Week 5 Blog: Connections Between UDL and Donut Fraction Comparisons

 Part 1:

As I was reading through the Digital Tools and UDL-Based Instructional Strategies to Support Students With Disabilities Online article I instantly made connections between the strategies discussed in the arctic and my Donut Fraction Comparison lesson plan. The COVID-19 pandemic led to teachers being flooded with digital tools. Many of the resources recommended to teachers placed greater focus on the digital tools, rather than on instructional strategies(). Digital tools that can be used for teaching and learning include hardware, software, and technology-based online environments. These digital tools will provide educators the ability to reach, teach, and engage learners ().  The best part of these digital tools is that they will come equipped with assistive features which will provide learning supports for all students. In the article there was a range of tools and strategies that addressed the nine UDL guidelines. 

The first strategy that I identified that would be helpful in my lesson was to provide my students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of fractions through multimodal formats by using Polypad. Through this application, students will be able to divide polygons into fractional parts however they would like to display the fraction the teacher asks. Another strategy that I identified is being able to provide students opportunities to practice their skills of comparing fractions through several different methods. This allows the students opportunities to develop their skills and express what they know prior to assessments. 

Part 2: 

Through the CAST UDL website https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl, you can find many suggestions for providing support in the three key areas of UDL: Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression. Under engagement, I focused on checkpoint 8.3 which is foster collaboration and community. For my students, I will promote this collaboration by incorporating a game on Blooket for fraction comparisons and we would play the game in team mode. In the representation area, I chose checkpoint 2.1 to clarify vocabulary and symbols. This is extremely important in fractions for students to have a clear understanding of numerators and denominators, and what role they play in comparing fractions. 

Part 3: 

Like UDL, the National Educational Technology Plan is made up of three pillars. The three pillars of the NETP are the divide in students' access to technology, the divide in support for educators to design lessons using technology, and the divide in the ways technology is used in the classroom. When we look at these three pillars we see that UDL can help students to be able to learn how to have access and use technology to develop their understanding. UDL also encourages educators to use technology in a variety of ways and the roles it can play in reaching all students. It helps educators find more engaging ways to teach students rather than just taking quizzes or completing writing assignments through technology. 

CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org

Rao, K., Torres, C., & Smith, S. (2021). Digital tools and UDL-based instructional strategies to support students with disabilities online. Journal of Special Education Technology, 36(2), 105-112.