Explore a variety of resources that support understanding and implementation of Universal Design for Learning, and download professional learning slides and activities that are useful in teaching others about UDL.
General UDL:
- The UDL Guidelines assist curriculum developers (these may include teachers, publishers, and others) in designing flexible curricula that reduce barriers to learning and provide robust learning supports to meet the needs of all learners.
- Click the media player icon below to hear CAST Co-founder David Rose's overview of UDL and the book Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. Right-click (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac) here and choose 'Save Link As...' to download and save the podcast to your computer.
Recorded January 2007 as a podcast for educators. Presented here in MP3 format. Duration: c. 23 minutes. - Publications communicate CAST's research results and provides practical advice on applications of Universal Design for Learning.
Math:
- The Math Matrix is a searchable database that presents evidence and products for the use of technologies that support the instruction of mathematics for students with special needs.
English Language Arts:
- Electronic Books and Online Resources: Explore online reading including interactive stories, articles, and books.
- Read about Strategy Instruction Goes Digital: Two Teachers' Perspectives on Digital Texts with Embedded Learning Supports. This Reading Online interview features two middle school teachers who have used CAST's universally-designed digital novels with embedded strategy instruction, text-to-speech capability, and multi-media glossary supports to improve their students' reading comprehension and engagement. They share teaching strategies and examples of student work.
- Strategy Instruction Assessments and Lesson Plans. These materials, from CAST's Strategic Learning Editions Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education, support teachers and students in using strategy instruction in the classroom.
- The Reading Matrix database of products and evidence select one of the six purposes of technology that support reading for students with reading disabilities.
Social Studies (images):
- Editorial Cartoon Collection Project provides editorial cartoons and related lesson plans from the Dirksen Center that teach students how to identify issues, analyze symbols, acknowledge the need for background knowledge, recognize stereotypes and caricatures, think critically, and appreciate the role of irony and humor.
- Picturing Modern America: Historical Thinking Exercises for Middle and High School by the Education Development Center provides historical thinking exercises for middle and high school students.
- The Commons: The Library of Congress Photo Collection on Flickr http://flickr.com/commons. The Library of Congress has put up two 1500+ photograph collections on Flickr for both educational use and to have the public add tags and comments to make the viewing experience "richer" for others.
Video Resources:
- Learner.org provides a teacher video library highlighting teaching practices of K-12 educators in all academic disciplines.
- The Story of Movies, an educational program for middle schoolers, was created as "an integrated interdisciplinary curriculum, in recognition of the importance of exposing future generations to classic cinema and teaching them about the cultural, artistic, and historical significance of film."
- Teacher Tube “The goal of Teacher Tube is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos."
Other:
- Listing of supported reading software (doc); this listing is not an endorsement of these programs, but rather a non-exhaustive overview of software that supports reading of digital text.
- The "Using Text-to-Speech Technology Resource Guide" is a tutorial that provides background information about the text-to-speech (TTS) technology, ideas for how to use TTS, and information about acquiring digital text. doc
Teacher Grants:
- Donors Choice is dedicated to addressing the scarcity and inequitable distribution of learning materials and experiences in our public schools.
- National Cristina Foundation (NCF) provides free computer technology and solutions to give people with disabilities, students at risk and economically disadvantaged persons the opportunity, through training, to lead more independent and productive lives. http://www.cristina.org/
- The NEA Foundation makes $2,000 and $5,000 grants to practicing US public school teachers in grades K-12, public school education support professionals, and faculty and staff at US public higher education institutions. Visit http://www.neafoundation.org/grants.htm to learn more.
