Reflection 6714 - UDL and DI

After this course I feel much less overwhelmed and more in control when implementing Differentiated Instruction (DI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In the beginning of this course I learned about administering surveys that will help me analyze my student's interests, learning styles, and intelligences. The survey tool I used to create my surveys was Zoomerang available at http://www.zoomerang.com/. In the fall I plan to review my class list to help me create surveys that will help me better understand what my student's interests and needs are. Through the data collected in the surveys I can begin to differentiate my instruction based on the particular make-up of students in my class.

I am lucky in that I work in a fairly affluent school district and I teach Career and Technical Education. The funding I have available allows to buy many new technologies. I recently purchased a new set of clickers and received a Mobi View which acts as and interactive whiteboard. According to Salend (2009), "frequency systems allows teachers to monitor their students' learning by having students' periodically respond electronically to factual, computational, conceptual, and comprehension questions; probes and quizzes; interactive activities and poll, opinion, and review questions". This summer I plan to explore this new resource to see how I can use it to differentiate instruction, assess knowledge, and integrate it into existing lessons.

UDL has taught me that I need to teach children how to learn. UDL integrates technology into lessons to allow students to showcase their learning in different ways. I have a new textbook in my Personal Finance class that has a special feature at the end of each chapter. The feature is called Make Academic Connections. In this section there are a variety of assignments with connections to other academic content areas. I plan to let each student choose the assignment that interests them the most. My hope is that each student chooses an assignment that interests them and that I can give option for the end product for each assignment that integrates technology.

After learning about DI I realized I currently use it more that I had realized. I often differentiate my instruction to meet student needs. There is one class, Accounting, where I would like to implement DI more. It has always been a class that I have taught the same way. I recently began using an online workbook offered through Aplia available at www.aplia.com instead of a traditional workbook that students write in, rip out the pages, and turn in. I know this site can b e utilized for many other content areas and textbooks as well.

Overall, I feel more comfortable with UDL and DI then I did when I began this course. I realized that many things I already do involve both UDL and DI I just didn't realize it. I also recognized that this is more than I can do to integrate technology into my lessons and in turn incorporate the principles of UDL and DI.

References:

Salend, S. (2009). Technology-based classroom assessments. Teaching Exceptional Children. 41(6), 48-58. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.