Tag: Katie Novak

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UDL and Blended Learning: Thriving in Flexible Learning Landscapes

UDL and Blended Learning: Thriving in Flexible Learning Landscapes

By Katie Novak and Catlin Tucker

You can develop the skills to meet the needs of learners in any learning environment. 

This approachable, in-depth guide unites the adaptability of Universal Design for Learning with the flexibility of blended learning, equipping educators with the tools they need to create relevant, authentic, and meaningful learning pathways to meet students where they’re at, no matter the time and place or their pace and path. With step-by-step guidance and clear strategies, authors Katie Novak and Catlin Tucker empower teachers to implement these frameworks in the classroom, with a focus on cultivating community, building equity, and increasing accessibility for all learners. 

As we face increasing uncertainty and frequent disruption to traditional ways of living and learning, UDL and Blended Learning offers bold, innovative, inclusive solutions for navigating a range of learning landscapes, from the home to the classroom and all points in between, no matter what obstacles may lie ahead. 

Endorsements (3)

“Whether you are new to the world of blended learning with UDL or could teach a course on both, this book is sure to set you ablaze with new ideas to reach and teach with equity in mind for all learners.”  

—Andratesha Fritzgerald, author of Anti-Racism and Universal Design for Learning

“If you care about giving students more flexibility to personalize their learning through a blend of in-person and online environments, you’ll want this book.”

—Jay McTighe, educational consultant and coauthor of the Understanding by Design® framework

“Throughout this book, you will learn strategies that will help you remove barriers to learning, create more personalized learning experiences, and teach students how to become expert learners. This is something every teacher needs to read, discuss, and think about how to put into action.” 

—Katie Martin, PhD, chief impact officer at Altitude Learning and author of Learner-Centered Innovation

Pick up your copy on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca today!

 

 

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#InnovateInsideTheBox Book Study (Starting September 15, 2019)

Below is a blog post from George Couros, author of  Innovate Inside the Box, written with Katie Novak, about the amazing opportunity to be involved with their Facebook Book Study! There are already 750 amazing educators from all over the world signed up to participate!

Katie Novak and I are really excited to announce the #InnovateInsideTheBox book study, starting September 15, 2019, over on Facebook.  This book study will go over a 4 week period and is an opportunity to not only dig in deeper into the content of the book with Katie and me but will also be a space for people to share ideas and learn from one another as we focus on creating opportunities for purposeful learning for every one of our learners.  This book study is one that you can do at your own pace, but also will encourage participants to create multiple means of representation in sharing their learning through the process. To be a part of this, simply do the following:

  1. Get a copy of “Innovate Inside the Box” if you do not already have one.
  2. Join the open Facebook group for the book study.
  3. Comment on this welcome post to introduce yourself.

Although we are “formally” starting the process on September 15, 2019, we are going to give some prompts and facilitate some conversations before the “official” beginning so please feel free to join any time.

Here is the tentative reading schedule for the process:

September 15 – September 21 – Read the Foreword until Chapter 2

September 22 – September 28 – Chapters 3 and 4

September 29 – October 5 – Chapters 5 – 10

October 6 – October 12 – Chapters 11 -14

In addition to participating in the Facebook discussion, we encourage participants to create one post per week (video, audio recording, written post, visual, or anything else) in their own space to share their learning back to the Facebook group.  For me, my blog is a great space to create this learning as it allows for multiple ways to embed different mediums, but you might also be able to create this on a Twitter, Instagram account, or other sites. The focus is that we want this experience to be one where we create a community but also dive deeper into our own reflective process to deepen learning while modeling different mediums.

If you do not have a Facebook account, you can follow along with the “Innovate Inside the Box” for the weekly prompts.

Although Katie and I will be keeping to a schedule of when we share, we want all participants to go at a pace that works for them.  We know that every single month in the school year is extremely busy and we appreciate people taking the time to join. This is your experience so you make it what you want!

We look forward to working through this process! It is my first time using Facebook for a book study so hopefully, it is a good experience for all!  Thank you and we look forward to seeing you in the book study!

 

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UDL Implementation Rubric

Below is a blog post from Katie Novak, author of UDL Now! and best selling book  Innovate Inside the Box written with George Couros!

 

If you’ve had a chance to review the UDL Progression Rubric, you probably recognize that UDL isn’t a framework that you can implement overnight. It takes years – not weeks or months – to reach expert level and it’s easy to see how anyone, even the most experienced teachers, could get overwhelmed. For those just getting started, evaluating where you are in the UDL implementation process on a checkpoint by checkpoint basis might simply be too much.

When Melissa Toland of Ocean View School District reached out suggesting a simplified version for the time-strapped or overwhelmed teacher, I was totally sold. I love collaborating with others who are equally inspired by the promise of UDL and loved her quick-start UDL Implementation Rubric so much that I wanted to share it with you all.

This rubric is a great tool for self-evaluation and self-reflection in regards to big picture UDL implementation and also serves as a fantastic reference tool for remembering overall themes of UDL. When you are ready to get a little more granular, the UDL Progression Rubric builds upon this one.

When Melissa introduced the rubric to her district’s middle school educators, she encouraged them to use the tool as a road map for next steps to incorporate the principles of UDL into lessons and units.

As you review the tool, Melissa recommends thinking about:

  • What are your next steps in terms of implementation?
  • Based on your current level of practice, what is one goal you have for today?
UDL Implementation Rubric by Melissa Toland

Making commitments to yourself after you self-evaluate is a wonderful way to get started with the process. Remember, UDL implementation is a learning process, one that takes engagement, motivation, grit, resourcefulness, and creativity. You are not alone on this journey. You deserve the same tools, resources, and support that your students will get from you as you implement UDL.

