Universal Design for Learning

“Universal Design for Learning is a philosophy that enables teachers to re-examine the critical components of education - like instructional materials, objectives, methods, assessments, and such - to design rich lessons that incorporate multiple ways of gaining information and knowledge” (Jackson, n.d.).

Using the UDL Lesson Plan template each member of our team designed lessons on animal adaptations for a 5^th Grade Science class. We designed specific lessons focusing on the various types of adaptations including migration, physical, behavioral, mimicry, and camouflage to be taught following the introductory lesson that would target solutions for our scenario. As a group we focused on designing our lesson with the four planning questions in mind: what will students learn, which strategies will provide evidence of student learning, which strategies will help students acquire and integrate learning, and which strategies will help students practice, review, and apply learning?

After designing my lesson on Mimicry I chose the most appropriate technologies to support that lesson and made sure that each activity was “Network-Appropriate”. As Pitler, Hubbell, Kuh, & Malenosk point out if "applied effectively, technology implementation not only increases student learning, understanding, and achievement but also augments motivation to learn, encourages collaborative learning, and supports the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills (as cited in Schacter & Fagnano, 1999, p. 3). I felt that the readings helped prepare me in understanding how to support the diverse recognition networks, diverse strategic networks, and affective networks when planning my lesson. The chapter on Designing Instruction from the Cast website has valuable resources for teachers in choosing teaching strategies suited to each of the brain networks. This website will be an invaluable source for me as I lead teachers in modeling and designing lessons that utilize technology to meet the needs of diverse learners.

References:

Jackson, R. (n.d.) Lessonbuilder.cast.org. Universal Design and Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved from http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/window.php?src=videos

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.