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00:00:02

Welcome everyone, thank you for joining us and being here with us today. A great privilege to have been invited and it's going to be a hard act to follow after Louis and Alison to talk about UDL. But my perspective is a little different because I am ELT based, I teach at various levels.

I have been for the last probably 30 something years and so I'm quite happy to be able to share my ideas and how I came into UDL myself. For those of you who don't know me very well, I come from Poland. I'm based in Łódź, which is not far from the capital city Warsaw.

00:00:45

I teach here at the university. My background is indeed in language teaching but also psychology and management. So I kind of look at teaching from sometimes different points of view really and thinking about how I can apply various philosophies of management to what I do in class.

I think UDL is also to a large extent about managing our students and ourselves in the classroom, our materials etc. So this is where I come from. My huge passion in my teaching life is actually small adjustments for big impact.

Like you, I understand we're all very, very busy teachers. We have a lot on our plate and what we need is sometimes like tweaks that we can just sort of implement and introduce to be able to move our students forward, to encourage students to instil some confidence in what they do. But not necessarily perhaps work harder and harder.

That's not why I'm here.

00:01:54

Part of my philosophy is think big and start small here, which as you probably can imagine is something connected with finding yourself a philosophy that you want to follow, something that you believe in. Like I started believing in UDL a few years back, actually probably about 10, but actually starting small.

So there's a big concept like UDL, but you decide to implement different ideas step by step so you don't start huge. And this is actually very important because over the last 10 years I have accumulated a lot of various ideas. They have actually created or contributed to my new, totally new mindset.

00:02:47

So the way I think about teaching before every single lesson, I plan it, I design it totally differently. But what helped me was following those small steps basically. Yes, this is how I started.

So a big idea, but starting small with, as I think Alison said, just activity by activity and seeing how things work. Yes. And what you can adjust and how you can basically learn.

00:03:13

So this is my philosophy. One of the reasons why I actually took to UDL so quickly. Okay.

You will see here, I'm sharing this not with many people, but this is a photo of my kids, my son and my daughter. And one of the reasons, this is my personal story for changing the way I teach, was actually her. Her name is Olivia.

When she went to school at the age of six, we all thought she was ready for school and she could just be a good student and enjoy education and everything. And it turned out that she needed sort of like a different treatment. And every time

00:03:54

she went to school, she would come back crying or frustrated.

And obviously with grades that didn't match her expectations or her ambitions, et cetera. And we were told that she's just slow. She can't learn.

She's different. She's this and that. At the same time, she developed a passion for dancing.

And I quickly connected the fact that she needs to move when she learns. So I used to go to school and tell teachers, come on, allow her to move about, to present stuff, to do stuff orally rather than in written form. But there was always,

00:04:33

no, no, no, no, no, no, it's impossible.

And I think this struck me as cruel, to be honest. And I thought, okay, if my daughter is like this, is it possible that I also treat my students like my daughter was being treated? And this actually struck me and I thought, perhaps in my class, there are students who actually need different treatment. So this is how I started experimenting because I'm an experimenter.

Then I came across various philosophies and UDL actually, I fell in love with, not because as Alison says, it singles out students or it favours students, it's because it allows you this kind of seamless lesson design where you plan for basically for everyone, including the students who potentially may

00:05:25

have a problem. However, the students with that potential problem don't actually notice the fact that you've changed the lesson or the lesson design because of them. It's seamless.

It's kind of invisible. And this is what I love about UDL. It's just how invisible the planning can be.

Nobody notices that this was done for a particular student with a particular issue of any kind. So I love that. And I think it was my daughter who actually made me change.

00:05:56

And this is wonderful. My son was different. He didn't need that kind of stuff.

He likes books, likes reading, taking notes. He can be sort of stationary for hours and he's not bothered. My daughter was.

And then you suddenly notice you have lots of Olivia's like this around. And how do you account for that? So, yeah. Then I started thinking, I don't know if you know this,

00:06:19

it's a wonderful site called Harvard Project Zero.

