Questions to Design Your Session

An important key to Universal Design for Learning: all students have strengths at times and all learners struggle at times. If a learner is slow to learn a particular concept or task, this does not make them a slow learner. If a learner is slow to learn a particular concept or task, then the instructional leader (e.g., the teacher) needs to offer that learner other ways to learn that concept or task. A learner might take more time or need other ways to learn a concept or skill, but that does not make them “slow.” It makes them a learner.

Occasionally, these videos use the terms, “slow,” “average,” and “fast.” These terms are only used to help the viewer think about the different ways students experience learning in a moment. A learner should never be defined as slow, average, or fast.

Discussion prompts:

1. Identify the similarities across contexts. Listed are a few examples:
   1. Number of learners
   2. Age of the learners
   3. Size of the classroom
   4. Where learning takes place (e.g., outdoors)
   5. Socio-economics of the region
2. Before showing the videos, share those similarities with your audience (adult learners).
3. Show one video at a time
4. On a T-chart, list everything that is different from what currently happens and everything that is different.
5. After each video, actively talk about what would work in your context (not about what would not).
6. With your adult learners, use these prompts to identify the steps it would take to make these changes.
   1. What support does the teacher need to make these changes?
   2. How will you help the school leader understand the reason for the instructional change?
   3. Break down the change into small, manageable and measurable steps
7. You are learning that students are not categorized as slow, average and fast; instead, all students learn differently at all times. How does this change how you think about planning and teaching?