Teaching Every Student

In my last post we talked about how Universal Design for Learning allows us to reach every student, but the question of how exactly we can do this seems a bit overwhelming. However, this site introduced me to another important acronym PAL, or Planning for All Learners. PAL applies UDL to planning and developing curricula in ways that promote access, participation, and progress in the general education curriculum for all learners. The PAL process includes four steps demonstrated in the visual below.

Step three, applying UDL and writing a plan often requires extra time and effort from the teacher. However, this site contains a UDL lesson builder which allows you to craft lessons that will reach and engage all learners. Which if you are new to UDL like me, is an amazing tool! Simply create a username and password and begin creating or adapting lessons to increase participation for all students. Overall the Cast website is full of resources because it is specifically designed to support educators learning about and practicing Universal Design for Learning!

CAST. UDL Toolkits Planning For All Learners (PAL). Retrieved from: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/toolkits/tk_introduction.cfm?tk_id=21