UDL Guidelines - Pre/Post Assessment

This past week I reviewed a lesson that I created four years ago in my Methods classroom at my Undergraduate school. We started learning about using UDL in the classroom this semester. Our professor gave us a checklist of UDL guidelines to see if each part was included in our lesson. To my surprise, I did not do so well. I don’t think I had at least half of the guidelines needed. This was a huge wake up call. I know it will probably get easier to create the lesson plan when this is embedded in my head. Practice-practice- practice! Here is the site.  http://udlonline.cast.org/guidelines        

Let me tell you what my lesson is about before I get ahead of myself. It is a 2^nd grade science Air Pressure lesson. We previously covered the reading on air pressure and this was a fun hands-on lesson to show how air pressure worked. The students were split up into small groups. They watched a demonstration of the set up of a balloon taped to a straw on a string and had to recreate it (see photo below). Once set up correctly, they had to let it go and measure it's distance. The students had to measure to see which balloon would travel further, a long balloon (pictured) or a regular round balloon. When they were finished, they could race the balloons and add items to their balloon to alter it. I had two students in the class that spoke very limited English.  

I took my lesson plan and my UDL guidelines checklist and checked to see if I incorporated each of these components throughout my lesson plan. Below are a few or my strongest and areas that still need some help. 

My strongest area was Providing Options for Comprehension. Listed below are the links.

I.    Provide Multiple Means of Representation:

1.     Provide options for comprehension

3.1  Activate or supply background knowledge

3.3  Guide information processing, visualization, and manipulation

3.4  Maximize transfer and generalization

Areas that I need to develop are listed below with their link.

Provide options for language, mathematical expressions, and symbols

Provide options for expression and communication

Provide options for self-regulation




There are some challenges that come with developing greater variety in the use of UDL. I believe that my greatest would be trying to focus on the technology to help the student and help the rest of the class at the same time. Students ask a lot of questions when it comes to technology and troubleshooting. They would need a lot of one on one time. If there is no aide in the classroom, this may be tricky at first. If something were to go wrong with the device, it may take a week or more to get it fixed.


During my time in this course, I would like to learn more about using the "Smart Board". I notice that more and more classrooms have them now in this area. It is rare not to see one in a classroom. I would also love to build more on developing students’ intrinsic abilities to regulate their own emotions and motivations. As stated in the Guidelines above, "The ability to self-regulate – to strategically modulate one’s emotional reactions or states in order to be more effective at coping and engaging with the environment – is a critical aspect of human development. ("Provide options for," )"

References

Provide options for self-regulation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/udlguidelinesexamples/home/multiple-means-of-engagement/provide-options-for-self-regulation