Karen's Story

Profile

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• Teaching experience: 14 years in special education
• Where: Maine
• Learners served: Students from kindergarten through adulthood. Her background includes eight years of teaching in a self-contained behavioral program for middle school students, preceded by teaching students in pre-school through grade four. Karen also has experience with adult learners with low literacy skills.
• Current role: Karen is Compliance Coordinator at her high school. She notes that this role allows her to support the administration of the special education services in the high school.
• Educational background: Master's Degree in Special Education Administration

How was Karen introduced to Universal Design for Learning?

Karen's professional interests extend beyond her work in the schools, as demonstrated by her 11-year commitment to the Maine Support Network*. Her role, as an Advisor/Regional Coordinator Facilitator for the Network for 8 years, introduced her to the work of CAST. Karen notes that in this role she facilitated a CAST workshop as part of the statewide professional development activities. She states this workshop opened her eyes to new learning opportunities for students with disabilities. Karen quickly realized that the flexibility of digital text has tremendous potential for her students. "This was my first exposure to digital text and the truly wonderful things that one can do with computers, both personally and professionally. I even went out and bought my own computer after that!"

What impact has UDL had in the classroom?

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In discussing the use of digital text with her students, Karen tells a story of her work with a 16-year old student. Her student was reading at the 2nd grade level and was described as extremely resistant to reading. In fact, the student regularly refused to read independently. This pattern changed when Karen introduced him to digital text about one year ago. "…through using [digital text, the student] has come to enjoy reading and is now asking to read independently, without the support of digital text, during study halls when he has no work and other periods of free time, etc. He is currently reading two books: “Everworld: Discover the Destroyer” and “Julie's Wolf Pack,” both of which are written at least the 5th grade level or more."

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It is clear that Karen's repertoire of teaching tools has expanded to include tools that address the diverse needs of her specialized student population. Her success in using digitized text with students with significant reading disabilities supports the principle that students become more engaged when material is presented in a flexible, multi-representational manner.

What steps will Karen take next?

In a recent e-mail, Karen reports that she continues to introduce her students to the power of using text-to-speech to improve reading. In fact, she is currently working with a high-school student who is reading at the 2nd to 3rd grade level and has attention and processing difficulties. Karen hopes that the digital text will be a successful tool to assist this student. Karen promises to keep CAST—and the users of this Web site—posted.

* Since 1986 the Network has provided support and professional development for teachers from all grade levels and areas of specialty. The Network serves educators from all over the state of Maine by providing regionally based activities. (http://www.mainesupportnetwork.org/, March 2, 2000)