Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Another great workshop by Core Ed - refer above LwDT Tab for UDL workshop slide
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) was a bit of a mind flip in so far as the way you need to think about planning for your class. We generally always plan with the 'majority' in mind rather those children at the far end of the spectrum of learning (learning support children - gifted and talented). Planning for them often came afterwards.

UDL turns this around. Start your planning from the 'outer edges' and move inwards. The children in the middle will nearly always get it. If you plan from the outer edges then you will have incorporated all children into accessible learning.

UDL is not retrofitting. In other words, you are not just adding technology to your current practice and not changing the way you teach, it is looking to the future to ensure all students have accessible learning no matter what their circumstances.

Trialling:
I decided to introduce Caleb to google speech recognition add-on. While he learning to use this add-on, I fully admit that it is retrofitting but oh my goodness the delight on his face to see the words come up on screen is just lovely. He could even tell when words were missing or that his name was not right and proceeded to type it in.

Using UDL for Caleb (and the rest of the class) will start as part of our narrative writing. Firstly it will be planning a setting and then gradually the rest of a narrative. This certainly is giving him accessibility to the curriculum in a way much more accessible way for his writing.