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Lesson Design Workshop

California Coalition for Inclusive Learning Presents: Through the Lens of UDL Webinar Series

February 24, 2025 | 3:30 - 4:30 PST

bit.ly/LessonDesignUDL

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CCIL Leadership

bit.ly/LessonDesignUDL

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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County Office of Education Partners

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Meet Your Facilitators

Brenda Green, Ed.D.

Implementation Specialist bgreen@cast.org

Leah Blake

Coordinator - Social Emotional and Academic Supports

leblake@kern.org

@CAST_UDL

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Chat Box Options�At anytime, feel free to:

Introduce yourself

Ask or answer �a question

Share an idea or a connection you see

Hyperlink a resource for your colleagues

@CAST_UDL

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Using the �Chat Box

Type “@Name” to respond directly to a message.

Contribute in the chat box!

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Your Learning Environment

Webinar Information
Slides
Resources

bit.ly/LessonDesignUDL

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Today’s Goals

Participants will be able to:

Apply the UDL design process to design or redesign your lessons.
Understand how to use the UDL Guidelines to design options that minimize barriers to learning and respond to variability.

Let’s Pause: What might be a personal goal for you today?

Feel free to reflect on drop it in the chat

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Let’s Connect

In the Chat:

Share a lesson design barrier or challenge that you hope to minimize as you learn more about UDL
A lesson design experience/resource that resonated well with learners

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UDL Foundational Principles and Design Process

The barrier is in the design, not the learner.	Variability is the norm.�It is contextual. It can be planned for.	The goal of UDL is�learner agency.
	UDL Design Process
Set Clear, Rigorous Goals	��Anticipate Variability	Design Options to�Minimize Barriers

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Barriers May Exist in these Design Areas

How is the content being represented?

How is the content being delivered?

How is the climate/culture supportive of the learning?

How is the learning being demonstrated?

Materials

Goals: What will guide instruction, minimize barriers to learning, motivate students, and foster learner agency?

Environment

Assessment

Methods

@CAST_UDL

When we are designing with UDL, it is important to remember to always start with that clear, rigorous goal (without the means embedded). Have a clear goal will then help to inform the rest of the design. In UDL it can be helpful to bucketize content, when we think about instructional design and UDL, we try to remember that the barrier is in the design and the system and not the learning. As a designer it can be helpful to focus on design areas that I have control over, materials, methods, assessments and environment. As a teacher I can design specifically in these area. Think about how I am representing content, think about how I am delivering instruction and asking myself, if I also provided option for how students can demonstrate their learning and how my learning environment impacts student learning.

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Learner Variability

Interest
Effort and Resilience
Emotional Well-Being
Perceive Content
Language
Background Knowledge
Physical Navigation Skills
Communication Skills
Executive Function Skills

bit.ly/LessonDesignUDL

@CAST_UDL

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Variability Includes Identities - Intersecting Identities

Collectivistic

Individualistic

@CAST_UDL

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UDL Guidelines

Common instructional design language
Summary of learner variability
Summary of research
Tool for anticipating barriers
Guidance for design

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Exploring the UDL Guidelines:

Card Game

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UDL Guidelines Game

The Decider will select and display a challenge card.
Each player will choose one UDL consideration card from their hand that best responds to the challenge and makes a case for their selection.

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Round 1

11

21

4

3

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Round 2

11

21

31

41

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Round 3

2

3

1

4

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Lesson Design Using the UDL Framework

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Bowling

Transforming Inclusive Education

Shelley Moore

(3 minute video)

Think about the relationship between bowling and UDL and how this might change your approach to lesson design.

Transforming Inclusive Education, Shelley Moore (Bowling Analogy Video)

While watching this video, think about how the relationship between bowling and UDL.

Bowling is like teaching. The ball is the lesson and the pins are the learners. Teachers typically aim for the middle and the pins that are left standing are the learners who need the most support and those that need the most challenge. We end up choosing one or set of learners and the others are left standing.

