Post-Assessment UDL Lesson Plan

In my last post I discussed my pre-assessment for one of my lessons. After looking at the UDL guidelines I noticed that there were some areas that I did not address in my lesson plan. It is important to critically reflect on UDL practices so you know what principles you did not have in your plan and can include next time. Therefore, like all good educators, I reflected and revised my lesson. The areas that I decided to modify were...

• Representation
• Perception: Offer ways of customizing the display of information
• Language, Mathematical Expressions, & Symbols: Illustrate through multiple media
• Action & Expression
• Physical Action: Vary the methods for response and navigation
• Executive Functioning: Support planning and strategy development
• Engagement
• Sustaining Effort and Persistence- Increase mastery-oriented feedback
• Self-Regulation- Facilitate personal coping skills and strategies

At first it was challenging to incorporate these additional UDL approaches. Overall, my goal is to reach all learners in my classroom and additionally incorporate these new areas of technology as I learn about them. I think the most difficult thing for me, is simply researching and taking the time to read and learn about new technology and how it can be used in the classroom. However, the website has many resources and provides examples of technology that I had not previously used before. Additional, the Cast website includes great examples of how to incorporate these UDL principles in your lesson plans. I came across a great interview with Carol S. Dweck that talks about how teachers can develop students motivation and success. This was beneficial to me because one area I wanted to improve upon was increasing mastery-oriented feedback. I learned that teachers should focus on the students' efforts and not their abilities. For example, when students succeed teachers should praise their efforts, not their intelligence. Also, when students fail, teachers should give feedback about effort and what they can do now. These are key ingredients in creating mastery-oriented students.