EDU 630 - Strategies for Online Instruction

Part 3 of the book Effective Online Teaching, focuses on cognitive scaffolding tools to enhance, augment and extend thinking processes (2011).

In Inclusion Strategies that Work!: Research Based Methods for the Classroom, knowing more about the legislation, research, and often complicated terminology leads to this next topic of determining ways teachers meet individual student needs in their classrooms. These pedagogical strategies teach students at their ability levels with expansive instructional techniques, using sound learning principles as well as different modalities to appeal to multiple intelligences, interests, and knowledge backgrounds. Classroom learners benefit with specially designed instruction (SDI) and interventions that have initials such as UbD (understanding by design), UDL (universal design for learning), DI (differentiated instruction), and PBL (project- or problem-based learning). Thinking ahead about outcomes and being prepared with differentiated lessons and resources involve proactively planning and valuing just how desired lesson goals will reach students. As delineated in this chapter, appropriate content and teaching yield more effective student results, making us all more abled! Templates for teacher-friendly implementation are included (2015).

What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment?Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design (2005).

The Understanding by Design Guide to Advanced Concepts in Creating and Reviewing Units offers instructional modules on how to refine units created using Understanding by Design (UbD) and how to effectively review the units using self-assessment and peer review, along with observation and supervision. The Guide builds upon its companion and predecessor, The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units, and like the earlier volume, it presents the following components for each module:• Narrative discussion of key ideas in the module• Exercises, worksheets, and design tips• Examples of unit designs• Review criteria for self- and peer assessment• References for further informationUbD is based on a backward design approach and is used by thousands of educators to create curriculum units and assessments that focus on developing students'understanding of essential ideas and helping students attain important skills (2012).

How can today's teachers, whose classrooms are more culturally and linguistically diverse than ever before, ensure that their students achieve at high levels? How can they design units and lessons that support English learners in language development and content learning—simultaneously? Authors Amy Heineke and Jay McTighe provide the answers by adding a lens on language to the widely used Understanding by Design® framework (UbD® framework) for curriculum design, which emphasizes teaching for understanding, not rote memorization (2018).

The article focuses on creation of an assessment, and location of the best Next Generation Science Standard(s) (NGSS) which is internet drive and activity development. It mentions activity aligns with NGSS can be a challenge for teachers and elementary teachers often avoid the struggle of matching an activity to a specific standard by using a lesson planning process known as Understanding by Design (UBD). It also mentions previous problem-solving activities throughout activity (2018).

When schools are closed for a longer period of time, due to emergency situations, as in this COVID-19 pandemic, the educational landscape changes, so teachers and students must adapt to different remote learning solutions. Distance education has been used successfully before, with a wide range of students of different ages and abilities, but the sudden need to use technology and remote instruction for all, in order to replace face-to-face classroom interaction is challenging. he guidelines of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) are in line with the principles of inclusion and provide a useful framework for discussion (2020).

This article provides an overview of a final project that used Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for assessing student knowledge. This research focused on the principle of Multiple Means of Action and Expression and the impact the UDL final project had on student learning as well as overall perceptions of the project. Results indicate that participants enjoyed the final project and that it impacted their learning. Students reported enjoying having choice in how they demonstrated their understanding of the content (2020).

Advocates for the rights of people with disabilities have worked hard to make universal design in the built environment “just part of what we do.” We no longer see curb cuts, for instance, as accommodations for people with disabilities, but perceive their usefulness every time we ride our bikes or push our strollers through crosswalks. This is also a perfect model for Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework grounded in the neuroscience of why, what, and how people learn. Tobin and Behling show that, although it is often associated with students with disabilities, UDL can be profitably broadened toward a larger ease-of-use and general diversity framework (2018).

Appendix additional information on UDL from the e-book Engage the Brain: How to Design for Learning That Taps Into the Power of Emotion (2019)