It's like a site where you can enter, it's for free. And it has lots of thinking routines. Are you familiar with this site? Probably a lot of you are, as you are experienced teachers, I gather.

One of the thinking routines, which I often apply to myself, but also use it in the classroom, is called the three whys. And it consists, as you can see, of three questions. Why might this something matter to me, matter to people around me and why possibly it might matter to the world? And when I think about UDL, the way I started this, as I said, is because of my daughter, but also really for selfish reasons.

Don't tell anyone that.

00:07:15

But ever since I started, I felt more confident as a teacher because my students are more engaged, because there is less disruption, because we get on better. So, it's really for selfish reasons to make myself feel better in the classroom and perhaps find fewer obstacles to reach the students because UDL is about teach to reach as many as possible.

So, then you end up less frustrated and stressed out as a teacher because you see that what you do actually resonates with your learners. So, that's beautiful. So, it matters to me because it helps me teach,

00:07:53

makes my life easier, actually.

It matters to my students and people around me, obviously, because they learn better as a result. They become better people. They become a more cohesive group because there's a lot of trust among the students and trust between me and the students.

And it matters to the world because I think we're creating better people. And I often feel that I'm on a mission and this mission is to make as many people as I can happier, better, more prepared for life. So, yes, UDL does help a lot with that.

00:08:32

Okay, guys, because this session is rather on the short side, I have decided to focus on some aspects of UDL, which I consider probably the most important from my point of view. And one of them is engagement. It's a huge word these days, isn't it? Engagement.

00:08:52

It's, you know, everything is about engagement. Apparently, about 70% of people at work, I'm talking about this, at work are not engaged. In fact, disengaged from what they do.

So, it's terrible, the fact that we cannot feel engaged. And I think the same happens at school, or perhaps even starts at school, where we learn to be disengaged. So, engagement is crucial.

And I believe that engagement is not about keeping students busy. Engagement is so much more than just keeping them busy throughout the lesson. It's about the emotional, cognitive

00:09:29

engagement, the way people feel social engagement.

And I also believe that if you don't provide this social, cognitive and emotional engagement, then no matter what you do, it's not going to actually probably work on a deep level. Then what matters to me hugely is voice and choice with students have this agency, I think that the ladies before me mentioned, where students have some choice over what happens in class, they can express themselves and share themselves, it's fundamental. And obviously, all of this kind of leads to empathy, how we treat students in class.

00:10:09

I don't know which of these is the most important to you, but I guess, like me, probably, all of them. There are some other ideas, as you can see in the word cloud on the left, you probably would add your own ideas to that variability was mentioned a lot, but I've decided to focus on these three, to a large extent. Okay, so let's move on.

Okay.

00:10:40

Let's go back to this thing, big and start small. And actually, literally small and literally.

Yes, when kids are kids. Now, Macmillan have this wonderful course book for kids, as you can see, called share, which is a beautiful title, connected with our sharing culture. And it's wonderful how from very early age, have a look at the pages on types of exercises, students can learn to, to share their passions, share themselves, compare their cultures, learn how to feel tolerant of other people, how to become more, perhaps, inviting how to actually

00:11:21

promote inclusion, inclusivity among young learners, the earlier we start, probably the better to help students actually become better people and better learners as well.

Yeah. So developing this inclusive mindset as early as possible, is actually quite a good idea, I think, to start with. Yeah.

So have a look, look it up. It's a great book, if you teach youngsters. Okay, guys, let's move on here a little.

One of the things that I learned from UDL is that you

00:11:55

have to pause, you have to find time to pause. Pause means find moments in the lesson during the lesson, where you actually stop focussing on the curriculum, you stop focussing on the language itself, you actually help your students become either better learners, better people or a better group. So I've learned that.

And it's been very helpful. Throughout the lesson, which I always treat as a bit of a journey, like a road trip, I always pause. So if I have lessons with last 45 minutes, I pause about twice, perhaps, if a lesson is 90 minutes, which happens, I pause

00:12:35

four times.

