How can educators identify and address potential barriers when designing instruction?

Transcript: Shauntā Singer, PhD

Anytime you have a set of guidelines, it can be very overwhelming. And so one recommendation I would have is to take one thing at a time. So first and foremost, there’s no requirement that says you have to do everything UDL, you have to follow all the checkpoints, all the Guidelines, all at the same time, and all in every lesson. And so, as a practicing teacher but also as a person who helps practicing teachers, I often will say, “What is one element of the Guidelines that you’d like to focus on for this lesson or for this unit or for this topic?” I may say, “Perhaps we’re going to focus on a goal that is written in such a way that all of your students can actually attain it. And so for this semester, for this six weeks, for this unit, we’re going to make sure that all the learning goals that we have are flexible enough so that all students are able to meet that goal.” So what might that look like? Instead of saying students will write a certain way, we may say students will demonstrate their understanding through a variety of methods. And so now we’ve made that more flexible. And so the expectation becomes that from here on out, every learning goal I create is going to be written as such that it’s flexible, it’s open, and more individual students are able to meet that goal. But one thing at a time, one chunk at a time. We are intentional. We are focused about making sure that all students are included, have access. And that is through our goals, it’s through our methods, it’s through our material, and it’s through our learning and physical environments. And so just one thing at a time. And as we become familiar, as we become more acclimated, and we receive feedback from our students, we receive feedback from our practice, then we can go on to that next thing. So it doesn’t feel like it’s an insurmountable task, but it’s just one chunk at a time.

Transcript: Sarah Wisecarver

So when I think about what someone new to UDL should do, one of the things I think about right away is to have them focus on the goal and to make sure that the goal of the lesson has a flexible means. Saying, “Students will read a nonfiction article and write about the main idea”—that’s not a very flexible goal because I’m asking them to read it, and I’m asking them to write about it. And there may be barriers in those two things for certain students. So changing the goal, we could think about just saying, “Students will determine the main idea of nonfiction.” So “determine” is a more flexible goal. Then they could listen to it through auditory. Maybe I provide a graphic organizer for some vocab work, so they could get some background knowledge right away. Maybe when they are talking about the main idea, they talk about it with a partner first or with me. Maybe they sketch it. Or, oftentimes in my classroom, I use an iPad, and there’s a spot where students could record their ideas. So maybe they go over to that quiet spot, and they hit record, and they just do a quick speaking of what they believe the main idea is. Or maybe they grab their Chromebook, and they create a Google Doc with speech-to-text. The goal of determining the main idea of nonfiction stays the same, but how the students achieve it, there’s multiple options. And I am providing feedback along the way, so when you look in the classroom, they’re almost never doing the same thing. They’re always doing different things based on what they need at the time, and I am constantly going from one group to another, to an individual, to check in to provide some meaningful feedback on that work. So when we can focus on a goal and make the goal flexible, I think that’s a really good way to start.

But it is important to realize the mantra, “Go slow to go fast.” We don’t want to go too quickly because sometimes when you implement new designs in education, and you don’t deal with fidelity, and you lose it. It’s a lot of work, don’t get me wrong, but it’s really great, fulfilling work, and we see such a difference with our students. They’re advocating for themselves. They know what they need for their learning.