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Happy Tuesday, #TeamInclusion! I have a guest post today that co-teachers and UDL advocates will want to read and share. It's by Dr. Deborah Taub, a UDL/inclusive ed expert and the Director of Research and Programs at Keystone Assessment. Through some short but powerful vignettes, she shows us what's possible when co-teachers embrace UDL principles while planning instruction for students with special needs.

After you read this, tell us your experience: Does instructional planning in your school sound more like the first or second example? What are your barriers, if any, to adopting the planning approach Mrs. Summers and Mr. Harris took? What resources can we develop to help you? Read on, and then share your thoughts in the comments below!

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There are often two questions about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that I hear when training:

1. Why would I do this? It is no different from differentiated instruction, and

2. How in the world would I do this? It is huge!

Two quick vignettes of teachers planning for instruction illustrate the answer to both questions.

Ms. Jacobs and Mr. Snyder are planning instruction for Dawn, a student with complex instructional needs who is included in Ms. Jacobs' English class.

Ms. Jacobs: We are reading The Giver for the next couple of weeks. The students will be creating a timeline of a historical event and examining how it connects to their lives as a part of the social studies curriculum.

Mr. Snyder: Dawn can't read, so I don't think The Giver is going to be possible for her. And the subject matter doesn't really connect to her daily life so maybe I'll give her an adapted copy of Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge instead. It also deals with the importance of memories and forgetting and it is written at a second grade reading level so it should be easier to understand than The Giver.

Ms. Jacobs: Oh, that is a great idea. And maybe her timeline could be sequencing from her daily schedule instead of from history?

Now compare these teachers to Mrs. Summers and Mr. Harris, who are also planning for a student with complex instructional needs included in Mrs. Summers' English class.

Mrs. Summers: We are working on the themes and ideas in The Giver. The students will be creating a timeline of a historical event and examining how it connects to their lives as a part of the social studies curriculum.

Mr. Harris: I love that book-but it can be a bit of a barrier for some of our students unless we pair it with some accessibility supports. We can easily get some adapted versions of The Giver and maybe offer students the opportunity to partner read or use their online text readers.

Mrs. Summers: Yes, that makes sense. We may want to highlight key words or pictures to summarize the main points for some of our students who will still need additional help. And while we are at it, let's think about how to make it a bit more engaging for some of our students...maybe we can start with timelines related to their own lives and then move from there to historical events that shaped their world instead of from a historical event to themselves. It can go both ways.

Mr. Harris: Plus we could use some online timeline creation tools, pictures, or text-based timelines to provide students with lots of ways to engage with the timeline and get interested in the task.

The difference between these two conversations is subtle, but it illustrates one of the key ways differentiated instruction and UDL differ-as well as one of the biggest leaps teachers need to make if they are going to move to UDL-designed curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The biggest difference (and the most vital change teachers need to make to move to UDL-designed curriculum, instruction, materials, and assessment) is moving from the idea that the student is what creates barriers to learning to the idea that the curriculum, instruction, materials, and assessment create the barriers. And, while the conversations above may seem only minutely different, the belief that the student has the potential to access and make progress toward any goal significantly changes the way teachers approach planning, instruction, and assessment.

Consider the classic study by Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) that examined how student performance and teacher expectations were tied together. They found that "when we expect certain behaviors of others, we are likely to act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to occur" (Rosenthal and Babad, 1985). Our instructional decisions are based on our expectations, even if we are not necessarily consciously aware of them.

When we work from the premise that the barrier is within the student, then our job as educators is to fix the student so he can access instruction and materials. This belief sets up limits for all the things a school system can't change about a student: missing limbs, intellectual disabilities, an impoverished home, language and cultural differences, etc. When we work from the premise that barriers are within the instruction and materials, then our job as educators is to change instruction and materials to remove and reduce those barriers. We, as educators and school systems have control over those things.

