have a lift to get into the pool. And I recall one time I was with a Paralympian swimmer who the only way he could get into the pool was the lift and he said, "Nope, I'm not going in" because what that did, it was really stigmatized him and made him, you know, noticed by everybody. And so the pool on the right again is at the University of New Hampshire, our new pool, no more Ella...no more lift in this one,
but if you look you'll see a ramp down on the ride. So anybody, myself, aging, anybody with limited mobility young children can walk in holding onto the ramps and sort of just move right into a sort of zero entry or they can start from the edge of the lip of the pool. And then it just really, again, reinforces that notion that this pool is a, inviting and it's accessible to all individuals. So again, that notion of universal design for learning and limited barriers, just consider in your classroom how you invite students in and how you reduce the barriers in the classroom so that all students can learn. And when we look at the foundation of universal design for learning comes from the cast organization and there are three primary principles, okay. The first is to provide multiple means of engagement.
And again, they would say that all of these concepts are research-based. So that engagement impacts some part of your brain for learning. So what's inviting. So think of some of your kids who might walk into the gym and it's too loud, that's not going to engage them again. And it's impacting some part of their sensory system potentially having them come a little early would engage them. You know, so they're not overloaded.
The second component of UDL is multiple means of representation. And as educators, we have to deliver instruction. So we consider all of the ways that we deliver instruction.
And we know that during COVID the disadvantages that we've had to have remote learning. I think in my conversations with teachers one of the advantages of representation is that they've found how to use technology, their skills in technology have strengthened. They've found a multiple means on the internet whether it's Twitter, anything else of how they can deliver the instruction. So representation, I think to some extent has really exploded as a result of COVID and then action and expression.
At the same time, I would say that we had expectations for what we wanted our students to learn. But I think particularly during this time we've become a lot more flexible with how we have our students represent their learning for those who are face-to-face. You may be still be able to do the same activities or some of the same activities but for those who aren't face-to-face and are remote we're looking at the student doesn't have access to the same equipment or the same environmental conditions. So we've really had the scale.
I wouldn't say scale back, but change our expectations. So again, these are those three primary principles and we look, if we look at it on a larger scale and in our book on universal design for learning in physical education we have taken all of the these three principles, engagement, representation, action and expression, and each of the components with them them recruiting interests, perception, and fiscal action and we've translated for physical education. And so what's really unique about this scale is you may start at a low and where you're talking about access this key on the side, but then by really embedding these principles within your teaching what we hope is that you we're working with and contributing to physically literate individuals where they can make their decisions, where they can advocate for themselves, where they can be lifelong they can engage in lifelong physical activity. So through the, again these three principles, engagement, representation, action and expression, we really try to enhance student learning. And we're going to sort of dig drill down a little bit deeper with each of these concepts in the next couple of slides.
- Thanks, Michelle. So I just want to apply this concept to physical education. So engagement, the word engagement is how are you challenging your students? How are you motivating your students? And so how are you getting them interested in learning? So an example is the teacher you can distribute a lot of the equipment as much as possible, variations of equipment to give them more turns, to give them more challenge. Also, the games and rules are modified to address multiple learning domains.
And again, not for one student, but for everyone everyone has the choice to hit a ball off the tee pitch it to themselves. What motivates them what's going to be challenging for them. And then principle two is representation, your instruction. How are you teaching? How do you present information and course content in a variety of ways so that all your students can access it, auditorily visually, kinesthetically and approaches specific to the needs of the child, such as maybe some kids might need more tactical, hands-on learning.
Maybe they need peer tutoring. So utilizing a variety of teaching strategies so that every child's interest is pulled in. And then lastly how are your students showing you what they know through action and expression understanding there are multiple avenues for students to learn global learning outcomes. So it allows for a variety of skills that meet a particular learning outcome, recognize that students' abilities will be different the way they show you what they know may vary according to the child. - Thanks Lauren.
And I think now that I assume as you're listening to these, you're like, yeah, I do, do that. I really do, do that. So universal design, again, as we start off by saying it's not some foreign concept it's something that you are all doing in your teaching and in your lesson, it's developmentally appropriate. And again, it's access for all. So we're going to take just a few minutes in this next section.
