Support the development and enrichment of the vocabulary of all its students without having to adapt for those with a learning disability: it is possible, according to Madeleine Fauteux and Pascale Campeau, and it is even beneficial for the teacher (e). Focus on Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
interview: Stéphanie Dionne
text: Audrey Miller
As facilitators at CréaCamp axed on inclusive education, which took place in April 2019, Pascale Campeau, trainer at Druide informatique, and Madeleine Fauteux, orthopedagogue and educational consultant, offered the participants of their workshop various ideas for developing a comprehensive planning in connection with support for development and vocabulary enrichment.
For Madeleine Fauteux, what is difficult about inclusion is finding reasonable and meaningful challenges for each of the students. In doing so, the teacher can make an overall planning for his class, without having to prepare a series of adaptations. According to her, it can make a major difference for the teacher, even allow him "to save his skin". This is why she strongly recommends favoring vocabulary development strategies that align with the Universal Design of Learning (UDL).
An example: the evolving digital lexicon
As Pascale Campeau explains, during their day at CréaCamp, they worked to integrate different tools with their participants, including a more in-depth discovery of the Antidote software. Indeed, beyond its dictionary of definitions, it recalls that 8 others are within the reach of users to meet different needs.
Madeleine Fauteux gives an example: students with special needs, just like others, can derive many benefits from building up an evolving lexicon. From the words in this lexicon, which they enrich over time, they can write sentences, find pictures to illustrate them, then develop their sentences, etc. The teacher can then use it regularly to help the students integrate and consolidate the new learning. In addition, when built using digital tools such as a simple Google Docs document, all this baggage can easily follow the learner in the event of a change of school, for example.
The pride of seeing young people succeed
Thanks to all this, the pride in seeing all the students succeed in enriching a text, proudly presenting it to their teacher, reading it and having others read it, is what constitutes a great source of inspiration and motivation for our two facilitators. Moreover, Madeleine Fauteux deplores that the tools available to young people, such as Antidote, are unknown and sometimes poorly understood in the community.
Listen to the interview to find out more! To contact Pascale Campeau to find out more about the training offered by Druide informatique on the Antidote software.
Also: Teachers in Quebec and French-speaking Canada benefit from CADRE21's free online training on Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
