This document contains a lesson plan for a 1st grade social studies unit on symbols, people and practices important to American democracy. It identifies students in the class with various disabilities and learning challenges. The lesson involves reading about Abraham Lincoln, examining a penny with his image, and discussing American landmarks/symbols. The document outlines challenges these instructional methods pose and provides Universal Design for Learning solutions like multiple means of presentation, engagement and expression. These include reading options, graphic organizers, videos, pictures and using Audacity for recording. The teacher will share these inclusive resources with colleagues.

1. Beena Raichura
UDL SA85 Final Assignment
October 2013
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Universal Design for Learning – SA-85 Final Assignment Packet
Statue ofLiberty- http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-o/2928233768/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Lincoln Memorial - http://www.flickr.com/photos/22240293@N05/3907649735/
BaldEagle - http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkadog/3683073458/
Martin Luther King - http://www.flickr.com/photos/caboindex/1183155006/
Practices, Symbols, People

2. Beena Raichura
UDL SA85 Final Assignment
October 2013
2
Montgomery County Public Schools
Rockville, Maryland
Subject: Social Studies
Grade: 1
Contributors
Beena Raichura
Debra Lea
In this Social Studies unit students will identify and describe people, symbols, and practices important to democratic principles associated with the
United States of America. By identifying and describing symbols and practices students discover important democratic principles associated with the
United States of America.
Indicators:
Political Science (Social Studies)
Identify and discuss the meaning of symbols and practices associated with the United States of America.
 Identify and discuss the meaning of common symbols associated with the United States of America, such as bald eagle, White House, and
the Statue of Liberty.
 Describe how actions, such as pledging allegiance to the American flag and singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America” are
associated with being a citizen.
Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions:
American democracy is shaped by individuals past and present and can be seen in its symbols and practices.
 What do symbols and practices tell us about American democracy?
 How have people in the past and present contributed to America?

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UDL SA85 Final Assignment
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UDL Classroom Solutions – Step 1 - Student Profiles
Date: 10/10/13
Teacher: Ms Debra Lea and Ms Beena Raichura
Grade: Grade 1
School: Germantown ES
Student Names Student disabilities or learning barriers Challenges for these students when listening, reading, writing
or speaking
Rodrigue Specific Learning Disability Difficulty retrieving information, organizing thoughts and ideas
Difficulty with spellings
Difficulty with fine motor skills
Oliver Specific Learning Disability
English Language Learner
Speech impairments
Limited background knowledge
Struggles with grade level reading and comprehension
Poor spellings
Shy, can’t speak before the class
Santana Autism/ Asperger’s Difficulty with spellings
Reluctant writer
Poor handwriting
Difficulty with fine motor skills secondary to hand tremors.
Difficulty organizing thoughts and ideas and adding details in
written form.
Dylan Specific Learning Disability Easily distracted
Trouble sustaining attention for long periods of time
Difficulty adding details
Difficulty writing a well formed paragraph
Daniel Autism Trouble following multiple step directions
Struggles with abstract information
Poor background knowledge
Nate Autism Cannot keep pace with grade level text,
Struggles with spelling and is reluctant to write

4. Beena Raichura
UDL SA85 Final Assignment
October 2013
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UDL Classroom Solutions – Step 3 – Lesson Planning with UDL Solutions
Lesson teaching
methods and
materials
Challenges that these
instructional methods
and materials present to
some students
UDL Solutions
Flexible options for student
engagement Flexible methods ofpresentation
Flexible methods of expression
and active learning
Teacher will read a
book about
Abraham Lincoln
to the students.
Then she will
discuss about
leaders with the
students. She will
discuss why they
are honored and
what their
contributions are to
America.
Students will then
be provided with a
penny to examine;
to see who is on it
and why his picture
is on the penny.
Next students will
watch a video on
Discovery
Education about
famous American
Landmarks and
symbols.
Each table group
Students that have tactile
defensiveness are not able
to touch and examine the
penny.
Students that have
difficulty expressing
themselves and speaking
in front of their
classmates will not be able
to speak before the class
to show what they have
learned about Abraham
Lincoln, his contributions
and about the other
landmarks and symbols
and present the symbol
they design on their flag.
Students that struggle
with writing, handwriting
and spellings will have
difficulty writing about
the symbol they design.
Students that have poor
attention will struggle
with all of the above tasks.
Teacher reads a book to the
students. To develop the concept
of what is a symbol.
Students read a book
independently during center time.
The teacher provides students
options to listen to a book.
She also provides students choices
of several reading level books to
choose from for independent
reading.
Teacher also sets up the
computers in the class (there are 4
computers in the class) with a
PowerPoint presentation she has
created about the symbols of the
United States of America. The
students that struggle with
reading will listen to the text on
the PowerPoint using “Natural
Reader”.
The teacher also uses her
computer lab time to have
students read the E-Text she has
created using the “Natural
The class is asked to design a flag
with a symbol on it that is
important to them.
Students that have fine motor
issues are given the option to use
programs like Paint or Pixie to
design their flags.
Students are also given the option
to use markers and colored pencils
to design their flags.
After designing the flag, students
have to write why they chose that
symbol for the flag and present
their flag and the reason to the
class.
Students had to select an animal
as a symbol for their class and
write an opinion about why they
selected that animal for their class.
Students are given the choice to
use Clicker word banks or paper
and pencil and a template to write.
To present students were given a
choice to stand in front of the class
and present or use “Audacity” to
There are students in this class
that have trouble with attending,
focusing, speaking before the
classmates and writing. They
struggle with writing legibly and
with spellings. In order to address
all the above issues, after the
students had designed their flag,
the teacher had some students
write a sentence or two about why
they chose that symbol.
She also set up the computers in
her classroom with Audacity and
a microphone and students that
couldn’t write or were tongue tied
when they had to speak before
their classmates were given the
option of using the computer and
microphone to record why they
chose the symbol.
She had each student say their
name and then record 1-2
sentences about why they chose
that symbol.

