Amanda Rowland UDL/Curriculum Review Assignment **Note: I turned in the copy of the textbook in class** Curriculum Material Selected:

Content Area: High School Geometry Grade Level: High School, targeted for 10th grade Publisher: CPM Educational Program Year of Publication: 1/26/06 7th edition Description of materials reviewed: I reviewed the teachers manual for this textbook. The teachers manual provides the information needed to teach the content covered in the book. This manual shows the teacher what the student sees, answers to the problems, as well as recommendations for teaching the material. The set up of all the chapters is the same, so I will talk about chapter 2 specifically and you will be able to get a clear idea of what the book looks like as a whole. The chapter starts off with guiding questions to keep in mind throughout the entire chapter as well as the objectives of the chapter. A teachers guide is included that has an outline of the section, lesson, number of days you should spend on the lesson, materials needed for that lesson, and the questions you should give as homework to the students. It contains a section explaining how this chapter relates to Algebra, which is the previous material students should have learned prior to this class. This is particularly important for special education teachers because often times our students are behind and it is helpful to know the previous knowledge students will need to complete the work. We can use this information to help us better accommodate our students. There is then a section that contains a description of several opportunities to use technology to enhance student learning. Teamwork is also discussed here. The authors believe that

students should work in teams and have unique roles, and this is explained in the teachers manual. After this, starts the lessons. A lesson contains a title, objective, length of the activity, core problems, ways of thinking, materials, technology notes, lesson overview, suggested lesson activity, closure, explanation of team roles, and homework. The technology notes give teachers an idea of ways to incorporate different technology into the lesson. The lesson overview gives you an idea of how to manage your time during the lesson. It tells you how long you should spend on each problem and suggestions for staying in that time frame. It also gives a suggestion for what to do if you have extra time or are teaching an accelerated class. The suggested lesson activity generally starts out by teaching students the main concept through technology or the use of manipulates (mirrors, noodles). Then students split into groups and work on solving other problems as a group. The closure activity requires students to reflect on what they learned that day as a whole. This requires student to write about it in a journal or come together as a class and talk about it. The team roles section tells teachers how to manage the groups in the classroom and what students roles in the group are. Roles include recorder/reporter, task manager, facilitator, and resource manager. Suggested homework problems are also listed. Next comes the activities and problems that the students have in their textbook. In the teachers manual answers are included as well. This is a discovery based math book. There are no sample problems given to students. The problems help guide students to discover the ideas that they need to know. Because of this, problems often contain a lot of words. Most are also accompanied by a Geometry diagram. There is a methods and meanings box that summarizes the main concepts that should have been learned during the lesson. Following this are review and preview questions. These questions are review from past sections and questions that will help lead into the next days lesson, these questions are also often accompanied by a Geometry diagram. Lessons in a similar format

continue in the book for the rest of the chapter. At the end of the chapter there is a chapter closure section. This includes review questions as well as activities to help students pull out the main ideas of the chapter and make connections between ideas. Concept diagrams are often used here. Finally, there are resource pages. This includes diagrams for activities, graphic organizers to help organize information, and flash cards with the chapter vocabulary words printed on them. For more detailed information regarding this material please refer to chapter 2 of the teachers manual which I have provided for you. UDL Features Within the Curriculum: The first principle of Universal Design for Learning is multiple means of representation, meaning that you provide students with options for gaining knowledge. We should provide options for accessing instructional content because students have different preferences for how they learn. One student may be great at listening to a lecture, while another student will learn the information better if they read it. We need to present information in as many ways as possible to help make sure the most students are learning the information to the best of their ability. This book, although it has problems, does include multiple means of representation throughout it. I believe they did a pretty good job at including multiple means of representation, especially compared to textbooks of the past. Taking a look at chapter 2, information is represented visually through the use of diagrams and technology. There are diagrams embedded throughout the chapter, and teachers are encouraged to technology to demonstrate concepts in most of the lessons. Information is also explained verbally by teachers at times. During some activities information is presented with a model. For example, students use noodles to determine what needs to be true about the lengths of the three sides of a triangle. Information is explained in text in the Methods and Meanings boxes that are spread out throughout the chapter. Diagrams are also often present-

ed here next to the text. At the end of the chapter the main ideas are highlighted and graphic organizers are provided so students can have another representation of the information. Finally, flash cards are given to present the information in yet another form. Students are also working on solving problems together in teams, this collaborative work is another way for students to access information. Sometimes students are the best kind of teachers for other students. Overall, there are many ways in which this information is represented. If I were using this textbook in my classroom there are some things I would add to it in order to make it contain more means of representation to help all of my students. The first problem I see is the fact that all of the problems contain many words, questions can be up to a paragraph long! Students with learning disabilities in reading may never even get to the math part of the question because they wont be able to get past understanding what the question is asking. Putting the main question or idea in bold could help these students. One could also include textto-speech technologies to help a variety of different learners including those that might be blind. Graphic organizers that are already completed could really help the students, especially given the content we are dealing with. I might also add in some videos. There are some really great videos that can help students to visualize these Geometry concepts while presenting information in sound, text, and picture. Finally, I would give students choices. Currently, the way information is presented to them is entirely in the hands of the teacher. Offering students choice helps them feel like they are more in control and helps motivate them as well. The second principle of UDL is multiple means of action and expression. This is providing students with options for expressing their knowledge and understanding. The book is lacking in this area of Universal Design for Learning. The only way that the book allows for expression of knowledge is by answering the problems in the book. One way this principle is used is that

sometimes students answer the questions collaboratively as a group, and sometimes they answer the questions individually. They also rotate group roles. There are four roles recorder/reporter, resource manager, facilitator, and task manager. These roles all allow students to participate in the group in different ways and express the information in different ways. If I were teaching with this curriculum there are many things I would do to help establish multiple means of action and expression. With Geometry in particular, there are many ways students can show they know the information other than just answering the questions during class time and for homework. I would give students choices on how they wanted to show me they knew the information. For some projects I would give them the choice of working alone or in a group. I would then let them represent the Geometric concept by making a powerpoint, writing a paper, using keynote, using Prezi, making a concept diagram on Inspiration, making a video or a podcast, making a poster. There are many ways to go about it. Also, during class when groups complete questions there are other ways of getting the information to the teachers other than just turning in the answers. Students can give presentations or draw diagrams on the smart board. There are many things this book could do to help create multiple means of action and expression into this curriculum. Finally, the third principle of UDL is multiple means of engagement. This is providing students options for engaging in learning. This area is also lacking in this curriculum. What is present in this book is the options for group work, use of technology, and use of manipulative objects. These activities help to engage learners in different ways. There is some providing options for sustaining effort and persistence with the use of collaborative work in teams and the individual responsibility of roles in the group. Students also work toward challenging goals in this discovery based curriculum. It helps to engage students when they are working to solve a problem

and discover the ideas on their own instead of just being told the answer. There are also some options for self-reflection. The closure activities provide different ways for students to reflect. If I was teaching a class using this curriculum there are some things I would do to provide multiple means of engagement. First of all, I would make sure students had options for the kinds of things they wanted to do and that variety was always present in the classroom. I would use video games, and other types of classroom games to help engage my students. I would have them participate in a real life application of Geometry. Finally, I would let them discover ways that Geometry occurs in our everyday lives. The more engaged they are the more they will learn and the more they will be motivated to learn.