On Friday, I was so pleased to be able to return to one of my favorite days of the year, High-Interest Day at Brookfield Elementary School. This is a day where I have been able to bring the concepts of physics to k-5 graders. You may be asking yourself, "Elementary students doing physics?" YES! Not just experimenting, but understanding the concepts behind the physics of electricity and sound. This is a very special day I have had the opportunity to be involved in since 2017. So, how are we able to bring the concepts of electricity and sound traditionally taught to high school 11th and 12th graders to the elementary level? There are a few keys 1) make it a hands-on experience 2) remove the mathematical calculations and make it practical. In the past, I had the luck of bringing a handful of my physics students with me to guide the elementary students through the concepts that they had learned over the course of the year. But in my new role as a Teaching and Learning Speciali
Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey have done an amazing job of showing how to view the process of personalizing learning by using the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The UDL model looks at the process of learning in three distinct processes. Access - Learner is presented with new content or skill Engage - Learner works with new content or practices skill Express - Learner demonstrates mastery of content or skill By providing multiple methods/modes for each of these processes, students can allow students to design their own pathways to mastering content and skills. As students experiment with these different modes, they will discover who they are as a learner. But, this is not simply a practice done through trial and error. It needs to be done with intention. Bray and McClaskey present a framework through which learners can learn how they learn best and communicate it to others as well. This process of the learner knowing themselves has three distin