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UDL 101: It’s not all about choice

A popular way to talk about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is to emphasize choice. Choice is fabulous. Choice is essential. Every guideline begins with “Provide options for,” which encourages us to add in choice. But when the conversation (or workshop instruction) ends there, no one benefits. UDL exists to help instructional designers plan lessons […]

UDL 101: How do I lower barriers?

Two important points before we get into the how: Instruction happens everywhere. It is not limited to the K-12 environment. Every single learner experiences barriers. Barriers are something we all experience. They are not within us, they are within the environment. To lower a barrier, you must know the goal of your instruction. What specific […]

UDL 101: The barrier is in the environment, not the learner

Let’s make that statement a bit more clear: The barrier is in the design and implementation of the environment, not the learner. Wait, what? The environment: It is made up of resources, physical structures, delivery methods, relationships, and beliefs and attitudes. The learner: Everything about that person that makes them an individual. The learner and […]

UDL in 15 Minutes with Liz Hartmann

Building Authentic Learning Communities: Taking One Step In her return to the UDL in 15 Minutes podcast, Liz Hartmann shares how her understanding and implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has evolved over time. Liz is a professor who teaches both pre-service and graduate students about UDL and reflects on how the shift to […]

UDL in 15 Minutes Podcast with Anne Bishop and Chantill Lopez, Part 1

Building UDL Fluency Do you speak two or more languages? For example, you grew up speaking one language and then learned another as a subject in school or maybe you grew up in a bilingual or multilingual household (if so, I am totally jealous of you). Regardless of how you learned the languages, you communicate […]

UDL in 15 Minutes with Kyanne Obrock and Carrie McSwain

Using UDL to Find Flexibility within Specificity Toward the end of my conversation with Kyanne Obrock and Carrie McSwain, they talked about the conundrum of required summative and formative assessments. We all know that most of the time, those required assessments aren’t designed with flexibility in mind. Often, they are in a fixed format and […]

UDL in 15 Minutes with Kade Friedman

“It Takes 2 Minutes” Supporting our students’ social-emotional learning (SEL) is a key part of my conversation with Kade Friedman during this episode of UDL in 15 Minutes. As they point out, “You know, it takes two minutes at the beginning of class where we do an SEL check in.” So why is it so […]

UDL in 15 Minutes with Shannon Costley and Megan Babb

Building in social-emotional standards using a UDL lens “By the end of the year, we had students who may have started the year like little squirrels, you know, their stuff was all over the place, but by the end of the year, their binder had their table of contents, they were able to keep track […]

UDL in 15 Minutes with Nicole Glynn and Nicole Peters

Being a UDL loner: How to persevere We know that the best way to support the persistence of all educators as they learn about and learn to apply UDL is to provide system-wide support. For example, Nicole Glynn and Nicole Peters share how Kansas Infinitec is working to establish state-wide change through their book studies […]

UDL in 15 Minutes with Cindy Malone

PLCs and UDL: Asking the right questions Rick DuFour popularized four succinct questions many school-based professional learning communities (PLC) use. They are: What do we want all students to know and be able to do? How will we know if they learn it? How will we respond when some students do not learn? How will […]