Blog Post # 7-Website Reflection

The goals of this unit were for the students to read the story "The Raven" and determine the tone and mood of the story, as well as begin to use a plot diagram to determine the different plot lines of the story. From this, they will use the reading strategies and the plot diagram to read several other short stories by Edgar Allen Poe. They will discuss the tone and mood of the story, as well as place the story on a plot diagram. Once this is completed, they were to create a final project. Our website was very useful in helping the students achieve these goals because we had the story broken down into passages for them, with a picture and two reflection questions at the end of each passage. One of the reflection questions was always "where would this passage go in your plot diagram"? The other question was usually asking them to predict what will happen next, or why Edgar Allen Poe wrote something in the passage. We also included a glossary, defining terms that might not be familiar to the students. Also, we had a vocabulary quiz and an audio recording on our website as well. These were all designed to help all students be engaged in the reading of The Black Cat. We had a form for the students to provide us with feedback on our website. 

We designed this website with UDL guidelines in mind. For example, # 1 which is multiple means of representation, we had the story in an e-book format, as well as an audio/visual video of the story being read. For # 2, which was to provide options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols, under 2.5 we had multiple medias of our story available through our e-book and the audio/video link to the story. For 4.1 which was to vary the methods for response and navigation, we had a form on our website where they could ask us questions, as well as they could leave comments on our e-book while reading the story, and this allows them to communicate their ideas with us as well as with their peers. For # 5.1 use multiple media for communication, they are using our website, as well as their reading journals to communicate their progress in reading the stories. For 6.2- Support planning and strategy development, we are giving them tools to help them read the story before actually having them read it. We did this by asking them to complete the vocabulary quiz before reading the story. 

Based on the feedback our peers and Mr. Mattson gave us before our students utilized our website, we made some changes that were necessary for our students to reach the goals of this unit. We learned that we had the lower level reading students in our group, so we made our e-book more accessible for them, as well as asking the questions at the end of each passage so they could discuss these as a group. They were simple fixes on our end, such as fixing our e-book to make it easier for students to use, and making sure they could leave comments as well. We did not initially have a form on our website to allow them to ask us questions. We also added the vocabulary quiz and game. The feedback from our students was mostly positive. We asked them to rank different areas of the website and e-book on a 1-4 scale, 4 being it was really useful, and 1 they did not find it useful or helpful at all. We mainly received 3's and 4's. We asked if anything could have been done to change the website, and two students said they would want more resources, and several said they would not change anything. 

GQ #1 The core of UDL is the premise that often the curriculum is disabled (and disabling!). It is not flexible; it often poses barriers, and consequently prevents rather than supports optimal learning experiences. Do you agree or disagree with this view? Why or why not?

I would agree with this statement. I think that sometimes we design curriculum with our core students in mind. We are forgetting about our ELL and those students who are struggling with reading and writing. By having us create this website, I think we were including all of the students in the learning process. I think that we need to realize what the barriers are for our students, and design curriculum so that they can overcome these barriers and achieve the goals we have in mind for them. I think the UDL guidelines are an excellent way of making sure that we as teachers are including ALL of our students in the learning process.

GQ #2 What are the benefits of analyzing the curriculum for strengths and weaknesses rather than focusing on the students' strengths and weaknesses?What are the challenges of this approach?

The benefits to analyzing the curriculum are that we are determining if everything we need the students to learn is included and that all of our students will be engaged and focused. We are also making sure that all types of learners are included. However, if we do not include our students' strengths and weaknesses, we might miss out on some students being engaged. We need to find out what our students are interested in learning so that they will want to be engaged and focused during the lesson. We also have to keep in mind that when using the curriculum approach, this is not designed from the point of view of the students themselves. They will be able to tell us what their strengths and weaknesses are, and we can make sure we are keeping those in mind while developing our lesson and unit plans.