5. Beena Raichura
UDL SA85 Final Assignment
October 2013
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will have a picture
of an American
landmark or
symbol on their
table (American
Flag, Liberty Bell,
Statue of Liberty or
The bald Eagle).
Students will
examine the picture
of a famous
American symbol
with their table
mates and then
share it with the
class.
As they share, the
teacher will chart
the facts about the
US symbols.
Reader” program to reinforce the
learning.
She also
provides students with a graphic
organizer made on Inspiration
with hyperlinks to a website.
When students are in the
computer lab, they work in pairs
to read the information on the
website and answer questions
pertaining to the landmark and
what it symbolizes. Each pair of
students works on a different
landmark.
She provides them with a real
penny to touch, feel and examine
to see Abraham Lincoln’s picture
on it.
Next she shows them a video and
uses the jigsawmethod of
teaching. She pauses the video and
points out facts she wants students
to remember. She doesn’t show
the video all at one time.
She provides students with
pictures of the symbols and
landmarks shown on the video on
their desks and asks them to
discuss the facts with their table
mates. Each table gets a picture of
one landmark/symbol.
Then she asks them to share it
with the whole class and she
charts the facts on the easel.
create a podcast to present.

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UDL SA85 Final Assignment
October 2013
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Then she continues the paused
video and repeats the process with
another group of students and
another symbol.
Reference Materials:
 “George Washington (Lansdowne Portrait, 1796)” by Gilbert Stuart
 “The President”, Houghton Mifflin Social Studies School and Family
 “Past Presidents”, Houghton Mifflin Social Studies School and Family
 “George Washington”, Houghton Mifflin Social Studies School and Family
 *The Lincoln Memorial by Mary Firestone
 “Martin Luther King, Jr. Day”, Houghton Mifflin Social Studies School and Family
 “Saying the Pledge of Allegiance,” Houghton Mifflin Social Studies School and Family
 “The Lincoln Memorial” by Mary Firestone
 The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown {integrated with writing}
 “Songs of Our Nation”, Houghton Mifflin Social Studies School & Neighborhoods
 “Government Leaders”, Houghton Mifflin Social Studies School and Family
 “The President”, Houghton Mifflin Social Studies School and Family
Internet Sites:
Ben’s Guide to US Government
This is a website that gives information about symbols of the US Government in a succinct manner. It also provides additional links to explore
further and you can search the site by grade levels.
BrainPOP

7. Beena Raichura
UDL SA85 Final Assignment
October 2013
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This site needs a login and password but is another good site. With information and relevant movies related to the social studies topics. Again it’s
easy to understand and succinctly written information with many pictures and images. It also has an audio feature so all the information on the
website can be read aloud to the student who struggles with reading.
Accessible Technology Resources:
1. Discovery Education will be used to show students videos about the topic. It will need a login and password to access the videos and is found
on all MCPS computers under the media tab.
2. The teacher will also use Audacity to create a podcast /sound files of the students sharing about their symbol. Audacity is also found on all
MCPS computers under the applications tab.
3. She will use Google Images to find pictures of landmarks and symbols of small groups of students to examine and share facts about in class.
Briefly describe how you will share these resources to promote better differentiation and equity across:
 I will share the unit and lesson plan at monthly staff meeting at the school. Showing them videos of how the students are interacting with each
other, engaged in the task and recording on “Audacity”.
 I will share the information with my OT colleagues during a flex time group and put up the information on the OT/PT website.
 I will uploads information on the MyMCPS site for first grade teachers under the professional development resources section under the
content planner tab.