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Universal Design for Learning versus Differentiated Instruction

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There is a difference between UDL and DI. Knowing the difference and when to use them can make for better learning of all students.

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Dr. Baked Potato: How can we scaffold complexity?

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Dr. Baked Potato: How can we scaffold complexity?

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Witty and intelligent, Dr. Shelley Moore explains Scaffolding Complexity. She explains how students are unique and thus their learning styles are unique. She warns against a one way of learning for all. Watch as she explains the importance of a UDL model of learning.

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Dr. Baked Potato: How can we scaffold complexity?

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Following this flowchart will help teachers with the basic concepts behind planning for Science or Social Studies UDL Lessons.

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Planning a UDL Lesson with the UDL Flowchart: 6 Questions to Guide Your Planning

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In the 1980's Dr. David Rose and Dr. Anne Meyer, researchers at the Harvard School of Graduate Education, and the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) developed a Universal Design for Learning (UDL). This Step-by-Step planner is adapted for the CAST guidelines to help teachers plan lessons using UDL.

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This pdf was created for teacher observations. This walkthrough checklist will help teachers and administrators understand what should be seen in a classroom utilizing a Universal Design for Learning. This way of teaching and learning is beneficial for all students and should be implemented daily.

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Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

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Universal Design for Learning Guidelines

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Dr. Rose and Dr. Meyer with The Center of Applied Special Technology (CAST) created UDL principles that are organized into three categories: Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression. The goal is to increase access to learning and reduce barriers while supporting and challenging students of all needs. Explore this website to learn more about the principles of UDL. There are links on each principle that give suggestions and tips on how to present material, allow for group work, support students, and assess students on what has been learned.

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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.

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How to Supercharge 5 Traditional Teaching Strategies with UDL

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How to Supercharge 5 Traditional Teaching Strategies with UDL

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Brookes Publishing is an independent publishing company founded in 1978. They are the publishers of research-based resources that support children’s healthy development and boost the learning and success of all people, with and without disabilities. Here teachers will find tips on how to engage learners using a UDL model.

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If you're an educator who swears by traditional, tried-and-true teaching strategies, the idea of embracing universal design for learning (UDL) might be a little overwhelming. But UDL doesn't have to equal a top-to-bottom overhaul of everything you're doing now. With a little planning, it can also fit right in with traditional teaching strategies-and infuse your lesson plans with new life and energy.

Today's post shows how five teachers weave UDL into commonly used teaching methods: lectures, Q&As, drill and practice, class discussions, and problem solving. You'll learn about practical ways to:

foster collaboration and community

recruit learners' interest

optimize choice and autonomy

display information in multiple ways

help students monitor their own progress

guide students' information processing

and more

(These examples were adapted from by Patti Kelly Ralabate, a guidebook that walks K-12 educators through the entire UDL lesson planning process, from developing learning goals to monitoring student progress.)

Lectures are a great way to share a large amount of information with a big group in a short amount of time. But they can also be unengaging for learners and are less likely to lead to deep understanding of the material. Here's how Kelly punches up her lectures with UDL strategies (she's a college professor, but middle and high school teachers can try these approaches, too):

Kelly starts her lectures with a provocative question or quote to recruit her learners' interest.

She begins with a KWL exercise (what do you know, want to know, what did you learn?) to activate background knowledge.

She keeps her lectures to 15 to 20 minutes and builds in opportunities for short peer-to-peer discussions or pause-and-reflect events every 5 to 10 minutes. This gives learners a chance to act on the new information and move it from short-term memory to working memory and to long-term memory.

During pauses, she asks learners to respond to questions by a show of hands or another classroom assessment technique.

Kelly provides a lecture guide that organizes content into chunks to guide information processing.

To clarify novel vocabulary, an important strategy for English language learners, Kelly includes a glossary.

Slides help Kelly display information in an alternative way. She uses bullets, graphics, and bold font on slides to highlight critical features and big ideas. Her slides are uncluttered and contain no more than four to six lines of text. That way, she can set the text in 24-point font, large enough to be visible from the back row.

Kelly makes her slides available before or during her lectures so students can follow along and individuals with visual impairments can use a screen reader to translate the information.

Kelly is careful not to use color (particularly red and orange) to convey information, because this makes it less accessible to learners who are colorblind.

Q&As are an ancient and effective teaching technique. They help teachers assess student comprehension and help students with information processing and the transfer and generalization of content. Here's how Luis, a high school social studies teacher, infuses UDL into his Q&A sessions with students.

