PEABODY - Crystal MacLarty stands at the front of the class with a sword in her hand.
She is lecturing on "Hamlet" and uses all the tools of the trade to relate one of Shakespeare's most memorable plays - even brandishing the plastic prop. On the computerized white board behind her, she beams a slide presentation full of story bullet points. A student at the front of the class uses cutouts of the main characters on a small felt board to help him understand the story. He follows along in a version of the play that has been translated into helpful word symbols.
"Put yourself in Hamlet's shoes," MacLarty declares.
MacLarty asks the 18 students to draw three squares: one for their mother, one for their father and one for their uncle. She tells them to cross off their father's name and draw a line from their mother to their uncle.
"This is the situation Hamlet found himself in," the teacher announces. "His father died and within a month, his mother married his uncle."
Peals of "ewww" and "that's gross" carry through the first-floor classroom.
Welcome to Peabody High's Life Skills class, where MacLarty harnesses a teaching method called Universal Design for Learning. It's an idea gaining acceptance in special education classrooms like Peabody's.
Universal Design taps technology to help teachers and students adapt materials to their varied needs and skills. The idea sounds simple enough, but until computers and the appropriate software were developed, students had to rely on mass-produced materials and textbooks.
"There are so many new resources," said retired special education teacher Sandra Ring. "You don't have to read to understand concepts."
Ring, who helped introduce UDL at Peabody High, said the Life Skills classroom is a model for the state.
"It's about a whole high school change," Ring said. "It's here, my dream. Technology, that's the key."
When she teaches, MacLarty uses the Smart Board, a computerized white board, and all sorts of high- and low-tech ways to help her students grasp concepts.
Some students have difficulty reading and learn better with visual cues. With specialized software, MacLarty can translate a play like "Hamlet" into symbols. Prepositions like "in" and "through" become simple illustrations. Nouns like "soldier," "ghost" and "imagination" also have their own representative drawings.
Peabody's Ring and MacLarty said teaching these challenged learners comes down to a way of thinking.
"You just kind of come in with the idea that they can do it," Ring said. "You just have to find the right tool for the right student."
As Ring puts it, with universal design, the kids aren't just "cutting pumpkins" in science class.
"There was a time, not too many years ago, when many (special education) students were treated with low expectations," she said. "Now, it's standards-based education, and we're preparing them for the world of work."
All students should be held to a high standard, but some need help, said David Gordon of Wakefield-based Center for Applied Special Technology, a leader in the universal design concept.
Students may need certain barriers lowered for, say, visual impairment, but the book stays. He said it's like training wheels, and teachers can easily take away the support as the student develops the skill.
"You don't dumb down the book," he said. "You just build up the support."
Catching on
It's hard to say how many schools have adopted UDL, but the movement "is gaining a lot of momentum and currency," Gordon said. He does not, however, think it's practiced pervasively.
One mark of UDL's increasing acceptance is its multiple references in the 2004 federal special education law known as the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act.
Beverly Special Education Administrator Deb O'Connor said technology is making inroads for students, and it's only getting better. Universal design has potential to help not only special education students but all students, she said.
Beverly uses this assistive technology for many of its special education students, though not quite like Peabody's, all in one classroom, she said.
Truly incorporating the universal design relies on lots of training, and she's hard-pressed to find the time needed to get her teachers the additional help.
"We can put all these wonderful things in place, but if we don't have time to get everyone trained and onboard, they're not effective," O'Connor said.
Robert Gass of Beverly-based Northshore Education Consortium said the special education provider is trying to use more technology to help its students.
Gass said a generation gap may constrain how much technology gets used in classrooms. The training also hasn't caught up with the tools. Adoption of more UDL classrooms will be slowed because of all the prep time needed and a shortage of special education teachers, he said.
Sure, universal design requires a ton of upfront work by teachers and additional training. But once the materials are adapted, they don't need to be re-created the next time, Gordon noted.
"We're going to be able to free teachers up to do what they do best," Gordon said, "which is address the individual needs of the students at the point of instruction."
