In talking about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) I have had the time to self assess and reflect on my own lesson plans that I have previously created. I used the UDL checklist to use and reflect on an existing lesson plan that I have created. It was a great activity because you could see your own holes that were created unintentionally while developing the lesson. It was a a good activity to see a lesson that I thought had great differentiation options for students to still have some missing factors in the lesson. I was able to reflect and look at what I need to work on while developing lesson plans. 
        When talking about my own strengths and weaknesses using UDL and creating lessons I have noticed that I did have more components included in the lesson than I thought I would have. A strength I believe I have is the way the lesson was presented in the anticipatory set. I used the smartboard to display information. This is a great tool because you can change the font with type of font, colors, and size. You could also add auditory pieces to the lesson using the smartboard. I also gave the students options on how they were going to read the story incorporated into the lesson. They had three options to choose from; read the story regularly, read while the computer highlights the words, and listen to the story and watch it as a movie on an iPad. I think giving specific feedback is important for students and I make sure to include that in the lessons I create. I believe a weakness that I have found while doing this activity would be telling my students the goal of the lesson before we begin. That could be really helpful for them and I would like to incorporate that. 
    I enjoyed doing this activity and think that I will definitely use the checklist for now on while I write lesson plans. It was a great way to self reflect and really makes you think about the activities you put into the lesson. 

UDL guidelines checklist- Click here to obtain a copy of the UDL checklist!

         I have been talking about UDL and my recent adventure through the Curriculum Barriers Tutorial. I have decided to try out the graphic organizer on one of my former students from my student teaching class. The little girl I am using is a first grade ELL (English Language Learner) student. When it comes time to write"Family Weekend Journals"it takes her a long time. She has a sentence starter which is "This week is in school I..." and she is to write 2 things she learned and give details about them. Then she needs to write how she feels about school. Unless you sit there with her she can not complete the assignment is takes over an hour. I would say that is a barrier for her and a solution would be to have sentence starter for each sentence until she gets the hang of it. The next method is seat work. When she completes seat work it usually takes awhile because she is distracted and talking to the people at her table. She loves school and enjoys being here but she gets distracted. A solution to this would be to have her seated in a spot where she will not be distracted maybe near the teacher. She relies on one on one help so it would be nice to see her more independent. I believe giving her a sentence starter for her writing and seating her in an area she may not be distracted by could help. Also she could have a "private office" to do her work in. Since she is an ELL student, writing may also be difficult because she is still trying to get the language. She could use picture vocal words to help her. This chart is helpful to use while planning lesson plans. 

           In my previous posts I have been talking about UDL and why it is important to incorporate into the classroom. One part of UDL in which I recently reviewed and looked through is the Curriculum Barriers Tutorial. This is a site where you can make a chart of your students in your class with a graphic organizer and list the materials used, student qualities, and the potential barriers and missed opportunities because of those barriers. I feel as though this would be something wonderful to incorporate into the classroom as a teacher to have handy while thinking and writing lesson plans. They also have sample models for you to look at and work with. 
     Although I think this is a great tool to use in your class and have in your tool kit of resources, I believe it would be time consuming. It would take hours each week to prepare a chart of the barriers and teaching methods used for each student for each and every lesson. I love UDL and meeting the needs of each of my students but in a realistic thought there is no way I would have time to do this for every lesson I teach every day for every unit. I would however, would like to make a chart for my students in the beginning of the year of their best learning styles and barriers. I would like to use that as I plan my lessons to make sure I have different components in if for all learners. I think the website is great to use and I suggest going and checking it out!

http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/curriculumbarrierstutorial.cfm

    All of my posts so far have been about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and what I have learned from navigating through some different websites. This morning I was navigating through this site http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/   and came across some videos to watch about UDL. The first video was about Diversity of Learners. The video talked about how "one-size-fits-all" is not an accurate way to teach anymore. Students are diverse in the ways they learn and their behavior. You may also have ESL, or English as a Second Language students in your class. Each student in unique and need alternative methods of teaching to be used to reach all students.
      I really enjoyed this short video because it talks about the diversity of learners before it even gets into talking about how to implement UDL. I believe it is important to understand all your learners and students in your room and the ways they learn so that you can better fit lessons to meet their needs. 

