Over the past few years, there may have been a heightened focus around Universal Design for Learning within your school or school district.  As time goes on, and it becomes more apparent to policymakers at the district, state, and national levels, that all students learn differently, there has been a greater emphasis on meeting the needs of ALL.  In 2008, the Higher Education Opportunity Act defined UDL:

Universal Designed for Learning Defined

The term UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING means a scientifically valid framework for guiding educational practice that:

(A) provides flexibility in the ways information is presented, in the ways students respond or demonstrate knowledge and skills, and in the ways students are engaged; and

(B) reduces barriers in instruction, provides appropriate accommodations, supports, and  challenges, and maintains high achievement expectations for all students, including students with disabilities and students who are limited English proficient.

Universal Design for Learning is a set of three principles which provide all students with the ability to learn.  It is based on neuroscience, which indicates that our brains are wired to learn information through different pathways, which control the “What”, “How”, and “Why” of Learning.

Three Principles of UDL

In response to this brain research, the three principles of UDL were developed which are Multiple Means of Representations, Multiple Means of Action and Expression, and Multiple Means of Engagement.  Each of these three principles has three guideline, for a total of nine guidelines. This can all be found in a nicely organized graphic organizer which can be found here.

Inflexible Curriculum

What has been found when analyzing the typical curriculum that is used in today’s classrooms, is that they are often inflexible in nature.  We expect students to meet grade level benchmarks, but do not take into account that students are coming to us with differing backgrounds, needs, learning styles, etc.  The point of UDL is to proactively think through these learning differences when materials, assessments, methods, and learning goals are created.

Instead, we oftentimes try to retrofit lessons to meet the needs of our students on the backend.  While customizing lessons to meet the needs is a worthwhile planning activity, we may not have to do so with the same level of intensity, if we accounted for learning difference more so during the onset lesson development (or even better, during curriculum development).  

UDL is a Proactive Approach

Additionally, if we met the needs of more of our students during initial instruction, this could even result in less of a need for intervention and possibly even special education services.  Also, when teachers, both general education and special education teachers, plan with UDL principles in mind, they often find that there is overlap with many of the strategies that are outlined in student IEPs.

The National Center on Universal Design for Learning has many great resources around the history and theory behind UDL.  This website also has many resources to support with implementation.   

If you are looking for a resource that can help you get started with implementing UDL in your classroom, then I would recommend checking out this book: Universal Design for Learning in Action: 100 Ways to Teach All Learners.

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First, let’s define product as it relates to differentiation.  Products are what students produce and how they demonstrate new learning as a result of instruction.

Many times, the curriculum documents that are provided to teachers, require students to demonstrate their knowledge through writing lengthy paragraphs or essays.  For students with learning disabilities, this can prove to be a challenge dependent on their needs.

Also, many students just do not prefer to write as a means of demonstrating their knowledge.  By offering a variety of methods for students to use to demonstrate their knowledge around a topic or skill, teachers increase student confidence and engagement.

Examples of Differentiating Product  

One example of differentiating products, would be to provide students with tiered assignments that range in complexity and are based on each student’s readiness level.  Some students may have assignments that have different levels of scaffolding, such as simplified wording of a question, boldface or italicized font, addition of visuals, or a few number of questions that they are required to respond to.  

Another example of differentiating products would be for a teacher to give students choice in how they demonstrate their new learning based on learning style.  For example, if a student needs to demonstrate mastery of identifying story elements, a teacher could have them write the next chapter of a book, act out a portion of the text, draw a map that depicts the setting, or create a missing poster that describes the character in detail.   

Students who are good with technology may want to produce a powerpoint or video that demonstrates that they have an understanding of the content from the lesson.  They also may be benefit from using a word processor to construct a paragraph or essays in relation to a topic.

Differentiating Product as Strategy for Special Education Teachers

There are many differentiation strategies that can be utilized in the classroom to support students with disabilities accessing grade level content.  By allowing each student to express their knowledge in a way that focuses on their strengths, we are giving students with disabilities a greater chance at having more success with demonstrating mastery in all content areas.

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Definition

First, let’s start with how exactly we define content.  Content is what you teach and what you expect your students to learn.  For many special educators, the content is grounded in the Common Core State Standards.  

School districts and individual schools typically have a curriculum in place for teachers to use as a roadmap for delivering grade level content.  It is then up to the teacher to ensure that all students are given access to the content by creating lesson plans specific to the students in each of their classes.

Assessment

Before a teacher can begin to look at differentiating content for a student, it is important that some form of pre assessment or analysis of data occurs related to the content to be taught.  Many times information about how a student is performing in a particular content area or on a particular grade level standard is included in the Individualized Education Program or data has already been collected during beginning of year assessments.  

Assessment information should be used in order to determine if the student is missing in foundational or prerequisite skills related to the new learning.  If this information is not readily available, then it may be necessary for a teacher to create a pre-assessment to determine the student’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to the content.  

