Universal Design Assignment

Wendy Lemon

For this lesson, I pulled the lesson plan of the teacher I am observing and for the week of October 17,
2011. I decided that I would focus primarily on the Science content for that week. The allotted
instructional time for this content is 9:55am-10:25am. Monday is IMC (computer lab) and Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursdays are available for Science content. No Science content was scheduled on
Friday due to scheduled counseling. The lesson plan read as follows:
Monday
IMC
Tuesday
Science- Unit A
Plants and How
they Grow text pp.
7-25

Continue Plants
section of Life
Science booklets-
small groups will
work together to
read and answer
questions about
plants.
Wednesday
Science- Unit A
Plants and How
They Grow text pp.
7-25

Continue Plants
section of Life
Science booklets-
small groups will
work together to
read and answer
questions about
plants.
Thursday
Science- Unit A
Plants and How
They Grow text pp.
7-25

Continue Plants
section of Life
Science booklets-
small groups will
work together to
read and answer
questions about
plants.
Friday
Counseling

As you can see the lessons were very repetitive and vague. This is one reason I choose this lesson.
My goal was to determine if any of the aspects of the Universal Design of Learning were incorporated.
And then to add my own more specific plans that I feel would enhance UDL in this lesson for the class. I
will also focus on the areas of Representation, Expression, and Engagement throughout the assignment.
I would propose a lesson plan as follows:
Monday

IMC

Educational
computer games
supporting plants.
www.neok-
12.com/diagram
/plants_01.htm
Tuesday
Rotate stations:
Station #1
Computers - watch
video: seed to
plant. Write
summary
Station #2 Observe
Parts of flower w/
document camera;
complete WS on
labeling
Station #3
Text reading,
section on what a
seed needs to
grow. Plant
seeds.
Wednesday

Continue rotation
groups from
Tuesdays lessons
continue with
established
rotation groups.

Rotation #2

Thursday

Continue rotation
groups from
Tuesdays lessons.
continue with
established
rotation groups.

Rotation #3
Friday

Counseling
Universal Design Assignment
Wendy Lemon

First let me state that the original lesson plan offered the students the opportunity to work in small
groups to read and answer questions. Representation during this lesson would come primarily from the
reading content and group communication. Depending on the worksheet, this may provide the
opportunity for expression to the students. Also, the opportunity for engagement may be enhanced in
the group work, encouraging all students to actively participate in the reading and question process.
However, I felt the instructional delivery was very limited and lacked materials or content that would
fully engage the students.
I would recommend consolidating the ideas on differentiated instruction into the lesson plan. I would
strongly encourage the use of UDL in the four focus areas of: Instructional activity, Instructional
content, Instructional delivery, and Instructional materials. When we do this we will automatically cover
the use of representation, expression, and engagement in our plans. In my proposed lesson plan,
lessons would be presented in several different ways that would support this thought.
On Monday, the content would be represented though the use of computer activities that would
allow the children to interactively engage in the content being presented. Tuesday through Thursday
the material would be represented in several different ways that cover all three of the areas of focus for
UDL. For example, in station #1 the students would be able to have visual, auditory, and even reading
support through the video presentation that shows the children how a seed becomes a plant and the
physical requirements needed for this to take place. Then they will be able to get together and express
what they learned in the content by expressive writings or drawings of the information. Station two is
quite different that the first station. This station will offer the children several tactical items; these will
be plants with flowers, leaves, stems, and roots. The children will be able to place these items under the
document camera displaying them on the Smartboard. The children will then find the parts of a plant,
see clearly the difference that each plant may have, and how these differences may benefit the plant in
its environment. This form of engagement will then make it easy for the children to choose one of the
plants to draw and label and then answer several questions concerning the functions of the plant parts.
The last station will offer addition hand on activities. These activities will take place directly after the
children read the content material. This will be done taking turns with everyone having opportunity to
read. Then the children will be given small containers, soil, water, and seeds. After the seeds have been
planted we will continue to observe the seeds until the germination process is complete and we have a
small plant. We could also choose to incorporate this information into graphing in connection with our
math curriculum, additional reading provided by books on various reading levels for reading, and the
importance of plants to society during social studies.
UDL is awesome in the way it allows us to adapt the learning environment, curriculum, and technology
to the needs of our students. In order for the lesson plan I have presented to work appropriately we
would need a wide area to allow for movement of all students. We must start by removing any
obstacles or barriers that might interfere with the ability for each student to access the computer area,
the table/lab area, and the Smartboard/document camera area. Next we need to make sure that the
curriculum can be accessed through the multiple means of representation, such as; reading, computer
programs, auditory support, hands on activities, and visual supports. To enhance those lets consider
Universal Design Assignment
Wendy Lemon

adding headphone to allow for adjustment of audio and closed captioning to support reading. Multiple
means of expression allow children to express the information they have learned through illustrations,
writings, and presentations, this can also be done to some degree through worksheets and tests. Last,
but certainly not least, is the importance of the multiple means of engagement. Keeping the children
engaged as much as possible it vital for great learning. We need to offer hands on, visual, and auditory
support to help the children to retrieve prior knowledge that may have been gained in grandpas garden
or in other previous experiences. Retrieving this prior knowledge will help us to make the critical
connections that we are searching to establish in our learning concepts and for long term knowledge.