Key Points Promoting Inclusion

Key points to promote inclusion in the classroom:

· Know yourself. Think about your own values and possible judgements around inclusion and exceptionalities. Understand the areas that you need more support in and know what resources are there for your own growth and well-being.

· Know your students. Do your research on exceptionalities you are not familiar with and, above all, spend time to get to know your students and their individual needs.

· Empowerment!! :). Maintain high expectations, we are all capable of learning and overcoming obstacles.

· Focus on building up student’s strengths and talents. Work with their interests.

· Educate other students about exceptionalities, including their own exceptionalities, and celebrating diversity

· Role model compassion, understanding and growth mindset.

· Embrace, explore and use differentiated learning and universal design learning options

· Use the ADAPT strategy

· Allow more time for those that need it

· Use assistive technologies, including audio and dynamic visual supports

· Oral visual and activity-based communications

· Clear, organized instruction broken into chunks

· Organizational tools- visual calendars and task lists

· Use experiential approaches to teaching something

· Use collaborative and cooperative learning approaches- teamwork

· Circle of Friends. Be aware of the importance of social activities and provide opportunities to grow in friendships and connections.

Universal design for learning is a concept that was derived from universal design for building. An example of universal design is wheelchair access via a ramp can serve everyones needs to enter the building. A ramp is universal whereas stairs only accommodate those that can walk or, if necessary, hop up them. Universal design for learning (UDL) uses the same principles for developing curriculum and ways of instruction that will increase the learning opportunities to meet all the students’ diverse needs. UDL uses differentiated instruction (DI) as a way for the teachers to address the specific characteristics, experiences, backgrounds, skills and difficulties that each student may present. DI addresses that there are many differences among all the students needs within a classroom. Students are unique in their interests, strengths, challenges, current level of knowledge and experiences, language and ways of expression, cognitive function, physical functions, modalities they rely on such as students with sensory problems (hearing and sight), and many more areas of differences. The ADAPT strategy (5 steps) allows for the teacher to adapt their teaching styles to include exceptional learners.

A- Accounts of students’ strengths and needs

D- Demands of the classroom

A- Adaptations

P- Perspectives and consequences

T- Teach and assess the match

The short videos (under 5 minutes) below provide a great look at differentiated learning. The UDL and DI concept can seem overwhelming and a lot of extra work for the teachers but in reality it is not. It is just a change in how we view teaching our students and once we change our mindset, these changes will come with greater easy and become more efficient and effective for all students and their learning styles and needs.

Differentiating Instruction: It is not as hard as you think

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7-D3gi2lL8

Awesome video demonstrating the efficiency and easy that DI can have.

Dr. Baked Potato: how can we scaffold complexity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j0oL1CNXAs&t=3s

Shelley Moore speaks to the need for differentiated learning.