Universal Design for Learning

Hello Readers!

    Today, I am going to discuss the Universal Design for learning also referred to as UDL. I strongly feel this isn’t something new, educators have been doing pieces of this throughout their teaching. Now we are just wanting to incorporate all the best teaching practices together to teach the mind as a whole and not in segments. Let me explain further:

    According to the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is defined as a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. UDL is broken down into three categories: Engagement or “why of learning”, Representation or “what of learning”, and Action & Expression or “how of learning”.

Which guidelines am I already using?

     I believe without a doubt I am already using the Engagement component. I was taught in college by a wonderful college professor, the late Dr. Laurie Berry. She engrained into all her students the importance of engaging our students and not letting them sit “comatose.”  Every lesson we would create was written with the end goal always in mind, but a huge focus on waking up our students and getting them actively engaged in the lesson. Students learn best by ‘doing’ so the more interaction you can have in a lesson, the more learning that is taking place. I love being silly with my students, dressing the part of various book characters, finding a way to awaken the child in them, activating background knowledge, or helping to create the foundational skills we need to learn about the lesson in a hands-on format.

Which of these could I add right now to my teaching practice?

    Something I could easily add to my teaching would be Representation. This is engaging the parts of the brain. I have been trained on the parts of the brain (I also majored in Psychology). This gives me a slight advantage in helping my students connect to the curriculum through colorful visuals to help with remembering, include keywords and phrases, showcase second language acquisition. Displaying instructional anchor charts in the classroom helps as a reference point for students, simply adding a border will help draw the eye to the information, which will later help with student recall. I have used these in the classroom with the upper grades, but never in the library setting. This could be beneficial to the students learning about the parts of a book, the difference between fiction and nonfiction, or how to find a just-right book for them to read during their class reading time. One thing I need to focus on is the comprehension piece of building background knowledge for the students. Since I teach younger children who are new to the school system I need to focus my read-aloud, book talks, and activities around building knowledge of upcoming TEKS they will have in class. I already have a great partnership with teachers, so taking another step into the curriculum realm shouldn’t be too difficult. I think getting a chance to build some background knowledge through a book, video clip, or hands-on lesson in the library before they hear about the same topic in class a week or two later would be helpful in deepening their understanding.

           

Which of these looks great, but I might need some help to implement?

     It is hard for anyone to admit they need help. However, as educators in order for our students to grow, we must endure the growing pains with them. Teachers are always learning, one area I would look for additional help would be in the Action & Expression part. This area involves the most differentiation of a lesson. In my many years as an educator, I have thrived on my ability to differentiate the lesson to best meet the needs of all my students. However, now that I am teaching at a much younger age level, this has been a challenge. While I am still learning the ability level of five-year-olds, I need to trust that they know what is best for them and some students will stretch themselves academically and work at a different pace than their peers. I would love to see this in action to see how to best implement this into the classroom at a Kindergarten level, especially during COVID when our resources are cut extremely thin due to social distancing and sanitizing time frame.

    Overall, the Universal Design for Learning really gets me thinking on a deeper level. My ultimate goal in education is to give my ALL to my students. I want to be able to help my students the best I can and in order to do this, I must never stop learning myself. I would love to explore UDL as a whole to make sure I have the best information available. I am currently enrolled in the Texas Education Association Reading Academy. (Per House Bill 3 (HB 3), passed by the 86th Texas Legislature in June of 2019, all kindergarten through third-grade teachers and principals must attend a "teacher literacy achievement academy" by the 2022 - 2023 school year.) In this course, we are taking a deep look at the UDL and how every piece of our teaching directly impacts how the students are learning. The communication, interaction, and verbiage used by teachers as well as the importance of systematic direct instruction to help our students succeed. In addition to taking this course, I have ordered the book “Universal Design for Learning: 100 Ways to Teach All Learners” by Whitney Rapp. I believe this book will give me many resources for myself and to share with colleagues about ways to implement UDL into the classroom. Teachers do not want to reinvent the wheel, rather help perfect the wheel and keep it rolling. This book will help perfect our craft and keep our kids learning at the forefront.

In addition, my research brought me to an article from readingrockets.org which showed five examples of how the UDL can be used in the classroom. One section, in particular,
mentioned the use of flexible workspaces. This is something I want to further investigate and even write a grant or submit a Donor’s Choose to be able to offer flexible seating within my library space for students to utilize. This will require some additional research and browsing various seating alternative options on the market to see what I can offer my students.  

I hope you are intrigued to venture into the world of UDL to help take your teaching to a well-rounded level to reach the needs of all students in the classroom.

References:

CAST (2018). 5 Examples of Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/5-examples-universal-design-learning-classroom

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Rapp, W. (2014). Universal Design for Learning: 100 Ways to Teach All Learners. Brookes Publishing.