Low Floors & High Ceilings: A Universal Design for Learning

In the final days before the winter break, I visited a Psychology 11 class and had the opportunity to view a collection of student projects on the topic of drugs. It was clear that students had invested considerable effort into their projects but even more impressive was their depth of understanding and the level of confidence with which they shared their learning with me.

While this is a topic that Psychology 11 students have studied in the past, this year Ms. Morrison had her students approach their learning in a different way.




She began by asking her students to describe what they knew about drugs and their perceptions about drugs in the local community. This immediately made the topic relevant and proved to be an excellent way of activating students' prior knowledge and gaining their interest in the project. It also served as a great way to generate student questions and uncover some of their misconceptions.

Next, she laid out the learning goals for the project and asked students to address these goals as they researched their respective topics. Rather than delivering the content, she allowed her students to uncover the information as they gathered background about a specific drug. While Ms. Morrison provided a list of suggested resources to get her students started, she allowed them the freedom to access information in different ways from a variety of sources. Students accessed books, magazines, websites, videos, etc.  


Finally, students had the opportunity to choose how they would demonstrate their learning. Many students chose to create posters in which they included a variety of images, drawings and text to represent their knowledge. Others produced videos. 

One student elected to create a painting and include a QR code linking to a documentary she had watched. Listen to her describe her project.















Another student created a box covered in digital images he had designed himself. Listen to him describe his project and reflect on his learning experience.







And read another student's feedback on the learning process she engaged in during the project.

What I observed and heard from these students confirmed what I had heard days earlier at a workshop on Differentiation and Universal Deisgn for Learning (UDL) facilitated by Leyton Schnellert. It was great to hear Leyton share much of what he modelled 17 years ago when we co-taught Science and Technology 11. Leyton stressed that our plan for student learning should have 'LOW FLOORS and HIGH CEILINGS'. He pointed out that teaching to diversity is nothing more than 'good teaching'...it should include approaches that invite all learners in by providing different access points.

What was particularly fitting about the Psychology project is that it exemplified the three main principles that Leyton suggested we should focus on in our learning designs.

Multiple Means of Engagement: It captured the interest of learners and motivated them to explore their topic.

Mutliple Means of Representation: Learners were provided flexibility as to how and from where they acquired knowledge and information.

Multiple Means of Expression: Learners were encouraged to choose a means of demonstrating their learning that best suited them.

Below is a diagram from the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) that provides a visual representation of the main UDL principles Leyton shared.

What I've Been (Re)Reading in 2012

Looking for a good read to kickstart 2013? Here is a selection of some of the books I’ve (re)read during 2012 that have really influenced my thinking. Thanks to those of you who recommended them to me through your tweets and reflective blog posts! If you know of another worthwhile read, I’d love for you to share it with me!

Drive (Daniel Pink)

A great read for teachers leaders and administrators who are interested in learning about what intrinsically motivates people. Pink’s big three are autonomy, mastery andpurpose. Big questions I’m once again asking myself…How can we create the conditions where all teachers are intrinsically motivated to be learners? What frameworks/models can we apply to increase student-driven learning?

Shifting the Monkey (Todd Whitaker)

Another good one for leaders. Whitaker shows how to shift an organization’s focus from compensating for and working around people to cultivating and supporting responsible employees. I’ve definitely identified some ‘monkeys’ I’m carrying. The challenge for me is to shift these ‘monkeys’ back to whom they belong to!

Start with Why (Simon Sinek)

“People don’t buy WHAT you do. They buy WHY you do it!”  Sinek discusses what inspires us and the people around us. This is a natural complement to Drive. I’ve realized that often times I’m too quick to share ‘what’ I’d like to see without fully sharing the ‘why’. I may know the ‘why’ for myself, but I will only inspire action if I share the ‘why’ with those I hope to influence.

What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media (Scott McLeod & Chris Lehman)

I found this a really easy read that touches on a variety of educational technology topics. Anyone interested in exploring ways to use digital technologies in schools can benefit from this one.  I will continue to revisit sections of this book as we explore ways to engage teachers, students and parents through digital technologies.

10 Things from Assessment to Grading (Tom Schimmer)

Tom’s book has really made me question some of my beliefs about assessment and grading. The biggest point I continue to reflect on having read Tom’s book is the impact that grades can have on student motivation.

It’s all about Thinking (Faye Brownlie, Carole Fullerton & Leyton Schnellert)

Having just participated in one of Leyton’s workshops a few weeks ago, I’m very interested in reading about practical strategies we can use to differentiate for all learners. Many of the ideas he shared in his workshop (and I anticipate are shared in this book), Leyton modelled when we co-taught 17 years ago.

Earning or Learning?

Just over a week ago, we distributed first term report cards to students. In the days that led up to this, many of the comments I overheard students say reminded me of the question, "Is the focus on earning or learning?"

