For our back to school meeting, my principal asked me to do a brief presentation on UDL for the staff. As a school we first started learning about Universal Design for Learning over ten years ago but in the last handful of years about half of our staff has changed. Even though many of staff are new to our school I couldn't also assume that they were completely new to UDL, so I wanted to do something that could serve as both a refresher and look an introduction to thinking in UDL mindset. I knew during the staff meeting many teachers would be thinking more about their first days with students, so I decided to use the common beginning of school year practice of icebreakers to introduce the key concepts of UDL.
In early August I was at lunch with my daughter, her friend, and her friend's mom. My daughter's friend had me in stitches when she was relaying her recent experiences at a summer camp for the arts which she has gone to and enjoyed for years. This summer, she described, wasn't hitting quite the same which she believed had a lot to do with the new teaching staff. She then went on to politely critique some of the instructional decisions the teachers had made. While her demeanor was comical, her observations were so keen and thoughtful. A basic summary of her observations is that the teachers were not using time effectively which resulted in less opportunity to practice and fewer pieces of music learned.
Without argument, her biggest gripe about the mismanagement of time was the over use of icebreaker activities during each session. Her point really lingered with me and I began thinking more about how we balance the intention behind icebreakers with instruction. In my mind, icebreakers are a microcosm of the much larger issue--the polarization of Social Emotional Learning and high academic demands. But that's a post for another day. For now, I'll focus on using a UDL mindset when incorporating icebreakers.
The start of the school year is a great time to talk about icebreakers because it's such a common practice as we are introduced to new groups of students. When we're searching online for current icebreakers, the implicit goal we have in mind is that we want to build relationships with and among our students. While that is our overarching goal, once we decide on specific activity, we need to think about what the goal or outcome is for this activity in this class period. As an example, we'll use a common icebreaker called Get to Know You Bingo, or a Find Someone Who, or Class Scavenger Hunt, pictured below. The basic format of this type of activity is to circulate around the room collecting signatures from classmates who fit the description in that box.
Example Goals: The specific goal for this activity could be to speak with X # of new classmates. To learn new facts about X # of new classmates. To identify common interests between you and at least one new classmate.
My son reminded me just how important it is to be explicit about the goal of an activity like this. He saw the Bingo board below on my computer screen and said, "Oh, Human Bingo! How do you win?" Without clarification on the activity's goal, he'd be competing to win at a "game" that isn't winnable and miss the whole point of the human connection.
- What are some predictable ways in which my learners might vary in their needs, preferences and strengths?
- What potential barriers can I anticipate in this activity?
After I've determined the goal, I start thinking about ways my learners might vary. It's not possible to account for every single learner variability especially without knowing our students, but it is predictable that:
- some learners will be introverted and not feel comfortable chatting with a lot people
- some learners will have first language that is not English
- Some learners may be easily overstimulated by noise
- Some learners just want to get to the content
With the goal and consideration to learner variability, I look at the Human Bingo icebreaker and imagine what barriers might exist in this specific activity that would make it difficult for some learners to achieve the goal.
Some potential barriers:
- All the boxes are text only and might include unknown words
- structure of the activity requires speaking to a many students/ requires a certain amount of social skills for peer interaction
- room could become quite noisy
- requires mobility to move around the class freely
- not very structured which could be anxiety producing
- The boxes might be filled with things that feel irrelevant to students
At the meeting the staff came up with these and even more potential barriers. Listing out all the barriers for this activity could make it easy to think we should just skip it altogether. But, UDL is "not about the elimination of any practice. It's about looking at that practice and asking, what are the potential barriers there." (Novak, K). This is where the UDL Guidelines come into play. Looking closely at the barriers in this icebreaker, I then go right to the Framework and consult the Engagement Guidelines to think about the structures and supports I can proactively build into this activity.
.png)
The table above provides just a handful of ways I imagined structuring this activity to proactively minimize barriers and maximize my students' engagement. For example, thinking back to one of the barriers I anticipated--this activity is not very structured and roaming about the room being expected to talk with many peers could be anxiety producing. Some students might choose to speak to people they know seeking comfort or others might be overwhelmed with how to approach unfamiliar peers and talk to no one. To account for this I can intentionally structure the activity by dividing the room into quadrants and directing the students to roam a smaller area to start, limiting the amount of choices and uncertainty. I can also model the peer interaction and provide some sentence starters to provide students the social language they need. If language is a barrier I can intentionally add images to the chart which help more learners access the content of each box. (Example chart provided below.)
Each of the examples on the right of the table represents an intentional decision a teacher could make to structure this activity to reduce barriers and increase the chances that learners will be able to meet the intended goals. Establishing a clear goal is integral to this process.
Thinking back to my daughter's friend, here's a kid who has eagerly chosen to spend free time learning more about something she is highly motivated and engaged in learning but she finds herself frustrated by the lack of challenge and focus on learning. It's much more likely that our students will come to us because it's mandatory and their motivation and engagement will vary greatly. For these different types of learners and all the ones in between, it's important to look at all activities through a UDL lens. I believe one simple way we can build relationships with students is to acknowledge that their time is valuable and prove this to them by making all classroom activities as accessible and meaningful as possible. And that can start from day one, even with something as "simple" as an icebreaker.