Addressing Prerequisite Skills

If a special education teacher finds that there are gaps in the learning or that cause the student to be unable to engage in the grade level instructional material, then it may be appropriate to approach the content at the student’s instructional current level.  

For example, if you are going to be engaging in a sixth grade math lesson on ratios and proportions, the student may need a series of pre-lesson that covers foundational skills such as fractions, multiplication, and division prior to engaging in the content at their grade level.  By planning for these skills deficits up front, a teacher is able to ensure that the student has greater access to the content at their current grade level.

Differentiated Materials

Another strategy for differentiating the content would be to utilize a lower level text for instruction in order to deliver a English Language Arts lesson.  If a student’s IEP indicates that they are reading on a third grade level, but the grade level text is on the eighth grade level, then it may benefit the student to have access to a text a third grade level.  

If the content standard and lesson objective involves identifying main idea and details in an informational  text, then the student can still engage in activities related to the eighth grade content standard. However, instead of using a text that they are unable to read, it may be better to assess their ability to independently identify main idea and details using a lower level text.

A Strategy for Supporting Students with Disabilities

Differentiating content can be a great way for special education teachers to support students with disabilities.  By incorporating differentiation strategies into your daily lessons or sharing with general educators ways in which they can differentiate content for students with learning disabilities, special education teachers can ensure that the needs of their students are being met across all settings.  

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Without this knowledge, we are not going to be able to keep our students engaged in learning, which can result in the achievement gap widening for many students with disabilities.  Since learning styles and interests are the areas which are frequently overlooked by school teams, I am going to share a few tools that can support you in getting to know your students in these areas.  

With this information, you will be able to create lessons that are not only truly differentiated, but also engaging for your students.

Learning Style

This learning style inventory not only gives you information about whether a student is an auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learners, it also provides the teacher and student with information about preferences in different areas such as memory, responding to new situations, and distractibility.  This inventory was based on work by O’Brien in 1985, but still is relevant for today’s teachers and students. It is longer, so may need to be chunked or read aloud for younger students

This learning style inventory by Stetson and Associates is similar to the previous one, but is geared towards elementary students.  

Interests

This is actually a career inventory that is used in Texas to start elementary students with thinking about post-secondary goals.  It is multiple pages and has a lot of great information and different activities for students to engage in around college and career readiness.  Although this is a bit more involved, there can be a lot of value in taking the time to complete this with students in either upper elementary or even middle school.  This would be especially useful for communities where post secondary goals may not be topic of conversation outside of school.

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Differentiated instruction is a framework for teaching that enables teachers to know their students well so that tasks and learning experiences can best meet every student’s individual needs.  Special education teachers that use the differentiated instruction for special education students create lessons based on various assessment measures. Differentiation can not truly take place until teachers know their students’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles.

By knowing students well, teachers are then able to make content accessible to all students through the use of different instructional strategies.  Teachers may also may plan around grouping students that have similar abilities and interests, or they may build heterogeneous groups to allow students to build upon other’s strengths.

Teachers can differentiate content, process, product, and learning environment based on the information that they have gathered from assessing their students (link to getting to know your students).   

Content

The idea here is that the teacher needs to differentiate the content to offer various activities for students.  For most, content is grounded in grade level curriculum and grade level standards (i.e. Common Core State Standards).   Those students that aren’t familiar with the lesson material at their current grade level can complete lower level tasks so that prerequisite skills can be covered prior to the start of the lesson.

This is a powerful method for supporting students with learning disabilities in accessing general education curriculum who may have gaps in content knowledge.   In a standard-based classroom, it may make sense to cover pre-requisite standards from previous grade levels that will aid the student in being ready to engage in the grade level material.

Process

Visual, kinesthetic, auditory content can easily be combined to deliver a more vibrant and vivid learning experience. Offering support based on individual needs can be a huge plus here.  

Tiered learning assignments and tasks are a great way to vary the process of how the student accesses the content.  Also, providing audio books, pictorial supports, or manipulatives are other great ways to differentiate the process for students.

Product

A thing to keep in mind here is that every student comes with their own learning style and therefore teachers should not get stuck in having students put pencil to paper to demonstrate what they have learned.  Teachers should consider how they can give students with learning disabilities the opportunity to act out, verbalize, use pictures or drawings, or technology as a way of demonstrating their knowledge around a topic.

Learning environment

Differentiated instruction also focuses on the creation of an optimal learning environment. Having a flexible classroom layout is very important, and using various arrangements and furniture types is an extremely good idea.  Breaking students into multiple groups and giving them access to learning centers, can be a great way to keep students engaged in learning.

Differentiation Supports ALL Students

Each student has a unique set of learning needs, especially students with learning disabilities.  Because of this, it is important that special education teachers have a good grasp on what differentiated instruction is and how it can be implemented to support students who require special education services.

Students with disabilities frequently have  instructional needs that are overlooked by educators, but by using differentiated instruction, we are allowing all students to have access to the same learning outcomes as their non-disabled peers.

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