Practical Notes for UDL (Instead of Differentiation)
Teachers who are weary of developing differentiated approaches for their students will want to learn more about Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The difference is that in differentiation, the TEACHER has responsibility for adjusting the levels and types of content, process, and product to fit the interests, learning aptitudes, prior knowledge, and skill levels of their students (see my earlier blog). With UDL, teachers build options into the design of instructional materials, learning approaches, and assessment measures and empower STUDENTS to choose the appropriate options for themselves. Instruction would move from teacher-centered to student-centered.
The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) developed the UDL framework for instruction of diverse learners. Their framework is based on the work of neuroscientists who view the brain “as a complex web of integrated and overlapping networks….learning is seen as changes in the connections within and between these networks”(2014).
This framework is organized by three principles:
Multiple means of engagement – includes recruiting students’ interest, supporting them to develop persistence and monitor their performance with their affective brain networks.
Multiple means of representation – includes providing a variety of ways for learners to access information and learning, drawing on text and multimedia resources so that students’ recognition networks can recognize and make meaning from new information.
Multiple means of action and expression – includes offering students opportunities to use their strategic brain networks to plan, organize, and initiate purposeful actions.
The purpose of learning as defined by CAST is much more than simply passing the class. They define expert learners as ones who are “purposeful/ motivated, resourceful/ knowledgeable, and strategic/ goal-directed.” Who wouldn’t want to be able to describe their students that way?
Let’s break this down to questions teachers would ask as they develop a lesson that would meet the learning needs of ALL students, including those with disabilities.
How could we hook students to be interested in this topic/ this assignment? What real life experiences could we construct that would connect with issues they deeply care about? How could we appeal to their emotions (perhaps empathy, outrage, fairness, concern)? How could we structure the task with options for their choice (increases motivation) and an outcome that would encourage them to complete the task? How could we monitor their engagement throughout to sustain their motivation?
How could we provide access to a variety of text and multimedia sources and coach students to select materials that are appropriately challenging using accommodations as needed? How could we guide students to learn to construct meaning using graphic notetaking organizers and then strategic thinking organizers? How can we teach them to link new knowledge and skills with prior learning?
How could we empower students to strategically use higher order thinking? How could we help them to take ownership and mindfully strengthen their emerging executive skills? How could we guide them to evaluate sources for relevance and reliability? How could we encourage them to create products that demonstrate their mastery of knowledge and skills using real life applications?
Benefits: Youth with disabilities would have greatly reduced stigma in classrooms that use UDL because they would not be singled out as the students who “needed” to use the auditory version of text. Any students could decide to turn on the read-aloud function on their devices. At the same time, any students could decide to use dictation for their written pieces. Every student would have the benefit of one-on-one discussions with their teachers as they planned which sources to use and
Cautions: Teachers who have not given students choice in the past will want to try this within small segments of their lessons at first. Students who haven’t learned to handle the responsibility of ownership for their learning will be confused and possibly become behavior problems if the expectations for the activity are not clearly expressed. This may feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable at first for both students and teachers. Search the web or talk to others who have successfully implemented UDL to pick up more tips.
