China - Ming Dynasty

From LearnSocialStudies
AP Psychology Current Events Resource Room (SETSS)
Period 1 Periods 3 & 5 Period 8
Mr. Ott Mr. Ott Mr. Ott

Aim:Evaluating the Validity of Information - Did the Chinese Discover America in 1421?

Do Now: Quiz

Lesson Overview:

Item Approx Time
Do Now 3-5 Min
Mini Lesson 10 Min
Activity 40 Min
Discussion 20 Min

Procedure

Overview

Students watch two video segments about the theory that the Chinese built a fleet, circumnavigated the globe and discovered the Americas before Columbus. Students then evaluate each segment to determine whether the evidence presented is valid.

Why is this an important concept?

As students encounter new ideas, themes, opinions, information, and experiences throughout their lives, especially ones that are contrary to what they already know, they will be asked to use skills to both critically analyze and validate the accuracy of the new material presented. In these instances, it is useful for students to be able to develop and/or apply criteria to evaluate new information. When students are able to make evaluations, they can then determine whether new information should be incorporated into on-going ideas, behaviors or practices.

Grade Level: 9-10

Part I: Learning Activity

Note: The video segments used in this lesson are taken from the first part of a two-hour documentary. If you would like to have more source material to use with this lesson, visit the 1421 Web site.

1. Begin by asking students what they know about world exploration in the 15thcentury. Next, ask students what they know about about the discovery of the Americas by Columbus, and discuss.

2. Share with students the following idea presented in the segments from the documentary:Author, researcher and former submarine commander Gavin Menzies asserts that beginning in 1421, the Chinese Admiral Zheng He commanded 300 vessels in seven voyages that traveled around the world and discovered the Americas prior to the voyage of Columbus in 1492.Ask students if they have ever heard this idea. Does it seem plausible? Why or why not? How does this idea conflict with what they already know?

3. Ask students how they can tell if new ideas are based in truth. Tell students that when we encounter new ideas or information, we need to find ways to evaluate their validity. Explain that in order to evaluate new information, we need to create criteria or a standard for evaluation.Sometimes this is done by applying a set of questions to the claim. Distribute the 1421 Criteria Handout , and discuss the set of questions.

4. Tell students they are going to watch two video segments that present evidence to supportspecific aspects of Menzies’s theory:

  • that the Chinese had the naval capabilities to create a large fleet of vessels
  • that the ships were built in a way that would allow for a global voyage
  • that the fleet was used in the seven voyages that eventually lead them to discover the Americas before Columbus

5. While watching the video segments, ask students to look at the ideas presented and to determine whether in their opinion the evidence presented is plausible or valid. Play “The Voyage of Zheng He - Part I."

6. Discuss the segment and review the Criteria handout. Next, play “The Voyage of Zheng He - Part II” and again, discuss the segment using the Criteria handout.

7. In class, ask students to evaluate the evidence listed on the 1421 Criteria Worksheet using the 1421 Criteria handout.

Note: The first two boxes on the 1421 Criteria Worksheet pertain to the “The Voyage of Zheng He - Part I,” and the last four boxes on the 1421 Criteria Worksheet pertain to “The Voyage of Zheng He - Part II."

Part II: Assessment

1. Distribute the 1421 Essay Handout and the 1421 Criteria Rubric . Students complete the handout in class. 2. Using both the 1421 Criteria handout and the 1421 Criteria Worksheet, ask students to summarize the results of their evaluations in a short essay. Guide students tostate their opinion about Menzies’s idea, describing which parts of his claim that are valid and which are not. 3. Review the essay portion of the 1421 Criteria Rubric so students know how they will be evaluated. 4. Student essays and handouts can be placed in their portfolios to show skill acquisition.

Classwork & Homework

Lesson PowerPoint: The Ming Dynasty & the Voyages of Zheng He

Lesson Video:

Lesson Activity:

Homework: Assignments

The CCR anchor standards and high school standards in literacy work in tandem to define college and career readiness expectations—the former providing broad standards, the latter providing additional specificity.

Grades 9 & 10 - Literacy Reading

Key Ideas and Details

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.1

Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.3

Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

Craft and Structure

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.4

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.5

Analyze how a text uses structure to emphasize key points or advance an explanation or analysis.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.6

Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.7

Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.8

Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.9

Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.10

By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9–10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

9 & 10 - Literacy Writing

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.1

Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.1a

Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.1b

Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying data and evidence for each while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both claim(s) and counterclaims in a discipline-appropriate form and in a manner that anticipates the audience’s knowledge level and concerns.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.1c

Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.1d

Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.1e

Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from or supports the argument presented.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2

Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2a

Introduce a topic and organize ideas, concepts, and information to make important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2b

Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2c

Use varied transitions and sentence structures to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion, and clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2d

Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic and convey a style appropriate to the discipline and context as well as to the expertise of likely readers.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2e

Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.2f

Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).

Production and Distribution of Writing

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.4

Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.5

Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.6

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

Research to Build and Present Knowledge

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.7

Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.8

Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.9

Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Range of Writing

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.10

Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Grades 11 & 12 - Literacy Reading

Key Ideas and Details

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.1

Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2

Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.3

Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Craft and Structure

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.4

Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.5

Analyze in detail how a complex primary source is structured, including how key sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text contribute to the whole.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.6

Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.7

Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

CSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.8

Evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9

Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.10

By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 11–CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.

