This document discusses a webinar series on connecting universal design for learning (UDL), differentiated instruction (DI), and individualized supports through meaningful participation. The goals are to introduce UDL as proactive curriculum design that reduces barriers to learning, explore DI as responsive instructional design, and introduce individualized planning frameworks for students who need more support. UDL, DI, and individualized supports ultimately aim to provide appropriate instruction for diverse students in inclusive classrooms. The webinar series will cover UDL, DI, and individualized planning approaches.

1. Making Connections:
Kathy Howery
ERLC Webinar Series
Fall 2012

2. Goals for this series:
Step 1 - Introduce UDL as proactive curricular design that
leverages diversity and technology to reduce or eliminate
inappropriate challenges (barriers) to learning
Step 2 – Explore Differentiated Instruction as instructional
design that is responsive to the particular needs of students in
your class.
Step 3- Introduce the PM as a planning framework for those
students who need something more, or significantly
different, in order to actively and meaningfully participate
and achieve their educational goals.

3. UDL and DI are often confused as both
ultimately have many of the same
aims: to provide appropriate instruction
for the diversity of students who are
being taught in today’s inclusive
classrooms.

4. Meaningful Participation for
Each: Participation Model

5. This Series:
UDL Proactive Design
DI Responsive Instruction
PM Individualized Planning

6. UDL DI PM
Approach is… Proactive Responsive Individualized
Focus is on… Environment Groups of Individual
Learners Learner Needs
Solution Eliminating Compensatory Remedial/
involves… barriers Strategies Specialized
interventions/Su
pports
KHOWERY 09/10/2012

7. How this will work…
Webinars
October 9, December 7, February 15
Wiki
https://erlc.wikispaces.com/Making+Connections+U
DL%2C+DI+and+Individualized+Supports
Ning
http://reachingallstudents.ning.com/group/making-
connections-webinar-
pilot?xgi=2P72dXVMPune4f&xg_source=msg_invite_g
roup
Open Q & A
Dates to be determined
http://www.doodle.com/7bxfq8erdrtns9b6

9. Today’s Topic:
Universal Design for Learning

10. What do you think of when you
think of UDL?

11. Universal Design
Extension of architectural concept of Universal Design
Designing for the divergent needs of special
populations increases usability for everyone.

12. To many people the term seems to imply
that UDL is a quest for a single, one size-
fits-all, solution that will work for everyone.
In fact, the very opposite is true.
The essence of UDL is flexibility and the
proactive inclusion of alternatives.

13. What about Design?

14. Who are we designing learning for?

15. The Illusory Average Student

17. Our current system?
Combining the medical model (to be abnormal
is to be unhealthy) and the statistical model
(abnormally large or abnormally small amounts
of measured characteristic)… turns behavior
patterns into pathological signs. (Skrtic, 1986)

18. Changing our Thinking
From DIS-ability to VARI-ability

19. Something new?
“The new challenge of inclusion is to
create schools in which our day-to-day
efforts no longer assume that a particular
text, activity, or teaching mode will “work”
to support any particular students’
learning”
Ferguson, 1995

20. What is new?
The Disabled Curriculum rather
than the Disabled Child!
http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlcurriculum/disable
dcurricula

21. Social construction of (Dis) Ability
 The social model suggests it is
society that causes the
individual with (physical or
psychological) differences to
be disabled. In other words
individuals with impairments
are not disabled by their
impairments but by the barriers
that exist in society constructed
for the “norm”.
 http://www.brainhe.com/TheSocialMo
delofDisabilityText.html

22. Ableism
An ableist society is said to be one that treats
non-disabled individuals as the standard of
“normal living”, which results in public and
private places and services, education, and
social work that are built to serve 'standard'
people, thereby inherently excluding those with
various disabilities.
Wikipedia
KHOWERY 09/10/2012

23. Ableism in Education (Hehir, 2008)
Applied to schooling and child development… the
devaluation of disability results in societal attitudes that
uncritically assert that:
 It is better for a child to walk than roll
 Read print than read braille
 Spell independently than use a spell checker
 Hang out with with non-disabled children rather than only
with other disable children.
KHOWERY 09/10/2012

24. Let’s think about disability
09/10/2012
KHOWERY

25. Dis-abling barriers.

26. Think of a time you have felt
dis-abled…

27. What about in the Educational Environment?
Disability = a Mismatch between learner needs
and education offered
Disability is artifact of lack of appropriate
relationship between the learner and the
learning environment or education delivery.
Jutta Treviranus

28. Disabled Curriculum
The traditional, one-size-fits-all
curriculum is proving to be an
entirely inadequate solution for
problems that plague our schools
in this era of standards-based
reform.
CAST

29. Universal Design for Learning
is a set of principles for curriculum
development that give all individuals
equal opportunities to learn.

