EDU684: Week 1 Special Education Law and Frameworks

EDU684 Week 1 Special Education Law and Frameworks

This weeks reading was insightfull especially in Chapter 2 when it outlines UDL.

UDL has been adopted across my district, but it has been difficult for administration to easily push as our learning options are: academic books, online webinars that don’t engage you, or very long PD workshops. The brief overview and following resources on UDL (p 34) are a great streamlined overview on the objectives of Universal Design for Learning including some basic examples. I really wish this outline was handed to me last spring! Simplicity is key when trying to get our engagement in deploying new techniques and methods.

Outside of this it was nice to read more about IEP and Special Ed structures as I have never been formally trained in them, and I have have been in a handful of IEP meetings over the last year. A lot of jargon gets thrown about in the meetings and on the IEPs themselves, and the book has made reflecting on the narrative comments in an IEP much easier.

I look forward to reading more in this book as I will be seeing a handful of inclusion students from our access program(Autistic & Cerebral Palsy students in district) in my woodshop from now on. I have worked with adults with disabilities(Arduino for Disabilities) in the past, and would love to get more info on working with teens.

REPLY TO ME:

Hey Brandon,

I was wondering if you could explain exactly what UDL is. After reading through that section, it just sounds like ordinary teaching to me, nothing different. What exactly distinguishes it from other styles of teaching?

MY RESPONSE:

That’s kinda been the problem for loads of us at my school. IMHO it’s just a new way(a framework) to talk about properly differentiating and meeting your students at their level. More or less I think it will be a talking point during post observation conferences, etc.