Using CAST's Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

During Week 3 of EDLD 5364 Teaching with Technology, I was given the opportunity to explore the Center for Applied Special Techology (CAST) website to learn how to create a lesson using the UDL principles. I also had the opportunity to create and online book using CAST's Book Builder site.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating my book on the Book Builder site. My only difficulty was in resizing photos for uploading to the individual pages. Once I figured that out, it was smooth sailing. I shared the book with my teammates, coach and professor. I later shared it with some of my family members and friends. The site is so user friendly that I am going to have my G/T students publish books on my site.

On the other hand, when I started working with the Universal Design for Learning Lesson Plans, I was rather frustrated at first. As I became familar with the Model Lessons provided in the website, it became easier to work with. I have differentiated instruction for years, but until now, I have never used lesson plans quite like the template provided by CAST. It is a much simpler lesson plan that allows for special accomodations to be included in it. That saves me from writing multiple lesson plans for multiple accomodation situations. I will continue to use the template for making my lesson plans. I really like the way it lays out the lesson and makes transparent, what you plan to teach, the way you plan to teach it!