Jamie Castle

South Eastern Oklahoma State University

Professor Jayanna Greenwood

Nov. 12th, 2025


Week 5 Blog  EDUC 5313

1)  Select one article from those linked below regarding Universal Design for Learning and provide a summary of the article and discuss connections to the lesson you are developing.

2)  Visit the CAST Universal Design for Learning website and use resources there to identify strategies that you could integrate into the lesson you are developing.  Discuss at least two strategies that you could meaningfully integrate into the lesson you are developing.

3) Reflect upon the guidance provided in the 2024 NETP regarding the integration of UDL strategies to address the Digital Use Divide (week 2 reading assignment).

The article “Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to Design Standard-Based Lessons” (Rao & Meo, 2016) described how learners have diverse abilities and how the UDL helps instructors design lessons to reach more students.  The article explained a process for developing a lesson that provides multiple means of representation, action, expression, and engagement by breaking down the broad standard that a teacher may be given (Rao & Meo, 2016). Standards dictate what needs to be taught, but not how to present a lesson on the standard. A teacher will need to identify the skills and concepts by unwrapping a standard. The article says that next, a teacher applies UDL to the four parts of a lesson: goals, assessments, methods, and materials (Rao & Meo, 2016). As a teacher considers UDL guidelines, they can create a lesson that allows students to master the given standard to the highest level a student is capable. 

Our lesson does a great job of meeting several proportional relationships of the 7th-grade standards in Oklahoma. The standards are 7.A.1.1 Identify a relationship between two varying quantities, x and y, as proportional if it can be expressed in the form y/x = k or y=kx. and 7.A.2.3 Use proportional reasoning to solve problems involving ratios and many others in between (Oklahoma State Department of Education, n.d.). We broke them down to the different actions that the students master and allowed several different interactions to progressively walk through the various stations and requirements of proportions, allowing the lesson to meet the standards in UDL’s Building Knowledge options (CAST, 2018, “Build Knowledge). 

We also differentiate how students can submit their final thoughts, meeting UDL Checkpoint 7.1 Optimize choice and autonomy (Cast, 2018, “Welcoming Interest & Identities”). Students using multimedia also meet standards 5.1 and 5.2 in the section Action and Expressions (CAST, 2018, “Expression & Communication”). We plan on pulling from “Foster collaboration, interdependence and collective learn” using an I do, we do, you do format. I also believe the students will “nurture joy and play” with the simulation. We will walk through different displays of the information that will allow “multiple easy-to-perceive information”. Other simulations, both on and off the computer, allow connection to perception, expression, and interactions as stated on the CAST UDL Guidelines. We will also enable student multiple-choices to display their understanding of the material by making a podcast, slide show, or Google Doc. 

Technology has grown exponentially worldwide in the last twenty years or more. It is essential that educators use technology appropriately, not as a tool they have to use. The UDL guidelines align with the call to action of the 2024 NETP. Integrating technology must be done with every type of student in mind. When we are closing the gap, we must make sure every student is able and capable of using technology, and this should be done in engaging ways that enhance learning. Teachers must learn how to use technology appropriately. Following the UDL guideline will allow all educators to thrive with the use of technology in their subject, rather than becoming stagnant. 


Office of Educational Technology. (2024). A Call to Action to Close the Technology Access, Design, and Use Divides: National Educational Technology Plan. Department of Education. Retrieved from: https://tech.ed.gov/netp

Oklahoma State Department of Education. (n.d.). 7th grade learning progression (v2). OKMath Framework. http://okmathframework.pbworks.com/w/page/118991883/7th%20Grade%20Learning%20Progression%20(v2)

Rao, K., & Meo, G. (2016). Using Universal Design for Learning to design standards-based lessons. SAGE Open, 6(4).https://u dlguidelines.cast.org/





Comments

  1. Karlie MinsonNovember 14, 2025 at 5:22 PM

    I am so excited to be working with you on our lesson plan! I love that your blog shows a different side to our lesson than mine does which is so cool! I agree with your statement on the fact that teachers need to learn how to use the technology appropriately! This is so important because if the teachers do not know how to use it then it will not be implemented well.

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