Professional bowlers throw the ball down the lane at a curve to knock down more pins and create a bigger domino effect.

We need to change our aim: aim for the pins that are the hardest to hit. Those supports that we design for the learners on the outside of the lane are actually supports that all learners need.

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Using the Lesson Design Guide

Providing Access and Agency

Make a digital copy or use a printout

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Lesson Design Areas A

How is the content being represented?

How is the content being delivered?

How is the climate/culture supportive of the learning?

How is the learning being demonstrated?

Materials

Goals: What will guide instruction, minimize barriers to learning, motivate students, and foster learner agency?

Environment

Assessment

Methods

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

When we are designing with UDL, it is important to remember to always start with that clear, rigorous goal (without the means embedded). Have a clear goal will then help to inform the rest of the design. In UDL it can be helpful to bucketize content, when we think about instructional design and UDL, we try to remember that the barrier is in the design and the system and not the learning. As a designer it can be helpful to focus on design areas that I have control over, materials, methods, assessments and environment. As a teacher I can design specifically in these area. Think about how I am representing content, think about how I am delivering instruction and asking myself, if I also provided option for how students can demonstrate their learning and how my learning environment impacts student learning.

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Goals:

The Destination of a Lesson

What do you really want the learners to know, do, or care about?

Clear goals, flexible means

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Shovel the stairs

Goal: To enter the building by either the stairs or the ramp.

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What is the goal here?

Students will write a five-paragraph essay on the lifecycle of butterflies.

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Writing UDL Goals

Content Goal:

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the lifecycle of butterflies.

Skill Goal:

Students will write a five-paragraph essay on a topic of their choice.

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Content Goal, Flexibility in Product

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the lifecycle of butterflies.

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Skill Goal, Flexibility in Process and Content

Students will write a five-paragraph essay on a topic of their choice.

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Flexible Options Build Learner Agency

Engagement:

Welcome Interests and Identities

Action and Expression:

Expression and Communication

Opportunities for learners to have agency to be purposeful and reflective, and action-oriented and strategic.

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Focus on the Goal

Shift the focus to what we are learning, rather than what we are doing

Access:

Design options that remove barriers

Agency:

Empower learners to decide how to learn

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Key UDL Questions to ask about Goals

Are the skills separated from the content?
Is the goal relevant and meaningful?
How will I communicate the goal to my learners?
How is the goal in service of “learner agency”?
Is it an activity or a goal?
Have I considered my bias?

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@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Planning an Assessment:

Gathering Information

Is your assessment aligned with your goal? Do you see any barriers that might get in the way?

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Assessments aligned with the goal and offer flexible options.

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Assessment Design Process

First:

How is the assessment linked to the learning goal?

Third:

How does the assessment provide options for learners ?

Second:

What barriers might students experience?

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Assessment Barriers:

Reduce the barriers by offering options.
Co-create assessments with students.
Check for Accessibility

Barrier	Options
Time limits	Provide flexible time limit for all learners
Only one way to show learning	Allow for oral, video, or multimedia responses
Unclear directions	Scaffolding, use visuals, break down directions
Limited feedback	Regular and specific feedback to support understanding

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Key UDL Questions: Assessments

How is the assessment aligned to the goal?
How will achievement be measured at the end of the lesson?
What options are there for assessment?
Are the assessment materials and tools accessible for all learners?
How will learners monitor their own progress?
How will learners reflect on their own learning?
How can learners co-design the assessment?

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@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Designing Methods and Materials:

Creating the Learning Paths

Are the materials accessible for all learners? Do learners have the agency to choose their pathway towards the goal?

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Cartoonstock.com

Design for the variability of all learners.

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Providing Materials and Tools

What is necessary for some

is beneficial to all. When we provide a range of materials and tools, we increase access and agency for all students.