And I tell you what I pause for, because that's quite crucial. Okay. I pause to allow students to tell me how they feel, which I'm sure you do as well, right? It's something that teachers tend to do a lot.

I figured out that

00:12:53

advancing learning doesn't happen easy, because if you want to advance learning, you have to remove barriers. And a lot of these barriers are actually not in the learner. It's because the teacher perhaps did not address a certain issue.

One of them is actually feelings. How do you feel as a learner? I often do this with my students. There are plenty of these examples on the internet where you see funny faces.

So which one are you

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today? You can put in the chat box how you feel. I'm quite excited about this event. I'm, you know, meeting people, learning, contributing as well, hopefully.

So I don't know, I think I'll go for eight. I don't know what your number would be. I can see you can put it in the chat box.

And I tell you a little story. This was about three years ago or so. I was teaching present perfect to my students.

And there was this one student who was not kind of following, totally unfocused. And she kept texting someone under the desk. And she didn't look very happy.

00:14:04

So I said, Oh, please. How can I help you to focus a bit more on the lesson? And she sort of yelled at me. And she said, How do you expect me to focus on the lesson? My boyfriend has just broken up with me.

And then I looked at her and I felt so sorry. And I said, Well, the same happened to me when I was 15. I said, Oh, really? She said, It feels so horrible.

So unless these feelings are addressed, and the teacher understands the youngster, yes, the young person, then there's no learning happening. So now I tend to ask students every single lesson showing them different photos of different animals, faces of people, etc. To tell me how they feel.

And sometimes you can you can see that, you know, there's a couple of students, most students will feel frustrated, upset and sad.

00:14:55

And as a result, I will adjust what I do in the classroom. As well, perhaps ask them fewer questions.

Yes, just accommodate for that. Another thing that I tend to do very often is pause for those brain breaks. I understand that a lot of you do the same.

That you realise that halfway through the lessons, your students are not perhaps the strongest or the most conscious anymore, because there has been so much material, so they're kind of, you know, wilting, and they need some brain break. Again,

00:15:31

there are plenty of things available on online, you can copy stuff, it's, you know, usually free of charge, and you can use them, no problem. You can use online dice, or you can use dice, like whatever you have in the classroom.

This is my favourite red dice. Okay, where students throw twice, and they choose the type of activity that they can do to actually to relax, perhaps to feel a little better, basically. So I'm going to throw this for you.

Okay, and then we're going to

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have something. Okay, six is I'm lucky, aren't I? Six is, you can see that six. Okay.

The other number is five. I'm not cheating, six and five. So five and six, if we look at the what we have to do, perhaps is we have to take 10 deep breaths.

Are you prepared for this? So 123, you can take 10 deep breaths, you can maybe stand up if you want, and do this activity. Yeah, there are some other ones, you can make some circles, you can spin around, you can dance, etc. But this is just it takes you about a minute to actually set up and when you design your

00:16:50

lessons, this is what I do.

This is part of my DNA. Now kind of a mindset that has to be a couple of brain breaks during the class, no matter what, because it helps my students focus. Yes.

And focus is something that everybody needs, not just students who are new or divergent. Everyone these days needs to focus basically. I look for inspiration on on social media as well.

Plenty of ideas of Instagram. If you teach younger kids, you can find cards like these where students have both words and visuals, which is very important for a lot of students to to have this backup. So you can find cards and students can draw cards of their own perhaps or choose which card they want

00:17:36

to follow.

Sticks are fantastic. You can ask students to write their own ideas on those sticks. And as you come to the point where you know your students need that brain break, why don't you pull out your mouth full of of those sticks and students can choose what they actually want to do.

00:17:58

So that's brilliant. But talking about choice and voice, voice and choice, why don't you ask your students to come up with their own ideas for brain breaks? That's that that word for me still does. We collect over the first month or so ideas for brain breaks.

So these are ideas that my students have come up with and I use them. I don't use the ideas that I found online. We use ideas that our students have found.

Yes. So so this is, again, allowing your students to to have some some some choice, some agency over what's happening to them in the classroom. So I like that.