Here are a few examples of students comments:

"I have to get the assignment done. I need the marks so I pass the term!"

"I'm already getting an ok mark in that class. I need to spend time studying for the test in the (other) class so I can raise my mark for the report card."

"It's marks cut-off time. I have to finish it before the cut-off otherwise it'll be too late and won't be counted towards my report card mark."

"Whatever...I totally don't know what I'm doing in that class. I'm failing anyways. What's the point in doing the assignment?"

"Seriously, why does every teacher have to give us a test right before marks cut-off? Couldn't some of them wait until next week? I need to keep my grades up and this is stressing me out!"


When I hear comments such as these, a number of things come to mind about these kids.

Their motivation to do the work and study for tests is marks and grades.

Not even the threat of a low mark/grade is enough to motivate some students.

Our obsession with marks and inflexibility about due dates is causing stress for some students.

Sadly, these kids seem more interested and concerned about earning marks than learning.
Is their focus on marks something they have arrived at independently or have we, as educators placed such a high value on marks that we have coached them into this thinking this way?

I think back to the beginning of my career, full of energy but very inexperienced. I remember wanting my students to believe that every class period is important. So, I attached marks to almost everything my students did. This would teach them to come to class and hand in all their work...so I thought! By the end of a term/year my marks book was bursting with entries. Of course, I figured the mark I would assign each student would have to be valid. I'd have so many entries as evidence to back it up.

But what I started to notice is that my students were asking lots of questions about their marks, how to gain more and how much an assignment/test would be worth. Fewer and fewer of my students'  questions related to their learning. Rather than motivating my struggling learners, many were getting overwhelmed and turned off by a lack of success. They were disengaging, withdrawing and some were avoiding class. The impact on the higher achieving students was no better. They were becoming so consumed with point gathering that they were afraid to make mistakes and they were no longer asking deep questions. The constant pressure of meeting deadlines and having their work judged was contributing to leading to anxiety and in some cases caused them to cheat!

As I look back, I realize I was really missing the point.

I should have placed much greater emphasis on formative assessment.

I should have provided greater opportunity for students to make mistakes without punishing them in the gradebook.

I should have provided much more descriptive feedback that would point out to students what and how to improve.

I should have been more flexible with my arbitrarily decided due dates.

When determining grades, I should have exercised my professional judgment when looking at the data I had collected on each student. Data should be nothing more than a guide.



So now think about the students in your class..."Is their focus on earning or learning?"

Going Beyond the Converted: Reflections from Edcamp Leadership BC

The dust has now settled following Saturday's Edcamp Leadership BC. As participants, the nearly 200 of us have now gone our separate ways, back to our roles as students, parents, teachers, administrators, etc.  Before time escapes too quickly, it's important to do some reflecting. As an organizer, the days leading up to Edcamp were busy and filled with uncertainty...Who will show up? How many people will participate? What topics will participants propose? By the time Saturday arrived, it was almost a relief because I too could be like everyone else...a PARTICIPANT.

Having participated at two previous Edcamps (Edcamp Vancouver & Edcamp Delta), I am well aware that a major aspect of an Edcamp is the opportunity to form new connections and strengthen existing ones.  It's also a time when many people who are unable to participate in face-to-face discussions, contribute to conversations through Twitter.


To kick off the day, I challenged participants to at the very least, take one connection they were about to make during the day and continue to strengthen this connection through conversation beyond the unconference. The amazing number of face-to-face conversations on the day and ongoing interactions on Twitter that continue to use the #edcamplbc hashtag are a positive sign.  I encourage you to check out the links to the Google Docs from each session, access the Twitter list of people who participated face-to-face and contributed from a distance and some of the blog posts that participants have written since Edcamp Leadership BC.

Learning at Edcamp by Jim Allison
My First Edcamp: Full of Light and Brightness by Carolyn Durley
Edcamp Leadership BC: Notes and Reflections by Phil Macoun
Multi-Perspective Platform: Edcamp Leadership BC by Bernard Soong
Edcamp Leadership BC by Khanh Nguyen
Reflections from Edcamp Leadership BC by Terry Ainge
Edcamp Leadership BC by Tyler Nelson

I participated in three sessions: 21st Century Teaching and Learning with Technology, Engaging Aboriginal Youth and Connected Leadership. During the Connected Leadership session facilitated by David Wees, Ron Canuel from the Canadian Education Association (CEA) made a comment that really stuck with me. "We need to surround ourselves with opposing ideas in order to create a richer context."

Ron's comments got me thinking about the nature of Edcamps. Edcamps, while highly inspirational are very much about 'preaching to the converted'. Those of us who attend Edcamps do so because we see a need and are interested in making progressive change in education. But while we may be making changes to our own practice, are we actually creating widespread scalable change?