We can just show you a video that was produced by Nick Pad. And we think, again, if we're looking at representation that it does a really nice job of delivering the material in another format though, that reinforces learning. So I'm just gonna, pull this up right here so you can see it and give you a few minutes to listen to it. (gentle music) - [Narrator] Universal design for learning in physical education.
So what is universal design for learning? Every student learns and is motivated by different things depending on their background, experience successes and interests, universal design for learning or UDL supports the various ways that students receive, process and express information. For example, a teacher may have second graders chase bubbles for a warmup with music. Some students may find this challenging and fun. Others may find it dull and boring with no challenge.
Yet some may be terrified of the noise crowd and running into people. This is where UDL comes in, universal design for learning directs the creation of the learning experiences to proactively meet the needs of all students. The three main components of UDL multiple means of representation is the what of learning how the information is given to students. Giving information to students is just the first part showing the material in many different ways, ensures that all students will be able to make sense of the content.
For example, you can use students for demonstration show a video of the skill or sport practice or demonstrate the skill or activity yourself with the students verbally. Following along, multiple means of engagement is the why of learning. The first thing to consider in this area is reducing students discomfort and distraction and urging each student to take risks without being forced out of their comfort zone, utilizing strategies to get students excited about learning to help them sustain interest in learning tasks and to know and regulate themselves multiple means of action and expression is the how of learning. How can you assess what the students know how physical action can be incorporated? How levels of support can be added, how knowledge and skills can be expressed in this area, give options for students to express what they know and can do.
For example, when assessing how fast students can move from point a to B, you can allow them to choose the distance and the way they want to move, who they want to move with. The music that is playing and the goals that they're set help students set goals, manage information and teach students how to monitor their progress toward learning goals. Unique and important features of UDL universal design starts in the lesson planning place. It's not something that is added after the lesson is created. The variations are embedded into the lessons from the start.
The universally designed options are for every student not just students with disabilities or those on 504 plans. For example, when teaching striking give students choice for equipment or how to strike have high expectations for all students, generalization of UDL, it is important for students to learn the curriculum using the UDL approach. It is important to remember that the students should also learn the traditional equipment and rules for each sport and activity by learning the traditional equipment in rules the students know what they need to advocate for when they are involved in community programming. To review there are three main components of UDL. Multiple means of representation.
The what of learning, multiple means of engagement. The why of learning multiple means of action and expression. The how of learning UDL starts in the lesson planning phase has high expectations for all students and asks all students to learn traditional equipment and rules as well as the UDL approach. So now, you know the basics of UDL, try it out yourself. - Great. Great.
- [Narrator] (indistinct) - Sorry. Let me just scape out here. Thank you, Nick pad. They've done a phenomenal job with that video. And you can access that at their site as well as other instruments, but we really appreciate the work that they did to reinforce those concepts.
What's the first one engagement, representation and action and expression. So again, we're going to reinforce these through the next couple of examples, but as I mentioned early on it doesn't matter whether you're teaching face-to-face remotely or asynchronously. You are doing these, you are embedding these principles into your lessons and we're going to show again a few examples. But before that, Lauren's just, again, going to reinforce how the, what those would look like in your lessons. So the multiple means of engagement is how do you motivate your students? But how do you know what's gonna get them excited or challenged them if you don't know them? And so this is one of my students.
I sat down with him, had lunch with him and asked him lots of questions. Then he was there with some of his friends. And we asked them what makes you excited? What motivates you? Talked about different foods. Of course, what kind of rewards? Things like music. They love like things like Ariana Grande.
They love this pop culture. And we have to meet them where they are. That is one of my favorite sayings. Meet them where they are. So what are they like on social media? What kind of things do they look at? Is it flipgrid? Is Flipgrid going to get them excited? I know my nephew I went to visit my nephew and he loves the manga cartoon. It's a Japanese cartoon, the symbol of the cloud.
He's got a coat with it on and he's got a neon light in his room. That's going to motivate him get to know your students, what excites them. And then multiple means of representation. How do we teach and provide the material to the students? So what are the learning platforms at your school? Are you going to use zoom? Are you going to use different images? I think one of the most important things I like is role models. Getting the kids excited about different role models for the different activity you're using.
