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With my background, I have needed to consider UDL when designing things for corporations and universities. Lack of consideration of such would be a huge risk for these groups, so I am pretty familiar with all of the nuance. I think this is a great video that I saw referenced several times in my research.

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I chose this to highlight the delivery style that is popping up and will be something those in ID might need: rapid authoring video tool. This author used Vyond- you can tell by the characters and will begin recognizing them if you're unfamiliar with Vyond. In the corporate world, clients often want video on Vyond prices... It's a hard line to toe of focusing on content and getting caught up in visuals with a client. Not fun!

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What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)?

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For classroom teachers, it is great to see the principles of UDL in practice!

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14 Categories of students with disabilities

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14 Categories of students with disabilities

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Quick but useful including a visual aid detailing the various types of disabilities.

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Students with Disabilities: Special Education Categories

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This is a great TED talk about UD.

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Why We Need Universal Design | Michael Nesmith | TEDxBoulder

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I really liked the comments from the ISL teachers in this videos comments.

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This is a not very pretty but useful quick visual that drives high expectations.

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"When teaching, I aimed to address many barriers before we began a unit. Sometimes students didn’t have background knowledge, so we’d cover relevant topics and skills at the start. Other times, content wasn’t academically interesting or culturally relevant, so we found ways to tie it to their lives. I realized that many students needed clearer directions, checklists, and check-ins, so I created systems within our classroom to address this."

I really think this is important. Giving clear expectations and outlining particularly hard topics with a deeper dive to ensure they have the background knowledge they need in order to achieve the learning goal.

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Differentiated Instruction

Teachers can encourage high school students' success by focusing on learner variability and creating customizable learning experiences.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that guides educators in designing learning experiences that meet the needs of all learners. It helps teachers move from a one-size-fits-all approach toward one that adapts to learner variability. UDL embraces the idea that we should have firm goals for students-using flexible means to reach those goals. The result is more equitable and engaging classrooms.

How do I know Ted would embrace UDL?

At its core, UDL is a mindset, or set of beliefs, that guides educators in everything they do. And Ted has that mindset. It's all about believing-in students and their potential; in the importance of the process as much as the result; and in the power of continual growth, reflection, and lifelong learning.

Begin by Embracing Four Beliefs

While we become teachers to positively impact students, it's easy to feel overwhelmed with day-to-day challenges, especially in these past few years. Still, ask any teacher, and they'll say that the goal of education is more than just helping students acquire and regurgitate knowledge. Instead, we want to equip children with tools for success-show them how to reach their goals and prepare them for ever-changing jobs and a world we can't quite imagine. So how can we do this?

I won't pretend it's easy, but it's crucial to commit to the UDL mindset in order to have success. Embracing the following four beliefs is the first step in designing learning experiences that serve all students.

1. All students can reach the high expectations we set. When we set firm goals for all students, we're sending the message that we believe they're capable. We start by clearly identifying the goals we're focusing on. Then, reflect honestly: Do we truly believe that every student can reach these goals?

As a teacher, I involved students in tracking and monitoring their goals by creating digital Data Notebooks where we tracked academic, behavioral, and other goals. We had frequent one-on-one check-ins and monitored these together. These opportunities to conference around goals made them more manageable and helped us all stay committed to them.

2. Barriers to success exist in the system, not in the students. After firm goals are set, we need to recognize that external barriers can prevent students from being successful. Therefore, we need to be flexible by providing multiple pathways for students to reach their goals. When planning, we can ask ourselves, "What barriers might arise within each of these factors: curriculum, teaching methods, resources, materials, and assessments?"

Multiple means of engagement: Learners vary in how they are motivated and want to engage in learning, so we can provide multiple options for engagement.

Multiple means of representation: Learners perceive and comprehend information differently, so we can provide multiple options for acquiring knowledge.

Multiple means of action and expression: Learners vary in how they navigate learning and express what they know, so we can provide multiple options for them to demonstrate learning.

When teaching, I aimed to address many barriers before we began a unit. Sometimes students didn't have background knowledge, so we'd cover relevant topics and skills at the start. Other times, content wasn't academically interesting or culturally relevant, so we found ways to tie it to their lives. I realized that many students needed clearer directions, checklists, and check-ins, so I created systems within our classroom to address this.

3. Learner variability is the norm, so a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. We can empower students with choices and autonomy so that they can overcome those barriers and reach their goals. This belief allows us to embrace the three UDL principles that help us design more accessible, inclusive, and engaging learning experiences:

We can put these principles into practice in many ways. Are there opportunities for students to have choice in what topic they study and how they take in information (reading, listening, watching)? Can we create scaffolds for students? Or offer choices in how they demonstrate their learning?

When I created units, I started by looking at our goals and brainstorming ways in which I could offer students autonomy that would still lead them to those goals. Sometimes, they chose their own text or topic. Other times, I offered materials in multiple modalities for them to choose from: reading, watching, and/or listening. Lastly, I saw so much creativity and engagement when students had a choice over how they demonstrated their learning-for example, choosing between a written response, a slide presentation, or a video.

4. Continual self-reflection leads to lifelong, expert learners. There's a lot of uncertainty around the future of work and our world. We know that the ability to learn is crucial. The ultimate goal of UDL is to develop "expert learners" who are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal-directed. Even though this approach may make us nervous, when we show trust by giving students choices, when we teach them how to reflect on those choices and their work, and when we value growth as much as results, we are developing expert learners.

In my teaching, I focused on creating an environment where students felt safe and valued. To emphasize growth, I offered opportunities for revisions rather than only grading final work. I built reflection questions into both our end-of-unit review and our everyday work, mainly through exit tickets. Students practiced reflecting on their work and their choices: If they could do the assignment over again, would they have made the same choices? Why or why not?

