Universally Designed Curriculum
UDL refers to “designed-in” differentiation to accommodate the learning needs of many diverse students in a single classroom. assistive supports are built into the curriculum rather than added on as an afterthought (CAST, 2010). When there are multiple ways for students to be engaged in the curriculum such as some students drawing or some students writing to demonstrate what they have learned. With that being said, it is possible for students of differing abilities to be challenged by the same curriculum.
UDL requires teachers to consider the effects of their instructional decisions on every student in the classroom, not just teach to the middle, that average student.
In order to achieve UDL and implement it in the classroom, teachers must consider how they present the lesson, how students learn and how students demonstrate what they have learned.
- Multiple means of representation
- Teaching presentations, mentioning the same information more than once in multiple ways.
- Instructional Materials, digital text is much more desirable because one can change the shape, size, color and contrast
- Multiple means of expression
- Presentation and graphics software on the computer (such as PowerPoint and Publisher)
- Oral Presentation, students who may not be able to write can present information orally to the entire class, in small groups, or one-on-one to the teacher.
- Models and Manipulatives, students can construct models or use simple manipulatives (hands on learning tools) to express ideas or communicate learning. For example, to demonstrate knowledge in math students can construct fractions using manipulatives or design a model of the plot of a story to demonstrate understanding of the story.
- Multiple means of engagement
- students engage with material in various ways depending on their learning style.
- Unless students are engaged with the material and exert cognitive ability and attention to the material it will not be transferred to long term memory.
- When learning new concepts students should have the option to practice what they have learned in multiple ways.
- For example, in history, students can act out certain historical events or some can write poems or stories about a historical event learned.
(All three methods for UDL taken from CAST, 2010) See CAST website for more in depth examples of ideas that can be used in the classroom http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html
See Activity for UDL
See attached chapter for examples of units for inclusive education.
References
Cast. (2010). About UDL. Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html
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