Luis uses multiple ways to display models of the types of questions that students can ask him or each other. He communicates these models on the whiteboard, an easy-to-read wall chart, and placards at each group's table.

After he provides students with content in a variety of ways (e.g., text, readings, video, narrated slides, topical blogs), Luis holds an "interrogation" session, when students can ask him questions on the topic.

To foster collaboration and community, groups of students develop the interrogation questions.

To optimize challenge, Luis uses "call sticks"-which he refers to as the Question Lottery-to determine when each group will ask questions. Students enjoy the unpredictable aspect of the Question Lottery.

Luis promotes high expectations to optimize motivation by assigning a question type to a group. Sometimes he optimizes choice and autonomy by letting students choose their own question types.

Learner groups are encouraged to use multiple tools to display their questions-prompt cards, slides, or online tools.

To build comprehension and maximize transfer, each student in Luis's class takes a turn at notetaking for the rest of the class. The notes are shared via a class wiki or through printed copies.

Drill and practice may not be every student's favorite way to learn, but it's still used widely to help students move novel content from working memory into long-term memory. Here's how Kathleen, a speech-language pathologist, works UDL strategies into her drill-and-practice methods to reinforce what general education teachers have taught.

To develop self-assessment and reflection, each learner has a speech-language binder for his or her work products. In the front of the binder is a chart with each student's personal learning goals (written in student-friendly language).

To enhance their capacity to monitor their own progress, Kathleen has learners routinely check their progress charts and report the goals they're working on as their session begins.

Kathleen carefully sets up the learning environment to minimize distractions so students can be successful.

Kathleen offers timely, meaningful, mastery-oriented feedback to guide students in charting their own progress.

To reinforce lesson content and optimize relevance, Kathleen uses multiple materials, including authentic demonstrations, short videos, digital tools, and apps designed to reinforce new information.

Kathleen plans sessions that gradually decrease the scaffolds and supports necessary for learners to communicate effectively.

Discussions are a time-honored learning technique; they help build comprehension of the material as they foster collaboration and community. Here's how James, a career-technology educator specializing in automobile technology, infuses UDL strategies into class discussions:

First, the students divide into pairs with one student (who plays the role of the technician) explaining the problem to the other (who plays the role of the uninformed client).

Learners share their experiences and observations with the entire class, highlighting patterns, critical features, and big ideas of their paired discussions.

James draws this information out with discussion probes that he posts for all the students to view.

As the students share with the class, James provides an alternative for the auditory information, guides information processing, and promotes understanding across languages by using a whiteboard to display specific points.

Problem solving and mental modeling-teaching learners how to visualize and solve puzzles you pose for them-helps learners move information from working memory to long-term memory. Here's how Nick, a middle school science teacher, pairs problem-solving with UDL strategies in his lesson on kinetic and potential energy:

Nick offers a variety of media resources to illustrate energy transformation and build or activate background knowledge. Students can choose to view a video about the transfer of energy, operate an interactive app demonstrating how energy transforms during a roller coaster ride, or read a short article about the kinetic and potential energy of a golf ball.

To guide information processing, Nick distributes a detailed guide and discusses the steps in developing a mental model using multiple media, including the whiteboard and passages from the science text.

Nick asks students to construct and illustrate mental models of the energy transformation involved as objects of various sizes are dropped onto a chute. He encourages students to use multiple tools to draw their mental models.

To foster collaboration and optimize challenge, students share their ideas in small, diverse groups.

On their way out, Nick's students complete exit tickets to monitor their learning

Do you have your own experience with weaving UDL into traditional teaching strategies? Tell us your best tips in the comments below!

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How to Supercharge 5 Traditional Teaching Strategies with UDL - Brookes Blog

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If you're an educator who swears by traditional, tried-and-true teaching strategies, the idea of embracing universal design for learning (UDL) might be a little overwhelming. But UDL doesn't have to equal a top-to-bottom overhaul of everything you're doing now. With a little planning, it can also fit right in with traditional teaching strategies-and infuse your [...]

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Teaching Science through the Lens of Universal Design for Learning

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Teaching Science through the Lens of Universal Design for Learning

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Here, Katie Novak, advocate for equity and inclusive practices, hosts a webinar about how to implement UDL in the classroom during science lessons. Her guests include Education Consultant, Mirko Chardin and 8th grade science teacher, Fatima Sammy. In this webinar, teachers will learn the importance of UDL in the science classroom as well as how to plan and work with team members to build UDL lessons that will benefit all learners.

