UDL for Lee
By Deanna M. Duncan
Lets meet Lee!
Lee is an 8yr old boy from China. He lost his family recently and was adopted by a local couple. He just moved to the United States two weeks ago and was enrolled in the 3rd grade at the local elementary school. According to his records, Lee learned basic English in China but his proficiency is unknown as he has not verbalized a word in Chinese or English since his arrival. Lets consider UDL assessment accommodations for Lee.
According to the National Center on Universal Design for Learning (which can be found at this website: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines), Principle I calls for the teacher to "provide multiple means of representation." The reacher must be concerned as to whether Lee understands classroom instruction in English. If he is not able to understand the lesson taught by the teacher, we cannot very well expect him to be able to pass any classroom tests or standardized tests. After multiple attempts of speaking with Lee, he does not seem to understand any more than a few simple words. It becomes clear to his teacher that Lee is going to need some representation accommodations.
Lee's teacher decides to use this website: http://translate.eu/english/chinese_traditional-english/ which allows Lee to translate words he does not understand into Mandarin throughout the day. She also uses this website herself to translate her lecture outline and main points into Mandarin so Lee is able to follow along. Her hope is that she can transition Lee from translating everything into Chinese to him becoming less dependent on the computer over time. Hopefully, her lessons will be understood with little help at some point this year.
Lee moved from a poor village in China to a small town in Indiana so this is the first time Lee has had the opportunity to use a computer in the classrom. He seems to enjoy being able to use the computer during class to translate the lessons. The teacher is already noticing that Lee is able to understand more spoken and written English already but she notices that Lee is still very quiet and shy. She quickly realizes that Lee needs an new way to express himself!
Principle II of the UDL Guidelines, (http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines), asks that the student is "provided multiple of action and expression." Lee's teacher goes home and brainstorms. How can she help Lee communicate and express his feelings and needs when he does not have the vocabulary to do so yet? Ah Ha!! She had an idea!
The next day, the teacher greeted Lee at the door and said, "Hello." She then handed him a flashcard which read "Hello!" and showed a picture of a boy waving. He took the card and went to his desk. Later, the teacher gave him a few more flashcards which showed happy, sad, frustrated and bored cartoon icons. He took those. She was hoping that Lee would use these cards to let her know how he felt when they were not at the computer together, such as recess.
The next morning, a breakthrough! As she greeted the students at the door in the morning, she saw Lee walking down the hall, fussing with his backpck. He approched her at the door and showed her a card. It read, "Hello!" She was elated! She hugged him quickly and said, "Hello! Hello!" Then Lee showed her another card. It was the smiley face card.
The teacher knew she was on the right track with Lee now.
A week went by and Lee was up to 50 cards and was using them very frequently when he wanted to communicate with the teacher. He was also doing well with using them with his classmates. She had noticed that Lee also plays well with the children on the playground, despite the language barrier.
It has become apparent by now that although Lee struggles with English and communicating, he is excellent in Mathematics and Art. The teacher approaches Lee, points to his cards and asks, "How do you like this Math work, Lee?" He flips through his cards and locates the "bored" card. The teacher realizes that Lee needs to be challenged in order stay interested in Math.
The teacher goes home and brainstorms. She considers what she knows about Lee from her observations so far and remembers Lee at recess. "Ah ha!" I know what I should try!"
The next day, the teacher introduces Lee to this website: http://www.ehow.com/way_5159435_math-games-years.html where, together, they could find fun Math games that Lee could play when he got a sticker on his English tests. The teacher also played a game in the classroom where the students competed in teams to correctly answer a Math problem. Lee became a star player in that game and all the kids had fun. She had followed Principle III, which asks the teacher to "provide multiple means of engagement" (http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines) and it proved to be a success.
Please check out these short youtube links for inspirational videos on engaging today's children:
The year was spent with many advancements for Lee. He still needs occasional help with translation but now he uses a translation dictionary, quickly, on his desk. All of his test material is in English but he is allowed to use the dictionary at any time. He has even drawn his own special cards (without prompt) and written the English words on them (Some of them are hilarious!).
Today is the last day of Lee's 3rd grade career...
The teacher is standing the door, as usual, greeting the children as they come in. Here comes Lee. She waves to him and says, "Hello Lee." And that's when it happened! A whispering reply, "Hello."