The Need for UDL and Backward Design
Note: If you are interested in learning more about UDL and Blended Learning – check out Katie Novak and Catlin Tucker’s new course – it is designed to model Blended Learning using a UDL approach. Enroll here!
If we can agree (or come to an understanding) that part of our role in curriculum development is to help our students prepare for the unknown, then you may be like I was a few years ago and say, “What’s the point then!?”
Honestly, with the world, and education system, changing so frequently we are often stuck between trying to teach what was always taught, vs doing everything entirely new.
There is a common ground and process we can take to use a backward design approach to develop an adaptable curriculum.
As Michelle Lia says in her NCEA Brief, Universal Design for Learning: Getting Started with Backward Design:
We use Backward Design daily. If you cook, you decide what you will cook, what ingredients you will need, in which pot to cook it, for how long and so on. If you are a musician, before you set you decide which songs to play, in what order, when you will take a break, even what the lighting will look like. All of the tasks we do require us to think ahead and plan. Why? So we get what we want. Teaching and learning is no different.
Backward design is best used in curriculum development when pairing the process alongside Universal Design for Learning (UDL). So, what is UDL, and how can it help in curriculum writing?
UDL is Universal Design for Learning, an education framework based on decades of research in neuroscience and endorsed by the Every Student Succeeds Act. UDL is considered best practice for teaching all students in an inclusive learning environment.
The goal of UDL is to create learners who are purposeful & motivated, resourceful & knowledgeable, and strategic & goal oriented, in other words, expert learners.
With UDL, teachers transition their role to facilitator, removing barriers to learning by giving students options and choices that empower them to take control of their own learning and reach rigorous state-standards. To universally design lessons, teachers must provide multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can be explained in many ways, but I love the Dinner Party analogy my friend, and UDL Now! author, Katie Novak shares often in her workshops and on her blog:
I like to explain the differences by asking teachers to think about hosting a dinner party. Let’s say you have invited over thirty guests. Several of these guests have food allergies, another few are gluten-free, some are vegetarian or lactose intolerant, and your brother is exclusively Paleo. You want to be the perfect host, and you want to accommodate everyone.
Scenario 1: You decide to make individual meals for each guest so that each of them has the perfect dish. That is a lot of juggling to do. In the end, you are exhausted from all of the cooking, made a few mistakes because it is nearly impossible to get everyone’s individual meal perfect, and didn’t enjoy yourself. At the same time, you are frustrated that some of your guests preferred other’s meals when you had made a special dish JUST FOR THEM.
What I just described is the dinner party equivalent of DI. DI is presenting options, but those options are directed by the teacher. For example, you may take one group of students aside and ask them to read an extra piece of literature because you can tell they are more advanced than their peers. You ask another student to draw a picture instead of writing an essay since you know writing is challenging for him. You are presenting options, but those options are governed by you and it’s possible you haven’t chosen the right options for the right students. You are burnt out from trying to create so many individualized lessons.
Scenario 2: Let’s go back to the dinner party. Rather than preparing thirty individual meals, why not put out a buffet? Include lots of variety, but let the guests choose what is best for them, what they believe will work with their individual diets, and satisfy them. You don’t witness guests peering at other’s dishes wishing they had been made the same thing. You are relaxed and engaged. You have saved your energy for interacting with your guests, instead of wasting it preparing imperfect options.
UDL offers students a “buffet” of options. The options are offered by the teacher but they aren’t individualized for specific students. Through the UDL framework, students are intended to become self-directed learners and choose the options that work best for them, not the other way around. With UDL, students learn to take responsibility for their learning. They are learn the “why” of learning as we turn on the affective network of the brain by providing multiple means of engagement. They learn the “what” of learning as we ignite the recognition network of the brain by providing multiple means of representation. And they learn the “how” of learning as we turn on the strategic network of the brain through multiple means of action & expression.
Katie also shares that in education there is often a third scenario. This scenario is the “casserole” option where everyone is fed the same meal in one big pot. It doesn’t matter what your dietary needs are, or your taste palette wants are, when you have a casserole as your only option, that is what you get.
Pair this with the idea of one-size-fits-all lessons in the classroom. Every student, regardless of their needs (and wants) getting the same lesson, at the same pace, at the same level.
Just as a casserole would be sure to miss the mark for many of your guests, the one-size lesson would look the same in the classroom.
UDL and Curriculum Design
When developing curriculum, we always start with the end in mind. What are the transfer goals? What are the standards? What do students need to understand and be able to do? How can they demonstrate those skills and knowledge?
Allison Posey of CAST, Inc provides three guiding principles when bringing UDL into lesson planning and curriculum design in her article at Understood:
UDL can transform your classroom practice. However, there is no “magic box” of tools and resources in a UDL classroom. Instead, when you integrate UDL, you’ll notice the following:
There is a strong focus on goals.In a UDL classroom, there is a strong focus on learning goals for students. Teachers and students talk about why those goals matter and how they support challenging, meaningful opportunities to learn. You’ll also see students creating their own learning goals.
There is a focus on variability.In a UDL learning environment, differences in experience, knowledge, and ability are expected. Flexible options are built into lessons for all students. That allows you and your students to talk about how different tools or resources support them as they work toward the goal. It also means not all of your students will be doing the same thing at the same time.
There is a focus on the barriers in the design of the environment. In a UDL classroom, the focus is on how to change the design of the curricular goals, assessments, methods, and materials — not on how to “fix” the students. For example, you may have asked yourself, “Why aren’t my students engaged?” UDL would encourage you to reframe the question: “How can the design of this lesson better engage students?”
Here are some ways you can integrate UDL into your curriculum design, while still focusing on the backward approach:
High Expectations and Goals. Flexible Paths to Achieve Them.
When we have high expectations of students, they are challenged to reach them. However, if we don’t have the scaffolds and supports for students they can be overwhelmed by chasing after the same goals as everyone else and not seeing the same growth in the beginning.
Focus on providing flexible paths and ways for students to achieve those goals. This can be more time, a different way to consume the information (read, watch, listen, explore, etc), and conferencing at checkpoints to see progress and answer questions.
Various Performance Tasks That Assess the Same Knowledge and Skills.
In the second half of this book, we focus on providing choice in all aspects of the learning process. When developing curriculum, one of the best ways to do this is to provide multiple avenues for students to demonstrate their understanding (and skills). Instead of one test that assesses the class, provide a test, a paper, a project, a conversation that all allow learners to share their knowledge in various ways.
Keep the Curricular Document Editable
This is a big one. When you are “finished” writing curriculum it can often be put aside as a paper document. Keep it online, digital, and open to edits throughout the year. Teachers need to share where they are changing, adding, and modifying on the fly for their learners. UDL allows this process to continue while still reaching for those goals shared with everyone.
Whether you are just getting started developing a curriculum, or revising an already written document, keep these principles in mind with a focus on Universal Design for Learning. In doing so, you put the student’s needs above everything else, without compromising the goals and standards in the process.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A.J. Juliani is the author of 8 books about learning, including best-sellers Empower, Launch, and Adaptable. He’s worked at every level of education as a teacher, coach, administrator, and UPenn GSE PLN. A.J. speaks around the world about learning, goals, and innovation.