Here is the site for the videos : http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/window.php?src=videos

I also researched the guidelines of UDL. It is interesting to see how I am learning something new on each site. Each site I go on brings me to something new I find out about UDL. It talks about how the goal of education for the 21st century is not to mastery the content but the learning process. Education should help turn novice learners into expert learners—individuals who want to learn, who know how to learn strategically, and who, in their own highly individual and flexible ways, are well prepared for a lifetime of learning.

The UdL guidelines are organized to the three main parts of UDL which I have talked about in previous posts; representation, engagement, and expression. The site gives great examples of how to implement each stage of the UDL principles. The principles guide and give structure to UDL for people to use and be able to implement in their own classes. 

http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines

     In my previous posts I have been talking about how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is important in our schools and what it is. Today I was reading through another cite and was about Planning for All Learners or (PAL). This applies UDL to planning and developing curriculum in ways to promote participation, and progress the general education curriculum for all learners. This toolkit provides specific planning steps, guidance, mentoring, model lessons, tools, templates, resources, and links to other people using the PAL method. 
     There are 4 steps in completing the PAL model and creating a lesson. The first step is to Set Goals. The second step is Analyze Status. The third step is to Apply UDL and finally the fourth step is Teach the UDL Lesson. 
      The process of implementing these steps all starts with a PAL team. This is made up of general education and special education teachers. Also other specialists may be on this team. The team has to meet on a regular basis throughout the year. The work of the PAL team must be aligned with the district and guided by the state standards. 
      This would be great to have a PAL team with you while you were implementing UDL lessons in your class. Although the PAL team is a great way to have support and help to implement the lessons into your classroom, it seems as though it is a lot of work but pays off. The time the team spends to put the lessons together, the better outcome for the students. I would be excited to have that team work in my own school setting and implementing UDL lessons. 

Check out the website if you want to learn more: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/tk_procedures.cfm?tk_id=21

     

      In my my last blog I talked about what Universal Design for Learning is.  In my next post I want to focus on why it is important. I touched on it a little bit in my last post. 
      The website I reviewed to receive information from was http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html . The way they described learning is that it is not a "one-size fits all" it is flexible and customized for individual needs. Three primary brain networks come into play when discussing that Neuroscience reveal of our differences. 
      The first network is Recognition Networks. This is the "what" of learning. This is how we gather facts and categorize what we see, hear, and read. Examples of this would be identifying letters, words, or an authors style. The website gave great ways to do this. One of the ways was to display the information in different visual ways. I know for myself when something is not shown in a clear visual way for me I get too confused. I need bullet points to be able to see important ideas. It is hard for me to point out important information during a jumble of words like in a paragraph. The second network is Strategic Network. This is the "how" of learning. This network is the planning and performing of tasks. This is how we organize and express our ideas. Examples of this would be; completing math problems or writing an essay. This site also gave the example of having the students be actively involved. I believe this is important because I know for myself I learn best with hands on experiences. The third network is Affective networks. This is the "why" we learn. This is how the learners get engaged and stay motivated. 

http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html

      In my first post I introduced myself to you as a college student. I began this blog for an Assistive Technology class I am currently enrolled in. Our first assignment was to look over a website and find out about UDL and what it is. I want to share my findings with you. UDL or Universal Design for Learning, is a way to help meet the needs of the challenge of diversity by suggesting flexible instructional materials. There are three items Universal Design for Learning calls for; Multiple means of representation: give learners an assortment of ways to acquire information and knowledge, Multiple means of expression: provide learners alternative ways for demonstrating what they know, Multiple means of engagement: tap into learners' interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation.

Not all students learn the same way. They need the material presented to them in a different way. Some students may learn better visually, by auditory, or by hands on approaches. Teacher's need to first observe and listen to their students about how they best learn. Then the teacher can implement that into his or her lessons. The students also need to express their learning in their own ways how they feel most comfortable or how they are able to express. They can do this by podcasts, and talking word processors.  

Right now differentiation is big in all schools because it is important to meet the needs of all the students. Reading the ways to implement UDL (which are ways to differentiate) were really helpful and eye opening to me. There were some ideas and ways to help students learn that I had never thought of. I am excited to become a teacher and be able to implement these ideas in my own classroom. UDL is an important aspect of teaching. 

Here is the website if you want to learn more!

http://udl.wiki.ciu20.org/home