Universal Design for Learning:
A teaching technique where teachers design instruction to meet the needs of all students, with and without disabilities. There are three key factors to Universal Design for Learning and they are each outlined below:
All three of the above factors must be included in instruction for the process to be considered Universal Design. Multiple means of engagement is how learners are engaged and motivated into the lesson or activity. Multiple forms of representation is how students gather facts and recognition tasks. Multiple means of expression is providing students more than one output for what they have learned.
For my literacy pre-practicum, I am in a 3rd grade classroom and I see UDL used every time that I am there. There are several English language learners as well as 2 students on IEP’s, so there are a lot of different skill levels in the class. Because of this, the teacher is always differentiating instruction and giving students almost complete autonomy over their own work. I have never seen students so young having so much control and choice over their daily activities. I have also seen a lot of significant benefits from this. The students feel empowered and are motivated by the fact that they are not being told what to do. These students do not like being told what to do so they love the trust that their teacher gives them each day. Nine year olds are not typically entrusted to make their own decisions so having that at school makes them love their class and their work so much more.
After looking through Kidspiration and Inspiration, I think I would definitely use them in my classroom. To me, Kidspiration seemed much more elementary level focused so I think that would be a helpful tool for me to use in my classroom. There are a lot of different aspects for people who need organizational assistance, work better with images over writing, help mapping out ideas, and with mathematics and number practice.
This application is very helpful for teachers in their incorporation of the universal design for learning. Kidspiration has so many different forms of expression that students can use in order to show their thinking. Students who need help organizing their thoughts could use the story map feature while students that are more visual learners could use the picture setting. This application also offers opportunities for teachers to engage and motivate their students by something much different than what is typical.
EDU 222: Technology Integration 