CA UDL Summit

Session Resources

Participants will be able to:
1. Understand the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and how they can be applied to create flexible, inclusive learning environments for diverse students.

2. Explore strategies for using science content as a tool to implement UDL, with a focus on building background knowledge, inquiry-based learning, and hands-on activities.

3. Design science lessons that incorporate UDL principles, ensuring multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement to meet the needs of all learners.

In this session, we’ll review systems that ensure all students master foundational skills regardless of their grade level by focusing on instructional practices and responsive decision-making through a science of reading lens. While the science of reading tells us what is essential for building a reader, the science of learning tells us the conditions that are necessary for learning to thrive and last. Professional readings and discussions will ground the session as well as lesson and video analysis to connect the research to practice. Come to learn more about how combining the science of learning with the science of reading has the potential to meet the needs of the whole child and support the development of independent learners.

Learn the theory and practice of K12 data analysis in this hands-on workshop. Educators will gain tools and strategies to collect, analyze, and use data effectively, align efforts aligned with the annual school calendar, and apply continuous improvement models. Through activities and discussions, attendees will explore how to turn data into actionable insights, monitor progress, and make informed decisions to enhance teaching, learning, and school climate. This session offers practical techniques and templates to refine progress monitoring systems and inspire meaningful change.
Session Resources

The session will begin with an overview of Cognitive Schema, how it relates to making mental models of the world.  It will then flow into it's implications for Education most specifically related to prior knowledge and learning as connected to meaning making.  We'll then engage in an activity that will model a humanities/history lesson that can be expanded/contracted for any age/grade level.  Finally a conversation about how to utilize the activity to develop themes will be encouraged.

Session Resources

Teaching and leading for critical digital media literacy now includes cultivating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) literacy to decipher fact from misinformation and disinformation, identifying those perpetuated by bots, countering messages and systems that reinforce stereotypes and harm, and exploring new ways of learning. Preparing youth for democracy with civic engagement strategies include creating digital media content as part of project based learning (PBL), universal design for learning (UDL), culturally relevant and critical digital pedagogy. How might we facilitate learning in which youth reimagine and create the future?

In this session, education leaders will cultivate critical digital leadership with UDL to counter oppression and co-design systems that are responsive to learner variability and the rapidly changing contexts of digital media and generative AI. Critical digital leadership leads to learning that critically interrogates power, representation, agency, digital media, and technologies by decoding, meaning-making, analyzing, persona (exploring identity), and using digital tools for critical digital consumption, production, distribution, and invention. Example lessons and supporting resources will be provided.