UDL Entry Points

Principle I. Provide Multiple Means of Representation

Students differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend information that is presented to them. For example, those with sensory disabilities (e.g., blindness or deafness); learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia); language or cultural differences, and so forth may all require different ways of approaching content. Others may simply grasp information better through visual or auditory means rather than printed text. In reality, there is no one means of representation that will be optimal for all students; providing options in representation is essential.

Guideline 1: Provide options for perception

To be effective in diverse classrooms, curricula must present information in ways that are perceptible to all students. It is impossible to learn information that is imperceptible to the learner, and difficult when information is presented in formats that require extraordinary effort or assistance. To reduce barriers to learning, therefore, it is important to ensure that key information is equally perceptible to all students by: 1) providing the same information through different sensory modalities (e.g. through vision, or hearing, or touch); 2) providing information in a format that will allow for adjustability by the user (e.g. text that can be enlarged, sounds that can be amplified). Such multiple representations not only ensure that information is accessible to students with particular sensory and perceptual disabilities, but also easier to access for many others. When the same information, for example, is presented in both speech and text, the complementary representations enhance comprehensibility for most students.

1.1 Options that customize the display of information

In print materials, the display of information is fixed, permanent, one size fits all. In properly prepared digital materials, the display of the same information is very malleable; it can easily be changed or transformed into a different display, providing great opportunities for customizability. For example, a call-out box of background information may be displayed in a different location, or enlarged, or emphasized by use of color, or deleted entirely. Such malleability provides many options for increasing the perceptual clarity and salience of information for a wide range of students and adjustments for preferences of others. While these customizations are difficult with print materials, they are commonly available automatically in digital materials.

Examples:

  • Information should be displayed in a flexible format so that the following perceptual features can be varied:
    • the size of text or images
    • the amplitude of speech or sound
    • the contrast between background and text or image
    • the color used for information or emphasis
    • the speed or timing of video, animation, sound, simulations, etc
    • the layout of visual or other elements

1.2 Options that provide alternatives for auditory information

Sound is a particularly effective way to convey the impact or “energetics” of information, which is why sound design is so important in movies and why the human voice is particularly effective for conveying emotion and significance. However, information conveyed solely through sound is not equally accessible to all students and is especially inaccessible for students with hearing disabilities, for students who need more time to process information, or for students who have memory difficulties. To ensure that all students have equivalent access to learning, options should be available for any information, including emphasis, presented aurally.

Examples:

  • Text equivalents in the form of captions or automated speech-to-text (voice recognition) for spoken language
  • Visual analogues for emphasis and prosody (e.g. emoticons or symbols)
  • Visual equivalents for sound effects or alerts

1.3 Options that provide alternatives for visual information

Graphics, Animations, or Video are often the optimal way to present information, especially when the information is about the relationships between objects, actions, numbers, or events. But such visual representations are not equally accessible to all students, especially students with visual disabilities or those who are not familiar with the graphical conventions employed. To ensure that all students have equal access to that information, provide non-visual alternatives that use other modalities: text, touch, or audition.

Examples:

  • Descriptions (text or spoken) for all graphics, video or animations
  • Touch equivalents (tactile graphics) for key visuals
  • Physical objects and spatial models to convey perspective or interaction

Text is a special case of visual information. Since text is a visual representation of spoken language, the transformation from text back into speech is among the most easily accomplished methods for increasing accessibility. The advantage of text over speech is its permanence, but providing text that is easily transformable into speech accomplishes that permanence without sacrificing the advantages of speech. Digital synthetic text to speech is increasingly effective but still disappoints in the ability to carry the valuable information in prosody.

Examples:

  • Properly formatted digital text (e.g. NIMAS, DAISY). Such text can be automatically transformed into other modalities (e.g. into speech by using speech by text-to-speech software or into touch by using refreshable Braille devices) and navigated efficiently by ScreenReaders
  • A competent aide, partner, or “intervener” who can read text aloud as needed

Guideline 2: Provide options for language and symbols

Students vary in their facility with different forms of representation – both linguistic and non-linguistic. Vocabulary that may sharpen and clarify concepts for one student may be opaque and foreign to another. A graph that illustrates the relationship between two variables may be informative to one student and inaccessible or puzzling to another. A picture or image that carries meaning for some students may carry very different meanings for students from differing cultural or familial backgrounds. As a result, inequalities arise when information is presented to all students through a single form of representation. An important instructional strategy is to ensure that alternative representations are provided not only for accessibility, but for clarity and comprehensibility across all students.

2.1 Options that define vocabulary and symbols

The semantic elements through which information is presented – the words, symbols, and icons – are differentially accessible to students with varying backgrounds, languages, lexical knowledge, and disabilities. To ensure accessibility for all, key vocabulary, labels, icons, and symbols should be linked to, or associated with, alternate representations of their meaning (e.g. an embedded glossary or definition, a graphic equivalent). Idioms, archaic expressions, culturally exclusive phrases, and slang, are translated.