Although I wasn't an educator at the time, I tend to agree with the idea behind another of Ron's comments. "Many of the issues we are talking about in education we were still talking about in 1988. Change is stressful, what do we try to do? We try and reduce stress (which means we work against the change we want to see)."


Why is it that we continue to repeat the same conversations?

I'd argue that too often we are afraid to wade into uncomfortable conversations where we may be challenged to justify and defend our positions.  As a result, we become content to limit our exchange of ideas to our own mutual admiration society.

So when it comes to Edcamps, it's great to hear what people in other areas are doing and to glean some inspiration from fellow participants, but in order to trigger widespread change we must communicate our ideas beyond just Edcampers. We must engage those who hold differing and opposing views and provide a convincing enough argument that they see reason enough to change.

So with some encouragement from Lynn Oucharek, I closed the day challenging participants to take an idea that they had heard at Edcamp and share it with someone who didn't attend and quite likely has a differing opinion. These are the people with whom we must share our ideas with and have the courage to enter into deep, rich dialogue with. As educational leaders, it is our responsibility to help others see what we see, see what is possible and how together we might get there. This is necessary so that in 10 years, we aren't saying, "Many of the issues we are talking about in education we were talking about at Edcamp Leadership BC 10 years ago!".

Leading Learning from Within

A few days have now passed since the Association of Delta School Administrators (ADSA) Annual Conference so it's time for some reflecting. As an organizing committee we have long since heard from our colleagues that they value the networking component to our conference, desire for more opportunities to talk about what is going on in their respective schools, share ideas and learn with each other. From these comments evolved our question of inquiry, "Will a focussed effort on collaborative inquiry around administrators' interests and unique capabilities accelerate leadership performance and commitment to professional development?"

In an effort to follow our inquiry, this year we opted for a new conference model, one without a keynote, without a 'guru', without any 'sit and get' presentations. This year, there would be no chance that an external expert would come in and push his or her ideas on us without being aware of our context. Instead, we asked our colleagues to volunteer to facilitate conversations on topics they are passionate about. We knew we were taking a bit of a risk. What if our colleagues didn't volunteer to lead sessions? What if it turned out that we were less connected with each other because we weren't all sitting in the same room listening to the same presenter?

Well, taking the risk paid off! The theme of the conference could very well have been 'Leading Learning from Within'! We offered a total of nine sessions, with three sessions running concurrently at any one time. In fact, because almost 1/3 of our ADSA colleagues volunteered to lead conversations, we actually chose to host only the most popular sessions. Session topics included Demystifying Human Resources, Student and Educator Blogging, Empowering Students Through Leadership, Easy to Use Technologies that can Change Education, Supporting Teacher Inquiry, Relationship-Based Mentoring, Creating a Culture for Inquiry-Based Learning, Technology to Help Us With our Jobs and Assessment for Learning. 

Conversations were rich and engaging because they were led from within. Colleagues shared their experiences, knowledge, successes and failures. It was a great chance to ask questions, benefit from each others' learning and share strategies for overcoming challenges.  As you can tell by the google docs from some of the sessions, colleagues were very much engaged in sharing and building a collection of ideas and resources.  New connections  were established and previous connections between colleagues were strengthened, largely because people had the opportunity to discuss topics they are interested in and passionate about. The tone to the conference was comfortable, friendly and supportive. People felt safe in putting their ideas, challenges and mistakes forward because they knew that others were there to help! View a short clip of conference reflections from colleagues.

Our experience is another encouraging step toward creating a collaborative culture amongst ourselves, where we go beyond sharing to truly collaborating on projects with each other. As excited as I am about the steps we took at the conference, I'm also enthused about Delta School Disrict's commitment to collaboration and learning through inquiry. With teacher collaboration time built into the schedules of many schools, Coordinators of Inquiry heading up teacher-directed inquiries and the sharing of stories and ideas taking place through the 180 Days of Learning Blog and the new Delta Learns Portal, I feel we are in an exciting time as we build a culture of collaboration throughout the district.

Connecting (not Protecting) Ideas

The other day, I bumped into a teacher in the hallway and we engaged in a chance conversation. She had just returned from meeting with colleagues from across the school district and it was clear she was bouncing off the wall with enthusiasm as she described some of the possibilities that she now saw for her own classes. More than anything, what stood out to me was the passion and excitement in her voice. She expressed how great it was to exchange ideas with her colleagues, and how excited she was to once again be a learner, exploring new ways of doing things with the support of others.

Her experience is a perfect example of how inspiring it can be share our thoughts with others and how we feed off of other people's energy. It's within networks of trusting relationships where we can share our hunches, ask questions, admit mistakes, seek reassurance and describe our experiences. It's in these environments where we can connect our own hunches to what we learn from others and begin conjuring up innovative ideas. Over time, as we engage in conversations, receive support and reassurance from others, and continue to mull over ideas, we gradually reach the point when we have the confidence to transform our innovative ideas into innovative practice.

