Week 3 Assignment Number 3 Universal Design for Learning UDL

Arooj Zulfiqar

Week 3 Assignment Number 3 

UDL Universal Design for Learning 

In my opinion UDL (Universal Design for Learning) is an important concept in teaching. Nowadays the school systems have grown and become so diverse UDL is a framework which is providing a universal platform to all students so that they can learn and it also allows the students to choose their own paths and choices. One of the principles of UDL is the presentation of information how the lesson is delivered. There should be multiple means of presentation so that every student regardless of anything can understand the concepts and learn. By using multiple means of delivering and presenting information would allow the students to make connections and they will be able to learn better. 

The second principles to provide students multiple means of action and expression as students vary in their background knowledge and learning capacities. There is not one mean of action and expression that will be beneficial to all learners, teachers should provide multiple actions and expressions for the well-being of students.

 The third principle is to provide multiple ways of student engagements. Students should be taught in a way that they are keen and showing interest and are motivated to learn. Every student will differ in the choices he or she has and they will also differ in their ways of motivation and engagement. Teachers should implement various way of motivation to keep the students going. Teachers should always provide a fair learning opportunity to their students. By adapting and implementing various ways students can understand the goals they want to learn, they will be able to activate their prior knowledge and will be passionate about learning something new. As a future teacher I would like to make my class a dynamic place where I would make sure to design my lessons keeping my student’s interests and background knowledge in mind. I am also a great advocate of student-centered classrooms where students have tons of collaborative work and they get to learn a lot from their peers. The assessment used by the teachers should also vary and should have an element of diversity since these factors are very crucial in developing, implementing and making the lesson effective and efficient. 

UDL Lesson Plan 

The Life Cycle of a butterfly 

So, during my field experience last semester the teacher was doing a similar lesson to this in her Kindergarten class where students were learning the life cycle of a butterfly. 

Why: Students in this lesson plan are learning the life cycle of a butterfly, the names and stages of the butterfly life cycle. They are also learning about the shapes, sizes and colors of the butterflies. This will allow the students to comprehend and be able to compare the life cycle of different living organisms and how they are same but look different and have variations. Students are being delivered the lesson by using the Kidspiration and reading the book “Watch me grow, butterfly” by Lisa Magloff. 

What: This UDL lesson plan provides multiples means of action and expressions for students. Each student will have a different background knowledge which he or she is bringing to this lesson. The teacher has a perfect opportunity to test out the background knowledge of the students. The teacher can use lots of images and illustrate the various life cycles of the butterflies and even have an actual butterfly egg in the classroom. The teacher whom I observed doing this lesson had the real egg in classroom and students watched the egg grown into a caterpillar and then later on into a butterfly.

How of Learning: Teacher can set up individual learning centers and spilt the class into groups based on their interest where they each can pick up their own favorite stage of the life cycle and can be given an option to either make a colorful book on the life cycle of butterflies, some students who like to write can be given an option to write the various stages of butterflies and use complete sentences to explain and give examples. While the audio learners can be asked to present the life cycles in a form of colorful presentation and speak orally in front of the classroom. 

I like this lesson plan since its very similar to the lesson I got to observe last semester and also the goals in this lesson are clearly stated. The materials are very appropriate and engaging for the students. The teacher is using multiple sources and materials to engage and keeping in mind all kind of learners for example books, videos, life cycle playing cards etc. This UDL lesson is designed so all students belonging to any special learning category will have a good grasp of the life cycle of the butterflies by the end of the lesson. 

References 

http://lessonbuilder.cast.org/explore.php?op=static&pid=butterflies_1