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Teaching Science through the Lens of Universal Design for Learning

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Watch as 5th grade science teacher, Eric Crouch tells his story of being an Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) learner and how he feels he would have benefited from UDL. Now, teaching students himself, he understands the importance of Universal Design for Learning and how he implements it in his classroom, daily. See how students learn, and their motivation and joy when a UDL model is used during his science class.

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Teacher, Ms. Peterson-Tardif gives an example of how to setup a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) science lesson using technology and textbooks.

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Teacher, Ms. Peterson-Tardif shows how to provide students with options for showing what they have learned in a science lesson.

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Learn to be inclusive in the way students engage with and explain science. Here teachers will find links to PBS (Public Broadcasting System) sample lessons for elementary grades K-2 and 3-5. These sample lessons can help teachers plan their own UDL lessons based on their school's/county's curriculum.

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Universal Design for Social Studies Planning

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One of the best resources for planning a UDL lesson for Social Studies. This website offers already made lessons for different grades and topics as well as suggestions for when teachers are planning their own lessons and assessing students.

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UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING FOR SOCIAL STUDIES

The philosophy that educational excellence is achieved by offering multiple paths to understanding is vividly illustrated by the talk by L. Todd Rose called The Myth of Average.

To make the learning of History and Social Studies accessible for all, educators have increasingly built upon the research program of CAST, the organization that first articulated and developed the framework of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Primary sources-including from the Library of Congress-offer distinctive, powerful, flexible tools to expand choices and means of access that support and mesh well with UDL principles.

Minarik & Lintner, p. 45. Adapted from Glenna Gustafson and Tamara Wallace, "Radford University Lesson Planning Template with UDL," 2010.

UDL draws upon brain-based research on learning to encourage educators to provide multiple means of engagement, representation, expression and action for all students. (A good place to start is CAST's detailed graphic explaining the three principles: UDL Guidelines.)

Emerging America courses employ a UDL + Cultural Considerations checklist as a lesson plan design tool (see box) from Darren Minarik and Timothy Lintner's excellent book, Social Studies and Exceptional Learners, published by the National Council for the Social Studies. (2016). Their checklist reminds us to incorporate all three elements of UDL, with a fourth element, "Cultural Considerations." Find many examples of accessible lesson plans with checklist completed in our library of Teaching Resources.

Engagement

Princess at a Puerto Rican festival
in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Mario Monteno. 1987.
​​​​​​Library of Congress.
https://www.loc.gov/item/awhbib000060/

Students engage with course content in many ways. Deepen ownership and engagement through personalized content, a variety of classroom activities, thoughtful attention to the size and structure of learning groups, access to authentic community resources, and especially through student choice.

Note that while choice of activities is vital, many students need for their choices to occur within consistent, repeated classroom routines. Always present clear goals and instructions, and provide timely and focused support.

Select topics and materials with intrinsic student interest, such as:

primary sources that feature voices, perspectives, or experiences of young people (journals, newspaper accounts, photos, or artwork)

topics connected to current events

questions and topics with flair

Personalize content to maximize student interest:

topics of study that have cultural relevance to the student's own environment, heritage, location, or situation

topics or sources in an area of interest or mastery of the student

Include experiential activities:

Students pair up to analyze sources, and complete reports in graphic organizers.

Small groups of students rotate between stations in the room to examine a variety of primary sources.

Individuals, pairs, or teams conduct research on independent projects-with strong and directed teacher support where needed.

Groups or the whole class researches and plans service-learning and civic engagement projects to address real community needs.

Model Lesson for Engagement: In Puerto Rican Identity, students examine documents and other primary sources showing various generations of Puerto Ricans engaging with Anglo-American culture while preserving their cultural identity.
Cultural Considerations:
An essential facet of engagement is to ensure that materials and approaches are culturally relevant for the particular students in your classroom.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Using Primary Sources instructional videos from the Minnesota Historical Society:

Overview (with intro) (10:05 min:sec)

Motivating Students toward Success (with intro) (9:11 mins.)

Tap Students Cultural Competence (with intro) (9:04 mins.)

Examine the Status Quo (with intro) (10:10 mins.)

Representation

Educators who follow Universal Design for Learning principles provide multiple ways to represent concepts to students of differing ability levels. When working with primary sources, teachers present a variety of sources and employ varied tools to examine them.