Examples:

  • Pre-teach vocabulary and symbols, especially in ways that promote connection to the students’ lived experiences and prior knowledge
  • Highlight how complex expressions are composed of simpler words or symbols (e.g. “power – less – ness”)
  • Embed support for vocabulary and symbols within the text (e.g. hyperlinks or footnotes to definitions, expla nations, illustrations, previous coverage)
  • Embed support for unfamiliar references (e.g. domain specific notation, idioms, figurative language, jargon, archaic language, colloquialism, and dialect) within the text

2.2 Options that clarify syntax and structure

Single elements of meaning (like words or numbers) can be combined to make new meanings. Those new meanings, however, depend upon understanding the rules or structures (like syntax in a sentence, or the conventions of a formula) with which those elements are combined. When the syntax of a sentence or the structure of a graphical presentation is not obvious or familiar to students, intelligibility suffers. To ensure that all students have equal access to information, provide alternative representations that clarify, or make more explicit, the syntactic or structural relationships between elements of meaning.

Examples:

  • Complex syntax (in language or in math formulas) or underlying structure (in diagrams, graphs, illustrations, extended expositions or narratives) is clarified through alternatives that:
    • highlight structural relations or make them more explicit
    • offer less complex alternatives
    • make relationships between elements explicit (e.g. highlighting the transition words in an essay, antecedents for anaphoric references, links between ideas in a concept map, etc.)

2.3 Options for decoding text or mathematical notation

The ability to fluently decode words, numbers or symbols that have been presented in an encoded format (e.g. visual symbols for text, haptic symbols for Braille, algebraic numbers for quantity) takes years of practice for any student, and some students never reach automaticity. That lack of fluency or automaticity greatly increases the cognitive load of decoding, thereby reducing the capacity for information processing and comprehension. To ensure that all students have equal access to knowledge, at least when the ability to decode is not the focus of instruction, it is important to provide options that reduce the barriers that decoding raises for students who are unfamiliar or dysfluent with the symbols.

Examples:

  • Digital text used with automatic text-to-speech programs
  • Digital mathematical notation (Math ML) with automatic voicing
  • Digital text with accompanying human voice recording (e.g. Daisy Talking Books)


2.4 Options that promote cross-linguistic understanding

The language of curricular materials is usually monolingual, but the students in the classroom often are not. Especially for new learners of the dominant language (e.g., English in American schools) the accessibility of information is greatly reduced when no linguistic alternatives are available that provide entry points for non-native speakers of the dominant language, or students with limited English proficiency. Providing alternatives as an option, especially for key information or vocabulary is an important aspect of accessibility.

Examples:

  • Make all key information in the dominant language (e.g. English) also available in first languages (e.g. Spanish) for students with limited-English proficiency and in ASL for students who are deaf whenever possible
  • Link key vocabulary words to definitions and pronunciations in both dominant and heritage languages
  • Define domain-specific vocabulary (e.g. “matter” in English, “material” in Spanish) using both domain-specific and common terms
  • Provide electronic translation tools or links to multilingual glossaries on the web. (e.g., www.google.com/translate)

2.5 Options that illustrate key concepts non-linguistically

Classroom materials are often dominated by information in text. But text is a weak format for presenting many concepts and for explicating most processes. Furthermore, text is a particularly weak form of presentation for students who have text- or language-related disabilities. Providing alternatives - especially illustrations, simulations, images or interactive graphics – can make the information in text more comprehensible for any student and accessible for some who would find it completely inaccessible in text.

Examples:

  • Key concepts presented in one form of symbolic representation (e.g. an expository text or a math equation) are complemented with an alternative form (e.g. an illustration, diagram, model, video, comic strip, storyboard, photograph, animation, physical or virtual manipulative)
  • Key concepts presented in illustrations or diagrams are complemented with verbal equivalents, explanations, or enhancements
  • Explicit links are made between information provided in texts and any accompanying representation of that information in illustrations, charts, or diagrams

Guideline 3: Provide options for comprehension

The purpose of education is not to make information accessible (that is the purpose of libraries), but to teach students how to transform accessible information into useable knowledge. Decades of cognitive science research has demonstrated that the capability to transform accessible information into useable knowledge is not a passive process but an active one. Constructing useable knowledge, knowledge that is accessible for future decision-making, depends not upon merely perceiving information but upon active “information processing skills” like selective attending, integrating new information with prior knowledge, strategic categorization, and active memorization. Individuals differ greatly in their skills in information processing and in their access to prior knowledge through which they can assimilate new information. Proper design and presentation of information – the responsibility of any curriculum or instructional methodology - can provide the cognitive ramps that are necessary to ensure that all students have access to knowledge.

3.1 Options that provide or activate background knowledge

Information – facts, concepts, principles, or ideas - is more accessible and open to assimilation as knowledge when it is presented in a way that primes, activates, or provides any pre-requisite knowledge. Differential barriers and inequities exist when some students lack the background knowledge that is critical to assimilating or using new information (e.g. knowing the rules that underlie math operations). Those barriers can be reduced when options are available that supply or activate relevant prior knowledge, or link to the pre-requisite information elsewhere.

