Universal Design for Learning
Understanding what Universal Design for Learning is, should be a priority in education. As an educator, we know that every student learns differently but we have to be the masters of finding the way to reach them the best. This is essentially Universal Design for Learning (UDL). We all know that every classroom is full of diverse learners including students that are language learners, audio-impaired learners, visual learners, gifted students who require more demands, and much more!
According to this YouTube video about what UDL is, the educator is effectively helping break up or prevent barriers to students so that learning is effective for all involved. So as an educator, I have to sit back and ask myself whether I am already using some UDL strategies or helping implement learning for all students.
Guidelines - Which of these guidelines am I already using?
The next guideline is to Provide Multiple Means of Representation, basically that educators should provide different ways to get their lessons across. Currently, I give my students a variety of ways to show me what they know, they can do voice recordings, they can give me written responses, or I have the old fashion multiple choice option to see what they know. By offering different ways for students to show their learning, I am helping create resourceful and knowledgeable learners.
The third guideline is completed by Providing Multiple Means of Action & Expression; which will help generate students that are strategic and goal-directed with their learning. One way that I offer this type of performance activity in the classroom is by letting them select what they would like to read for an assignment. For example, if we are working on improving our summarization skills, giving the students self-selection allows for them to be more actively engaged in the material they are about to summarize. While this doesn't work in every scenario, such as standardized testing, I do try to offer it as often as possible. They seem to take ownership when they get to choose.
Teaching - Which of these could I add right now to my teaching practice?
Personally, I feel like I could step up my game with the second guideline and give a few other ways for students to represent what they have learned. After doing more research on UDL, graphic organizers are a great way to get evidence of learning established. A lot of times in the classroom, we do graphic organizers to learn the basic material and put it in a notebook to reference again later. However, that could actually be the assessment item itself in having the student create a graphic organizer demonstrating what they have discovered.
Implementation - Which of these looks great, but I might need some help to implement?
The first guideline is where I could see myself needing some help, but mainly time to implement better. For example, I already use illustrations and graphics in the learning environment but I haven't necessarily used animated graphics. I feel like this could take learning up another notch and provide for more engagement. I mean, who doesn't like a funny GIF or something moving on the screen to grab your attention.
Finding ways to help me implement more UDL in the classroom led me to a search through the web. One website, in particular, called Reading Rockets gave five examples of ways that UDL is used in the classroom. While I do several of these five options, two options that I do not do is posting the lesson goals for students. I do post an objective that appeases the administrators, but it isn't necessarily in terms that students would understand or know it was a goal. I like the rewording of making it a goal instead of an objective and plan to change that wording on my board. Another item that the site recommended was to use flexible workspaces, this seems to be a bit harder to implement without having more space. However, reading through the examples, I can see some options that may be easy to implement like headphones or letting them work under their desk for fewer distractions.
Conclusion
Universal Design for Learning means to provide a variety of ways to represent material, provide multiple ways for students to learn the material, and then give students selection in how to assess the material to help keep engagement and learning going.
Sources:
CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
CAST. (2010). Udl At A Glance. YouTube. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDvKnY0g6e4.
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (2019, December 18). 5 examples of universal design for learning in the classroom. Reading Rockets. Retrieved July 23, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/5-examples-universal-design-learning-classroom
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I really enjoyed reading your takeaways from the UDL Guidelines! I, too, feel like I could provide more ways for my students to show me what they know. What I plan on doing this year is to have our Campus Technology Specialist help us out with that very thing. There are so many incredible apps provided by our district and each student is now one-to-one with an iPad. I think we could be utilizing the platforms available in a much more productive way. I've never even opened some of the apps available! I currently provide intervention for students with dyslexia, so our curriculum is multi-sensory based already. For that reason, it fits very nicely into the framework of UDL! Thanks so much for sharing, Mrs. B!
ReplyDeleteHello, I agree that time is one of the main things we would need to implement many of the suggestions given in the framework into our lessons. I thought it was interesting that the original idea came from architecture and the idea to include everyone, especially those with disabilities. I think it is a great concept and what I used on my blog to decide what I was already doing was the checklist. I also use graphic organizers, but at times it does seem like a barrier sometimes because students need help filling in the blanks. I think I could use a bit more training on how to better present them. I also noticed you mentioned the word flexible and I saw that throughout our readings. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI love that you offer your students choice with how they demonstrate their learning. This is an area that I feel I could definitely improve. Even though you stated that this is an area you'd like to improve, I would love to pick your brain and learn how you go about creating different options that still assess the same knowledge, as well as how you grade these various finished products. I think the idea of grading such a variety of products is what has always seemed the most daunting to me and a large reason why I haven't worked to grow more, even though I know it is what's best for my students.
ReplyDeleteGiving students choice in what they are reading to demonstrate their abilities with different literacy skills is an excellent approach! I too switched over to this method of daily practice during my first years as a language arts teacher and saw a drastic improvement in both academic skills and behaviors during independent reading. When students have selected their own texts, they are more engaged which not only helps with their comprehension but also decreases the likelihood of them become a distraction to others.
Thanks for sharing such a great reflection of your own teaching and some wonderful suggestions I can take back with me into my own classroom!
Giving students choice on how they learned something is a really great idea to always implement. It can be tough to think of different methods that the students can show their learning and mastering a skill that demonstrates the skill that was taught and be done in a method that works for them. This can be hard because you also want to be realistic with the amount of methods used since ultimately, you have to grade/assess what they created, but you also don't want to take away the opportunities from the students, so that can be something to figure out as well.
ReplyDeleteSharing the learning objectives is something we as teachers have to do for administration, but do the students understand what they're doing? I like your idea of rewording the objective into a goal since it seems much more understandable and reach out to more students. I try my best to simplify my objectives for the students, one of the admins on campus gave me verbs to use for COs and LOs, they're so helpful to picking the right words for what the students are doing. Flexible workspaces is great, but sometimes the classroom size is not ample enough to make it happen, but if you really plan according to your current space and move things around, maybe it can be done. This a great blog on how you already implement UDL in your classroom and you want to improve too. Thanks for sharing.
This post is very informative, and you did a great job of summarizing and explaining UDL. Like you, goal setting is something I feel like I need to work on more. Yes, my objectives are always on the board, like you said for administrators, but I rarely mention it in class and students don't really use them to set their own goals. It's so hard with the amount of content to teach in 45-50 minute class periods to take the time to do it, but in the long run I think it's important for students.
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