In my previous article on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), I had presented the historical and theoretical foundations of the concept. I had touched upon what UDL tries to achieve through the curriculum. Picking up from there, in this article, I will illustrate design considerations for lesson plans: when we are designing lessons for a diverse group of students, whom we might not have met yet, what questions do we need to think about to create lesson plans that align with UDL? These notes are mostly from Gordon, Meyer and Ross’ excellent book Universal design for learning: theory and practice (2014). Consider this a comprehensive 10 minute-guide to lesson planning with UDL. 🙂
Components of the Curriculum
Curriculum, in the traditional sense is seen as a sequence of information that must be conveyed through a a set of instructional materials, such as books. This puts the curriculum at the centre as something which is fixed and must be worked with, causing students who cannot work with it to be labeled ‘disabled’ or ‘challenged’ (Gordan et al., 2014). UDL takes a different look at curriculum.
The aim of UDL is to express the curriculum such that it can be understood by everyone, thus, it is a learner-centric approach: the learners are who the teachers work with and if something does not work out, the curriculum needs to change to meet the needs of the learners. The curriculum itself consists of the knowledge we want the students to have, the skills and strategies we want them to develop in the process of engaging with the material as well as understanding why they should know something and prioritize it. This is achieved through four components:
Goals lay the foundations for the other three while assessments allow us to think about the methods and materials we want to bring to the classroom Hence, the first two are explored in more depth. Let us explore these one by one!
Goals
Goals are the foundations of a curriculum. They are generally derived from the standards set by Education state authorities and all learners must achieve them before moving on to the next grade.
By clearly identifying the goals as well as articulating them such that they allow for variability between learners, the teacher can adhere to a UDL curriculum. Such goals have the following characteristics:
They separate the means from the end. The overarching question to ask when designing goals is “What is the point of this lesson?”. Rather than outlining in the goal how this goal will be assessed (by completing a worksheet, for example), there is room to accommodate all learners by focusing on the main takeaway of the lesson (for example, students will demonstrate how speed and velocity are related). This gives students the freedom to express their learning in a way more comfortable to them, such as drawings, posters, demo, worksheets or a presentation.
They consider all three learning networks of the brain. As explained in my previous article, there are three networks of the brain, as shown below. The networks work together for learning to happen. The recognition system takes in the information, the affective system keeps the students engaged and focused on the information by goal-setting, prioritizing and self-regulation while the strategic system is used by the student to understand the material and convey this understanding.
One network might be more relevant than the other in some goals. Gordon et al. (2014) offer the following questions that we should ask as teachers when creating our goals which will help teachers think about the kinds of flexibility they want to build into the learning environment.
- Is the goal for students to build enthusiasm or learn to form appropriate goals (affective networks)?
- Is the goal for students to understand specific content or to generalize knowledge (recognition networks)?
- Is the goal for students to master a skill or learn to create effective plans and manage available resources (strategic system)? (Gordon et al., 2014, p. 134)
They challenge all learners. Inclusive classrooms have learners with a wide range of abilities. When we write goals that challenge students while at the same time, use effective scaffolding strategies to guide them when they struggle, we are able to challenge all learners in their own way. The flexibility in the goal allows us to do this.
They actively involve learners in deriving their own goals from the curriculum. Learning happens in the social context of the classroom. When we give students voice and help them define goals for themselves within the broader goals we have set for the lesson, we allow them to derive more meaning and increase engagement. Student-led conferences are one way to achieve this, as educator Jon Mundorf shares in this video.
With clarity of learning goals comes the consideration of assessment, methods and materials.
Assessments
Katie White, in her book, Softening the Edges (2017), defines assessment as:
specific tool used to measure and document learning within a specific context in relation to a goal. (White, 2017, p. 15)
She also elaborates upon the two kinds of assessment: formative and summative. Formative assessments are embedded within the learning cycle of a concept. They lead to adjustment and retrying if the understanding of a concept has not yet reached the goal. Some assessments on the other hand, measure progress and are conducted at the end off a unit. They are documented, representative of the hardwork, practice and implementation of feedback that the student put in.
UDL focuses on the formative assessment with the intention of making students self-aware and maximizing in-time feedback. Characteristics of effective assessments are:
They are ongoing and focus on learner progress. This allows the teacher to see the student’s learning evolve in front of her eyes. A practice as simple as observing and talking to the students is helpful to get clues on the learner’s progress.
They measure both process and product. The last time I mentioned process and product, it was in my Differentiated Instruction article. Process is how the students make sense of the content and ideas while the product is their expression of understanding. Thus, process relates to the affective brain system while product engages the strategic brain system.
Students are interested in what they are learning and less stressed about how they will present this learning when process and product align with their interests and strengths. Thus, as a teacher, I must ask questions such as which content areas and activities are most engaging for a student? By observing the students and adapting the assessment such that they continue to be engaged and motivated to learn, assessment will be successful. For this to happen:
Assessments need to be flexible, not fixed. While some students enjoy worksheets (I certainly did), they don’t work for every student. I loved writing essays by hand while some of my friends used to be anxious about making spelling mistakes and would rather have used a spell check on a computer. Customized assessments increase relevance for students because they improve engagement levels, increasing performance. Walkington et al. (2013) have shown this with regards to algebra.