Examples:

  • Anchoring instruction by activating relevant prior knowledge (e.g. using visual imagery, concept anchoring, or concept mastery routines)
  • Using advanced organizers (e.g. KWL methods, concept maps)
  • Pre-teaching critical prerequisite concepts through demonstration or models, concrete objects
  • Bridging with relevant analogies and metaphors

3.2. Options that highlight critical features, big ideas, and relationships

One of the big differences between experts and novices (including those with disabilities) in any domain is the facility with which they distinguish what is critical from what is unimportant or irrelevant. Because experts quickly recognize the most important features in information, they allocate their time efficiently, quickly identifying what is valuable and finding the right “hooks” with which to assimilate that most valuable information into existing knowledge. As a consequence, one of the most effective ways to make information more accessible is to provide explicit cues or prompts that assist individuals in attending to those features that matter most while avoiding those that matter least. Depending on the goal of the lesson, highlighting may emphasize 1) the critical features that distinguish one concept from another, 2) the “big ideas” that organize domains of information, 3) the relationships between disparate concepts and ideas, 4) the relationships between new information and prior knowledge to build networks and contexts in which the new information has meaning.

Examples:

  • Highlight or emphasize key elements in text, graphics, diagrams, formulas
  • Use outlines, graphic organizers, unit organizer routines, concept organizer routines and concept mastery routines to emphasize key ideas and relationships
  • Use multiple examples and non-examples to emphasize critical features
  • Reduce background of extraneous features, use masking of non-relevant features
  • Use cues and prompts to draw attention to critical features


3.3 Options that guide information processing

Successful transformation of information into useable knowledge often requires the application of mental strategies and skills for “processing” that information. These cognitive, or meta-cognitive, strategies involve the selection and manipulation of information so that it can be better summarized, categorized, prioritized, contextualized and remembered. While some students in any classroom may have a full repertoire of these strategies, along with the knowledge of when to apply them, most students do not. For those latter students, one of the most beneficial interventions is to teach them explicitly those strategies and have them practice in their appropriate use in context. Well-designed materials can provide customized and embedded models, scaffolds, and feedback to assist students who have very diverse abilities and disabilities in using those strategies effectively.

Examples:

  • Explicit prompts for each step in a sequential process
  • Interactive models that guide exploration and inspection
  • Graduated scaffolds that support information processing strategies
  • Multiple entry points to a lesson and optional pathways through content
  • Chunking information into smaller elements
  • Progressive release of information, sequential highlighting

3.4 Options that support memory and transfer

While each of the cognitive scaffolds described above is likely to enhance retention for some students, others have weaknesses or disabilities that will require explicit supports for memory and transfer in order to improve cognitive accessibility. Supports for memory and transfer include techniques that are designed to heighten the memorability of information as well as those that prompt and guide students to employ explicit mnemonic strategies.

Examples:

  • Checklists, organizers, sticky notes, electronic reminders
  • Prompts for using mnemonic strategies and devices (e.g. visual imagery, paraphrasing strategies, method of loci, etc.)
  • Explicit opportunities for spaced review and practice
  • Templates, graphic organizers, concept maps to support note-making
  • Scaffolding that connects new information to prior knowledge (e.g. word webs, half-full concept maps)
  • Embedding new ideas in familiar ideas and contexts, use of analogy, metaphor

Principle II. Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression

Students differ in the ways that they can navigate a learning environment and express what they know. For example, individuals with significant motor disabilities (e.g. cerebral palsy), those who struggle with strategic and organizational abilities (executive function disorders, ADHD), those who have language barriers, and so forth approach learning tasks very differently. Some may be able to express themselves well in writing text but not oral speech, and vice versa. In reality, there is no one means of expression that will be optimal for all students; providing options for expression is essential.

Guideline 4: Provide options for physical action

A textbook or workbook in a print format provides limited means of navigation or physical interaction (e.g. by turning pages with fingers, handwriting in spaces provided). Many interactive pieces of educational software similarly provide only limited means of navigation or interaction (e.g. via dexterously manipulating a joystick or keyboard). Navigation and interaction in those limited ways will raise barriers for some students – those who are physically disabled, blind, dysgraphic, or who have various kinds of executive function disorders. It is important to provide materials with which all students can interact. Properly designed curricular materials provide a seamless interface with common assistive technologies through which individuals with motor disabilities can navigate and express what they know – to allow navigation or interaction with a single switch, through voice activated switches, expanded keyboards and others.

4.1 Options in the mode of physical response

Students differ widely in their motor capacity and dexterity. To reduce barriers to learning that would be introduced by the differential motor demands of a particular task, provide alternative means for response, selection, and composition.

Examples:

  • Provide alternatives in the requirements for rate, timing, amplitude and range of motor action required to interact with instructional materials, physical manipulatives, and technologies
  • Provide alternatives for physically responding or indicating selections among alternatives (e.g. alternatives to marking with pen and pencil, to mouse control)

4.2 Options in the means of navigation

Students differ widely in their optimal means for navigating through information and activities. To provide equal opportunity for interaction with learning experiences, ensure that there are multiple means for navigating so that navigation and control is accessible to all students.

