I found the TedTalk The Myth of Average very interesting. Here are my 3 main takeaways:

• It really got my attention when he started off talking about the planes and the seats.  This was the analogy that I needed to really put the UDL concept into perspective for me. I was having a hard time understanding what it meant and how I could apply it to my Kindergarten class.  It really made me think about how I teach to the “average” child and that it is not suiting them. 
• The second thing that I took away from this video is how I started to think about how everyday things are related to “the edges”. For example, the seating for a pilot and an iPhone. 
• The third takeaway was when he said “The question isn’t do you want the technology?...The question is what do you want it to be?” 

I found this video very informative and eye-opening. I will definitely be sharing this video with my work colleagues. 

3 Main takeways from class #1

The main thing that I took away from this class was when it was said that supports should not for individuals but should be accessible to all learners. For example, alternative reading materials.  This really stuck in my mind because I think that it put into perspective the whole idea around UDL.  I was finding the concept of UDL a little difficult to understand but that statement made it so much clearer to me. 

Another concept I took away from the first class was the SETT framework.  The idea that really caught my attention about the framework is that the student’s supports are based on the changes happening. For example,  if the environment changes then the technology may need to change. Everything changes and it all depends on the other factors involved. 

The third takeaway was Tyler.  He is such an inspiration. I really enjoyed the video call we got to have with him after hearing his story

Making Secondary Literacy Accessible for All - Reflection

The article Making Secondary Literacy Accessible for All written by Christy Palmquist and Heather Prenevost discusses various tools and strategies that are effective for a wide range of learners.  The tools and strategies talked about in the article include visualizing and verbalizing, thinking reading, vocabulary, and comprehension and retelling.  They begin the article by explaining the pillars of reading, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension; and how each of these are used to assess student’s literacy skills. They emphasize that after assessing the students’ literacy and language skills, then consideration needs to be given to the supports needed for each individual student to achieve their goals. 

There were several main takeaways that I got from this article.  I really liked that they started off with the questions “ How do I meet all of their needs?”, “What curriculum can I use for such a wide variety of kids?”. These are questions that teachers ask themselves multiple times throughout every day. It got my attention because these are questions I that can relate to and made me curious to see if they had any answers to those questions in the article.

I found the paragraph where they discussed Elizabeth Keefe’s book Effective Literacy for Learners with Complex Support Needs to be very thought-provoking.  I agree with the statement that it is important to “...develop plans for providing the correct technology tools helps maximize the learning opportunities for each student.”  However,  I have to bring up the point that Keefe did say it takes time to develop these plans but where are we, as teachers with an already heavy workload, getting the time to develop these plans? It goes back to the amount of support and time we are allotted for prepping.   

I found Palmquist and Prenevost’s article to be very well written and gave support to the fact that the needs of students and the use of technology varies with each individual student and teachers need to be cognizant of the appropriate learning tools or each student.