Universal Design for

Learning
Kelsey Aebli, Christine Dang, Mariah Motteram, and Lauren Murphy
(CAST, 2012)
 ● What motivates learners and keeps
them engaged?
● What interests and excites them?
What challenges them, and supports
continued improvement?
● Stimulate interest and motivation
for learning
“When there is an entry point into ○ Neurology, culture, personal
learning for each student and they are
truly engaged, the learning experience relevance, subjectivity,
is injected with a richness that fosters
deep learning and growth.” - Mariah
background knowledge,
working alone, working with
peers
(CAST, 2012)
 ● How we gather facts and categorize
what we see, hear, and read

● Present information and content

in different ways
○ Different modalities (vision,
hearing, or touch)
“Every student is different, by
providing them with different ○ Allow for adjustability (text
means of representation, they
are able to see concepts from
enlarged, sound can be
multiple perspectives.” amplified)
- Christine
(CAST, 2012)

“It is so important that we
allow our students the
opportunity to show us what
they know in a way that makes
sense for them..”
- Lauren
● Planning and performing tasks
● How we organize and express
our ideas
● Writing an essay or solving a
math problem are strategic tasks
● Differentiate the ways that
students can express what they
know
(CAST, 2012)
Key Stages and
Processes
 Unwrapping Standards (Rao & Meo, 2016)

Breaking it down into components

Identify the skills within the standard, what must the student do

Identify the key concepts, knowledge/background students need to complete the skill

Develop an instructional plan that address the skills

and concepts within the standard
 Applying UDL to Lesson Components

1 2 3 4

(Rao & Meo, 2016)

 Goals
What are the skills and concepts that we want students to master?

Clear Developing clear goal statements, specifying how

Flexible Allow for choice in their methods, materials and/or

assessments

Connect Lesson objectives connect to academic standard

(Rao & Meo, 2016)

 Assessment (Rao & Meo, 2016)

How can students demonstrate achievement of the identified goals in varied ways?

Formative Assessment Summative Assessment

Demonstrate progress Shows what the student has learned from the
lesson or at the end of a unit

Examples:
Examples:
● Written reports worth grades
● Orally assess key points ● Poster
● Development process ● Multimedia presentation
● Check-in
 Method (Rao & Meo, 2016)

What supports and scaffolds can be used as part of instruction to help students
acquire the content and demonstrate their learning?

Support and Challenge Relevant Tasks

Students
Developing relevant and
Scaffolds can provide varied authentic tasks that support
levels of support and/or learning for everyone.
challenge for students as needed.

Help a range of Previous Experience

students providing Instructional
Process
options for It is important to recognize
personalized Important to that every child comes in
learning. motivate and with their own ‘bank of
engage knowledge’, and varied
students to experience.
build skills and
knowledge
 Materials
What resources, materials and tools can be used to provide multiple means to represent and express
information and concepts or engage with content?

Supporting the Process Human Supports

of Learning ● Parent volunteers
● Allow choice in ● Buddies
materials ● EA support

No Technology Technology
● Post-it notes ● Computers
● Index cards ● Tablets (Rao & Meo, 2016)
● Flash cards
 Key Affordances
Increased
Preparedness
Part of UDL is beginning
the planning process with a
clear goal statement that is
rooted in curriculum. By
understanding what the
goal is from the outset you
can consider possible
barriers for students, and
build accessibility into the
plan instead of adjusting on
the fly.
Increased Accessibility
UDL essentially empowers
teachers to make learning more
accessible for their students
through a cycle of instructional
planning the encourages a
proactive approach to responding
to students needs as opposed to a
reactive one.
Interdisciplinary Flexibility in Scale
Projects
Given that UDL is essentially
a framework rather than a
Given that the principles of
process, its guiding principles
UDL are so flexible there is a
can be applied to projects of
great deal of room for learning
varying scale, ranging from
through exploration in the form
one small lesson to a school-
of an interdisciplinary project.
The same flexibility can then be wide initiative that would
work to foster collaboration,
injected into the learning
and community.
activity itself through allowing
for multiple means of
representation. Projects of this
sort help to develop engaged
thinkers.
Key Constraints or Limitations
Practicality
Developing differentiated lessons for all
students and their respective individual
needs can present challenges in terms of
practicality. While it may be ideal to create
25 different plans for 25 different learners,
in reality this is not always feasible.
Additionally, the time that it would take to
thoughtfully and effectively plan
individualized lessons for a variety of
learners can be considered a limitation,
given that teachers have busy schedules
and a number of other duties and tasks
already on their plate.
Lack of Support
For many students, the additional
support that they require involves
working closely with the teacher, a
volunteer, or an EA, etc. However, it
may not always be the case that these
supports are readily available, and in a
classroom with a single teacher and no
other support, the one teacher simply
cannot spend the entirety of a lesson
working with one student only.
Rich Example and School Connection
Kindergarten - Auburn Bay School

OCEA
N
CENT
RE
 Rich Example and School Connection “At Auburn Bay School we believe that

Kindergarten - Auburn Bay School everyone has a role to play in creating a safe,
inclusive learning environment. We believe all
children and adults have the right to:

Learn
Engagement Feel safe
Belong
- Purposeful motivation (end goal in mind)
OCEAN - Fosters collaboration and community
To create a safe and inclusive learning
CENTRE - Optimizes choice and autonomy (centre
activity) environment we will focus on:
- Optimizes relevance, value and authenticity
(tied to student interest) Developing and creating caring
relationships;
Developing and creating a sense of
Representation belonging;
Action and Expression
Developing and creating an understanding
- Background knowledge supported (I See, I - Multiple tools/resources used for and acceptance of others.”
Think, I Wonder) construction and composition (cardboard,
- Highlights patterns, critical features, big paint, pipe cleaner, straw, etc)
ideas and relationships (key ocean terms and - Planning supported (student led with (Calgary Board of Education, 2017)
phenomena) teacher guidance)
- Illustrated through multiple media (photos,
video, picture books)
Final Synthesis - Viability of This Design
“Instead of simply starting with the end in mind, like so many other
designs, UDL starts with the students; which is what is ultimately
important. Knowing our students, how they learn, and how they
can represent their learning is what should drive our passion for
personalized instruction and creating lesson plans that benefits all
students.” - Lauren
“I think that this is a great strategy to use alongside other ones. I
believe that having UDL is very important for accommodating
different kinds of students in the classroom and should be apart of
every lesson plan.” - Christine
“Essentially the core tenet of Universal Design for Learning is that as
teachers we are responsible for designing learning in a way that
makes it accessible for all students. The idea that each student could
not only participate in every lesson, but be excited and engaged by it
certainly has merit, and UDL gives teachers the tools to make that a
reality.” - Mariah
“The UDL Philosophy is one that I hope to one day incorporate into
my classroom. The notion that all students are individual learners
who take in, process, and represent information differently is one that
strongly resonates with me, and I believe that it will be my duty as the
teacher to provide the necessary tools and opportunities for students
to thrive in the classroom.” - Kelsey
References
ALberta Education. (2013). Ministerial order. Retrieved from

http://education.alberta.ca/media/1626588/ministerial-order-on-student-learning.pdf

CAST. (2012). About Universal design for learning. Retrieved from

http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html#.WmFTHSM-JhB

Calgary Board of Education. (n.d.). Auburn bay school. Retrieved from

http://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/AuburnBay/Pages/default.aspx

Rao, K., & Meo, G. (2016). Using universal design for learning to design standards-based lessons.

SAGE Open, 6(4), 1-12. Retrieved from

http://journals.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/doi/full/10.1177/2158244016680688