Examples:

  • Provide alternatives for physically interacting with materials:
    • by hand
    • by voice
    • by single switch
    • by joystick
    • by keyboard or adapted keyboard

4.3 Options for accessing tools and assistive technologies

Significant numbers of students consistently use assistive technologies for navigation, interaction, and composition. It is critical that instructional technologies and curricula not impose inadvertent barriers to the use of these assistive technologies that would interfere with instructional progress. An important design consideration, for example, is to ensure that there are keyboard commands for any mouse action so that students can use common assistive technologies that depend upon those commands. It is also important, however, to ensure that making a lesson physically accessible does not inadvertently remove its challenge to learning. The goal is not to make answers physically accessible, but to make the learning that underlies those answers accessible.

Examples:

  • Keyboard commands for mouse action
  • Switch options
  • Alternative keyboards
  • Customized overlays for touch screens and keyboards

Guideline 5: Provide options for expressive skills and fluency

There is no medium of expression that is equally suited for all students or for all kinds of communication. On the contrary, there are media which seem poorly suited for some kinds of expression, and for some kinds of students. While a student with dyslexia may excel at story-telling in conversation, he may falter drastically when telling that same story in writing. Alternative modalities for expression should be provided both to level the playing field among students, and to introduce all students to the full range of media that are important for communication and literacy in our multimedia culture. Additionally, students vary widely in their familiarity and fluency with the conventions of any one medium. Within media, therefore, alternative supports should be available to scaffold and guide students who are at different levels of their apprenticeships in learning to express themselves competently.

5.1 Options in the media for communication

Unless specific media and materials are critical to an objective (e.g. the objective is to learn to paint specifically with oils, or to learn to handwrite with calligraphy) it is important to provide alternative media for expression. Such alternatives reduce media-specific barriers to expression among students with a variety of special needs but also increase the opportunities for all students to develop a wider palette of expression in a media-rich world. For example, it is important for all students to learn composition, not just writing, and to learn the optimal medium for any particular content of expression and audience.

Examples:

  • Composing in multiple media:
    • text
    • speech
    • drawing, illustration, design
    • physical manipulatives (e.g. blocks, 3D models)
    • film or video
    • multimedia (Web designs, storyboards, comic strips)
    • music, visual art, sculpture

5.2 Options in the tools for composition and problem solving

There is a pervasive tendency in schooling to focus on traditional tools for literacy rather than contemporary ones. This tendency has several liabilities: 1) It does not prepare students for their future; 2) It limits the range of content and teaching methodologies that can be implemented; and, most importantly, 3) It constricts the kinds of students who can be successful. Modern media tools provide a more flexible and accessible toolkit with which students with a variety of abilities and disabilities can more successfully articulate what they know. Unless a lesson is focused on learning to use a specific tool (e.g. learning to draw with a compass), curricula should allow many alternatives. Like any craftsman, students should learn to use tools that are an optimal match between their abilities and the task demands.

Examples:

  • Spellcheckers, grammar checkers, word prediction software
  • Speech to Text software (voice recognition), human dictation, recording
  • Calculators, graphing calculators, geometric sketchpads
  • Sentence starters, sentence strips
  • Story webs, outlining tools, concept mapping tools
  • Computer-Aided-Design (CAD), Music notation (writing) software

5.3 Options in the scaffolds for practice and performance

Students who are developing a target skill often need multiple scaffolds and graduated supports to assist them as they practice and develop independence. Those same scaffolds that are important for any novice are often critical for students with disabilities in both practice and performance. Curricula should offer alternatives in the degrees of freedom available, with highly scaffolded and

supported opportunities (e.g., templates, physical and mnemonic scaffolds, procedural checklists, etc.) provided for some followed by gradual release and wide degrees of freedom for others who are ready for independence.

Examples:

  • Provide differentiated models to emulate (i.e. models that demonstrate the same outcomes but use differing approaches, strategies, skills, etc.)
  • Provide differentiated mentors (i.e., teachers/tutors who use different approaches to motivate, guide, feedback or inform)
  • Provide scaffolds that can be gradually released with increasing independence and skills (e.g. embedded into digital reading and writing software)
  • Provide differentiated feedback (e.g. feedback that is accessible because it can be customized to individual learners – see also Guideline 6.4)

Guideline 6: Provide options for executive functions

At the highest level of the human capacity to act skillfully are the so-called “executive functions.” Associated with prefrontal cortex in the brain, these capabilities allow humans to overcome impulsive, short-term reactions to their environment and instead to set long-term goals, plan effective strategies for reaching those goals, monitor their progress, and modify strategies as needed. Of critical importance to educators is the fact that executive functions have very limited capacity and are especially vulnerable to disability. This is true because executive capacity is sharply reduced when: 1) executive functioning capacity must be devoted to managing “lower level” skills and responses which are not automatic or fluent (due to either disability or inexperience) and thus the capacity for “higher level” functions is taken; and 2) executive capacity itself is reduced due to some sort of higher level disability or to lack of fluency with executive strategies. The UDL approach typically involves efforts to expand executive capacity in two ways: 1) by scaffolding lower level skills so that they require less executive processing; and 2) by scaffolding higher level executive skills and strategies so that they are more effective and developed. Previous guidelines have addressed lower level scaffolding, this guideline addresses ways to provide scaffolding for executive functions themselves.

