Tag: Universal Design for Learning
In this post you will find: Five great books to read to move your UDL thinking Please note that there are affiliate links in this post. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Type UDL in any search engine and you will find a huge range of information on UDL. Although it is … Continue reading 5 Great UDL Books To Move Your Thinking
When children are young we embrace their individuality and celebrate it but then when they go to school something happens. We start to put our children in boxes of who’s achieving and who’s not or the behaviour kids and the pleasure to teach kids. If they don’t fit in any of those boxes we don’t know what to do with them. We lose sight of the fact that our students are children and they are all different.
It's the beginning of the school year here in Australia and there are lots of anxious students and teachers alike apprehensive of what the new school year will bring. Obviously it is normal to have these feelings at the beginning of the new year when we are not sure what is coming. What about when you are anxious and apprehensive every day and sometimes, every minute of the day? For some of our learners this is their reality. That is why it is important to consider how we, as educators, are eliminating barriers for threats and distractions in our learning spaces to ensure that all learners are ready for learning.
It's the beginning of the school year here in Australia and what a good time to reflect on upcoming assessment tasks before you dive into unit planning. If you're lucky enough to have assessment tasks already created well this post is for you.
It is important that when we are designing assessment tasks, we are eliminating the barrier of irrelevance. When we engage the engagement network of the brain we are ensuring that learners are motivated and connected to their learning (CAST, 2020). So why is it any different for assessment?
One thing I have come to realise is that UDL instruction is about instructional routines. Quality, efficient and reliable instruction routines become the foundation to any lesson that implements UDL principles and check points.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework developed by CAST that acknowledges that no two learners are the same. There is learner variability in every learner and context. The framework is used to design learning experiences that are proactive in planning for learner variability from the start. This way all learners are considered in the one lesson not added on or considered after the main lesson is planned.
Mind traps like sand traps are hard to get out of because they are a way of thinking that stops us from moving forward in our learning and practice. These UDL mind traps are misconceptions that teachers have about UDL and they find it hard to move into UDL practice without them being addressed. So let's have a look at 4 mind traps and address them.
When we plan using elements of a UDL lesson, formative assessment is at the forefront of designing the learning experience. But formative assessment should not just be a task that learners do during a lesson. It doesn’t just stop there. In order for formative assessment to be effective, we need to implement practices that allow us to inform our teaching, monitor learner progress towards a goal, provide feedback and offer choice for our learners.
In this post, I want to share some practical activities that could be used in phonics instruction to provide choice for learners. The intent of these examples is to be low cost and simple activities to implement quickly.
Many Ways Education 