Krea holds a bachelors in Elementary Education from IUPUC, a Masters in Elementary Education from Indiana Wesleyan, and a Masters in Administration from Ball State University. She has taught at Taylorsville where she was an elementary teacher for 4 years as a 1st/2nd grade looping teacher. She moved to Rockcreek where she is currently a 4th grade teacher. At Rockcreek she has taught in a 1st/2nd grade split, 2nd/3rd grade split, and 3rd grade as well. Krea is also the owner of Columbus Power Elite All-Stars Cheerleading and Tumbling in Columbus, IN. She has been married to Nick Hill for 7 years and has a 6 year old daughter Kinley in kindergarten.
UDL in Action
Students in Mrs. Hill's 4th grade learning environment were recently observed during language arts. Students were engaged in individual, partner, small group, and teacher led instruction. The intentional design of Mrs. Hill's learning environment was evidenced by the tools, resources, scaffolding, and choice available to students. Options for representation, action/expression, and engagement were leveraged to support student variability. Whole group instruction was limited to 15-20 minutes and the remainder of language arts instruction was driven by student choice menus.
Goals: Language arts goals were posted and color coded by section: Reading & Comprehension, Vocabulary, Spelling & Word Work, and Writing. (Below)
Student choice menus (below) are intentionally designed. As part of the design, options on the choice menus increase in complexity which provides embedded scaffolding. Students choose the order & set their own goals for how many to complete. These options support choice and autonomy while supporting executive functioning to plan and strategize.
Each choice menu also coordinates with the Language Arts goals.
Student executive functioning was further supported by the design, organization, numbering, and color coding of the resources and supplies associated with the menu options. (below)
Engagement was supported by choice in how to meet the learning goals and self-regulation by providing progress monitoring.
Students were engaged in individual, partner, small group, and teacher led instructional activities. (below)
The learning environment was rich with scaffolds and visual and text elements that support both expert learning and growth mindset. (below)
Students share and explain one of their learning activity. (video above)
Instructional activities were available to students through both technology and low/no technology options for representation of content as well as action/expression and engagement.
Engagement was further supported through student choice for recruiting interest and providing options for self-regulation. Students could be found working and learning in a variety of seating options as well.
Highlighting PBIS:
Positive Behavior Instructional Supports enhances and supports the implementation of UDL. Mrs. Hill's learning environment supported positive behavior and reflection.
Mrs. Hill's learning environment and classroom management further supported student's executive functioning by providing support to be strategic and goal directed while providing autonomy and options to reflect and monitor progress.
Brenny Jarrard- Central Middle School
Social Studies:
My name is Brenny Jarrard and I am a third year teacher in BCSC. I am a Columbus native and former BCSC student myself, having attended Richards Elementary, Central Middle School, and Columbus North High School. I graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington, in May 2015 with a degree in Secondary Social Studies Education. During my student teaching, I returned to Columbus and taught 8th grade United States History at Northside Middle School on the Global Studies team with an amazing mentor teacher, Laurie Martin. Following my student teaching, I filled a long-term substitute teaching position at Northside until the end of the 2015 school year, and began my first teaching position at Columbus North High School during the 2015-2016 school year teaching United States History and Psychology. I then returned to the middle school setting where I have been the past two years, teaching 7th grade social studies at Central Middle School (and absolutely loving it). I am getting married to the love of my life this summer, Tony, and we recently bought our own house in Columbus. In my spare time, I love running, reading, painting, and playing with my crazy pets, Tuna (cat), Mako (Siberian Husky), and Winnie (Rottweiler/Husky mix). I love teaching in BCSC, having fun with my students in the classroom, and helping students realize history is exciting!
UDL in Action -
Students in Miss Jarrard's 7th grade learning environment were recently observed engaging in learning activities on African Kingdoms and a subsequent project Real Estate Project. Upon entering, students were able to access a checklist to support the day's learning and make plans for future upcoming tasks. This scaffold provides an option to support student's executive functioning.
The student center also provided support for students to develop and utilize executive functioning skills while providing options for students to self-regulate and recruit interest as a functioning member of the learning environment. Likewise, resources, scaffolds, and supports were also available to students on itslearning (below).
The day's learning goal was posted, and explicitly referred to throughout the course of instruction and activities. The learning action verb "describe" was highlighted in red to support highlighting critical features and promote higher order thinking (below).
To further support purposeful and goal-directed learning, the "Why's of Today's Goal" was posted and utilized as well (below).
Additionally, students were provided guided support which provided options for sustaining effort and persistence through mastery-oriented feedback. (video below)
A bell ringer review activity was utilized to activate background knowledge and support collaboration, communication, and community. Quizlet, a web-based study application tool, was utilized and engaged students in review of content.
Students worked in small groups on teams during the Quizlet. This provided options for sustaining effort and persistence through challenge and support.
Students were then engaged in large group instruction. Miss Jarrard provided examples of projects as scaffolding for what elements they deemed important for their projects. Students were encouraged to "jot down" what stood out to them. (video below)
Once viewing several options, students shared out in small groups and then takeaways were debriefed and captured for the greater good.
Miss Jarrard then facilitated a large group debrief of their small group share outs.
Miss Jarrard's students then moved to work time on their projects. The learning environment was set up to support expert learning.
An online timer supported strategic and motivated learning by allowing students to manage and monitor progress.
The learning environment further supported expert learning by providing scaffolding and support of vocabulary through text and visual support. Both the day's vocabulary and the ongoing unit vocabulary were prominent in the learning environment.
Students worked individually, with partners, or in small groups on their projects. High tech, low tech, and no tech options were available to support student engagement and provide options for action and expression.
The learning environment was also set up to provide support for effective communication. The cups pictured below allowed students to easily communicate if they needed guided support or assistance. When placed on red, students can easily communicate they need assistance without disruption.
An exit ticket provided students with an opportunity to reflect on their learning and support project management while providing Miss Jarrard with information to support mastery oriented feedback.
You may also contact your building UDL Facilitator or one of the UDL Coordinators for further assistance regarding the implementation of UDL. For more information about the principles and guideline of UDL: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines Click here to register for the 2016 UDL Summer Institute Today!