6.1 Options that guide effective goal-setting

When left on their own, most students - especially those who are immature or who have disabilities that affect executive function - set learning and performance goals for themselves that are inappropriate or unreachable. The most common remedy is to have adults set goals and objectives for them. That short-term remedy, however, does little to develop new skills or strategies in any student, and does even less to support students with executive function weaknesses. A UDL approach embeds graduated scaffolds for learning to set personal goals that are both challenging and realistic right in the curriculum

Examples:

  • Prompts and scaffolds to estimate effort, resources, and difficulty
  • Models or examples of the process and product of goal-setting
  • Guides and checklists for scaffolding goal-setting

6.2 Options that support planning and strategy development

Once a goal is set, effective learners and problem-solvers plan a strategy for reaching that goal. For young children in any domain, older students in a new domain, or any student with one of the disabilities that compromise executive functions (e.g. ADHD, ADD, Autism Spectrum Disorders), the strategic planning step is often omitted and impulsive trial and error trials take its place. To help students become more plan-full and strategic a variety of options – cognitive “speed bumps” that prompt them to “stop and think;” graduated scaffolds that help them actually implement strategies; engagement in decision-making with competent mentors – are needed.

Examples:

  • Embedded prompts to “stop and think” before acting
  • Checklists and project planning templates for setting up prioritization, sequences and schedules of steps
  • Embedded coaches or mentors that model think-alouds of the process
  • Guides for breaking long-term goals into reachable short-term objectives

6.3 Options that facilitate managing information and resources

One of the limits of executive function is that imposed by the limitations of so-called working memory. This “scratch pad” for maintaining chunks of information in immediate memory where they can be accessed as part of comprehension and problem-solving is very limited for any student and even more severely limited for many students with learning and cognitive disabilities. As a result, many such students seem disorganized, forgetful, unprepared. Wherever short-term memory capacity is not construct-relevant in a lesson, it is important to provide a variety of internal scaffolds and external organizational aids – exactly those kinds that executives use - to keep information organized and “in mind.”

Examples:

  • Graphic organizers and templates for data collection and organizing information
  • Embedded prompts for categorizing and systematizing
  • Checklists and guides for note-taking

6.4 Options that enhance capacity for monitoring progress

Many students seem relatively unresponsive to corrective feedback or knowledge of results. As a result they seem “perseverative,” careless or unmotivated. For these students all of the time, and for most students some of the time, it is important to ensure that options can be customized to provide feedback that is more explicit, timely, informative, and accessible (see representational guidelines above and guidelines for affective feedback.). Especially important is providing “formative” feedback that allows students to monitor their own progress effectively and to use that information to guide their own effort and practice.

Examples:

  • Guided questions for self-monitoring
  • Representations of progress (e.g. before and after photos, graphs and charts showing progress over time)
  • Templates that guide self-reflection on quality and completeness
  • Differentiated models of self-assessment strategies

Principle III. Provide Multiple Means of Engagement

Students differ markedly in the ways in which they can be engaged or motivated to learn. Some students are highly engaged by spontaneity and novelty while other are disengaged, even frightened, by those aspects, preferring strict routine. In reality, there is no one means of representation that will be optimal for all students; providing multiple options for engagement is essential.

Guideline 7: Provide options for recruiting interest

Information that is not attended to, that does not engage student’s cognition, is in fact inaccessible. It is inaccessible both in the moment - relevant information goes unnoticed and unprocessed - and in the future: relevant information is unlikely to be remembered. As a result, teachers devote considerable effort to recruiting student attention and engagement. But students differ significantly in what attracts their attention and engages their interest. Even the same student will differ over time and circumstance: their “interests” change as they develop and gain new knowledge and skills, as their biological environments change, and as they differentiate into self-determined adolescents and adults. It is, therefore, important to have alternative ways to recruit student interest; ways that reflect the important inter- and intra-individual differences amongst those students.

7.1 Options that increase individual choice and autonomy

One of the most successful ways of recruiting any student’s interest is by providing them with choices and opportunities for personal control. In an instructional setting, it is often inappropriate to provide choice of the learning objective itself. But it is often appropriate to offer choices in how that objective can be reached, in the context for achieving the objective, in the tools or supports available, and so forth. It is often even sufficient to provide peripheral options – in the appearance or sequence of options – to recruit interest. Offering students choices can develop self-determination, pride in accomplishment, and increase the degree to which they feel connected to their learning. (It is important to note that providing choices is an important option, not a fixed feature - there are cultural and individual differences where increased choice is a negative rather than a positive influence.) (See also Guidelines 6.1 and 6.2.)

Examples:

  • Provide students with as much discretion and autonomy as possible by providing choices in such things as:
    • the level of perceived challenge
    • the type of rewards or recognition available
    • the context or content used for practicing skills
    • the tools used for information gathering or production
    • the color, design, or graphics of layouts, etc.
    • the sequence or timing for completion of subcomponents in tasks
  • Allow students to participate in the design of classroom activities and academic tasks
  • Involve students, wherever possible, in setting their own personal academic and behavioral goals

7.2 Options that enhance relevance, value, and authenticity

Individuals are engaged by information and activities that are relevant and valuable to their authentic interests and goals. Conversely, individuals are rarely interested in information and activities that have no relevance or value. In an educational setting, one of the most important ways that teachers recruit interest is to highlight the utility, the relevance, of learning and to demonstrate that relevance through authentic, meaningful activities. It is a mistake, of course, to assume that all students will find the same activities or information equally relevant or valuable. To recruit all students equally, it is critical to have options in the kinds of activities and information that are available.

