Universal Design for Learning

Get the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines Here: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/downloads

Universal Design for Learning

December 2012

From the desk of you friendly building instructional technology specialist:
Christie Cutshall

What is UDL?
UDL is the Universal Design
for Learning. The UDL was developed by CAST: the Center for Applied Special Technology. When CAST began researching this topic, they focused specifically on making the general education curricula accessible to students with disabilities. They quickly realized this goal was too narrow. The goal of UDL now is to help educators develops curricula and units of study to meet the needs of all learners from the start.

UDL is NOT “fixing” the
students. We are altering the way we think about curricula so more students can access it easily. UDL is getting away from the mindset of cookie- cutter students and one-size- fits-all curricula. It must be flexible. When curricula are designed to meet the needs of an imaginary “average” student, they do not address the real learners.

The Main Principles of UDL are:
1) To Provide Multiple Means of Representation
2) To Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression
3) To Provide Multiple Means of Engagement.

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Ways to transform your classroom using UDL:
1. Vary the font used in print materials. Vary the speed and the volume of sound and speech.
2. Provide students with many visual texts, diagrams, and charts.
3. Use physical objects, models, and manipulative in addition to pictures and text descriptions.
4. Pre-teach content vocabulary and activate background knowledge.
5. Incorporate movement and music.
6. Give multiple examples and non- examples.
7. Chunk information into small pieces
8. Remove unnecessary distractions from the learning space.
9. Provide checklists, organizers, sticky notes, and electronic reminders.
10. Use text-to-speech software, spell checks, and grammar checks.
11. Provide differentiated feedback. 12. Help students set personal goals.
13. Ask questions to guide self- monitoring and reflection.
14. Give students as many choices as possible.
15. Plan learning activities to be authentic and meaningful.

If you want further information on UDL: CAST: http://www.cast.org/
National Center for UDLhttp://www.udlcenter.org/
UDL Center Resources: http://www.diigo.com/list/udlcenter/ Guidelines-Examples-and-Resources 

My UDL Response 

I do not think the UDL guidelines are just for special needs students,
they can be beneficial for all students. We just need to be careful that we
don’t think UDL guidelines are just best practices, because much of the
research I found warns against this. I think that many teachers are using much
of the UDL guidelines, but I do not think many teachers are aware of the actual
guidelines themselves. I know in all my district PD and meetings I had never
heard of the UDL guidelines specifically before. When I am lesson planning I
definitely take many of the guidelines into account, however I do not
specifically think “how can I incorporate the UDL into my teaching?” The way I
plan automatically includes UDL. I think that constructivism matches well with
the guidelines because it gives a lot of wiggle room for inquiry and
responsibility on the student’s part. Marzano’s theories line up well with UDL.
The ultimate goal of both of those guidelines is to incorporate 21st
Century skills in the classroom and they go together well. 

Annotated Bibliography 

CAST (Ed.). (2012). CAST universal design for learning. Retrieved November 30, 2012, from http://www.cast.org/about/index.html 

       This is the homepage of CAST. The Center for Applied Special Technology

(CAST) is a non-profit organization trying to enhance learning opportunities for all students, especially those with disabilities. It explains that the primary principles of the UDL are to give diverse learners options for acquiring information and knowledge, to provide learners options for demonstrating what they know, and to tap into learners' interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation.

CAST. (2011). Universal design for learning guidelines version 2.0. CAST. 

       This article contains the full text of the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. UDL is all about mastery of not only content, but mastery of the learning process. The three principles of UDL are: Provide Multiple Means of Representation, Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression, Provide Multiple Means of Engagement. It helps teachers to get rid of their mindset of the “average” student, and to really focus on the students we have. 

Edyburn, D. (2010). Would you recognize universal design for learning if you saw it? Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 33(1), 33-41. Retrieved from http://www.cldinternational.org/Index.asp

       Edyburn begins by discussing the history of UDL and how it came about after IDEA legislation was put into place. The flaw in this may have been that students with disabilities, while gaining physical access to the general education classroom, do not have access to the general education curricula. He also explains that We need to define UDL before we can effectively use it to teach. Universal Design for Learning is not just good teaching. We need to be proactively valuing diversity, and intentionality.

UDL Center. (2011, February 2). What is UDL? Retrieved November 30, 2012, from National Center on Universal Design for Learning website: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/whatisudl

       This is the website for the National Center on Universal Design for Learning. It explains that Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles that give all students equal opportunities to learn.  The website goes on to explain that UDL is not a one-size-fits-all quick fix, but rather a flexible and customizable approach to education. They also gave excellent diagrams on what parts of the brain are activated during different learning activities.

UDL technology tool kit wiki. (2008). Retrieved November 30, 2012, from

     http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/

       This is a fantastic wiki that compiles many technology resources for helping educators with incorporating UDL in their classrooms. Some of the categories that are included are graphic organizers, audio books, math tools, literacy tools, research tools, and study skills. Each category has a list of links to created resources and other websites full of information.