Dalila Rose Ghoneim 19173203

ASSESSMENT 2: CASE STUDY

Classrooms have become networks of diverse learners, each with different

abilities, backgrounds and learning styles (CAST, 2011). More students with
disabilities are now included in regular classroom settings. Providing a
curriculum that is designed for one type of learner, excludes and alienates
those that require further modifications and adjustments in mainstream
schools. Therefore, an inclusive approach predominates in most schools
today, whereby fixing the student has shifted to fixing the curriculum and the
school to meet the needs of all students (Fisher et al, 2000). In attempt to
deliver the curriculum in a way suitable to all students in a classroom, teacher
must be willing to know the strengths and needs of her students to provide
best practice and this poses challenges for teachers (Rose & Meyer, 2002).

Emily is a year 7 student and is not achieving well in a few of her school
subjects, she is underperforming in Maths and Science, does not do her work
and struggles with class content. She has been diagnosed with Emotional
and Behavioural Disorders (EBD) and finds it difficult to control her behaviour
and work as a productive member in the classroom. Emily lacks impulse
control and struggles to effectively handle social interactions with other
students. She is very reluctant to follow reasonable instructions from her
teachers, always late to class, monopolizes discussions and speaks on
particular subjects with no relevance to the current lesson and excessively
talking with other students during class. Her classmates have complained
about her disruptive behaviour several times during class.

What is EBD?

Students diagnosed with EBD, are said to have an emotional disability

characterized by the following:

(i) An inability to create satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers

and/or teachers.
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(ii) An inability to learn which cannot be adequately explained by

intellectual, sensory or health factors.

(iii) exhibit a consistent inappropriate type of behaviour or feelings under

normal conditions.

(iv) A displayed pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.

(v) A displayed tendency to develop physical symptoms, pains or

unreasonable fears associated with personal or school problems.

Literature suggests, “students with EBD experience low academic

achievement, display maladaptive behavior, and have difficulty building
and maintaining interpersonal relationships” (Kauffman & Landrum, 2013).
They have a tendency to fail more classes, experience more disciplinary
action (e.g., suspension, expulsion), and drop out of school more than any
other category of students with disabilities (Landrum, Tankersley, & Kauffman,
2003; Wagner, Kutash, Duchnowski, Epstein, & Sumi, 2005). Previously, students
with EBD were confined to special education settings(Trout, Nordness, Pierce,
& Epstein, 2003). Current literature suggests that 43% of students with EBD are
now introduced into mainstream schools 80% of their school day (U.S.
Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2015). This
reflects on the significant need for teachers in the mainstream classroom
setting to make the necessary adjustments and modifications to support and
incorporate these students into their lessons.

Using the Universal Design for Learning Framework

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework, established by the

Centre for Applied Special Technology, emphasizing equal access to
curriculum by all students. It is based on three principles that guides the
design and development of curriculum to accommodate individual learning
differences and disabilities. These principles are based on providing multiple
means of:
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 Representation - providing learners different ways of acquiring

information in different modalities and diverse background information.
 Action and Expression - encouraging students to use different ways of
demonstrating what they know using tools, media and technologies for
demonstration of knowledge and goal setting.
 Engagement - tapping into learners' interests, challenging and
motivating them to learn, foster persistence and build self-regulation
skills (Rose & Meyer, 2002).

Interventions for students with EBD, such as Emily, can be designed using UDL
guidelines to elicit positive academic and behavioural outcomes. Upon
designing instruction for Emily and her classmates, teacher can integrate
options for engagement and self-regulation into the lesson plan to challenge
Emily. For example, by using the UDL guidelines for engagement, the teacher
could provide mastery-orientated feedback, increased relevance, foster
collaboration and facilitate coping skills. The mentioned guidelines target
Emily’s common EBD characteristics of poor interpersonal relationships, lack
of engagement and self-regulation of overt behaviour, which lead to
disruptive behaviour in class, being off-task, poor academic outcomes and
low classroom engagement.

The teacher could engage Emily by making the lesson more relevant and
interesting, by incorporating ICT. Technology helps students to scaffold their
learning, instead of the teacher just posting notes on the board (Fink et al.,
2002). In the 21st Century, teachers can build on behavioural engagement
through interactive discussions and integrating videos and PowerPoints, as
mentioned by Gile & Shaw (2011), instead of just using chalkboards or white
boards. Students become engaged through active participation and hands
on learning l. In the lesson plan the teacher uses the Smartboard to introduce
an online activity on timetables and transport. Students can compare
journeys using different types of transport, while calculating time. This is made
more relevant and engaging by asking the students to work in pairs to
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calculate their own desired route to any destination that interested them,
with options of using the computer, worksheet or SMARTboard to record
data. During these activities UDL is used by giving students several choices to
complete the task, also providing real world relevance through the online
timetable website.