Examples:

  • Vary activities and sources of information so that they can be:
    • personalized and contextualized to students’ lives
    • socially relevant
    • age and ability appropriate
    • appropriate for different racial, cultural, ethnic, and gender groups
  • Design activities so that outcomes are authentic, communicate to real audiences, and are purposeful
  • Provide tasks that allow for active participation, exploration and experimentation
  • Invite personal response, evaluation and self-reflection to content and activities

7.3 Options that reduce threats and distractions

Students differ considerably in their response to stimuli and events in their environment. The same novel event in a classroom can be exciting and interesting to one individual but ominous and frightening to another. Similarly, for some students reducing potential distractions is of great benefit to sustaining effort and concentration. For others, the presence of “distracters” in the environment may actually have beneficial effects: they study better in a noisy environment than in a quiet one. Differences in the effects of novelty, change, stimulation, complexity, and touch, are just a few examples of stable differences among individuals that have both physiological and environmental roots. The optimal instructional environment offers options that, in their aggregate, reduce threats and negative distractions for everyone.

Examples:

  • Vary the level of novelty or risk
    • charts, calendars, schedules, visible timers, cues, etc. that can increase the predictability of daily activities and transitions
    • alerts and previews that can help students anticipate and prepare for changes in activities, schedules, novel events
    • options that can, in contrast to the above, maximize the unexpected, surprising, or novel in highly routinized activities
  • Vary the level of sensory stimulation
    • variation in the presence of background noise or visual stimulation, noise buffers, optional headphones, number of features or items presented at a time
    • variation in pace of work, length of work sessions, availability of breaks or time-outs, timing or sequence of activities
  • Vary the social demands required for learning or performance, the perceived level of support and protection, the requirements for public display and evaluation

Guideline 8: Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence

Many kinds of learning, particularly the learning of skills and strategies, require sustained attention and effort. When motivated to do so, many students can regulate their attention and affect in order to sustain the effort and concentration that such learning will require. However, students differ considerably in their ability to self-regulate in this way. Their differences reflect disparities in their initial motivation, their capacity and skills for self-regulation, their susceptibility to contextual interference, and so forth. A key instructional goal is to build the individual skills in self-regulation and self determination that will equalize such learning opportunities (see Guideline 9). In the meantime, however, the external environment must provide options that can equalize accessibility by supporting students who differ in initial motivation, self-regulation skills, etc.

8.1 Options that heighten salience of goals and objectives

Over the course of any sustained project or systematic practice, there are many sources of interest and engagement that compete for attention and effort. For some students, a significant limitation exists in merely remembering the initial goal or in maintaining a consistent vision of the rewards of reaching that goal. For those students it is important to build in periodic or persistent “reminders” of both the goal and its value in order for them to sustain effort and concentration in the face of attractive distracters.

Examples:

  • Prompt or requirement to explicitly formulate or restate goal
  • Persistent display, concrete or symbolic, of goal
  • Division of long-term goals into short-term objectives
  • Use of hand-held or computer-based scheduling tools with reminders
  • Prompts or scaffolds for visualizing desired outcome

8.2 Options that vary levels of challenge and support

Students vary not only in their skills and abilities but in the kinds of challenges that motivate them to do their best work. Some students prefer high-risk, highly challenging endeavors, for example, while others prefer safely reachable objectives with predictable outcomes. Students with emotional and behavioral disabilities may fall at either end of that spectrum. Providing a range of challenges, and a range of possible supports, allows all students to find objectives that are optimally motivating.

Examples:

  • Differentiation in the degree of difficulty or complexity within which core activities can be completed
  • Alternatives in the permissible tools and scaffolds
  • Opportunities for collaboration
  • Variation in the degrees of freedom for acceptable performance
  • Emphasize process, effort, improvement in meeting standards as alternatives to external evaluation, performance goals, competition

8.3 Options that foster collaboration and communication

For some, but not all, students, the option of working collaboratively with other students is an effective way to sustain engagement in protracted projects and activities. The distribution of mentoring through peers can greatly increase the opportunities for one-on-one support. When carefully structured, such peer cooperation can significantly increase the available support for sustained engagement. Flexible rather than fixed grouping allows better differentiation and multiple roles. For other students, especially those for whom peer interactions are problematic, encouraging open lines of communication helps to develop student-teacher relationships that support achievement and engagement.

Examples:

  • Cooperative learning groups with scaffolded roles and responsibilities
  • School-wide programs of positive behavior support with differentiated objectives and supports
  • Prompts that guide students in when and how to ask peers and/or teachers for help
  • Peer tutoring and support
  • Construction of virtual communities of learners engaged in common interests or activities

8.4 Options that increase mastery-oriented feedback

Assessment is most productive for sustaining engagement when the feedback is relevant, constructive, accessible, consequential and timely. But the type of feedback is also critical in helping students to sustain the motivation and effort essential to learning. Feedback that orients students toward mastery (rather than compliance or performance) and that emphasizes the role of effort and practice rather than “intelligence” or inherent “ability” is an important factor in guiding students toward successful long-term habits of mind. These distinctions may be particularly important for students whose disabilities have been interpreted, by either themselves or their caregivers, as permanently constraining and fixed.

