Post Idea #1

Choose one of your planned learning activities from your Blueprint and identify any barriers for students’ success. How can you alter or adjust your current plan to reduce those barriers?

My group’s learning resource, “how to design and deliver an effective presentation”, can be broken up into three primary learning activities: formatting, presentation script, and public speaking. For the public speaking component, learners will receive a list of verbal and physical techniques that correlate with effective public speaking. Then, sequentially, students will apply the material from the checklist to an in-person presentation for the class. Following the presentation, the teacher will evaluate the student’s ability to integrate the public speaking techniques into their presentation. 

At first glance, this task seems relatively straightforward; however, many barriers within the activity may present challenges for students with different learning styles. For instance, the in-person presentation could inhibit the ability of those with hearing impairments to follow along with content and identify uses of critical learning techniques such as enunciating, emphasizing key points, and uses of silence. 

     Another Barrier to success could stem from the learning activities assessment plan, which focuses on content knowledge through teacher evaluation (“UDL,” n.d.). This method by itself leads to less support for learner variability, as engagement, self-reflection, and progression are not factored into the learner’s experience within the activity (“UDL,” n.d.).

     To mitigate these barriers, our learning resource’s public speaking activity must follow a structure founded on a universal design for learning (UDL). UDL is a concept developed to encourage educators to maximize learning by focusing on exclusive design flaws rather than the potential limitations of the individual learners. UDL is achieved by emphasizing three principles: providing multiple means of representation, multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement (“Overview,” n.d.).  

     By factoring in the principle of multiple means of representation, we can resolve the barriers resulting from in-person presentations. More specifically, we can do so by allowing students to present in different ways, including video-recorded presentations through Flipgrid. In doing so, learners with language barriers or hearing impairments can engage more efficiently with the presentations through Flipgrid’s speech-to-text feature. In addition, learners who move at a slower pace or suffer from in-class distraction can engage with the material in a setting and timeframe that better suits them. 

     By considering the principle of multiple means of action and expression, the barriers perpetuated through single assessment learning plans will be removed. We will accomplish this in our public speaking activity by implementing more formative assessments such as progress checks after learning the public speaking techniques, self-reflection, and peer feedback/reviews on Flipgrid presentations. By implementing these changes, the overall learner inclusivity will increase as students’ engagement and expression will be open to differentiation (“Overview,” n.d.).  

Citations 

Overview of 3 UDL principles. Durham College . (n.d.). Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://durhamcollege.ca/ctl/teaching/planning-to-teach/udl/3-udl-principles/ 

UDL tips for assessment. Cast . (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2022, from https://www.cast.org/binaries/content/assets/common/publications/downloads/cast-udltipsforassessment-20200920-a11y.pdf