UDL Strategies

The Universal Design for Learning process encourages teachers to offer multiple forms of representation and engagement. There are a variety of different ways that teachers can incorporate 21st century technologies into a classroom to provide students with different modes of representation and learning.

1. Teachers are encouraged through UDL to provide alternatives for viewing visual and auditory information. By using audio books and read aloud software, teachers can limit the amount of visual information which the students must process. In an English class, rather than having a student feel isolated by reading a different book than their peers, the teacher can provide the student with an audio book to help the student better understand the content of the book, rather than solely focusing on their lack of fluency or comprehension skills. Similarly, to aid students who struggle to process auditory information, teachers can now provide students with copies of their notes/lectures, directly from the SMARTBoard or tablet device. Teachers can also utilize the closed caption feature on videos, and even many Youtube videos, thus allowing students to have the opportunity to watch multi-media presentations. 
2. Teachers are also encouraged to continuously clarify vocabulary and symbols for students to ensure comprehension and understanding. There are a variety of resources that are available online which can help to develop students’ vocabulary, such as Visuwords, an online graphic dictionary and thesaurus which uses colours and patterns to identify the links between words. The program is free, and may be easier for students to use, rather than looking up a definition in a dictionary. Wordle is another tool that could be used to help students develop their language skills, as students could make posters with synonyms or describing words for each of their vocabulary terms in order to help them remember what it means. Making these bright and colourful posters can provide a fun way of practicing ones’ vocabulary. 
3. In UDL it is essential for teachers to illustrate the content and outcomes using multiple media forms. That is, teachers need to be able to present the content to students in a variety of different ways so that students of all different learning styles and abilities have the chance to develop their understanding. The National Centre on Universal Design for Learning, suggests a variety of different online tools that teachers can use to help integrate this idea into their teaching. For instance, Search Cube is a website that allows students to search any term, and it will create pictures or different visual representations of the top 96 pages from your search. From here, students can rotate the cube or move it to see different sides to learn about their search in different ways. As a math teacher, I have used the Illuminations website many times in my math class as it provides visual representations of different math topics. The webpage is easy to use and is easy for students to understand and manipulate the animations. Particularly in math, it is important that teachers utilize various forms of media to ensure student understanding as many of the concepts are very abstract unless students can actually move the shapes around or plot their information to see a realistic image of their task. 
4. In UDL, it is also important for teachers to highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas and relationships. There are a number of online tools that can help students identify key ideas, or help to keep students focused on the purpose of the lesson. Pace Car is a great tool for students who are often distracted by other content on a webpage. The program lights up only the words that surround the students’ cursor and creates a dark shadow over the rest of the webpage so that the student can only focus on the information in the box. Students must then focus on learning the key ideas in the written text as opposed to looking at the advertisements, or other distractions on the webpage. Similarly, Readability allows teachers to create clutter-free pages from the internet, so that students are not distracted by unrelated pictures or advertisements. By solely having the key information on the screen, students will be more focused on the important information- particularly for those students who struggle with attention deficit disorders.
5. The final teaching idea from UDL centers around the understanding that information should be displayed in multiple formats for students, particularly those with exceptionalities. Using the Aim Explorer, for instance, students can take a grade-level text and utilize text-to-speech, magnification, and highlighting tools to assist them in the reading process. Additionally students can change the text and background colours which can assist students with vision troubles. Having this software can assist any English, social studies, or even science teacher when their students are presented with different readings to complete. This software will allow them to adjust the program settings to meet their individual needs to help optimize student learning. For instance, when studying a particular novel, the teacher could have some students read to themselves, have others with visual impairments (such as colour blindness) use the program to alter the colours of the text to make it easier to read, and students who struggle with the reading skills could have the computer read the text aloud to them.

For more information, or to read up on more strategies, visit UDL Center.