So why would anyone want to restrict themselves to learning in isolation?

Who wouldn't want to connect his/her ideas with those of others?

Why would anyone intentionally protect their ideas from others as though they were holding on to some secret intellectual property?

Who wouldn't wish to participate in a professional learning community (PLC)?


Why is it then, that so many educators are learning in isolation?

• Yes, time can be a factor. Teaching all day with little to no common time to meet definitely presents an obstacle. Although it is a start, even the embedded collaborative planning time that many schools have incorporated into their schedules is insufficient to spur on lasting innovation. Sharing and collective reflection amongst colleagues, whether formal or informal must be a part of the daily learning culture in order for innovative thinking to prosper.

• Yes, proximity can also be a factor. It's challenging for teachers from different schools and different districts to meet face-to-face. The few times a year that this type of gathering takes place is again insufficient to generate any momentum in teacher learning. And even within many larger schools, teachers tend to converse and share informally with colleagues who teach in the same part of the building. While there's nothing wrong with this, groupthink can quickly occur. This is why it's important to introduce external ideas and perspectives that challenge the thinking of the group.

How do we overcome these obstacles?

Enter social media.

2 years ago I started creating my own Personal Learning Network (PLN). Shortly thereafter, I began blogging as well. At the time, I never would have predicted how significantly the process of blogging and my PLN would have on my learning. I've assembled a collection of some of the most foreword-thinking educators from around the world, individuals with whom I would never have been able to interact or learn with if I hadn't built my PLN. I've shared my learning and reflections with my PLN through my blog. And in return, I've received feedback, connected with learning opportunities, accessed professional development resources and built camaraderie with other educators. In many cases, conversations I've started with my PLN have continued via Skype, telephone and face-to-face. In the same way that the teacher I referenced earlier was excited by the conversations she had with her colleagues, I find myself inspired daily by the conversations I have with my PLN. Sure, a digital connection has its limitations. It doesn't replace my face-to-face conversations but it offers me an ongoing stream of perspectives, hunches, ideas and questions that I can connect my own thoughts to. Conversations through social media may seem somewhat chaotic because of the multiple conversations that are simultaneously going on in public. But, as Stephen Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From indicates, it's in these environments where hunches can collide, and where ideas can mingle and swap.

So, for those of you who still require some convincing, I encourage you to check out the short clip Twitter for Educators, create your own PLN and take advantage of the anytime and anywhere opportunity to connect and collide your hunches and ideas with those of others!

We are 'Game-Changers'

Over the past few months I’ve been fortunate to have had anumber of chance meetings with former students. Whether it was at the mall, a restaurant, the park or a movie theatre, in most cases it was my former students who made it a point to approach me and say hello. Although our conversations were brief, a few things jumped out at me about my former students.

·     They were relaxed, comfortable and spoke with asense of confidence and pride.

·     They were equally as interested in how I was doing as I was interested in how they were doing.

·     They recalled fond memories from a class I taught them in, moments when I had coached them on an athletic team or simply a random act of kindness I may of extended towards them.

·     They expressed their thanks and appreciation.

In particular, a conversation I had with a former Biology 12 student and basketball player of mine stands out. He mentioned how important it was that I believed in him, both in the classroom and as an athlete.  He recalled, at the time, how much he disliked spending so much extra time outside of class time with me as he tackled what he found to be quite a challenging course.  He said with a smile how much he felt he had accomplished by the end of the course and how much he had learned by persevering. He also described how much it meant to him that I had stuck with him and supported him as a player even when he had a sequence of poor performances on the court.  Now in his early 20’s, he said he regularly applies what he learned about patience,commitment and leadership through our conversations. More than anything he expressed how much he appreciated my effort and how valuable his experiences were in helping him become who he is today.

Truthfully, rather than him thanking me, I should be the one thanking him. As teachers, too often we don’t get to hear what our students go on to become and what role we played in them getting there. These kinds of comments serve as powerful reminders of the impact that we, as educators have on the children we work with. Simply put, we are ‘game-changers’ in the lives of our students!

The manner in which we speak, respond and act with our students has a profound and lasting impact. The effort we invest to create meaningful learning opportunities and the passion we bring to our work is clearly evident and demonstrates to our students how much we care about them and their learning.  In everything we do and every decision we make, we have the opportunity to challenge, motivate and inspire our learners.

So, as things get busy at different points in the school year, and you feel yourself getting consumed by day-to-day details, I encourage you to recall conversations similar to this, reflect on WHY you entered into a career working with children and remember that every interaction you have with your students has the potential to be a ‘game-changer’ for them!

Cross-posted on Delta School District's 180daysoflearning Blog