Previously we shared our “UDL Accommodations Faculty Meeting Protocol” designed to help educators better understand how to incorporate accommodations and scaffolds to improve outcomes for all learners. (If you haven’t already, check it out here!). The protocol begins before the meeting - asking all educators to bring a lesson plan. At the conclusion of the meeting, teachers are encouraged to choose an assignment or assessment of their own that could benefit from scaffolding and more flexibility and revise it.
We practice what we preach and provide exemplars to help you to design your lessons from the UDL lens - starting with makeovers on math lessons. Oftentimes, math remains a bit of an outlier when beginning to implement UDL. At first glance, it may not seem as easy to redesign lessons for inclusion when speaking in terms of numbers. Math teachers may feel concerned that, by offering a choice of activities, students may miss out on needed skills practice. They may worry that during a self-differentiated learning experience, students will not use the most effective strategies. They may ask whether giving access to reference sheets and other tools will lead to students who can’t remember formulas and procedures for high stakes tests. And we hear you! With the help of the brilliant Nathan Lang-Raad and Karen Gartland, we have pulled together tips to implement the UDL Guidelines with a specific math focus which your math teachers can use to review their lessons.
We assure you that implementing the UDL Framework within math is very possible and helps to create a better experience for all of our learners! Through the use of UDL strategies, we encourage learners to make meaning from mathematics and persevere in their work (MPS1), to communicate their ideas and to critique other’s reasoning (MPS3) , and to select and utilize appropriate tools (MPS5). By growing students’ skills in the practice standards, we enable them to become expert learners of mathematics. To demonstrate this, my colleague Libby Often and I started with three different lesson plans. Check out the UDL Makeovers below.
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Grade 3 Eureka Math, Module 4, Lesson 11
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Fluency practice options Provide an option for students to participate in one of the fluency activities outlined in the Eureka lesson. Create stations with directions on all four activities. Encourage students to choose the activity that would challenge and engage them. Application problem options
Concept development options Provide explicit instruction for learners on 36 square units. Next provide the following options to continue with 24, 48, and 72 square units.
Student debrief options At the end of the lesson, allow students to participate in the debrief by reflecting in writing, on Seesaw, or by chatting with a partner or small group regarding one of the following questions:
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Assessments |
Problem Set |
Problem Set
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Original | UDL Makeover | |
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Goals |
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Methods |
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Assessments |
All students complete:
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When you assign homework and assessments, ensure students have appropriate scaffolds.
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Original | UDL Makeover | |
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Goals |
The original lesson has clear goals.
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Warm-Up/Vocabulary Considerations
Explicit Instruction Considerations
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Assessments |
All students complete:
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Classwork/Homework Considerations
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Remember, you do not need to implement all UDL tips at the same time. As you reflect on your lesson planning process, and reflect on grade-level standards, consider incorporating 1-2 strategies in each lesson until it becomes more a part of your practice. If you begin simply by asking students where in their lives they have used ratios, or when they have needed to estimate the price of snacks they picked up at the store, you encourage them to model their lives with mathematics (MPS4). As you provide direct instruction in specific procedures, ask them to compare them to prior knowledge and reflect on the efficiency of those procedures (MPS3 and MPS8). Also, be sure to ask students to reflect on the options and choices that are most relevant, authentic and meaningful as that will help you to plan future lessons that embrace variability, target grade-level goals and foster student expert learning.
Implementing UDL is a process. Start small. Look at one of your lessons and give it a UDL makeover. We would love to hear from you. Share your work @KatieNovakUDL or submit your lesson plan for a possible feature in an upcoming post.
Looking to implement Universal Design for Learning in your learning community? Contact us.
Learn how to engage in best practices from the Standards for Mathematical Practice and UDL strategies to increase your ability to effectively engage your students in learning mathematics. Discover more about the self-directed courses:
Mathematics for ALL: UDL for Middle School
30 Continuing Education Hours | Option for 3 Graduate Credits + 15 Additional Continuing Education Hours With Completion of Final Project
Libby Often is currently the Mathematics Department Chair at Lowell High School in Lowell, Ma. She is a graduate of the EdD program in Math and Science at UMass Lowell. Her work has been published in Techniques magazine, published by ACTE, and the Annual Colloquium Journal, published by UML GSE. Connect with Libby @e_often.