Making Learning Accessible for All: Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching approach to help all learners be successful. According to the National Center on Universal Design for Learning, “UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.”

UDL focuses on three principles of learning:  “why”, “what”, and “how”. (http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html)

WHY - The “why” of learning is about engagement. The goal of this principle is to provide students with a purpose for learning. To do this, UDL encourages the use of a variety of methods to exposing students to why what they’re learning is relevant. Relevance and connection will help motivate students to learn.

WHAT - The “what” of learning is about representation or how we present the content to the student. The goal of this principle is to provide the content in a way that appeals to individual student learning styles. Understanding that students learn in a variety of ways enables a teacher to provide multiple ways for a student to receive important information: visual, auditory, or kinesthetically.

HOW - The “how” of learning is where the student takes over. This is their opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of what they have learned. The goal here is differentiation - providing students with a variety of options for showing what they have learned. Allowing students to have a voice and some choice in how they showcase their learning is critical.

The National Center on the Universal Design for Learning continues to state that “the purpose of UDL curricula is not simply to help students master a specific body of knowledge or a specific set of skills, but to help them master learning itself—in short, to become expert learners. Designing curricula using UDL allows teachers to remove potential barriers that could prevent learners from meeting this important goal.”

As you participate in Pepper Courses, look for ways to incorporate the why, what, and how of the Universal Design for Learning into your lessons. You can also utilize the Pepper Resource Library to find ways to engage and present content to your students. The Universal Design for Learning can help make understanding content a reality for all types of learners.

Using Digital Tools to Individualize Instruction

As part of their Extending the Digital Reach report, Education Week also published an article highlighting how ed-tech tools are changing the ways in which teachers can differentiate their literacy and reading instruction. This report, Digital Tools Aim to Personalize Literacy Instruction, focuses on how new technologies can transform learning by providing individualized instruction. Education Week talked with Graphite, a division of Common Sense Media, and a Pepper partner, to gain insight on some of these new tools.

Graphite specializes in providing teachers and schools with free research-based classroom tools. They provided some suggestions for helping teachers create personalized literacy opportunities for students. Here are some of their recommendations:

1. Customize Texts to Each Student's Reading Level - Online programs such as Raz-Kids and Newsela provide topical reading at a variety of levels.
2. Allow Teachers to Target Specific Reading Skills - Apps, such as Lexia Reading Core5, are now available that allow teachers to target reading skills that students need to develop.
3. Diagnose and Respond to Individual Students' Strengths and Weaknesses - Software, such as Read 180, will analyze a student’s reading and then provide additional texts and vocabulary based on their assessment results.
4. Encourage Teachers to Offer Customized Supports - “Digital tools and interactive e-readers can also allow teachers to customize the reading experience for students—and make themselves an integral part of each student's reading process.”
5. Have Students Show What They've Learned in Different Ways - Differentiation. Tools such as, BookBuilder, give students opportunity to write, edit, and publish their own writing and ideas.

Technology can provide support and opportunity for students to experience learning on a level that they understand. It gives teachers an opportunity not to just “teach to the middle”, but to teach each student as they need for learning and understanding.

Pepper Reading Courses are available to help you apply new literacy instruction concepts to your classroom. Also, be sure to check out Graphite in the Pepper Resource Library to find technology tools to meet the needs of individual students.

Scaffolding: Building Better Understanding

In the construction world a scaffold is a temporary structure used to support a work crew. In education, the use of scaffolding is not that different. Instructional scaffolding gives support to the student as they’re learning new skills and concepts. According to The Glossary of Education Reform, “scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process.” While scaffolding is similar to differentiation, when teachers scaffold instruction, they generally take the concept they are trying to teach and break it down into smaller parts. This makes it easier for a student to fully understand each piece before moving on - kind of like eating an elephant one bite at a time. When differentiating instruction, a teacher may give students entirely different reading assignments on the same topic that will match their reading level, or give a choice of assignments that they may choose from to complete.

Scaffolding instruction can allow for greater quality of instruction, but may take more initial planning. According to Rebecca Alber, “scaffolding is what you do first with kids, then for those students who are still struggling, you may need to differentiate by modifying an assignment and/or making accommodations for a student.”

On Edutopia, Alber gives Six Scaffolding Strategies to Use with Your Students:

1. Show and Tell - Many students learn best when they can see and hear about something. Modeling a concept allows a student to visualize and build understanding.
2. Tap into Prior Knowledge - Build on skills and ideas that the student already knows.
3. Give Time to Talk - Allow students the opportunity to talk with other students about new ideas.
4. Pre-Teach Vocabulary - Familiarize students with new vocabulary related to the new concept before tackling the more in depth ideas.
5. Use Visual Aids - The use of graphic organizers, pictures, and charts help guide students' thought processes and, ultimately, their understanding.
6. Pause, Ask Questions, Pause, Review - Question and discuss. Give students time to think. Repeat. This is a great way to check for comprehension and help them remember important information.

Abler’s best advice overall in this article is that sometimes “you have slow down in order to go quickly. Scaffolding a lesson may, in fact, take longer to teach, but the end product is of far greater quality and the experience much more rewarding for all involved.”

Our wide variety of Pepper course offerings give plenty of opportunities for teachers to use scaffolding strategies in their classrooms. Be sure to check out all of our Pepper Courses - we’re always adding new content!

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Differentiating Instruction - Meeting the Needs of All Learners

In EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon, Diane Ravitch defines differentiating instruction as instruction that seeks to "maximize each student's growth by recognizing that students have different ways of learning, different interests, and different ways of responding to instruction. What that really means is that teachers need to adapt their teaching strategies to meet the needs of each student in their classroom. Ravitch goes on to explain, "Educators may vary learning activities and materials by difficulty, so as to challenge students at different readiness levels; by topic, in response to students' interests; and by students' preferred ways of learning or expressing themselves".

Differentiated instruction is not a program or package; it is a teaching strategy. Creating something different for each student in your classroom may seem unrealistic, but it is possible to provide a variety of levels as well as different means of delivering content. Additionally, not all students will excel with writing a report to demonstrate their understanding of a topic; however having the option for creating electronic presentations, oral reports, and even artwork will allow for learners of all types to communicate what they have learned effectively.

John McCarthy gives a very practical overview of differentiating instruction in his article, 3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do. He recommends focusing on three areas for differentiating: content, process, and product. The differentiation of content could include using varied delivery methods such as video, reading, lectures, or audio. According to McCarthy, “process is how students make sense of the content.” Some strategies he recommends for this are: Think-Pair-Share, Journaling, Partner talk, Save the Last Word, and Literature Circles. Differentiation of product is the most common form of differentiated instruction and is allowing a variety of options for the student to use to demonstrate their understanding. Teachers can provide options or choices for the student and then the student can choose to create a product that appeals to their learning style.

So, as you’re working through your next Pepper course, think about how you can differentiate the content, process, and product for your students. Pepper offers a variety of courses to meet the needs of its learners.

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