Recently, work has kept me away from my Google Reader, so this weekend I’m catching up with the blogs I subscribe to.  I’ve just read something that I wish every educator and parent of school age children would read.  So, even if you read no further in this post, please go directly to The Perfect Storm by Lisa Parisi and read what she has to say.

Lisa has summarized very well much of what I have come to believe about effective education.   Lisa and her teaching partner Christine Southard approach learning in a way that facilitates success by every learner in the classroom, no matter what an individual class member’s learning needs may be.

In a more recent post, Lisa says something else that I’ve come to believe:  “…every child has special needs.”  So, in Lisa and Christine’s classroom, supports and tools are made available to all learners. This is key; and it accomplishes two important objectives.  First, learners who require tools feel less centered out when other classmates are using the same tools.  Secondly, and of even more significance, this encourages children to take ownership of their learning.  Learners have the opportunity to try learning support tools and then adopt them if they find them helpful.

Lisa and Christine intentionally encourage learners to take ownership of their learning in other ways as well.  When an individual takes ownership for his/or her learning, it can only result in increased engagement and much greater success. Almost all teachers would like to see more engaged and successful learners in their classrooms, but for too many this remains an unattainable ideal because too many learning needs are not  even being addressed.

Please read what Lisa has to say about UDL (universal design for learning) PBL (project based learning) and about providing supports that enable ALL learners in a classroom to be successful.