Week 4: Inclusive Planning and Instruction

 As I reflect on the content that was provided, I can see how my mentor teacher incorporates the UDL framework into her lessons daily. According to the IRIS Center (2024), The Universal Design for Learning model is “a lens through which educators design instruction that allows students a variety of ways to access content, engage with instruction, and demonstrate their learning”. Through this model, students are provided the necessary materials through multiple modalities and the way in which they show their knowledge of the subject is differentiated based on their various needs. Most importantly, this framework takes away barriers in the learning process and makes the content more accessible to all students. 

In the 1st grade classroom that I am currently a student teaching in, I see this framework in action daily. Through this blog post, I will be concentrating on a writing lesson that I taught this week. 

Learning objective: 

This objective was explicitly stated to students at the beginning of the lesson: 

“Today we will write our opinions on if we want pet llamas and use examples to support our opinions”. This lesson aligned with Colorado State standard RWC-GR.1-S.3-GLE.1-EO.a, b, and c. Specifically, this standard looks at students writing an opinion supported by reason. Students have practiced this skill throughout the year; yet, there has not been a formal lesson introducing opinion writing, yet. This prompt was chosen because students have been learning about Ancient American Civilizations, specifically, the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs. In the previous lesson, we learned about how the Incas utilized llamas, and this was an extension lesson where they could build on their knowledge and work on their writing skills. The learning objective was explicitly provided to students so they were aware of the goal of the lesson and what was expected of them. Overall, I believe that the goal of the lesson was clear and it was further broken down when we entered the writing portion of the lesson. 

UDL model in action: 

Materials about llamas were provided to students in multiple different ways. First, what we had learned about llamas in the previous lesson was summarized for students. Prior to summarizing, students had the opportunity to share what they remember from the previous lesson. After summarizing students' background knowledge on the subject, we watched a kid friendly video about llamas to teach them more about the animal. The purpose of showing students the video was to provide them with multiple means of representation- instead of just text-based information (IRIS, 2024).

All About Llamas - Facts for Kids (Hey! Guess What) 

After watching the video, students had a turn-and-talk opportunity where they were told to share with their partner one thing they learned from the video. Students were provided with the sentence stem “One thing I learned about llamas was _______________.” orally and written on the board. As stated by the IRIS center (2024), “creating opportunities for peer interaction and collaboration” can make learning more accessible for students by providing multiple means of engagement. By having students turn and talk to a partner about something they learned in the video, this provides them with a second opportunity to hear the material that they may have missed initially in the video. We often do turn and talk opportunities in the classroom, so when students see the visual attached below they know what is expected of them. 

Both a formative and summative assessment was included in this lesson. After discussing one thing that they learned about llamas, students shared with their partners if they wanted a pet llama or if they did not want a pet llama. Students were provided with the sentence stems, “I do not want a pet llama because ________” and “I want a pet llama because _______” and were instructed to discuss the prompt with their partner. They were told that they need to provide a reason why or why they did not want one because they would need to include this in their writing later. During this portion of the lesson, I circulated the room to listen to student responses and see if they were able to provide a specific reason for their opinion. For struggling students, I provided them with feedback. For example, one student said “I want a pet llama because I want one”- I followed up with this by further prompting them to think about a specific reason why they wanted a pet llama and asked them what they remembered from the text and video. After further prompting the student, they were able to answer the question by saying “I want a pet llama because they could help me carry heavy things”. Formative assessments help students “persist through challenges and strengthen their learner agency”- which was the purpose of this turn and talk opportunity. Also, questions can help students “commit content to memory” which was another purpose of this portion of the lesson (IRIS, 2024). 

Following this portion of the lesson, students were introduced to the steps of writing an opinion paragraph. They were told that a “5-star” opinion paragraph used capital letters, used punctuation, finger spaces, wrote an introduction sentence to explain their opinion, and provide details to support their opinions. Then they were provided with a model of what a ‘5-star’ 1st grade paragraph looks like (one for students who wanted a llama and one for students who did not want a llama). During this portion, I used the think aloud method to explain how these paragraphs were written (i.e., this person states their opinion, provided examples to support their opinion, and used proper writing conventions). After being provided with the exemplar models, students were shown a 1st grade paragraph that still needed work and we worked together to correct the paragraph. This was a valuable learning experience for the students because it showed them what they should not be doing in the project. There is a stuffed animal in the classroom named “Jolly” and we were correcting jolly’s writing. This helped keep students engaged because they liked the fact that Jolly was incorporated into the lesson. This was a “purposeful connection to students’ interests” and was used to keep them engaged in the lesson (IRIS, 2024). 

(clear objective / goal for writing) 

(model writing) 

(model we corrected together as a group) 

As a group, students wrote their introductions together and were provided with the sentence stem (I want a pet llama or I do not want a pet llama). Given that the primary objective of the lesson was for students to support their initial opinions, I wrote this portion for them- so they would not need to spend time and cognitive energy struggling to write this sentence and could spend more time writing support for their initial opinion. Following this portion of the lesson, we moved into the independent portion of the lesson. students were provided sentence stems and told to write about their opinions on why they do or do not want a pet llama. Independent practice helps “move information from working memory into long-term memory” (IRIS, 2024). Some students worked independently during this portion, while struggling readers and writers were placed in groups with a teacher. These students in groups with the teacher were still required to write a sentence, but given that the primary objective of this lesson was for students to be able to support their initial opinions, we supported them in the writing process. These students were also only required to write one sentence instead of two then they could draw a picture to show their opinions. This differentiation helped them really engage in the learning process- instead of rushing to write two sentences, they could spend time working hard writing one sentence that followed proper writing conventions then draw a picture to further represent their thinking. 

Overall, I am a big fan of the UDL framework. It allows all students access to the materials through differentiated and scaffold instruction. Furthermore, it holds all students to a high-standard that they are capable of adhering to. Throughout my career as an educator, I will continue to implement portions of this framework into my daily instruction. 

Resources: 

IRIS Center. (2024). Universal Design for Learning: Designing Learning Experiences That Engage and Challenge All Students [MOOC]. The IRIS Center Peabody College Vanderbilt University. https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/udl/