This picture is one of the kids in one of our bowling units and she has a visual impairment. And so she's looking, she's learning about bowling from a tactile map of bowling. And so she's engaged and she understands the bowling lesson and that's good for her but it also helps all the other kids understand more about bowling. I also think student demonstrations is so important when you're talking about instruction she might pick me, I have to do the best job I can. She's going to pick me.
Kids always remember when the teachers pick them for demonstration, posters on the walls using songs with cues, songs that the kids know. I know one of the big things that kids love especially the younger kids is Super Mario. That's going to get them excited and you can use that for examples but there's so many different options for instruction and just demonstrate just instructing without demonstrating or just instructing in a means that doesn't really provide a different a lot of different means of representation. Isn't really going to be very exciting for the students.
And then lastly, multiple means of action and expression. How are we going to assess the students and what they know? So here you'll see different levels of basketball hoops. Maybe they point to the picture on the computer.
Maybe they want to verbalize the skill. Instead of doing the skill, maybe they use sign as a description of physical demonstration of what they know. Again, maybe they pick a picture of the correct form of a skill. And then we also need to make sure that kids get variations in their performance, varying the distance the equipment that they use, the speed that they do it with who they do it with, what skills they use. We should give them a range of options when we're asking them to show us what they know.
- Thanks, Lauren. And I appreciate those examples. And we know that this is just all good pedagogy. We know that this is all good teaching.
And as we work to develop the best for our students. So we're going to just quickly go through a few examples. This was taken by a local teacher. I'm going to give credit to Chris Benson. He is just a, sort of a whiz with technology and that worked to his advantage. But as you see in this picture, he would have a students because initially students were all remote.
Now he's got a combination of face-to-face and remote but he would have students just check in, say, hi allow a few minutes just to see their classmates. Then he had the list on the right. This is what you need. And I'm going to set the time timer now. So the timer was on the left and students would have to go and collect everything. So heads up, this is what we're doing today.
Let's get going. And during this, I think what teachers began we've moved from physical activity. It's not physical activity if it's remote anymore. I think what teachers are now really appreciating is, okay these are the skills that I can get through. Particularly if you continue to be remote we've really focused on particular skill, motor skills, underhand, throwing or throwing and catching and tracking is one of them.
So in this situation, he's reinforced the cues right there. This is what you need to do. Opposition, bring your foot back, follow through. And he'll also demonstrate but he'll have this representation up there. So students can go back as reminders. A, they can check for themselves.
Or if there's another adult, they can still check. One of the other advantages is potentially parents and other caregivers have learned about developmentally appropriate motor skill learning. So another example of representation, within this he starts simply, we're looking at progressions. You know, I'll just start with your laundry basket takes five steps away and give it an underhand toss. Recognizing that might be easy.
You know, maybe you can try the opposite hand or we can challenge. You know, you can throw it a little bit further. You can take a different directions move in different directions, you know, take from the side from move to the right move to the left, walking backwards and distance. I think he, even at one point he had that, excuse me. At one point he had the students put the basket on the stairs, up from the basement. So they had to throw the target up high again thinking about how can I engage the students? How can I represent this learning, go and do this skill.
This is what you want. And then there's many of them would upload their representations action expression, their videos onto the learning platform. So he continued to really work with his students in this way. And action and expression. I'm going to turn over to Lauren and talk again.
She showed these two pictures, but we really want to reinforce what action and expression is. - Yeah. I, one of the things Chris was saying, it's like one of the kids put the basket on top of the bunk bed.
He was trying to move backwards and throw it on top of the bunk bed. How long do you think they can stay engaged if they get to pick the challenge is that they get when you're doing assessments. So there's no telling what they can come up with. I mean, I have kids trying, they're three point shots in the middle of the court and they're making it. So you never know, you know, each way they go, they can really show you their successes and and let them pick whether they want to do a skip straight ahead or zigzag or go around cones because they are going to challenge themselves and they are going to learn something new. And they're going to show you all the different things they can do.
