Teaching Every Student Toolkit

Image (n.d.). Books to inspire an indoor gardening project. [Web Graphic]. Retrieved from http://delightfulchildrensbooks.com/2011/02/16/indoor-gardening/

The next step in my UDL journey, was to learn more about UDL Toolkits. When I was visiting http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/, I found a page that applied to my second grade classroom a little more than some of the others. I found a UDL Toolkit that was used in a first grade classroom. The first grade teacher was teaching a unit about seeds and plant growth. To research about plants, students chose a "just right" book, which is a book in which students can read most of the words and understand most of the book. They could choose a print format, a digital format, or an audio format. Because students had different reading material, they also demonstrated an understanding of the concepts in different formats

I really liked reading about this first grade teacher's UDL approach to her science lesson because it seemed like students were given opportunities to excel. Students with reading difficulties didn't have to feel excluded because their was an audio format, and students who had writing difficulties or fine-motor difficulties, could use the word processor.

This first grade teacher did a great job of setting her students up for success, and I can see myself using similar strategies with my second graders. In the spring, as part of our science curriculum, we study the planets. After reading about what this first grade teacher did with her seed unit, I plan on finding several different books for each of the individual planets, on several different reading levels and styles, and letting the students choose their book to read and research. This way, there is more choice and differentiation for the students, thus allowing my students to have more ownership over their learning.