Universal Design for Learning
Discover how this curriculum design approach customizes instruction and materials to serve all learners
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The morning literacy block has begun, and Ms. Williams is watching children in her classroom use a literacy app she just added to her reading centers. She sees one student open the app and create a story that features them as the main character, while another asks for her help to turn on the read aloud feature. The app reads the story aloud for them, pointing to each word as it is read, allowing full control over the text displays with rich image descriptions.
Teaching
Cute Visuals Can Distract Students From a Lesson: 3 Tips for Teachers
Playful visuals may make a lesson more fun, but they can also get in the way of learning.
Ed-Tech Policy
National Ed-Tech Plan Outlines How Schools Can Tackle 3 Big Digital Inequities
There's great potential for districts to use technology to meet all students' individual learning needs, federal plan suggests.
Special Education
Q&A
Creating Inclusive Classrooms for Blind Students Can Benefit Everyone. Here's How
6 questions with a teacher who has dedicated her career to teaching and supporting blind children.
Personalized Learning
Opinion
Ed Tech and Universal Design for Learning: Because One Size Fits None
The UDL guidelines offer a valuable framework for educators who have embraced next-generation learning to improve teaching and learning for all people by designing at the margins.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
When It Comes to Universal Design for Learning, Don’t Wait to Be an Expert
When teachers create flexible learning environments, they support all different types of learners, Kyle Redford writes.
School & District Management
Opinion
Design Thinking as Pedagogy - For Students and Educators
In this podcast, Sandy Speicher, partner and managing director of education at IDEO, chats with me on what design thinking is and why it's so important for teachers and education leaders right now.
Education
Opinion
How Universal Design for Learning Creates Culturally Accessible Classrooms
Universal design for learning can play an important role in helping teachers create culturally competent classrooms, writes Joni Degner.
Every Student Succeeds Act
ESSA Spotlights Strategy to Reach Diverse Learners
An instructional framework called universal design for learning, or UDL, which supports multiple ways to teach lessons, has found a niche in the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Special Education
Opinion
Don't Wait: Six Simple Ways to Support Your Struggling Learners Tomorrow
"These modifications all embrace the principles of UDL (Universal Design for Learning) which caution against teaching to the imaginary average student. The truth is, our classrooms are full of students who are difficult to categorize because they present quirky profiles."
Teaching Profession
CTQ Collaboratory
Sparking Up Lessons With Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Universal Design for Learning is the perfect go-to teaching tool to guide instructional decisions, Elizabeth Stein says.
Special Education
Q&A
Learning by Universal Design
Neuropsychologist David H. Rose, a principal architect of Universal Design for Learning, says classrooms need a richer mix of resources and more emotion.
School & District Management
Study Finds Districts Buying Into Universal Design
But many education leaders still aren't entirely sure what UDL is.
School & District Management
Study Tracks Growing Understanding of UDL
But state and district special education directors say there are still widespread misperceptions about the universal design for learning concept.