We are always open to sharing new ideas and tools for UDL, so if you have something like this to share, please reach out!

Download the UDL Implementation Rubric

Ready to take your UDL game one step further? Enroll in one of our online courses and experience UDL first hand from UDL experts.

 

Don’t forget to grab your copy of Innovate Inside the Box to further your learning in the areas of UDL and the Innovator’s Mindset!

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Innovate Inside the Box: Empowering Learners Through UDL and the Innovator’s Mindset

The answer to creating innovative teaching and learning opportunities lies within you.

Every educator faces constraints—from budget restrictions to predetermined curriculum to “one-size-fits-all” mandatory assessments. The question is, how can you, as a teacher or administrator, ensure that regulations and limitations don’t impede authentic learning?

 

In Innovate Inside the Box, George Couros and Katie Novak provide informed insight on creating purposeful learning opportunities for all students. By combining the power of the Innovator’s Mindset and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), they empower educators to create opportunities that will benefit every learner. Couros and Novak show you how to . . . 

  • Leverage the Core of Innovative Teaching and Learning with a focus on developing meaningful relationships.
  • Develop the 8 Characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset in your students—and yourself.
  • Use UDL to proactively design learning experiences that foster voice and choice while addressing barriers that impede learning.
  • Create learner-driven, evidence-informed learning experiences that provide all students with options and choices to maximize success.

“No one articulates a more compelling, a more urgent, or a more motivating vision of education—for both teachers and their students—than George Couros. No one articulates how that vision can be reached—for every student and teacher—more daringly, more practically, and more inclusively, than Katie Novak. Having them together in one book not only helps us reimagine the goals and practices of education, it reminds us of why we ever wanted to be teachers at all.”

—David Rose, PhD. CAST’s cofounder and chief education officer, emeritus

“An incredible book! Innovate Inside the Box speaks to educators who are the change agents in their sphere of influence.” 

—Sarah Thomas, PhD, founder of EduMatch

“George and Katie’s combined talents as spectacular storytellers drive this book. You will feel like you are flying through it and then realize how deeply you are learning.”

—Loui Lord Nelson, PhD, author of Design and Deliver, and podcast host of UDL in 15 Minutes

Pick up your copy today on Amazon! 

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UDL vs DI: The Dinner Party Analogy

Below is a blog post from Katie Novak, author of UDL Now! and the upcoming book Innovate Inside the Box written with George Couros! Ever wonder how UDL differs from Differentiated Instruction? Katie breaks it down for you.

When I am presenting on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), an education framework routed in offering options to students to help them take control of their own education, teachers often tell me they have been doing it already for years. I ask them to explain.

What follows is often a description of Differentiated Instruction (DI). Like UDL, DI is also an education framework based on providing options to students. However, there are some critical differences that differentiate (pardon the pun!) the two frameworks from one another.

The Dinner Party Analogy

I like to explain the differences by asking teachers think about hosting a dinner party. Let’s say you have invited over thirty guests. Several of these guests have food allergies, another few are gluten-free, some are vegetarian or lactose intolerant, and your brother is exclusively Paleo. You want to be the perfect host, and you want to accommodate everyone.

Scenario 1: You decide to make individual meals for each guest so that each of them has the perfect dish. That is a lot of juggling to do. In the end, you are exhausted from all of the cooking, made a few mistakes because it is nearly impossible to get everyone’s individual meal perfect, and didn’t enjoy yourself. At the same time, you are frustrated that some of your guests preferred other’s meals when you had made a special dish JUST FOR THEM.

DI is like planning 30 individual meals for a dinner party.

What I just described is the dinner party equivalent of DI. DI is presenting options, but those options are directed by the teacher. For example, you may take one group of students aside and ask them to read an extra piece of literature because you can tell they are more advanced than their peers. You ask another student to draw a picture instead of writing an essay since you know writing is challenging for him. You are presenting options, but those options are governed by you and it’s possible you haven’t chosen the right options for the right students. You are burnt out from trying to create so many individualized lessons.

Scenario 2: Let’s go back to the dinner party. Rather than preparing thirty individual meals, why not put out a buffet? Include lots of variety, but let the guests choose what is best for them, what they believe will work with their individual diets, and satisfy them. You don’t witness guests peering at other’s dishes wishing they had been made the same thing. You are relaxed and engaged. You have saved your energy for interacting with your guests, instead of wasting it preparing imperfect options.

UDL Provides a Buffet of Options

UDL offers students a “buffet” of options. The options are offered by the teacher but they aren’t individualized for specific students. Through the UDL framework, students are intended to become self-directed learners and choose the options that work best for them, not the other way around. With UDL, students learn to take responsibility for their learning. They are learn the “why” of learning as we turn on the affective network of the brain by providing multiple means of engagement. They learn the “what” of learning as we ignite the recognition network of the brain by providing multiple means of representation. And they learn the “how” of learning as we turn on the strategic network of the brain through multiple means of action & expression.

If you are feeling exhausted by creating individualized learning plans for each of your students through the DI framework, you are not alone. UDL can help you provide options but allow you to maintain your creativity and energy while developing a classroom full of curious, self-directed learners. It isn’t a framework you can implement overnight, but once you see it working its magic in your classroom, you will become just as hooked as I am.

Online Courses on UDL and Inclusive Education

To learn more about the UDL framework, and read up on concrete examples of how you can implement it in your classroom, feel free to pick up a copy of my book, UDL Now!