Top Tips!

Career Technical Education (CTE) offers powerful, real-world learning experiences that prepare students for college and careers. When designed through the lens of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), CTE becomes even more inclusive and engaging by proactively addressing learner variability. These top tips highlight ways to design CTE instruction that fosters agency, reduces barriers, and supports all students in accessing and expressing their learning. How might we design CTE learning experiences that honor learner variability and ensure all students can access, engage with, and succeed in career pathways?

Co-teaching is a collaborative teaching approach where educators work together to design, deliver and evaluate instruction for students. It often occurs in inclusive classrooms, where students with diverse learning needs are educated alongside their peers without disabilities. What might we need to consider as we begin our co-teaching and/or co-design journey?

To create and sustain more inclusive and supportive learning environments, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) reminds us that the barriers exist in the design (i.e. goals, methods, materials, assessment and environment). How might we design options to support the engagement between educators and families within the school community?

Applying UDL principles to early childhood education can help create inclusive and effective learning environments for young children. Here are five top tips for integrating UDL into early childhood education. What might we need to consider as we begin this journey?

Executive functions are the higher-order processes that we use to set and carry out goals. They include thinking processes like organization, planning, time management, working memory, and self-monitoring. They also include doing processes like impulse control, attention, task initiation, self-motivation and mental flexibility.  What scaffolds and supports could we include for all students?

Foundational reading skills encompass the knowledge and abilities necessary to support successful reading. These skills must be taught explicitly and systematically as the process of reading does not naturally develop as language does. How might universally designing foundational reading skills instruction increase access for all learners?

Leadership through the lens of UDL requires us to gather and analyze data that is centered around the learner to help us think deeply about what is happening within the system.  Learner-centered data moves beyond performance data and towards data that captures student voices and the school experiences and the barriers impacting their learning. In what ways might data gathering and analysis support the UDL implementation process? How might it support teams in identifying barriers to learning?

The UDL design process includes setting flexible goals, anticipating variabling, and designing options that minimize barriers. Establishing clear goals will help guide instruction, minimize barriers to learning, motivate students, and foster learner agency. How might we use the UDL design process to set clear, flexible goals and design options across materials, methods, assessment, and environment that reduce barriers and support learner agency?

Flexible means in mathematics is central to providing students greater access to the instructional goals of mathematics. Engaging students with multiple options for representation increases their comprehension of mathematics and their ability to articulate their learning using mathematics language and symbols. What Top Tip! do you anticipate examining?

The term "multilingual learners" refers to students who are in the process of developing proficiency in English while also maintaining or developing proficiency in their native language. The goal is for multilingual learners to achieve high levels of proficiency in English, master grade-level standards, and have the opportunity to develop proficiency in multiple languages. How might we design learning environments that support asset-based and inclusive learning environments?

When designing learning experiences, a designer can anticipate some predictable options that will minimize barriers in the materials, methods, assessment and environment that will support all learners towards the goals. How might we make our materials, methods, assessment and materials more accessible for all learners?

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has identified five core competencies that define Social and Emotional Learning (SEL): Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision-Making. One of the goals of Universal Design for Learning is to support expert learning which is deeply rooted in individual and collective reflection. How can educators design learning environments that foster individual and collective reflection?

The latest iteration of UDL Guidelines embodies a profound shift towards equity, addressing entrenched biases and exclusionary practices in educational settings. These guidelines are tailored to meet the evolving needs of educators and learners. Whether you’re an educator, administrator, or advocate passionate about inclusive education, these guidelines can be used to ensure that every learner thrives. How might Guidelines 3.0 support engagement and foster inclusivity in the classroom?

The Universal Design for Learning School Wide Implementation Criteria (UDL-SIC) offers leadership teams a powerful framework for schoolwide improvement. These Top Tips! can serve as a practical guide to build momentum, ensure alignment, and promote sustainable change throughout your school community. How might these tips support designing systems for access and agency for all learners?

What is mindset?

• A short-cut for thinking

• A frame for attention, interpreting, speaking and acting in the world

• A changeable way of looking at the world

Why is mindset important? 

A shift in mindset is essential to designing inclusive and equitable learning environments.

With a clear, explicit learning goal, learners are empowered to choose their best pathway to achieve that goal.  How might the intentional design of learning goals reduce barriers to learning and lead to a more inclusive learning environment? 

Barriers are places where learners may get stuck in a lesson. Identifying barriers is essential to designing and facilitating equitable learning environments. When designing inclusive learning experiences, what might we consider to anticipate barriers to learning?

Options are designed in response to anticipated barriers to learning. They should be carefully considered in lesson design to support access to learning and content. How might providing options support both student and teacher agency?

Expert Learners are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgeable, strategic and goal-oriented.  When designing inclusive learning experiences, how might we intentionally offer support, guidance and practice aimed at growing expert learners? 

Assessment reveals where learners are and how they learn best.  Assessment informs next steps in designing learning experiences to support all learners. Use these tips to ensure that your assessments are flexible, engaging, and aligned to the intended learning goals.

Learners vary along the continuum of reflection, but educators can support learner self-reflection by exploring the depth of their thinking  through levels of questioning based on Bloom’s revised taxonomy (Huang, 2017). How might varying the depth of questions educators and learners use during self-reflection lead to deeper and more meaningful learning experiences? 

Developing literacy across disciplines sets a foundation for learners to access content in a range of subject areas and strengthen literacy skills through application across disciplines. How might we support students to apply literacy skills across content areas?

Meaning making in any discipline is the central purpose for interacting with text, producing text, participating in discussions, giving presentations, and engaging in research. Meaning making is not confined to literal comprehension. Inference making and critical reading require substantial and explicit attention in every discipline. — (California English Language Arts & English Language Development Framework, 2015). What are some qualitative dimensions of complex literary (L) and informational texts (I) that promote meaning making beyond literal comprehension?

Writing expresses who we are as people, fosters our ability to refine and explain ideas, and communicates our learning or thinking. The physical act of writing may be a barrier in and of itself for learners across all disciplines. How can we utilize assistive technology and other classroom resources throughout the school year to provide access to the act of writing?