EDUC 5313: Week 5 Blog

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Week 5 Blog:
Reflection on my Lesson with UDL Principles in mind

    For this week’s reading, I chose the article UDL and Intellectual Disability: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go? by Rao, Smith, and Lowrey (2017). The authors describe how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can support students with disabilities to make meaningful inclusion by making sure they are truly engaged in learning with their peers, instead of just placing them in classrooms. They emphasize UDL's strength in its flexibility and also deliver multiple opportunities for representation, action and expression, and engagement, allowing students with diverse needs to participate in the classroom and succeed among their same-age peers.

    The study argues that, while UDL is usually advocated in policy and practice, research on how it especially benefits students with intellectual disabilities is limited. The research they analyzed shows promising outcomes when UDL principles are included into training from the beginning, particularly when paired with evidence-based methods such as visual aids, systematic instruction, and chances for engagement (Rao et al., 2017). Something that stood out to me was their emphasis on creating lessons with accessibility in mind from the start, rather than adapting or adding modifications later. Being a special education teacher my entire career, this is exactly how I’ve always created my lessons. I adapt and modify from the very beginning. Honestly, I never really thought about teachers adding them in later, because for me, it’s second nature to plan with those supports already in place.

    I can see these ideas connecting to my own lesson, “Angle Adventures: Solving for Unknown Angles.” In my adapted 8th grade math classroom, I try to always make it my goal when I plan lessons to have multiple ways of accessing content and showing learning. For example, in this lesson, students use color-coded guided notes and anchor charts for vocabulary (multiple means of representation), solve problems and explain their reasoning on paper or digitally with Kami or by video (multiple means of action and expression), and connect angles to real-world examples like designing a skate park or mini golf park (multiple means of engagement). I also provide scaffolds like sentence stems, manipulatives, and the option to submit video explanations, which lines up perfectly with the UDL principles the authors described (CAST, 2018).

    Reading this article made me realize how many UDL principles I already use when planning my lessons... Again, I think that just comes naturally with the experience of being a special education teacher. This article also makes me think about ways I could go a step further, not just making my lessons more accessible, but making sure that my students with IEPs are engaged in ways that increase both their confidence as well as their independence.

    This week we had to look at the article, Early Learning and Educational Technology Policy Brief (Office of Educational Technology, 2021) and reflect on the guidance regarding integration of UDL strategies as it relates to the Digital Use Divide. I noticed a lot of connections between this and my work with middle school students that are in special education. The article talks about how technology can benefit all students to learn better when using UDL principles. It also stated that teachers often don't have the time, training, or support they need to apply these strategies effectively. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve experienced this firsthand. So much of what I know about UDL I had to learn on my own. I recently read UDL Now!: A Teacher’s Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning by Dr. Katie Novak outside of my district PD because I wanted to better understand how to put these strategies into practice for my students. That book gave me real, practical ways to build lessons that are flexible and student-centered, and it’s shaped how I design activities like my “Angle Adventures” lesson. Although I am still not perfect and always learning, I truly try to implement as many UDL strategies that I can.

    Just like the article said and something I agree with, is that educators (especially in under-resourced schools), don’t have access to the tools or professional learning they need to integrate UDL and technology into their daily instruction. This is very true for so many of the teachers I work with, especially general ed teachers who are trying to reach a wide range of learners without much guidance on differentiation. I know technology can really benefit students who need multiple ways to access content. For example, text-to-speech tools, online manipulatives, or allowing students to explain their work through a video instead of just writing it down. But as the article says, these tools don't get used as often as they should without the necessary training and support. Reading the article made me realize that even while happy with some of the UDL strategies I've added to my own teaching, there is still a far bigger problem in the system. Teachers need time and materials not only to learn about UDL but also to use it and think about how it affects how well their students learn. Until then, a lot of the burden will stay with individual teachers to find it themselves, which is what I've attempted to do, but I realize not everyone has the time or energy or desire to do so.

References:

CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning guidelines version 2.2. http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Office of Educational Technology. (2021). Early Learning and Educational Technology Policy Brief. 

    Retrieved from https://tech.ed.gov/earlylearning

Rao, K., Smith, S. J., & Lowrey, K. A. (2017). UDL and intellectual disability: What do we know 

    and where do we go? Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 55(1), 37–47. 

    https://doi.org/10.1352/1934-9556-55.1.37