30. Curriculum?
How do you define curriculum?

31. The Curriculum
Programs of Study
Provincial
Assessment
Resources
Instruction & Classroom
Assessment

32. CAST:
Center for Applied Special Technology
Universal Design for Learning is a set of
principles for curriculum development
that give all individuals equal
opportunities to learn.
www.cast.org

33. Universal Design for Learning calls for ...
* Multiple means of representation, to give
learners various ways of acquiring information
and knowledge,
* Multiple means of action and expression, to
provide learners alternatives for demonstrating
what they know,
* Multiple means of engagement, to tap into
learners' interests, offer appropriate challenges,
and increase motivation.
KHOWERY 09/10/2012

34. UDL Guidelines
From the three principles, nine guidelines have been developed
that form the primary foundation of UDL.
The guidelines articulate the principles but their main purpose is
to guide educators and curriculum developers in using
evidence- based means of addressing the range of variability
that any classroom typically experiences.

35. Flexibility still requires Pedagogy!
Flexible MATERIALS
Flexible instructional METHODS
Clear Accessible GOALS
Accessible & Authentic ASSESSMENT

36. How do we get there?
Designing an educational system to teach
all students that will also support
individualized and flexible instruction
designed to teach each student
Expect Learner Variability

37. WHO are these diverse students in Alberta schools?

38. In an Alberta school of 500 students,
we might expect to see…

39. •25 students
with learning disabiliti
•40 students
with AD/HD

40. 45 students who live
below the poverty line
•40 students whose first
language is not English or
French
•25 students
who are First
Nations, Métis or
Inuit (FNMI)

41. •7 students
with autism
•5 students
with FASD

42. • At least 1 student
with a physical
disability
• 15 students
with cognitive
disabilities

43. •7 students requiring
support for mental
health issues
•8 students with severe
behavioural/emotional
disabilities

44. • 100 students
who will not finish
high school within 5
years

45. Diversity could also mean …
Differences in:
 background knowledge and
experience
 learning preferences
 learning strengths
 personal interests and
motivation
 levels of engagement

46. Diversity could also mean…

47. What barriers might these
students experience?
Physical
Policy
Practice
Attitude
Knowledge
Curricular

48. Universal Design for Learning
An educational approach that aims to
increase access to learning for all
students by reducing
physical, cognitive, intellectual, organizat
ional and other barriers.

49. Think Different
 Expected Learner Variability
 Proactive Reduction of Barriers
 Plan for and provide Flexibility

50. Diversity Profile
 What is the diversity of students you can expect
in your classrooms?
 What might be barriers to their learning success?

51. CAST Guidelines
The UDL Guidelines are organized according to the
three main principles of UDL that address
representation, expression, and engagement. For
each of these areas, specific "Checkpoints" for
options are highlighted, followed by examples of
practical suggestions.
http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines

52. KHOWERY 09/10/2012

53. Go to the Guidelines
 http://www.cast.org/library/UDLguidelines/index.html
 Google “udl Guidelines”

54. Principle 1: Representation
Students differ in the ways that they perceive
and comprehend information that is presented
to them.
For example, those with sensory disabilities
(e.g., blindness or deafness), learning
disabilities (e.g., dyslexia), language or cultural
differences, and so forth may all require
different ways of approaching content. Others
may simply grasp information better through
visual or auditory means rather than from
printed text.

55. Flexible Means of Representation
You Tube Comics

56. Wikipedia

57. More ideas for Representation
 Digital resources
 www.LearnAlberta.ca
 Book Rags
 http://www.bookrags.com/
 60 Second Recap
 http://www.60secondrecap.com/
 YouTube
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzAtEqFU3Lc&feature
=related

58. Options for Comprehension
MCGill’s The Brain from Top to Bottom
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/
Free Online Automatic Text Summarization Tool
http://www.textcompactor.com/

59. http://www.cast.org/learningtools/index.html
UDL Editions
BookBuilder

60. Principle 2: Action & Expression
Students differ in the ways that they can navigate a
learning environment and express what they
know.
 For example, individuals with significant motor
disabilities (e.g., cerebral palsy), those who
struggle with strategic and organizational abilities
(e.g., executive function disorders, ADHD), those
who have language barriers, and so forth
approach learning tasks very differently. Some
may be able to express themselves well in writing
text but not oral speech, and vice versa.

61. Physical Action
Writing Tools
http://udltechtoolkit.wikispaces.com/Writing+tools
Virtual Manipulatives
http://www.conceptuamath.com/

62. Flexible Means of Expression

63. Strategies and Scaffolds
http://sciencewriter.cast.org/welcome

64. Strategy Support
 http://cst.cast.org/cst/auth-login
Cast Strategy Tutor

65. Principle 3 : Engagement
Students differ markedly in the ways in
which they can be engaged or motivated
to learn.
Some students are highly engaged by
spontaneity and novelty while other are
disengaged, even frightened, by those
aspects, preferring strict routine.

66. The Why of Learning!!

67. But without ACCESS there can
be no Engagement!

68. Universal Design for Learning
Using digital materials & pervasive technologies in the
classroom we can create a more accessible and
flexible environment for all students.

