Instructional Strategies

The core of Unversal Design for Learning, or UDL, is to provide multiple methods for engagement, for representation, and for expression. To be an effective teacher, I need to teach all of my students, not just the few for whom my route-one way of approaching material makes sense.

So here are a few UDL-appropriate strategies I use when designing materials and planning classes:

For goal-setting & executive function:

Explicit goal-setting time, with regularly scheduled check-ins

Part of my day 1 activities always requires students to set three goals for themselves — that do not have to do with grades. We check in on them periodically as our time together progresses, and at the end of the semester, they do a reflection on how they met their goals — what worked, what didn’t, and what they’re taking away from the experience.

Guided notes

Scaffolding the note-taking process can help both with executive function and metacognition, so I really like using guided notes. My guided notes are structured more as a workbook, with breaks for think-pair-share note-taking, working sample problems, and filling out graphic organizers.

For comprehension:

Direct instruction!

Looking at the official UDL guidelines for providing options for comprehension, everything appears to suggest direct instruction. I know that that’s not always en vogue with the science curriculum crowd, and I strongly suspect that this is is because most of these folks’ most recent experience with direct instruction was a university professor droning at a blackboard.

But direct instruction does not preclude students getting a lab and getting their hands dirty. It doesn’t preclude learning from experience. It doesn’t even mean I never have to do PBL! It just means we have to clearly and directly provide the scaffolding students need to make sense of that experiential learning.

This means I design lessons and activities with …

• … consistent language use with careful introduction of synonyms.
• … special attention paid to confusing concepts, especially those with closely related terminology (e.g. meiosis and mitosis)
• … concepts explained to students using language; models and illustrations; examples and nonexamples.
• … lots of opportunities to probe for feedback.

Active and collaborative learning!

I mean it’s not like I’m about to say, “I love passive learning. Just let them soak up my vast knowledge!”

But it really ticks all the boxes — students can learn from each other, support each other, and form the relationships that make them feel psychologically safe and ready to take the risks needed to learn. So I make liberal use of think-pair-shares, small-group problem-solving, brainstorming sessions — anything to get students working, together. Guided notes also help here; whereas a student may just sit and listen without engaging, providing guided notes and making them the backbone of the “I-do/We-do” portions of direct instruction gets students actively participating in class.

For perception and recruiting interest

Lots of different methods of information transfer—both from me and from my students!

• Multiple modes of representation: presenting the same information in multiple ways gives everyone a chance to engage with the material, and gives more opportunity for students to consider an idea from multiple perspectives.
• For larger projects, I typically provide a few options for types of products that students can give me, and they can choose how they want to show me what they’ve learned.
• As often as possible, I make digital copies of assignments available for students to type their responses, use with screen readers, or use with translation software.

For metacognition

Standard dissection

In my pre-service field experience, I sat in on an eighth-grade physical science class the day they began a new unit, and their teacher projected the standards they were addressing on the board and guided the students as they dissected them. What did each term mean? What did they already know about those terms? What did they think they’d need to learn about them? What steps would they take to do that? It took most of the class to do, but those students knew exactly what they’d be spending the next month of their life learning.

Reflection

I like to provide near constant opportunities to reflect on the process of learning, and on the experience of learning. These include …

• Learning target assessments: rank your comfort level with today’s learning targets on a scale from 1-4. For longer-term targets, track your comfort level as we work through the unit.
• After assessments: How did you prepare for this? What do you think worked? What do you think you want to do differently next time?
• After the semester or school year: What were you proud of? What do you wish you’d done differently? How will you take this with you into the next year? (A good opportunity for portfolio assessments!)