Universal Design
Universal Design is a teaching framework that helps educators improve learning for all students. Everyone learns differently, this is why it's important to provide differentiation in your lessons. One size does not fit all in education. Students need the opportunity to learn in their own authentic way. This may mean more frontloading on the teacher's part, but it also ensures a successful learning environment. Here's a small graphic that outlines the basic framework of the UDL design:
For the past three years, my district has trained teachers to implement the fundamental five in the classroom. This includes:
- Framing the lesson
- Frequent, small-group, purposeful talk
- Work in the power zone
- Recognize and reinforce
- Critical writing
This is a formula for quality instruction that naturally incorporates UDL. The author and researcher of this formula are Sean Cain and Mike Laird: Laird, M., & Cain, S. (2011b). The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Let me explain the connection between this formula and the fundamentals of UDL.
When framing the lesson, you show your students the objective. This allows them to begin with the end in mind. Students can goal set and activate background knowledge as the teacher shows them the vocabulary they'll be using for the day, the essential question they need to answer by the end of the lesson, and the agenda along with "I can" statements. This would fall under guidelines 2 and 8 of the UDL guidelines checklist: clarify vocabulary, highlight terms and expressions, clarify syntax and structure, and promote understanding across languages, display the goal in multiple ways, to name a few.
When creating lessons, I try my best to incorporate multiple means of understanding the text. I include visuals, videos, audio, and translations in native languages. It's also important to offer graphic organizers and concept maps. This gives students the opportunity to understand the content in a meaningful way. Students need to also be offered choices as to how they can show their learning. I also try to get my kids talking, and mostly with each other. Research shows that students can learn a lot more from each other.
As you're teaching these differentiated lessons, it's important to recognize and reinforce. This falls under guideline 6 of the UDL checklist: enhance capacity for monitoring progress. Ask questions to guide self-monitoring reflection. This is also a great way to incorporate critical writing. Allow students to respond to these questions in a variety of formats. They could engage in a turn and talk. They could choose to write their answers in their journal. They could choose to type their answer in a Google doc that can be shared with the teacher. Typing is especially good for Emergent Bilingual students who haven't learned how to write in the English language.
One thing I could add to my practice is checkpoint 9.2: facilitate personal coping skills and strategies. A lot of times, this can get pushed to the side in my teaching because I'm so focused on the students mastering the objective. I need to learn how to teach my students how to manage their frustration, develop internal coping skills, and help them avoid the negative thoughts that discourage their learning.
As a middle school teacher, it's difficult managing up to 150 students. With this in mind, checkpoint 8.4 is something that looks great, but is very difficult to implement. Providing feedback to each student is one of the hardest things to manage. Applications that automatically grade student assignments are super helpful and allow the student to see their grades in a timely matter, but students need (and want) to hear from their teacher. After seven years of teaching, I'm still trying to get a better grasp on this.
I'd like to explore the in-class strategies of UDL. What does UDL actually look like in the classroom? Are there specific lesson plans that are available to educators? As I was browsing the internet, I came across a lesson plan template by Allison Posey that can help teachers incorporate UDL. You can find the design here: https://www.understood.org/en/articles/lesson-planning-with-universal-design-for-learning-udl. Another site that is helpful is http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/explore.php. This site offers lessons on specific topics, especially in the sciences. Having tangible lesson plans such as these is extremely helpful to teachers who are genuinely trying to incorporate UDL in the classroom.
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Melody,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about your connection with your school formula that you implement with the UDL fundamentals. Your provided great examples and activities as well as helpful sites. The first webpage had cool ideas and graphic organizers that are beneficial to use in the classroom. I relate to your struggle of having so many students and not enough time to provide feedback for each individually. I am a high school teacher and I have had up to 170 students with 34 in one class which made it extremely difficult to manage. I tried applications like Writable, Quill, and Criterion.ets.org for students to submit their writing and have the computer automatically grade and give feedback, but the students preferred my input so I would have to double check it at times. I am still trying to figure out a solution for this.
Krystal
I really appreciate the fact that you acknowledge that at the secondary level it is difficult to give each student effective feedback. I am also trying to get better at this. Though we can't do it every time on every assignment for every student it is important that we do our best to give feedback as much as possible . Thank you for sharing the five parts of framing the lesson. At my school we are often told to frame the lesson, but not given much guidance as to what that looks like, so much appreciated. Great post!
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