Start Small

Of course there's more to great teaching, preparing our students for the future, and applying UDL than these four beliefs, but it's only if we hold these beliefs that the other pieces then fall into place.

With so much on their plates, many teachers are feeling overwhelmed right now. It's OK to start small: Commit every day to having high expectations for allstudents. Believe in them. You can print out this 4 Beliefs poster and put it on your desk. Encourage your colleagues to do the same. While it may not seem like you're doing much, you'll be able to feela difference. And better yet, so will your students. Over time, believing in your students can lead to their believing in themselves, which is a gift that'll last a lifetime.

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4 Principles of a Universal Design for Learning Approach

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Teachers can encourage high school students' success by focusing on learner variability and creating customizable learning experiences.

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This site is a great tool for learners, parents, and teachers/designers. It has extensive links for additional information for each of the learner groups. It helps each group to understand the general needs for each other.

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By Allison Posey, MEd, CAST, Inc.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework developed by CAST, an Understood founding partner. UDL guides the design of learning experiences to proactively meet the needs of all learners. When you use UDL, you assume that barriers to learning are in the design of the environment, not in the student. UDL is based on brain science and evidence-based educational practices. It also leverages the power of digital technology.

Imagine this: Your students are going to write an essay on the stages of butterfly metamorphosis.

Some students have seen butterflies grow through the different stages at a local science museum. These students are excited to share what they know. Other students don't know anything about butterflies and are nervous about writing on this topic. And some students don't like to write - they dread this activity from the moment you say "essay."

In any class, you know there's a wide range of enthusiasm, background, and skills among your students. When you plan with this range in mind, you can approach the lesson in several ways.

You could share a mini-lesson on butterfly metamorphosis and have students use a guided worksheet as they write. Or you could set up stations where students are grouped using flexible grouping around understanding of the topic, language ability, or reading level.

But take a step back. In any lesson or task, you can anticipate this range of variability among your students. There's another approach you can take to plan for this variability in all your lessons: Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Why use Universal Design for Learning?

The ultimate goal of UDL is for all learners to become "expert learners." Expert learners are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal-directed about learning.

UDL is a powerful approach because from the very start of your lesson, it helps you anticipate and plan for all your learners. It can help you make sure that the greatest range of students can access and engage in learning - not just certain students.

You don't need specific tools or technologies to follow UDL's principles either. Instead, your students choose from the tools and resources you already have. They might use them in different ways.

Also, UDL may change how you think about what prevents students from learning. Instead of thinking that something needs to change about the students, UDL looks at the learning environment. The learning environment can include barriers to learning, like the design of the curricular goals, assessments, methods, and materials. In this way, the learning environment itself can be "abled" or "dis-abled."

UDL gives you a framework to follow so you can reduce the barriers to learning. The main way to do this is to prepare a learning environment where students have what they need to flexibly meet learning goals.

What does UDL look like in the classroom?

Universal design can be found just about anywhere you look - both inside and outside your school. Curb cuts change sidewalks so that they're accessible to the greatest range of users, including people who use wheelchairs and those pushing strollers. Closed captions make television accessible to people who are deaf or who have hearing loss, as well as people at the gym or spouses who can't agree whether or not to keep the TV on at night. No two forms of universal design are the same.

Universal Design for Learning looks different in every classroom. But there are commonalities. To start with, there's always a focus on building expert learning for all. Other common elements of a UDL experience include:

All learners knowing the goal

Intentional, flexible options for all students to use

Student access to resources from the start of a lesson

Students building and internalizing their own learning

In a UDL environment, students rarely do the same task in the same way at the same time. The flexible options will differ across developmental ages. But the framework for having clear goals and flexible options is consistent no matter the grade level or content areas.

How can I use the three principles of UDL?

UDL describes human variability based on parts of the brain that manage the "why" (affective network), the "what" (recognition network), and the "how" (strategic network) of learning. Watch as CAST co-founder David Rose explains why UDL emphasizes variability instead of disability.

CAST developed UDL guidelines that are based on three main principles that align with these learning networks. The three UDL principles are engagement, representation, and action and expression.

The chart below includes the three UDL principles adapted from CAST. It also gives you some questions to consider and lists some examples of the principles in action. You can print a one-page version of this chart to have on hand while planning a lesson, activity, or routine for your students.

Provide multiple means of engagement

Provide multiple means of representation

Provide multiple means of action and expression

How can families support this at home?

Families may not be familiar with the concept of students being active participants in setting their learning goals. They may have questions about letting students make their own learning choices.

Explain at back-to-school night or in a class email that you'll be using Universal Design for Learning. You can even share a family-friendly article about the UDL approach to teaching.

Assure families that you have high expectations for all students to become expert learners in your classroom. And explain that you'll keep working with the students and their families to build the skills and interest to make that happen.

How do I use UDL during distance learning?

Read these articles to learn how to use UDL with distance learning.

Additional CAST resources to explore

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework developed by CAST, an Understood founding partner. UDL guides the design of learning experiences to proactively meet the needs of all learners. When you use UDL, you assume that barriers to learning are in the design of the environment, not in the student.

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This site provides an overview of guidelines as well as more in depth information on UDL. It offers a concise history of UDL and then provides the guidelines. This is a great resource.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Reenvisioning the UDL Guidelines

Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.

This update will focus specifically on addressing systemic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes. CAST aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and community-driven process. If you are interested in collaborating and staying updated on our progress, we invite you to complete a brief survey.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.