My Inclusive Classroom
This summer I was able to teach a Social Entrepreneurship course to middle school students. In attempt to let them harness their own creativity and truly do what they are passionate, the students had a lot of agency to do what they wanted with their individual projects. Students chose their own topics, and the different formats they would present their solutions. With the broad topic of Social Entrepreneurship, students had to identify a topic they were personally passionate about. The projects ranged from things such as Police Brutality, School Shootings, Cyberbullying, Secondhand Smoke, and Mental Illness, many of which the students had personal connections with. Allowing them to select their own topics, allowed them to present to the class a piece of their identify that required some vulnerability to express. Therefore it created a space for openness, learning, and acceptance from both the students, and the teachers.
While I as a teacher gave the students parameters on what the deliverables needed to be, students had free range in decided how they would create their project. This is an example of UDL, and providing a option when it comes to how a student can engage with an assignment and deliver a product of their choice.
Here is an example of a student running with her own idea. Our only instructions were to create a PSA and include statistics. This student did it in a creative way, that also utilized a platform and format that she was already familiar with.
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I hope to continue this aspect of UDL when the school year begins, though I know I may have to think through some things differently as I will be working with 1st graders in the fall, not middle schoolers. Nevertheless, I believe the end products our students were able to come up with, along with the personal connections they brought with them, was an example of how powerful this can be in a classroom working toward inclusivity.