Above and beyond the call of duty-
Dorie Miller received the Navy Cross
at Pearl Harbor. David S. Marin. 1943.
Library of Congress.
https://www.loc.gov/item/93505848/

Primary source representations can include:

Text passages (with related translations and transcriptions)

Forms or government documents

Personal narratives and letters

Newspapers, books, and reports

Maps and blueprints

Photos, paintings, drawings

Cartoons and posters, including symbolism and captions

Sound recordings of interviews or of songs

Real artifacts from the past or reproductions of tools, household goods, or personal items

Secondary sources and teaching techniques help vary representation:

Teacher presentations, with or without audiovisual aids

Text presentation, including textbooks, non-fiction books, period fiction and poetry, or historical novels

Produced audio and video, with mix of sounds and images (podcasts, films)

Maps, including conceptual maps as well as a variety of geographic formats

Graphic organizers that use text and groups of lists

Manipulative models and representations (for example: laminated shapes placed on maps, color coded to represent categories of data)

Whole-body activities, such as standing in groups to represent economic data, or acting out a courtroom scene

Graphic organizers that use spatial relationships, diagrams, and aggregate charts.

Table of Visualization Methods
Data, Information, Concept,
Strategy, and Metaphor visualizations.
Ralph Lengler & Martin J. Eppler.
www.visual-literacy.org

Making Classroom Participation More Equitable With Hand Gestures - Edutopia.

Model Lesson for Representation: Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor uses oral histories from the Japanese Internment Camps and a mix of maps and other documents to examine American reactions to the Pearl Harbor bombing.
Resources for Representation:
Tools and approaches for Representation are woven throughout the EmergingAmerica.org pages on Disability History through Primary Sources, Assistive Technology, and Inquiry Strategies.

Thinking Maps by David Hylerle presents a coherent strategy for developing and using graphic organizers that supports learning across grades and subjects.

The Periodic Table of Visual Representation Methods chart links to dozens of options for graphic presentation. See the options in list form here.

Creek, J. (n.d.). "How to Make an Infographic" Videos & step-by-step guide. Periodic Presidents.

Action and Expression

The critical element is to create alternatives that allow students to show different strengths and to pursue paths around barriers to understanding and expression.

Ensure that assessments offer choices of mode and-where possible-of subject. See options for Assessment. Developing alternatives-and additions-to expository writing as the default means to communicate learning in History and Social Sciences enhances learning for all students. Students need opportunities to express themselves in written and spoken word, visuals, movement, objects, and technology. Primary sources can stimulate thinking and broaden means of expression.

Alternative forms of expression of learning might include:

drawing simple (or elaborate!) comic strips or graphic novel pages

preparing skits, radio-play episodes, or talking tableau presentations

writing diary entries or letters in the persona of an individual from the events being studied

creating annotated maps or diagrams showing places or events under study

preparing posters or political cartoons that advertise, educate, dramatize, or persuade

creating a data summary (weather data, population data, widows pension applications, number of ships, etc.)

Action is a powerful catalyst to learning, and incorporating movement and gesture into lessons can improve student engagement and learning outcomes. (See the research base in " How Movement and Gestures Can Improve Student Learning.")

Students hunger for means to have a voice and an impact on their world. Help students to learn the skills and dispositions of civic engagement through Civic Engagement Projects. And explore the options for service-learning projects, such as our own Windows on History project.

Model Lesson for Expression: In Monuments in Washington D.C., students design a brochure of the Monuments of Washington D.C.

Resources for Expression: See Assessment Strategies in the Accessing Inquiry pages for detailed ideas and tools.

Lincoln Memorial. Under Construction. (1915).
Harris & Ewing. Library of Congress
"https://www.loc.gov/item/2016866965/"

UDL Teaching Strategies for the Classroom

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UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING FOR SOCIAL STUDIES The philosophy that educational excellence is achieved by offering multiple paths to understanding is vividly illustrated by the talk by L. Todd Rose called The Myth of Average.

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NEA Universal Design for Learning with Primary Sources

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NEA Universal Design for Learning with Primary Sources

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This resource provides teachers with how to use primary resources in a UDL Social Studies lesson. It provides teachers with how to use historical primary sources effectively, a checklist of possible primary source options, website links for more information and documents, and a sample rubric when assessing student learning. This is a great tool when presenting and working with difficult primary sources.

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Florida Department of Education: Social Studies for All, Principals of Universal Design

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Florida Department of Education: Social Studies for All, Principals of Universal Design

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The Florida Depart of Education created this lesson planning document that breaks down the CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) principles for UDL. This resource offers lesson planning organizers and ideas for teachers to utilize when planning for Social Studies.