By providing varied and appropriate levels of challenge and specific,

mastery-oriented academic and behavioural feedback. Teachers can also
address the self-regulation for students with EBD by providing options for self-
regulation. In respect to Emily, teacher could also introduce an on-task
activity app on a phone device to keep her motivated and enthusiastic to
complete assigned class tasks. first and foremost, teacher needs to
operationally define and demonstrate how the on-task activity works and
provide examples to familiarise Emily with it. Allow time for Emily to download
the app onto her phone, and request she fills in whether she was on task or
not; during a writing task, or remaining silent and undisruptive, not speaking
and shouting at peers or teachers, making sure she raises her hand before
speaking, remain in her assigned seat and many more, promoting
expectations for optimal engagement. Emily is to be informed the phone
should remain on silent at all times and only used to complete the on-task
activity. Furthermore, knowing that Emily enjoys listening to music on the
classroom iPad, the teacher tells Emily, that if she can adequately and
accurately complete the on-task activity, she will earn 5 minutes “free time”
on the classroom iPad. Thus, providing options for executive functions which is
a guideline influenced by the UDL framework. Teacher is required to monitor
and observe Emily’s self-monitoring to ensure she is compliant with the task.

Teacher also uses a reward system in the classroom, which includes tokens
gained in the form of fake money. Emily is highly motivated by this token
system and saves the tokens to purchase items from the classroom store.
Therefore, teacher explains to Emily, that weekly tasks will be assigned
example homework and if Emily meets these weekly tasks she will earn
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additional tokens at the end of each week, these strategies align with the
UDL guidelines of providing options for executive functions and including
elements that are of value and relevance to the student, also providing
options for recruiting interest to enhance engagement. Incorporating
multiple means of engagement involves modifications and adjustments of a
variety of pedagogical methods to encourage and maintain student interest
(National Centre on Universal Design for Learning, 2014; Rao & Torres, 2016).

Engage Everybody

Redefining a lesson using UDL guidelines is not limited to the latest iPad app or tools
designed with accessibility in mind. Instead, teachers could modify and adjust the
lesson plan to engage students via incorporating music, video, clay modelling, trips
outdoors or tossing a ball around class alongside the accessible apps and software
in the classroom. The purpose is to create inclusion and interventions to incorporate
all types of learners, regardless of the individual support they might require and
working with their strengths and needs. Therefore, it is crucial that the teacher gets
to know her students first before implementing teaching practices so best practise
is provided to obtain high operative, high affective and high cognitive
engagement.

Use Technology, but Don’t Rely on It

Perez suggests that UDL is first and foremost about pedagogy, but “technology
gives you a richer palette of tools to choose from”. If a student is more comfortable
listening to a passage read out over audio, the teacher could turn on txt-to-speech
functions on an operating system. Having accessibility to modify font size and zoom
into images and highlight with a specific colour the given text, proves very helpful
for students struggling to see small text and so forth. Students could also learn
theories through songs, played back on computers. The possibilities are endless.
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TIMETABLE INCORPORATING UDL

Multiple means of representation

Multiple means of expression

Multiple means of engagement

Math Lesson Plan

Year 7

Syllabus Pages: pp. 34

Timing Organisation Teaching Strategy

5 min Greet students and mark Introduce the lesson. Inform students of the tasks ahead
the roll Remind Emily of her on-task activity.
10 min Handout worksheets Students provided with timetable activity sheets to
Class discussion interpret timetables and their application in different forms
of public transport.
Solve problems using timetables. Apply timetables to a real
life situation via online website.
Give out to tokens to students for reward on their class
task.
Incorporate 12-hour and 24-hour time into understanding
timetables. Teacher allows for a class discussion. Walks
around and asks questions, and ensures that students are
staying on task.

2 min worksheet collection Ask student to collect worksheets (EMILY)

23 min SMARTboard activity (ICT) Class discussion

Teacher facilitates discussion between students and asks

questions about when and where you may need to use a
transportation timetable. Teacher shows a transport timetable
on the Smartboard and introduces activity.
Teacher asks students what sustainability means to them. On the
smartboard puts an image of Earth with minimal sustainability
and asks the students to critically think about the picture.

Praise students for their answers (well done, great answer,

excellent)

15min ONLINE GAME on the Class activity game-based learning.

computer
Group work
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Teacher informs class of the procedures to take part in the

computer-based online activity.
*Assigns groups of 2 (overall 8 groups of 2) by handing out
coloured pairs of cards.
Students with red cards pair up, students with green cards pair
up and so on.
*Each pair sits to a computer
*enters the following web address:
https://transportnsw.info/plan
Allow students to read the options provided of public transport
for the above search and explain how different modes of
transport can be used for the following trip.
Students will use 24hr time to know what time they leave and
arrive to their destination.

Once students have explored the page, ask them to make their
own trip plans. Making sure they take turns and help each other
as a form of social support.
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Fisher, D., Sax, C. and Grove, K. (2000) The resilience of changes promoting inclusiveness in an urban elementary school.

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https://transportnsw.info/plan