Video Recording Tips and Tools

Review the following resources to help you prepare your files for uploading to the system:

Using the ePortfolio System

Fund of Knowledge

Funds of knowledge. Defined by researchers Luis Moll, Cathy Amanti, Deborah Neff, and Norma Gonzalez “to refer to the historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being” (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992, p. 133). 7 When teachers shed their role of teacher and expert and, instead, take on a new role as learner, they can come to know their students and the families of their students in new and distinct ways. With this new knowledge, they can begin to see that the households of their students contain rich cultural and cognitive resources and that these resources can and should be used in their classroom in order to provide culturally responsive and meaningful lessons that tap students’ prior knowledge. Information that teachers learn about their students in this process is considered the student’s funds of knowledge.

Fund of Knowledge Video with Luis Moll

Resources

Universal Design For Learning/UDL

Universal Design for Learning (UDL):  A set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs. UDL curriculum calls for creating curriculum that provides multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge; multiple means of action and expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know; and multiple means of engagement to tap into learners’ interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn.

Imagine this: Your students are going to write an essay on the stages of butterfly metamorphosis.

Some students have seen butterflies grow through the different stages at a local science museum. These students are excited to share what they know. Other students don’t know anything about butterflies and are nervous to write about the topic. And some students don’t like to write—they dread this activity from the moment you say “essay.”

In any class, you know there’s a wide range of enthusiasm, background, and skills among your students. When you plan with this range in mind, you could approach the lesson in several ways.

You could share a mini-lesson on butterfly metamorphosis and have students use a guided worksheet as they write. Or you could set up stations where students are grouped using flexible grouping around understanding of the topic, language ability, or reading level.

But take a step back. In any lesson or task, you can anticipate this range of variability among your students. There’s another approach you can take to plan for this variability in all your lessons: Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Why Use Universal Design for Learning?

The ultimate goal of UDL is for all learners to become “expert learners.” Expert learners are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal-directed about learning.

UDL focuses on three key principles:

  • Principle 1: Provide multiple means of representation (the what of learning)
  • Principle 2: Provide multiple means of action and expression (the how of learning)
  • Principle 3: Provide multiple means of engagement (the why of learning

Read the short article  and reflect on how you will use UDL in your class?

Watch a Video: UDL in Action

 

 

Welcome!

Welcome to your brand new TPA blog !

Today you will work on a station with key resources regarding TPA. As a group you will then create a resource, a podcast, a video, a handout that you will share on this blog.

 

Ready?

Go?