And it's and it's

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good. It does help. OK.

Another thing is here, another type of pause that I learn or I have learned to apply as I teach on my journey actually is to ask students about themselves and allow for this, as I mentioned before, with this Macmillan new coursebook where students share themselves. It's crucial because how can you understand inclusion? How can you possibly like another person in class if you don't know anything about them? It's simply impossible. So so UDL, I think, stresses that need for removing those social barriers, yes, as well as architectural, technical barriers, et cetera.

One of my favourite activities that I get my students to do, actually, no matter

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what age I teach, this looks kind of kiddy like, but actually I worked with adults as well. It's they, you know, like some students design their own planet. I found this on Instagram again.

But I kind of, as you can see, some ideas here on the right, how this might look. And the students complete this. They can write it down if they like writing things down.

They can just say it in their heads before they share it. Not everyone has to write things down. Some students are better thinking rather than writing things down.

So allow that choice. And when they're ready,

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either sort of in their heads or on paper, they can share their planets and see if they could possibly visit each other, et cetera. So, yeah, it's, you know, allow this to happen.

Another thing is you might be surprised by this photo, but I want students to tell me who they are and what they stand for, what their values are. So I want them to bring from home, if possible, or take a object which could be about them. So this is me, my wonderful glasses, my mouse and a glass of water.

So I ask the students, why do you think these objects are me or are about me? So students guess they have an example, they can go home, take a photograph of something like this, bring it

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to classroom and then share. Now, this was taken a few years ago. Today, I would have a different one.

I would, I don't know if you can see that, my hummingbird, my key ring. So this would be part of my photograph these days. I also have my face powder that I love.

So it would be there. I just don't know if you can see that very well. And recently, I went to a Chris Botti concert.

He came to Poland. So this is a ticket. And I don't know if you can see that face, but this would be my collage of photos for now.

This is what I want now. And this is what's important to me.

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And of course, in class, students explain things and talk.

And it's just great to create, to foster this inclusivity in the classroom. People become accessible to each other. That's important.

00:22:07

Obviously, any kind of Venn diagrams, the students compare ideas, their interests and find what's, you know, what's in common. Again, this could be visual, could be, if they don't want to draw, they can just share their ideas and talk through. But look for what they have in common.

That's actually crucial for you. They are looking for this, you know, what we share, guys, we are humans. Yes, we have a lot in common.

Okay, a voice and choice to carry on. Most of our lessons, I believe, across the world, consist of some revision activity at the beginning, then you introduce some new language, could be vocabulary or grammar. And then at some point,

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you ask your students to show understanding and there is some assessment.

This is kind of my assumption that this is what happens across the world, sometimes perhaps in different order, but it's what happens. So let's start with a revision a little. Before UDL, like probably most of you, beginning of your career, you would walk into the classroom and just prepare one little activity to revise the language from the past, from the past class.

For me, this is not the case anymore.

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These days, I allow for variability for the fact that some students would rather revise the language orally, some other people might like some technology, some other people might want to show or draw or something. So I have come up with this idea, perhaps you have as well, so shout, called revision teams.

And please allow for a team of one, because sometimes students prefer to revise stuff on their own, that's also okay. So I teach students at various levels, from teenagers to adults, various levels. This one is quite a high level, as you can see, vocabulary.

So this

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is what we covered two weeks ago, a lot of different collocations. And the next lesson, I thought, okay, I need to revise the vocabulary. So I divide students into teams.

And teams would be like this, there's team acronyms. So on the board, the students will see acronyms like B, A, P, M, D, F. Yeah, and they stand for the phrases that we practised the lesson before. So like burning ambition, primary motivation, yes, dismal failure, etc.

So they will see this, and they can choose this activity. If they like acronyms, not everybody will. Another poster on the wall will be matching activities, matching activity where students have to match the adjective with the noun.

Okay. Another activity will be divided into positive and negative categories. Team translated, a lot of my students like translating into their native

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tongue, mother tongue.

