Flexibility in UDL

I am a strong believer that students should be able to learn in school through “self-directed learning opportunities.” Many curriculum are designed to make the teacher make adoptions for some children. It would be much more beneficial, however, if curriculum was originally designed for “improved access for everyone,” as Firchow describes in her article on Universal Design for Learning. The idea of Universal Design for Learning is centered around flexibility, which is what I actually wrote one of my admissions essays on. If the teacher can be flexible with teaching the material, giving multiple possibilities for students to participate, and methods of assessing students’ understanding, “the curriculum adapts to the student.” When this happens, students will be motivated to learn and engaged in the curriculum.

Although I am currently in a special needs pre-school classroom with no internet and one small computer with one educational game on it, I am using the same ideas behind Universal Design for Learning. Without using computer technology, I, along with my teaching team, find ways to connect content to interests and give ample opportunities for students to learn the same things in different ways. We continuously assess the students’ levels in different areas (such as letter, shape, and color recognition as well as social skills and age-appropriate vocabulary) and challenge them in ways that will be beneficial based on what they know, in order to help them reach goals in their IEPs.