Thus, if the goal of the lesson is for students to express their understanding of the Solar System, it does not have to be a 5-page report; it could instead be a 5 min video, an actual model of the Solar System that they can explain to the class, or maybe a deep dive into their favourite planet. As long as the goal is reached, the assessment does not have to be fixed. It is true though that this would probably create more work for the teacher to assess, yet think about two things:
- UDL is a learner-centred approach and if a student is better able to express their understanding or learn better by watching a video over taking notes, the student is still learning the curriculum, choosing the best way amongst the many ways in which he could learn.
- Isn’t this a great way to get to know our students better? It might take time to assess, yes, but how exciting is it that one of them knows so much about Uranus and now wants to be an astronaut? Would that have happened with the essay or the worksheet?
Effective assessments are construct relevant. Tracy hall, a CAST Research Scientist explains the parts of an assessment that must be considered to design construct relevant assessments. I found this to be the most challenging aspect of UDL because it challenges our traditional system of assessments.
For example, if the goal of the lesson is for students to demonstrate that they can spell words, a commonly used assessment is dictation where the teacher says some words and the students quickly write their spellings. If this is a formative assessment, would you allow a student to hear a recording of the words such that they can slow it down and hear the distinct sounds better or have a longer gap between the words? Is it part of the goal for everyone to complete the words together? When we take the factor of time out of this assessment, we allow students to work on their skills in their own comfort zones.
I personally believe that at an early stage of a topic, giving these options and letting students learn in a manner they are comfortable with is a great idea. From there, using scaffolding strategies to master the skill in other settings would help in further development of the skill and reaching the goal more broadly.
They actively inform and involve learners. By giving students in-time feedback and discussing the next steps together, for the student as well the teacher, leads to the students to have a say in their assessment and problem solve together how to reach the goals.
Methods
When thinking about methods, one needs to consider the brain networks because while some teaching methodologies might work for most learners, our aim with UDL is to give options such that all learners have a way to engage in the material. Effective UDL methods are adjustable according to learner needs well as include the students in a collaborative environment. These two characteristics are related to one another because sometimes adjusting means fostering group work and allowing for multiple entries into the content.
The theory of Multiple Intelligence is a good tool to identify methods. According to Dr Armstrong, the author of Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom (2017):
[Multiple intelligence theory] suggests that teachers be trained to present their lessons in a wide variety of ways using music, cooperative learning, art activities, role play, multimedia, field trips, inner reflection, and much more.
It gives a practical approach to UDL because by giving options to students on how to approach content and phrasing expectations in a way that the students can understand it, allows them to connect with the curriculum.
The three attributes that Alberta Education aims for in its students is for them to be engaged thinkers, ethical citizens with entrepreneurial spirits. None of these are possible without collaboration: students are engaged thinkers when they are able to question others and clear their doubts; they are ethical citizens when they understand the needs of others and keep principles and values in mind; they develop entrepreneurial spirits when they want to work with people to create something new since to take an idea to the next level often involves people with different expertise. Encouraging students to work with their peers as mentors, taking roles of leaders in their interest areas helps develop the three characteristics above.
Materials
The materials used in the class before used to be the textbook, pen and paper. With the advent of digital tools, a plethora of media options are available to use for learning. By choosing materials that align with the goals as well as foster proactivity among learners, students will be more engaged. With the large number of tools, it is not surprising that one can feel almost paralyzed to choose one. What we need, is a curated set of a few tools that will give students enough choice to approach the subject in their own manner.
In Math, we talk about multiple representations of concepts: concrete representations are physical objects and manipulatives, pictorial representations include two-dimensional drawings and graphs of the phenomenon being studies; symbolic representations are expression through words and symbols. For the same lesson, we can use a digital tool like geogebra for pictorial representation, algebra tiles as manipulatives and white boards, for example, where students show symbolic understanding. Letting the student experience each type provides multiple entry points as well.
Conclusion
One of the strategies that I have learned in Jo Boaler’s Math course is to frame goals as ‘I’ statements as this adds personalization and ownership to the goals. This also involves learners in self-regulation as they are become aware when they meet the goals.
I had made a lesson plan for Math a couple months back and after going through this process of what a UDL curriculum inspired lesson plan looks like, I look forward to updating it and uploading the new version to the Math Lesson Plans section with a deeper reflection soon.
Though I mentioned differentiation briefly, I am going to have to leave ‘How does UDL differ from DI?’ for yet another article. There is so much to know in UDL! 🙂
Engagement came up a lot in this article. Nowadays, another buzzword in education is Empowerment. In a future article, I will explore these two concepts.
References:
Meyer, A., Rose, D. H., & Gordon, D. Universal design for learning : theory and practice. Wakefield, Massachusetts: CAST Professional Publishing.
Walkington, C., Petrosino, A., & Sherman, M. (2013). Supporting algebraic reasoning through personalized story scenarios: How situational understanding mediates performance. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 15(2), 89-120.
White, K. Softening the edges : assessment practices that honor K-12 teachers and learners. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Special thanks to Varun.
Feature image on VisualHunt.com
