Equity and UDL

What does the research say about this?

UDL is an interesting idea. It discusses how each child should be allowed to learn in the way that works for them. There are three main principles of UDL, representation, action and expression, and engagement. I think that the research on this method of teaching is positive. While reading up on UDL, I found an article that was written by Elizabeth Stein for Education Week. She writes about what UDL is about, and how we can implement it in our classrooms. 

How can this be effectively integrated into your teaching?

How will this help your students?

What are your goals with regard to this topic?

For me, I am especially interested in how UDL can be used in teaching in a high school English classroom. One of my main goals as a future educator is to make sure that no one falls off the side of the road. It is far too easy to teach just the "easy" kids. Specifically those who don't find themselves struggling with a behaviour issue, or those who fall into the gifted category. From my preliminary research of UDL, I think that this would be effective in my classroom. While researching, I found something that I think would be interesting to use in my classroom, interactive notebooks. These notebooks can be tailored to each student, and can be used to develop a mixture of class discussion and learning as well as individual learning. One example that I saw, was set up using the right side to enter class information such as discussion topics, quizzes, conversations, and notes. The left side was used to review questions missed on quizzes, place questions from homework and individual activities, and participating in in-class activities. I really like this idea of the interactive notebook because it can be used in so many ways. To jot down ideas from a web search, to outline paper topics, and to review different literature excerpts. I think that I would like to use some form of these interactive notebooks in my future class. 

How does this shape your vision for empowered learning for your students?

This idea of UDL helps shape my vision for empowered learning through the fact that using this technique, lets the students take control and responsibility for their own learning. I think that college is a good example of note taking being a more UDL approach to learning. In college, we are required to learn the information, but we aren't told how to learn the information. Sure, some classes have more busy work than others, but all in all, note taking is up to the student. For example, for me, some of my classes I know note-taking on my computer is going to be more beneficial to me as opposed to pen and paper. But in other classes, sticky notes, highlighters, and paper are going to help me understand the material far better. I think that allowing high school and junior high students the ability to take control of their own learning to some degree will set them up to be more successful in college, and life. Many students use the first semester of college to play around with learning techniques, and figuring out how college actually works. Unfortunately, their grades seem to reflect that technique. Giving students the tools to learn before they reach college, seems like the most productive route. Implementing UDL in a high school setting will help each student feel like they are worth something on an academic level. 

Stein, Elizabeth. "Sparking Up Lessons with Universal Design for Learning." Education Week, https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2015/10/21/sparking-up-lessons-with-universal-design-for.html. Accessed 15 January 2018.