Reflections

Learning about UDL was very rewarding and empowering to me as an educator.  Prior to this class, I have heard of UDL but never really explored it in depth like I did with this blog.     The website I have explored were beneficial to my learning journey and will be beneficial to my journey in the classroom. Here's a few teacher friendly websites that any teacher can benefit from:

1. http://www.cast.org  The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) is a nonprofit research and development organization that works to expands learning opportunities for all individuals through UDL.  This website has a plethora of information about UDL and tools for teachers. 

2. http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/ This webpage provide teachers with toolkits to understand and apply UDL principles in the classroom. The toolkits support different learning styles and needs. 

3. http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ This webpage provides teachers with information about UDL, how to implement UDL into the classroom, identifying curriculum barriers for students, example lesson plans and much more. 

4. http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines  Here you will find information about the specific guidelines of UDL and how these guidelines can assist a teacher in lesson planning.

5. http://www.udlcenter.org/implementation/examples Here you can find teacher friendly examples and resources for each UDL checkpoint. These examples and resources help teachers with implementing UDL in their classrooms. 

As the journey continues, the next blog posts will discuss specific assistive technologies.  

How UDL Can Improve My Lesson Plans

With UDL as a the fundamental focus, assessment is always an important factor.  I recently assessed a lesson plan written for the first grade class I student taught in a few months ago. I found that my lesson incorporated fundamentals of UDL but also lacked in some areas. 

The social studies lesson was designed for students to learn about a world map, specifically the names of continents and oceans. Students were shown a colorful world map on the smart board and were asked questions to identify a continent or ocean.  For example, I would ask: "What is the name of the continent that is green?" or "What continents surround the Indian Ocean?"

After assessing my lesson, I realized I had incorporated some UDL principles, but could improve by adding more.  I feel as though I did best with providing multiple means for action and expression (Specifically: 4.1, 4.2, 5.2, 6.2, and 6.4). As an elementary teacher, I am fully aware that littles ones need movement and to best keep their focus and attention, it's best to incorporate a way for children to be active and be able to express their views in any way.  My biggest challenge was providing multiple means of representation, specifically 1.1, 1.2, 1.3. I could have incorporated other ways to visually  represent a world map such as putting the image on the 5 computers in the back of room (for students to look at), providing the smaller print-version of the world map for struggling students to keep at their desks.

By assessing my lesson plans with a UDL lens, I can create engaging lessons that can reach very student in the best possible way for them! 

Curriculum Barriers

It is the teacher's responsibility to diminish any barriers that are in the way of a child's learning.  The Curriculum Barriers Tools on the CAST website can help you analyze barriers for individual students in the curriculum, materials and methods of instruction. As I was completing the tutorial, a student I taught during my first grade student teaching experience came into mind and how this tool can help manage her barriers. 

Giavanna is a student who understands the material and is able to response the correct answer while participating in class; however she struggled with finishing her work on time and concentrating on on activity. She had a difficult time completing her work and consistently started a new activity without finishing a previous one. I had to constantly remind her of her tasks and keep her focused on her work. During a change of seats, I suggested to my cooperating teacher that Giavanna be seated closer to the front and with students who would be less distracting for her.  This seemed to us, as the teachers, to keep an eye on her, but she still managed to get distracted during independent work. She did not keep up with the class and was always at least one task behind the rest of the students.

After completing the tutorial, I learned that is tool can be very useful in identifying a student's weaknesses and problem-areas to help form solutions.  As this will be my responsibility as a classroom teacher, the tool can help me assess ways to make changes to my instruction to help a student. 

The next blog will discuss how UDL can improve my lesson plans as a teacher!

Sources:
http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/tools/curriculumbarriers.cfm

Teaching Every Student

As we have learned, teaching to every student can be a difficult task for any teacher to overcome.  The "Teaching Every Student" webpage on Cast.org is a great tool for teachers to understand the basics of UDL in the classroom as well as how to add a variety of approaches into lesson plans.  The webpage gives readers the opportunity to browse, review and complete activities that will allow them to gain knowledge to support the variety of learners in their classroom.  

Basics 

Here you can find the basics to supporting diverse learners in the classroom.   A multimedia book, short video clips and information about UDL is a great starting point for any teacher. 

Activities
We all have different strengths and challenges that shape the way we learn.  The activities here provide the opportunity to become acquainted with the networks of the brain allowing you to learn how the brain works. This a great tool to see how every individual thinks differently. 

Case Stories
Here you can explore case stories that discuss classroom challenges with solutions revolved around UDL.  The cases each give extensive information on how UDL approaches in lesson planning can engage all learners and ensure learning. 

I really enjoyed exploring this website because it has a substantial amount of helpful information for me as a new teacher and how I can use UDL to teach to every student.  By understanding the workings of UDL, I am empowering myself to become a better teacher, and empowering my students to enjoy their unique learning process. 

The CAST webpage also provides extensive information on UDL including lesson plans and digital books.  CLICK HERE to access the page!  ENJOY! 


The next blog will discuss curriculum barriers to overcome. 

Sources:
http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/. 

UDL's Three Strategic Networks

As mentioned in previous posts, UDL provides educators guidelines for creating instructional goals, methods, materials and assessments that work for EVERY student.  Each individual is unique to the way they learn and UDL emphasizes the important aspect of neuroscience that reveals the unique differences of individuals.  The image below describes the three primary brain networks that affects learning. 

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

Here's what I think about when referring to UDL and the brain networks:

Recognition Present information and content in different ways

Strategic Differentiate the ways that students can express what they know

Affective Stimulate interest and motivation for learning 

Here's comprehensive information about the three main principles of UDL. 

 UDL Guidelines

My next blog will discuss how understanding the three strategic networks can help teachers reach every student. 

Sources:

http://www.cast.org/udl/index.html 

Technology Toolkit for UDL

With the help of UDL, educators have the ability to reach every student by tapping into their unique, individual learning style(s).  With that in mind, it's important to be a prepared classroom teacher with a variety of tools and strategies to ensure student success. 

A common misconception is that assistive technology is expensive. There are many inexpensive and even FREE tools that can be downloaded on classroom computers to help struggling learners.  The following is a list of helpful tools geared towards elementary students that I liked learning about and will use in the future. 

Graphic Organizers

 Free Templates by ThinkPort  

 Bubbl.us  

Literacy Tools

StarFall       

Into the Book        

ReadWorks  

Study Skills Tools

Word Stash        

Literactive      

Inkless Tales 

Research Tools

Sweet Search    

Kids Click

Audio Books

Storyline Online    

The Mother Goose Club

Math Tools

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives      

Math Playground     

Writing Tools

Spelling City

Little Bird Tales

Text-to-Speech/Speech-to-Text

Announcify

Voki 

Collaborative Tools

Linoit 

Multimedia and Digital Storytelling 

Story Maker

Additional Free Tools

ReadWriteThink

ZacBrowser

Tools for Special Needs Students 

Click here to get a full list of technology tools to help in the classroom! 

UDL helps educators with creating instructional goals and with using different methods, materials and assessments that work for everyone.  It also helps diminish the belief that a 'one-size-fits all' attitude to teaching children is not the way to go.

One size DOES NOT fit all! 

My next blog will take an in-depth look as to why UDL is fundamentally necessary for the success of students. 

Sources:

http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/ 

http://users.edmonson.k12.ky.us/teachers/rsaltsman/websites.html