2. IS CURRICULUM DESIGNED FOR ALL STUDENTS?
No, curriculum is not designed for all students, in fact, it
only designed for some student.
Oftentimes, the students that struggle or perform poorly in
class or on tests are the ones who don’t fall into the
category of students that curriculum was designed for.
• Students with disabilities often fall into this category
3. UNIVERSAL DESIGN IN EDUCATION
Universal design in curriculum is important because it
allows for more students to be successful in the
classroom setting because the curriculum is designed to
meet their needs and is created to benefit multiple types
of learners, not just one like curriculum usually is.
More of a “hands-on” approach to learning rather than just
telling students about something and asking them to
memorize it.
4. WAYS TO APPLY UNIVERSAL DESIGN IN EDUCATION
1. IDENTIFY what you want to make universal based on the learners in your
classroom
2. DEFINE who/what will benefit from this and in which ways
3. ADOPT/APPLY guidelines or standards to assure that universal design is
maintained and that everyone is benefitting
4. PLAN for accommodations to make design as universal as possible
5. TRAIN and support other teacher who are implementing UDL so that
every student achieves as much as they possibly can at each level of
education
6. EVALUATE what you are doing and make adjustments where
adjustments are needed
5.
6. WHY IS UDL IMPORTANT?
It is important for a teacher to know her students and to teach to her class
in a way that they will each understand and benefit from, not just in the
way that is easiest for her.
Teachers should want their students to succeed and to understand what
they are learning, so they should do everything they can to assure that
the student is being taught in a way that makes sense to them
Every student is unique and there is no cookie-cutter curriculum designed
to assure that everyone learns everything the same way, so why should
we design our classrooms like that?