69. The Future is in the Margins
When new technologies move beyond their
initial stage of development, innovations in
curriculum design, teaching strategies and
policies will be driven by the needs of students
“at the margins”, those for whom present
technologies are least effective- most
prominently, students with disabilities.
The beneficiaries of these innovations will be ALL
students.
Rose & Meyer, 2000

70. The promise of new technologies

71. Sounds easy, right?

72. The Steve Jobs Model for
Educational Reform
"If you read the front pages of the New York
Times, they will tell you that technology's promise
has not yet been realized in terms of student
performance. My answer is, of course not. If we
simply attached computers to leeches, medicine
wouldn't be any better today than it was in the
19th century either. You don't get change by
plugging in computers to schools designed for the
industrial age. You get it by deploying technology
that rewrites the rules of the game."

-RUPERT MURDOCH

73. Rewriting the rules of the game!
Flexible MATERIALS
Flexible instructional METHODS
Clear Accessible GOALS
Accessible & Authentic ASSESSMENT

74. Clearly Defined Goals
You need to know what your goal is to
understand and set up how this will work!
Goals the reduce barriers for expected
student diversity

75. UDL Goals
The key is to design a goal that represents
the true purpose of the learning activity.
Clear goals enable us to determine which
alternative pathways and scaffolds can
be used to meet diverse learning needs
while keeping the learning challenge
where it belongs.

76. Separating the means from the ends
UDL Goals
http://marylandlearninglinks.org/1023

77. Separating the Goal from the Means:
Writing Goals and Objectives that Increase Access*
Goals/Objectives that LIMIT Access: Goals/Objectives that ALLOW Access:
Instead of … Try …
The student will write… The student will express…
The student will generate…
The student will read… The student will receive information…
The student will spell… The student will select…
The student will compute… The student will solve…
The student will define… The student will show…
* From Gargiulo & Metcalf (2010) p. 270

79. The Planning Pyramid

80. ELA Programs of Study
Grade 9 General Outcome 2
 Students will listen, speak, read, write, view and
represent to comprehend and respond
personally and critically to oral, print and other
media texts.
Grade 1 Specific Learner Outcome 2.1
 talk about print or other media in texts previously
read or viewed

81. Assessment
Do we know what we are assessing?

85. Universally Designed
Assessment
Must clearly understand what
we are assessing!
Reduce Construct Irrelevant
Variance!
Multiple pathways to
demonstrating success.
Be authentic!

86. Goal of UDL
Creating learning and learning
environments which provide meaningful
access for every learner
Support Challenge

87. So Let’s Review:
1. UDL is about expecting diversity!
2. UDL is proactive!
3. UDL is about accessibility! Technology can get
us there.
4. UDL is about appropriate goals that do not
define the means.
5. UDL is about reducing construct irrelevant
variance!
6. UDL is not one size fits all!
7. UDL is the beginning not the end!

88. Why UDL?
 Why am in interested in using UDL as a planning
framework?
 What change am I hoping for as a result of
proactively designing UDL
goals, methods, materials, and assessments?
 How will I know this change has occurred, or is
occurring?

89. What is our expected Diversity Profile?
What barriers might these students
encounter?

90. UDL Planning
Step 1: Accessible GOALS
What will the students learn?
Programs of Study: Learner Outcomes
General Learner Outcomes
Specific Learner Outcomes
What is the GOAL of this lesson? BE INTENTIONAL.
Are the goals achievable in a variety of means? LOOK
FOR BARRIERS
Are the goals achievable by students I can expect to be in
my class?
How might I need to reconsider? Reframe my goals?

91. UDL Planning
Step 2: Accessible & Flexible Resources
What resources & materials do I currently have?
Authorized Resources
Learn Alberta
Textbooks
Manipulative
Are the materials accessible to the expected diversity of
students?
Are the materials appropriate for the expected diversity of
students? LOOK FOR BARRIERS
How might I access DIGITAL RESOURCES?
What kind of technologies are available to my class?

92. UDL Planning
Step 3: Flexible Methods
What instructional methods do I currently use?
Lecture
Demonstration
Text
Are my methods accessible to the expected diversity of
students?
Are my methods appropriate for the expected diversity
of students? LOOK FOR BARRIERS
How might I plan for increased flexibility in my methods?
How might I DIFFERENTIATE my methods?

93. UDL Planning
Step 4: Assessment
What assessment methods do I currently use?
Paper & Pencil
Demonstration
Products
Do I have a one-size-fits all assessment process?
Are my assessments accessible to the expected diversity of students?
Are my assessments appropriate for the expected diversity of students?
LOOK FOR BARRIERS
How might I reduce construct irrelevant variance?
How might I offer appropriate choice in students demonstration of
learning?
How might I need to design rubrics in a UDL based lesson?

94. Questions? Comments?

95. Webinar 2:
Now that we have proactively designed
expecting diversity what do we do to differentiate
instruction and provide appropriate supports.
Differentiate based on:
Readiness
Interests
Preferences

96. khowery@ualberta.ca