Tonight I watched the CAST UDL Symposium session “Small Empathetic Moments Leading to Big Systems Change” facilitated by Jessica Bowman, Elizabeth Hartmann, Shannon Hitch, Allison Posey, Cassandra Sell & Debbie Taub. Debbie Taub is a Researcher at the TIES Center, Allison Posey is a Senior Content Editor & Producer at CAST, Jessica Bowman is a Researcher at TIES, Cassandra Sell is the Art Director at CAST, and Liz Hartman is Professor and Co-PI. They all collaborated with the Lake Washington School District. The TIES Center is an institution that supports students with learning challenges. They worked with the district to support students and schools and “enact UDL.” Bowman described the collaboration and how they provided support to build capacity at all levels. The barriers included little time, limited resources, and lots to cover. Nevertheless, Bowman and Hitch spoke about the opportunity to focus their efforts on administrators and special educators. The group designed four modules: vision of UDL, UDL guidelines and framework, UDL design and the 5-15-45 tool, and finally UTDL implementation process. The module structure was build background, try it, reflect & connect, and then dive deeper. Posey shared the UDL Coaching guide that provides “strategies to get started, saple goals…. They did breakout rooms to share resources and then share with the larger group. Sell spoke about obtaining feedback from the pilot and learning from the teacher collaborators. The last session aws a quick breakout to reflect on the “small empathetic moments of co-design” and “how can you find opportunities to center learner voice?” Bownman and Taub asked the audience more questions. They noted that collaboration and those small moments” were needed to begin change. I would love to have access to those modules and continue learning about UDL!
