Samantha Abarca & Dr. Leena Bakshi facilitated a session at the CAST UDL symposium entitled “Inspiring Learner Voice through Racial and Social Justice in UDL.” They shared their slides and a lesson planning document. The session had participants from Canada and all throughout the country based on the chat. Bakshi is a member of an organization called “STEM 4 Real.”Bakshi has extensive experience as a teacher and was the teacher for Sam Abarca, a 9th-grade science teacher. Their audience included teachers, instructional designers, professional development specialists… retired superintendants… science coordinators. Bakshi shared the mission statement/vision of STEM 4 Real. Their session outcomes were to share and amplify learner voice. The3D5E lesson plan includes: engage, explore, explain, evaluate. Bakshi talked about providing students with choices for them to engage. Their presentation included really great images and hooks for activities. They kept on emphasizing the process: standard, hook, society. For society their examples included creating a a local context/content. An attendee spoke about how there are opportunities for emphasizing social justice and the inequities, though we also need to keep in mind how to connect a social justice culture with UDL. The session ended with time for reflection and thinking about: reviewing Abarca’s lesson, what could you do? The presenters also warned about the danger of a single story. This was a great phrase and idea to end with.
