Home. UDL Goal Setter: Tools & Activities: Teaching Every Student. Growing diversity in today's classrooms increases the need for teachers to individualize instruction. At the same time, heightened concern about student achievement mandates that teachers meet specific local, state, and national standards. These two factors, learning standards and student diversity, seem to pose conflicting priorities. How can teachers set goals that address standards while supporting the unique propensities of each learner?
The key is to design a goal that represents the true purpose of the learning activity. This sounds obvious but actually many goals are stated in a way that confuses means and ends. Only when the essential learning purpose is clear can we determine the educational focus for all learners. At the same time, a clear goal enables us to determine which alternative pathways and scaffolds can be used to meet diverse learning needs while keeping the learning challenge where it belongs. UDL Goal Setter: Tools & Activities: Teaching Every Student. The key to helping all students achieve is identifying and removing barriers from our teaching methods and curriculum materials. One effective way to do this is to expand your teaching toolbox with digital media and software. To accommodate a broad spectrum of learners, universally designed curricula require a range of options for accessing, using, and engaging with learning materials.
The materials themselves, as well as the teaching approaches, need to be sufficiently flexible to support varied pathways towards common learning goals. Building digital content and tools into your curriculum can help you provide the necessary flexibility to reach diverse learners. The UDL Solutions Finder Tutorial gives you practice in applying CAST's three UDL principles to expand learning options for students. The UDL Solutions Finder Tool structures you in using the three UDL principles to derive UDL solutions to barriers in your curriculum.
Universal Design for Learning and Assistive Technology. What is Universal Design for Learning? Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching, learning, curriculum development and assessment that uses new technologies to respond to a variety of individual learner differences. IDEA 2004 defines Universal design using the same definition as the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, as amended, 29 U.S.C. 3002.( “The term 'universal design' means a concept or philosophy for designing and delivering products and services that are usable by people with the widest possible range of functional capabilities, which include products and services that are directly accessible (without requiring assistive technologies) and products and services that are interoperable with assistive technologies.” (Section 3(19)of Assistive Technology Act as amended in 2004 UDL does not eliminate the need for assistive technology. Online Tool Kits, Articles, Books Universal Design for Learning: Policy Challenges and Recommendations (2009, April)
. (2008, August). CAST UDL Lesson Builder.