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Options to Consider

Materials

Readings / Texts

Videos

Audio

Manipulatives

Digital Tools

Online Platforms

…

Instructional Methods

Lecture

Discussion

Reading

Investigations

Inquiry

Online Platforms

…

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Key UDL Questions: Methods

Where in the design are there multiple entry and access points for learning?
How does the design support collaboration?
How does the design honor the voices and agency of marginalized students?
How does the design support students to set goals and create plans?
What options for receiving feedback are offered to students?

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@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Key UDL Questions: Materials

How are the materials accessible for all students?
How do the materials provide ways for all students to have access and engage?
Do the materials provide all learners with access to perceive and comprehend the information?
How do the materials provide all learners with access to build skills and make meaning?
How do the materials support all learners to have the agency to express understanding?
What scaffolds may be needed to support all learners?

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

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Designing the Learning Environment:

Creating a space for all learners

How can the environment be designed to support learner agency?

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Create an accessible environment with predictable options to support student agency and access.

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Designing the Learning Environment

The barrier is in the environment, not the learner. When we design environments that scaffold, and support all learners, we increase student agency to select their learning path.

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Reflect: Learning Environment Design

How does the environment support your goals?

How can the learning environment reinforce a collaborative culture, focused on supporting mastery of learning goals, and the development of learning expertise?
What predictable options in the environment can support representing content by supporting language or symbols, and themes or big ideas in the curriculum?

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Choices are Predictable

My teacher always has digital and paper copies of graphic organizers.

My teacher always has options and gives me the agency to decide.

My teacher gives me the agency to choose the tools I need to be successful.

My teacher always has options on how to show my understanding.

Materials

Goals: My teacher always makes the goal clear and provides scaffolding to achieve the goal, with feedback and reflection along the way.

Environment

Assessment

Methods

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL

When we are designing with UDL, it is important to remember to always start with that clear, rigorous goal (without the means embedded). Have a clear goal will then help to inform the rest of the design. In UDL it can be helpful to bucketize content, when we think about instructional design and UDL, we try to remember that the barrier is in the design and the system and not the learning. As a designer it can be helpful to focus on design areas that I have control over, materials, methods, assessments and environment. As a teacher I can design specifically in these area. Think about how I am representing content, think about how I am delivering instruction and asking myself, if I also provided option for how students can demonstrate their learning and how my learning environment impacts student learning.

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Lesson Design Resources

CAST Tools

Open Access

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Possible Next Steps

As you reflect on the ideas that have been shared today, what has…

Affirmed your thinking…
Pushed your thinking…
What might your learners need you to do next?

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In Partnership with our COE Colleagues�Webinar Topics All through the Lens of UDL

UDL & Community Partnerships
Universally Designing Assessments
Supporting Executive Function
CTE & UDL
Lesson Design Workshop
UDL School Implementation�Criteria
Leading through an UDL lens

@CAST_UDL

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CCIL Statewide Resources

ccil.cast.org

@CAST_UDL

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Feedback is a Gift

Link to Webinar Survey

bit.ly/WebinarQPLS

Your feedback provides insight into learner variability and in turn we can design more inclusive learning experiences.

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We’d Love to Hear from You!

California Educators -

For more information on opportunities for coaching and further expert support through the CCIL grant, please contact:

Shamryn Coyle, Director�CA Coalition for Inclusive Learning�Placer County Office of Education

scoyle@placercoe.org

@CAST_UDL

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Want to stay in touch?

Sign up for the

CAST newsletter!

bit.ly/cast-newsletter

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Learn with us

Get in touch for more information about �our professional learning services!

Email PL@cast.org

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CAST

Website: ccil.cast.org

Professional Learning: castpl.org

Books & Media: castpublishing.org

Email: cast@cast.org

Phone: 781-245-2212

CAST �50 Salem Street

Building B, Suite 303

Lynnfield, MA 01940-0030

@CAST_UDL | #CASTPL