This doesn't mean it isn't difficult. Looking at creating a UDL classroom may seem absolutely overwhelming. Consider the CAST website for their curriculum self-check: it is HUGE. There are so many things to think about. And then, on top of that, for students with complex learning needs you are still probably going to need to add some individualized supports on top of the universally designed curriculum, like Mrs. Summers and Mr. Harris did when they added summarized text or pictures to represent key concepts and ideas from the full text. Conceptualizing the barrier as being within the curriculum, instruction and materials rather than the student may seem overwhelming for what initially seems like a tiny difference in how these two sets of teachers plan and teach. In my experience though, it is that single key difference that helps create a UDL classroom. It is that single key difference that improves students' opportunities to learn and sets up systems that improve student performance. In addition, it is that key difference that sets the stage for inclusive practices. So, if you want to build an inclusive classroom, the biggest step you can take is to change how you think about barriers.

Want to hear more from Deborah Taub? Be sure to check out this podcast she did on alternate assessment over at Think Inclusive, and this post on leaving behind the notion of inclusion as a place.

More on presuming the competence of all learners: "Presuming Competence: What It Is, What It Looks Like"

Deborah Taub is Director of Research and Programs at Keystone Assessment, where she provides research and professional development assistance for states, territories, and other entities working to develop and sustain best practice. She has assisted states in building and evaluating systemic programs, especially around issues of inclusive practice for students with complex instructional needs, such as those with low incidence disabilities or who are dually identified as having a disability and ELL. Dr. Taub has designed, implemented, and evaluated alternate assessments for students with significant cognitive disabilities, developed UDL and standards-based curricula and instruction, and conducted validity and alignment evaluations. She's an advisory member of National Center for Universal Design for Learning's UDL Taskforce, and a member of the TASH Inclusive Education Committee and the Council for Exceptional Children's CCSS Advisory Group.

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Your first step toward a UDL-designed classroom: Change how you think about barriers (Guest post) - Brookes Blog

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Happy Tuesday, #TeamInclusion! I have a guest post today that co-teachers and UDL advocates will want to read and share. It's by Dr. Deborah Taub, a UDL/inclusive ed expert and the Director of Research and Programs at Keystone Assessment. Through some short but powerful vignettes, she shows us what's possible when co-teachers embrace UDL principles [...]

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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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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

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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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~5 minutes: Facilitators introduce the goals. Facilitator assigns a note taker and a time keeper.
~7 Minutes: Watch Video: http://courseware.cast.educationalmediasolutions.net/udlNH-web/#session-001

This brief, approximately seven-minute video answers questions about UDL and UDL in practice. It provides resources that provide learners the opportunity to explore what UDL looks like in practice.

~10 minutes: Each person goes around, explains which article/video/resource they explored being sure to highlight the key takeaway(s).

~25 minutes: The team(s) discuses the following: What is UDL? How is UDL different from differentiated instruction? Is differentiated instruction ever needed when implementing UDL?

~10 minutes: Debrief this meeting: What went well? What would the team like to do differently next time? Look ahead to meeting 2 and determine what each team member will read/watch for next meeting.

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Video and brief article providing a UDL overview. From British Columbia.

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You may want to assign one of these selections as pre-reading. Consider to what books your team has access.

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You may want to use one or more of these videos during the meeting, or assign to watch beforehand.

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Assign pre-reading and choose materials to use all together during meeting times.
The materials below are options to guide you.

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Every member of team has an understanding of UDL

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Loui Lord Nelson, PHD provides an introduction to UDL and implementation

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of UDL Theory and Practice

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Read Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice for Free in Clusive! - CAST

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Our flagship publication is now available at no cost on our flexible and customizable digital reading tool.

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Intro from David Rose

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National Center on Universal Design for Learning

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Making Sense of Universal Design for Learning

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Making Sense of Universal Design for Learning

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Alberta

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of UDL Now!

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of Your UDL Lesson Planner

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Shelley Moore explains how UDL is like bowling

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Shelley Moore: Transforming Inclusive Education