So that's a good one. Team talk, some of them may want to look at the words and just test each other, perhaps read out the words, pronounce the words, see if they understand what the words mean. And finally, if students like technology, and most of them do, if they can use mobile phones in their classrooms, because there are different regulations in different schools, I will share a QR code with my students.

This is a QR code, which if you want, you can copy. It's an activity where students have to decide if certain expressions are a pair, so like a correct collocation or incorrect collocation. So there's the choice.

And it doesn't take me long actually to prepare these activities. It's just, as I said, part of my DNA

00:25:56

now. It's just wonderful because everyone is engaged.

Everyone chooses how they want to revise the vocabulary. I'm there in the classroom. Sometimes it's a bit messy, perhaps sometimes maybe a bit louder, but this is part of what happens and they love it.

And they can see that they've been given some choices. It's just wonderful, really. Wonderful to see.

So yes, revision teams is fantastic. I'm sure you know this and that ideas. Again, the one on the left

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is founded online.

The one on the right is chatGPT generated based on the words that we covered in class. It was about travelling. This is a much lower level, as you can judge by the vocabulary level.

And you get the students to share ideas. Yes. Would they prefer an island getaway or a city break? I'm sure you know this.

It's a very nice interactive activity where students can again share themselves and their preferences. However, what works better is very often when you get the students to come up with their own this or that. Yes.

So you covered some vocabulary connected with travelling and the students then again choose their own categories to express preferences. So again, the more choice, the better. OK, guys, when it comes to new language and vocabulary or grammar, it's often tricky because we all learn in different ways.

00:27:37

As the ladies before me said, our brains are different, like the shoes that Alison mentioned. And it is the case that some students need glossaries to understand. Some students need, in my case, Polish translations.

It helps them a lot. There used to be this ban on translation. Don't translate because you're going to harm the students and all this.

It's a lot of nonsense. If they want the word translated, translate it. If it helps them remember or understand the exact meaning of the word, I see no harm in this.

So it's always tricky, as some people like photos, pictures. So sometimes it's difficult. Again, imagine this.

00:28:21

That I want the students to learn these expressions. So I explain as much as possible. We translate if necessary.

Perhaps we use them in some kind of sentences. We try to pronounce the words. A lot of them will be difficult for Polish learners.

I understand. But where you come from, it's going to be exactly the same. And then what I do and I do this very often and perhaps actually again design for it every time in my class is to actually pause again.

So you teach

00:28:56

the words and you pause. I used to play basketball when I was young and there was always this, you know, the coach would pause if we were not doing very well or he wanted to make sure we can do better. So just pause.

So again, pausing is what I emphasise a lot. So again, you teach the vocabulary and you pause because you want to see if your students have actually followed and understood you. I'm sure you're familiar with formative assessment, guys.

This is something that's been around for a long, long time. And formative assessment taught me lots of things, among others, those traffic lights system. Are you familiar with this, that when students

00:29:44

understand the concept, vocabulary, grammar, they show you the green light like a piece of paper, which is green.

When they're not sure they need some more explanation, they show you the yellow circle or the yellow piece of paper that you have to have in the classroom for the students to, to be able to use, and if students don't follow or really have trouble understanding.

Uh, they show you the red light there, so… so then you can approach individual students and perhaps, um, explain a bit more, or pair them up, and get them in pairs to… to explain stuff, so I like that a lot, because it's… it's, again, pausing, and not rushing straight into an activity, an exercise. Okay, vocabulary, too, use it in a sentence.

For me, it doesn't work. It causes chaos, and… confusion and a lot of students simply switch off because they don't understand how to proceed. Um, I am sure, uh, you are familiar with choice boards.

Because they are essential to UDL, um… Where you offer students, um, again, a number of choices of how they can possibly remember the vocabulary.

00:30: 52

Um, in this case, and this is the one I found online, um… It was free, you can use it. Um, and again, I want my students to be able to, uh, come up with their own ideas. of how to study words. Some students have excellent ideas of how they want to revise words, how they, uh, actually, um, write the words down.