Examples:

  • Feedback that encourages perseverance, focuses on development of efficacy and self-awareness, and encourages the use of specific supports and strategies in the face of challenge
  • Feedback that emphasizes effort, improvement and achieving a standard rather than on relative performance
  • Feedback that is frequent, on-going, and presented in multiple modalities
  • Feedback that is substantive and informative rather than comparative or competitive
  • Feedback that models how to incorporate evaluation, including errors and wrong answers, into positive strategies for future success

Guideline 9: Provide options for self-regulation

While it is important to design the extrinsic environment so that it can support motivation and engagement (see guidelines 7 and 8), it is also important to develop students’ intrinsic abilities to regulate their own emotions and motivations. The ability to self-regulate – to strategically modulate one’s emotional reactions or states in order to be more effective at coping and engaging with the environment – is a critical aspect of human development. While many individuals develop self-regulatory skills on their own, either by trial and error or by observing successful adults, many others have significant difficulties in developing these skills. Unfortunately most classrooms do not address these skills explicitly, leaving them as part of the “implicit” curriculum that is often inaccessible or invisible to many. Furthermore, those classrooms that address self-regulation explicitly generally assume a single model or method for doing so. As in other kinds of learning, considerable individual differences are much more likely than uniformity. A successful approach requires providing sufficient alternatives to support learners with very different aptitudes and prior experience in learning to effectively manage their own engagement and affect.

9.1 Options that guide personal goal-setting and expectations

In learning to set goals for self-regulation, the goals are explicitly affective – learning to avoid frustration, learning to modulate anxiety, learning to set positive expectations. The actual goals that are optimum, however, will depend on the individual – some students need to dampen anxiety to succeed while others may need to elevate it somewhat. Consequently, it is essential that the models, prompts, guides and rubrics must also be varied enough to accommodate the full range of students who will need the support. Students need to see models, for example, that differ in the kinds of expectations and self-regulatory goals they set.

Examples:

  • Prompts, reminders, guides, rubrics, checklists that focus on:
    • self-regulatory goals like reducing the frequency of tantrums or aggressive outbursts in response to frustration
    • increasing the length of on-task task orientation in the face of distractions
    • elevating the frequency of self-reflection and self-reinforcements
  • Coaches, mentors, or agents that model the process of setting personally appropriate goals that take into account both strengths and weaknesses

9.2 Options that scaffold coping skills and strategies

Providing a model of self-regulatory skills is not enough for most students. They will need sustained apprenticeships with a gradual release of scaffolding Reminders, models, checklists, and so forth can assist students in choosing and trying an adaptive strategy – from among several alternatives – for managing and directing their emotional responses to external events (e.g. strategies for coping with anxiety-producing social settings or for reducing task-irrelevant distracters) or internal events (e.g. strategies for decreasing rumination on depressive or anxiety-producing ideation). Such scaffolds should provide sufficient alternatives to meet the challenge of individual differences in the kinds of strategies that might be successful and the independence with which they can be applied.

Examples:

  • Differentiated models, scaffolds and feedback for:
    • managing frustration
    • seeking external emotional support
    • developing internal controls and coping skills

9.3 Options that develop self-assessment and reflection

In order to develop better capacity for self-regulation, students need to learn to monitor their emotions and reactivity carefully and accurately. Individuals differ considerably in their capability and propensity for such monitoring and some students will need a great deal of explicit instruction and modeling in order to learn how to do this successfully. For many students, merely recognizing that they are making progress toward greater independence is highly motivating. Alternatively, one of the key factors in students losing motivation is their inability to recognize their own progress. It is important, moreover that students have multiple models and scaffolds of different techniques so that they can identify, and choose, ones that are optimal.

Examples:

  • Recording devices, aids, or charts are available to assist individuals in learning to collect, chart and display data from their own behavior (including emotional responses, affect, etc.) for the purpose of monitoring changes in those behaviors
  • These devices should provide a range of options that vary in their intrusiveness and support – providing a graduated apprenticeship in the development of better ability to monitor behavior and build skills in self-reflection and emotional awareness
  • Activities should include means by which students get feedback and have access to alternative scaffolds (charts, templates, feedback displays) that support them in understanding their progress in a manner that is understandable and timely

Special Education Modifications

  • Teaching Model: Co-Teaching
  • Special Education Teacher will work with All students General Ed and Special Ed.
    • Special Ed Students:
      • Teacher will read-aloud to students when necessary.
      • Teachers will break down assignments into smaller tasks.
      • Teachers will work with students on vocabulary acquisition by breaking down words into prefixes/suffixes and etymology.
      • Teachers will group students according to learning style inventory as a homogeneous group.
      • Teachers will keep students on-task by managing distractions and on-task behavior.
      • Teachers will modify note-taking by modeling notes from PowerPoint to chalkboard/whiteboard.
      • Teachers will differentiate lessons by using; verbal cues for auditory learners, graphic organizers for visual learners, and hands-on cues for kinesthetic learners.
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