And it doesn't always have to be making it easier sometimes like I said, it could be even make making it harder. - Thank you, Lauren. And I think, again, looking at this image of what COVID has allowed us to do as educators is really expand the opportunity of what we view as student learning a, based on do they have access to technology if you're doing remote learning? And if you're not, I think given the space limitations when we look at social distance practices we've also had to say, Hmm maybe we're not going to do that but maybe we're going to accept this. So we've become much more flexible in what we want and what we expect of our students. Not less expectation, but a little bit more flexible. And again, when we look at everyone has their own style I'll just talk a little bit about this picture.
This is a peer supportive pre COVID, of course a peer supported class at the high school level very engaging students sign up, both kids with and without disabilities. There's actually a waiting list for kids without disabilities, but it, you know, how else, how best to engage your peers by having their peers in them. And you'll see music.
And also when you look at this video, the child and the chair has cerebral palsy, but he's got full expression and totally engaged in this as does the cha, the girl over here, you know she's still dancing away. So I'll just give you a quick (indistinct chatter) I'm going to play that one more time because I just love looking (indistinct chatter) And you can see, you know, we say mild medium and spicy man, and he is dancing. He's got movement in his hands. He's got expression and everything else. So, you know, because someone is not performing in the same way, one size does not fit all but there is a learning going on in this classroom oh sorry about that. I mean, again, we're going to show you again, finally you know, finished with this last example.
This is a climbing wall that we have and at UNH and this is a standard of learning standard for grade six, individual performance activities demonstrates correct technique for basic skills and oneself selected individual performance activities. So I know personally that many students are fearful of the wall, but I want them to a engage with some of the skills that we're looking at which is opposition color identification, hand over hand, strength, building activities, and then patterns. So those are some of the primary goals that I have not everybody's going to want to climb up to the top of the wall. So as I consider my teaching, I'm the planner. I'm like, okay, if though, knowing again as Lauren said, know your students, I'm going to know that there are students who want to be a part of it but can't engage in the same way. So I'm going to create, within the gymnasium a landing area near the wall, that they can, a support with a belay or some kind of physical assist or there'll be an area that they can set up their own pattern to engage.
They can also use the wall horizontally. This is a different wall but still horizontal is a great workout with patterning. And some of this equipment that we see here is sensory engaging equipment.
So that if someone has limited physical mobility but they will be engaged to try to really grab the scarf again, that reducing barriers and making the activity accessible, right? So this is a vertical wall that most students can actually participate in. But even if with that high climbing wall there are some students who don't want to go near. They don't want to come in. I'm going to say, okay here's some equipment you can use these blocks. These hand prints these footprints.
I want you to create your own pattern that you and your classmates can go through. So to me, what I see as the teacher like they're doing what I want them to do which is to identify a pattern and move through a series of movements with both their hands and their legs. They're able to do that.
And so, as we look at engagement, representation and action and expression, I felt like this was just an example of how we as teachers can compel our students to really get engaged in the activity. - And so thank you, Michelle. So now you've gotten kind of a bigger picture of what is multiple means of engagement? What is multiple means of representation? And what is multiple means of action and expression? What are you doing? if you're not doing as much as you'd like you are the change agents, How are you going to continue to do what you're doing and enhance what you're already doing? And again, what are you doing with your curriculum? How are you demonstrating? What the students should learn? How are you showing them? And how are you delivering the information to meet that diverse range of students? So, you know, think about that right now. We have lots more resources for you. Nick pad right now is making a universal design for learning and physical education. 101 a whole mini course, if you will on universal design for learning, we have these videos on the Nickpad website.
We have our book universal design for learning and physical education. And we hope you'll take this and run with it. Let us know if you have any questions, but again, thank you for taking the time to watch this video with us. And we really appreciate everybody who is supporting universal design for learning and promoting it because that is how we're going to make sure that kids are included in the future. - Keep up the good work, everybody. This is a great time to actually examine and change and work with these practices.
So I want to thank Lauren and I want to thank you all for joining us today and appreciate the work that you are doing. We know it's a difficult and challenging time but we truly appreciate what you're doing. Thank you. - Thank you, Michelle. Yep. Take care everybody.
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2021-03-28