As a teacher, it's your job to make sure all students in your classroom are learning and understanding the material. With so many different students with different ways of learning we have to figure out a way to meet all their needs.
What is IDEA?
IDEA is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The law provides services to students with disabilities. IDEA provides services for children age three, up to twenty-one. Early intervention services are also usually provided for children from birth up to age 2. UDL is mentioned and defined in this act.
What is UDL?
UDL stands for Universal Design for Learning. UDL is a set of standards for curriculum that helps teachers develop lesson plans that include all students and their individual learning differences. To quote udlcenter.org, it includes four parts, and "provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs."
Universal Design for Learning is very important because every student is different. Students may excel in one subject but need more help in another one. Some students have disabilities and need aids and other things to meet their needs. UDL helps make it easier for students to learn and provides many different ways of taking in information and completing assignments.
There was a program I read about developed by Scholastic Inc, called WiggleWorks. WiggleWorks were a set of books that incorporated UDL standards. The books were accessible to every child, even children with disabilities. To go in depth, the website said "Students with physical disabilities can turn pages and access controls with the touch of a key or a switch attached to the computer. Students with visual impairments can select large text with high contrast or opt to hear the text read aloud, navigating the program through buttons that "speak" their functions." (cast.org,ch4,pg2)
I thought this was a great example of UDL being put into action. Creating technology and other resources that all students can use is what UDL is all about.
I am currently taking a Principles and Fundamentals of Special Education class in addition to this one. During our previous lesson the teacher had one student stand up and try to open one of the doors without using her hands. The first doorknob she tried was round and needed to be gripped with fingers and turned to be opened. The student had trouble with this door. The next door was simple a handle that had to be pushed down to get the door to open. Though this focuses more on the architecture of the building than the curriculum, I believe it still goes along with inclusion, and the goal of UDL to incorporate all students needs in the classroom. Something as simple as the design of a doorknob can help make a students life that much easier.
http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl
http://idea.ed.gov/
http://www.cast.org/udl/
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