Notes and reflections from Part 3: An overview of support strategies and their underpinning principles

Designing support for neurodiverse classrooms 

What are some of the ways you present values around difference to students?

What explicit messages have you provided students, in terms of direct discussion of a range of different types of diversity? How have you presented neurodiversity? What implicit messages do you send about different ways to learn? In particular, how much flexibility in your expectations are you prepared to offer to students? Can you do this without ‘blinking an eye’? In your school, who supports the neurodiverse students, outside the classroom?

What supports do neurodivergent students in your class(es) use? How many students use them? How have you normalised them? What benefits might making these supports available to all students have?

You might like to experiment with this.  

What do you know about your neurodivergent students’ strengths? How can you discover and build on your students’ strengths through day-to-day conversations as well as learning tasks and assessments? What strategies might you use?

Case Study: Northcote College 

What is the approach that this school takes to learning support? How is this normalised within the school? How do school staff ensure collaboration and teamwork in meeting student needs?

Case Study: Westlake Boys High School 

What is the approach that this school takes to learning support? How is this normalised within the school? How do school staff ensure collaboration and teamwork in meeting student needs?

Case Study 3: Stonefields School

What is the approach that this school takes to learning support? How is this normalised within the school? How do school staff ensure collaboration and teamwork in meeting student needs?

Reflect

How is your school system working to create an inclusive system of learning support for all students? What has worked well in your school? What areas may require change or improvement? Are there school level supports available in your school for the support strategies that you identified in your Class Profile?

The transition to school for new entrants

Strategies and activities to support children in the transition to school:

In what form do you provide information about starting school to children? How accessible is this to neurodivergent children? (For example, how much information is presented visually?). How do you know if it covers everything they and their families want to know?

Similar strategies: Additional stategies:

The transition between years 

Actions before the transition:

Priorities for supporting transitions for Katie:

Think about the classes from whom your students transition into your class (or alternatively, the classes that they transition into after being with you).

Make a list of the processes, language, activities, and environments that are the same or very similar. Make a second list of the aspects that are different and will therefore be unfamiliar. How could you investigate this further?

The transition into secondary learning settings  

The different relationships that students and their families are supported to make with different personnel as part of the transition process:

Consider in what ways the transition process to your school can be flexible to meet the needs of diverse students.   

How much flexibility is there for more visits for some students, if required? How is the transition to a new system of support and the staff that are available to students catered for? How do you assess whether students have had all the transition information they need and sufficient time to get to know key teachers and support staff?

Reflect

What challenges have you noticed that students may have during transition? What support strategies have you found to be effective? How else could you find out about students’ and families’ experience of transition? How might being creative about who supports the transition process in your school enhance opportunities for effective information-sharing and relationship-building?

Notes and reflections from Part 4: Universal Design for Learning

Multiple means of engagement

Strategies used:

What are some of the ways that you currently engage and sustain students’ interest and effort in lessons and learning activities? Which of the strategies from the examples above can you add to your current approach?

You might like to add these to your Class Profile. 

Multiple means of representation 

How will you know which formats for presenting information to students will be useful to them? Useful strategies:

How do you currently present information using a range of modalities to support students to perceive and comprehend it? What are some strategies and approaches that you might try in your practice?

Please add these to the strategies column of your Class Profile. 

Multiple means of action and expression 

How they might these ideas be adapted and applied in your own context?

Are there particular ways that you typically require your students to demonstrate their learning? Do you think there may be alternative approaches that might provide greater opportunity for students to express and communicate their learning in ways that draw on their strengths and interests?

Write some of the methods and approaches you would like to offer in the strategies section of your Class Profile. 

Using technology and assistive technology

The assistive technologies described in this video include:

Have another look at this list. Which of the UDL principles do these technologies support?  

Which are related to multiple means of engagement for supporting curiosity, sustained engagement, and self-regulation?

Which are related to multiple means of representation for supporting perception, understanding of language and symbols, and comprehension?

Which are related to multiple means of action and expression for supporting variation in preferences for physical action, communication, and variation in executive functioning skills?

What kinds of high-tech or low-tech supports do you currenty provide for students’ learning? Are there approaches you have learned about in the course that you think might suit your students?

Add these now to the strategies column of your Class Profile. 

UDL Activity

Options for Engagement	Options for Representation/Input	Options for Action and Expression/Output (and executive functioning supports)