In the notebook, some students like lists. That would be my son. My daughter would probably go for a Words Written diagonally across the page. She would draw something, etc. So when I introduce new words. I can give students the choice of, you know, right, say the words in alphabetical order, yeah? If they don't want to write.

Let them say, right or say words in silly sentences, etc, yeah?

Okay, then you have write 6 words

00:31:47

using the wrong hand.

This is about writing. Um, because you want to give your students the choice. Not just rights. You might say, say, hmm? But you cannot say things using the wrong hand, can you? So perhaps you want to say, okay, say 6 words you've just learned, or expressions, collocations. Slowly, yeah? Or say them fast. to your partner, to yourself, uh, doesn't matter, yeah?

Write forwards, backwards, hmm? Okay, why not? Say them backwards. If students prefer to draw, if it's possible to draw or show. Let them do it. Let them do it. So let them choose the way they want to respond to the language you've just taught. It's, to me, fundamental, and as I said, it's just… I cannot possibly do it in any other way. Actually, these days, so that's… that's how I work.

00:32:43

Okay, once students have studied the vocabulary, I often get them to, um, to, um, look at these questions, so students look at the questions, and they can ask each other, you know, the questions, how, um, how they understand the words, or what something means, can you use this one in a sentence, can you translate, etc.

This, again, helps students to… to understand the vocabulary before they have to go into the task, yeah? So allow for that, allow for this space. If you teach grammar, I often ask students to come up with questions related to

00:33:21

special points, uh, when it comes to particular, uh, grammar section, so we studied conditionals, as you can see, and I asked the students, okay, think of something that is hard for you to understand. And get the students to write questions. What is special about Unless? what comes after but fall, etc. So these are students' questions that they came up with that's helped them in their heads,

00:33:46

understand the problem that they had, and then the questions are swapped, students pick a question and try to.

Um, so this is actually very good. And finally, guys, showing understanding and assessment, which is, um… Again, essential in what we do. Again, my daughter wanted to do presentations, posters, anything but written tests.

Um, and I learned that, and these days, when I want to assess what students know, when I want them to show understanding, there's this choice, either write.

00:34:16

tell a story, tell me about it, record it, it would be like a poet, um, like a podcast, like a voice message, if you want make a presentation, make a poster, as much as possible, obviously you know, show how you understand the concept in your own way. Um, and it works for me, guys.

Finally, I like this idea of peer testing. My students have this at the back of the notebooks.

Where there's three columns. this page, page 10, because that's what we've done so far, 10 pages.

Um, the name of the person who is testing, and the points. So imagine that every student, every lesson, is tested by his

00:34:59

Pia. So, we choose what we're going to test each other on.

Okay, so let's say there's a student called, I don't know, Mark.

Mark is going to be tested by Antec. And Mark scored 8 out of 10 points for this test. So every lesson begins with a little peer test, where students see, okay, this is the vocabulary, see how much you remember, you test each other, you write the score.

And they love this, because it's more of an exercise than a real test.

00:35:29

But if it's done regularly, it does help students, you know, like, you know, okay, I'll prepare for the beginning of the class because I'll be tested by, by my friend, so it's, um… It's a good way. It helps, you know, students actually get to know each other as well, and feel part of the classroom. Okay, guys, I don't know if you know this, this is the last one of the couple of slides, a site called Never Stop Learning.

Um, it's a great site. Because it has something that can be editable, and I show you what I mean.

There's this role at plenary grid. You'll find that on that site, um, it is editable, which means that, again, if your students have ideas, and you have ideas that are not there, you can easily edit

00:36:17

this grid, and it helps students to sort of wrap up the lesson. At the end, again, you pause, you ask them, you know, how they felt about the lesson, what they've learned, etc. This, uh, promotes and fosters, really, cooperation, but also reflection. Which, again, is important and helps you as well to, to figure out where your students are, and what else you can do in your future designs. Okay, guys, um, so pausing, pausing, pausing. Let's… that's important. Pause for the right things, yes? That's, um… quite crucial to, um.

00:36:51

For that. Okay, once again, think big, start small.

But make… make sure that you do so.