This week's questions

What diverse learners are there in today's classrooms?

Dyslexic, ADHD, English as a Second Language, emotional or behavioral problems that interfere with concentration, lack of interest or engagement, sensory and physical disabilities

What does a brain research provide teachers with to adjust their teaching in the digital age?

It looks at 3 different areas:  Recognition networks:  gathering facts; Strategic Networks:  planning and performing tasks; Affective Networks:  are students engaged, interested and motivated?  This shows teachers how students think when they perform these tasks and teachers can show students how to perform these tasks based on how they think.  For example, teachers can show students how to gather facts in a meaningful way, they can show students how to plan and perform tasks so it makes sense to them, and certainly it is a teacher's main job to keep his/her students engaged and interested at all times.

What is a UDL? How its principles help teachers improve planning and teaching?

Universal Design examples are speaker phones, closed captioned television and curb cuts, all universally designed to accommodate a wide variety of users, including those with disabilities.  The goal of UDL is to use a variety of teaching methods to remove any barriers to learning and give all students equal opportunities to succeed.  A universally designed curriculum offers multiple means of representation, to give learners multiple means of acquiring knowledge and information, multiple means of expression to provide learners alternate ways of demonstrating what they know, multiple means of engagement to tap into learners' interests, challenge them appropriately and motivate them to learn.  To reach each student teachers need to customize learning using flexible tools, teaching methods and assessments.  For example, manipulatives in Math can help every student understand concepts (not just students with disabilities, but ALL students).