Last spring, my colleague Freda (all names have been changed to protect privacy) invited me to join her for drop-in lessons for her contemporary dance class. What began as a desire to stretch my limbs and muscles and joints ended as an exercise in learning about learning differences-and about the pedagogical practices of Universal Instructional Design.

"Oh, dear," I said to Freda, "I can't even have fun without relating it to teaching."

"But that's part of the fun," replied Freda, who knows me well.

Freda and I both teach basic writing and part of the fun for us was comparing notes on our teachers. Because we took drop-in lessons, we had several different teachers throughout the spring.

One teacher, Jackie, used a teaching style that proved difficult for our diverse group of beginning dancers. She stood at the front of the class and expected us to follow her lead, presenting complicated choreography without clearly demonstrating specific steps or working with students individually.

By contrast, our favorite teacher was Olivia. Olivia also presented us with challenging choreography, but she broke down the dance into specific steps that we practiced as a class before running through the entire piece. In addition, Olivia made sure to speak with each dancer individually at least once or twice during the hour-long class period. These brief individual conferences taught me the most about myself as a dancer-and as a learner.

One night, Olivia showed me a step and worked with me until I understood how the movement unfolded. "I need to feel what I'm dancing more than I need to see it in the studio mirror," I told her. Thus I learned that as a dance student I was a kinesthetic learner. And as a dance student I was delighted to find so many parallels to teaching and learning basic writing.

Reflection, Challenge, and Risk

Over the years, I have found reflection to be an invaluable tool in helping to understand learning differences. To this end, I keep a journal to record teaching and learning experiences. I also jot down reflective notes in the margins of my lesson plans as interesting classroom events unfold. As a result of reflection, I also have discovered that new learning experiences give me an awareness of my strengths and preferences as a learner-as well as those areas of challenge and risk (Cochran-Smith and Lytle, Brookfield , Green).

With this in mind, it seemed particularly helpful to begin my dance lessons as I was teaching basic writing. As I struggled to learn to dance, I thought often of the risks and challenges that my own students faced with learning to write. I remembered the mandatory physical education classes that I took for years in public school. We had to follow specific rules. Like some of my classmates, I struggled with balance and coordination and had a difficult time learning the skills required by the school system. As an adult, I never dreamed that I would ever enjoy a physical activity as much as I enjoyed my dance lessons.

Yet each lesson was filled with challenge and risk-and with sore muscles for days after. I was reminded that what constitutes "basic" seems completely contextual. In that regard, I highly recommend that instructors of basic writing courses become students ourselves. Taking on a new activity, one in which we are true beginners, can give us a sense of perspective on our own learning differences-as well as an appreciation for the struggles faced by many of our students.

Challenge and risk seem central to a discussion of basic writing and learning differences. Students enroll in basic writing courses from a variety of backgrounds and with a variety of needs. Adapting a course to account for the individual learning differences of diverse student populations can be a daunting task. One way I approach this task is to follow the model of my dance teacher, Olivia, who used many different methods in order to address the learning needs of a variety of students-which in turn benefited the class as a whole. Such an approach is known as universal instructional design (McAlexander, Barajas and Higbee).

Universal Instructional Design and the Practices of Teaching and Learning

Universal design is an architectural term with wide implications for education, especially for the teaching of writing. One example of universal design would be the ramps that have been added to building entrances in order to provide equal access to people who use wheel chairs. At the same time, ramps are also invaluable for people pushing infants in strollers or pulling wheeled luggage, and so on. A feature designed for equitable use for one group can benefit additional populations as well (Johnson and Fox, Bruch "Interpreting", Bruch "Universality", Herbert).

My dance teacher Olivia implemented Universal Instructional Design as she introduced a new piece of choreography. When Olivia gave us an opportunity to practice our steps over and over again, students in the class were able to respond in ways that best suited our own learning differences.

Freda, who went on to join a dance troupe, strengthened her movements with each run through. By contrast, although I struggled with coordination and balance, I was grateful for chances to try out the choreography until I could feel what I needed to do and was able to leave class with a sense of accomplishment. Although Freda and I had different goals, both of us were able to benefit from Olivia's instruction.

With each new term, I work on translating my learning experiences with Universal Instructional Design back into the basic writing classroom. Practices that I have found helpful include:

• Addressing time management concerns as part of the writing process so that students are able to draw connections between organizing their time and organizing their writing
• Assigning writing projects that incorporate visual images and/or performance components to account for visual and kinesthetic learning
• Providing students with opportunities to help construct writing prompts in order to facilitate a sense of agency as learners

Each of these strategies is designed to address learning differences by building on strengths that the students bring with them to the course, as well as presenting manageable steps for areas of challenge.

As students become more aware of the variety of processes that constitute learning, they have an opportunity to shape their own experiences as learners. Such experiences can be particularly useful for creating self-advocacy and self-efficacy in approaching basic writing and subsequent courses, as students will need to find ways of tackling increasingly challenging material. (Sternglass, Bernstein).

Closing Thoughts and Open Roads

Many of us teach in open-enrollment programs in challenging circumstances and uncertain times. Many of our students face difficulties described in recent modules (Meyers, Ribble, Ybarra). In addition, at many of our institutions, basic writing programs are threatened by decreased funding from state legislatures and college and university administrations. Often such circumstances result in increased class sizes, decreased or lost supplemental support services, and mandated accountability standards which require strict adherence. These exigencies in our teaching and learning environments give rise to added roadblocks for students whose previous education has already been shortchanged, as well as more distress for overburdened teachers.

Nonetheless, in spite of our struggles, I believe that there is still cause for optimism. Diverse learners enter our classrooms by many roads-and by many roads they can set out toward new destinations to which writing may point. Meanwhile, as a teacher, I choose to dance toward those roadsides, guiding as I can-and learning new steps along the way.

Questions

In the spirit of continued reflection, I offer the following questions to begin our conversation:

What experiences have you had that have better helped you to understand your own challenges and processes as a learner? How have these experiences impacted your teaching?

• How do your students describe their own processes and challenges as learners? What observations have you made about students' processes and progress in learning?
• How do you encourage your students to take risks, to "think outside the box"? What assignments and/or activities have been particularly helpful?
• What features of Universal Instructional Design do you implement in your classroom? What would you like to try with your students now or in the future?

Works Cited

Teaching Basic Writing