Professional Development Resources

Explore a variety of resources that support understanding and implementation of Universal Design for Learning, and download professional development slides and activities that are useful in teaching others about UDL.

PD resources page available as a text file: doc | pdf

UDL Online Modules:

  • These two online modules introduce the theory, principles and application of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to teacher candidates and in-service teachers. They provide higher education faculty with a multimedia, interactive online-learning environment that can be embedded in instructional methods courses. They are designed to be flexible enough to be used as part of an online, hybrid or face-to-face course. It is suggested that you create an interactive community of practice using a blog, wiki or other type of interactive web 2.0 media.

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.
  • CAST UDL Toolkits help educators to understand and apply UDL principles in classrooms and/or to train others in UDL.
  • This Master Reference provides an overview of CAST initiatives, resources, and products, links to UDL tools and resources, and other related online links.
  • Tools & Activities web-based and downloadable tutorials, tools, templates and activities to help you put the ideas of UDL into practice.
  • Ideas and Information resources provide educators with publications, presentations, model lessons, and case stories that support implementation of UDL to practice.
  • Publications communicate CAST's research results and provides practical advice on applications of Universal Design for Learning.

Lessons across Content Areas:

  • Search Thinkfinity is a comprehensive collection of lessons across content areas for all grades. “Our goal and our mission are to support the present and future needs of our global society, and, through Thinkfinity, deliver resources to advance the knowledge and skills that are required of citizens in the 21st century.”

Math:

  • Web-Based Resources for Mathematics: Tools and Activities for Teaching and Learning are a valuable resource including a large annotated list of free web-based math tools and activities.
  • Web-Based Resources for Mathematics: Articles Related to Mathematics Education doc | pdf
    These provide users with access to articles that are cataloged according to the type of research, content, and process standards developed by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
  • 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.
  • On line math tools and software is an extensive math site that provides virtual tools and manipulatives to be used with students that have difficulty visualizing.

English Language Arts:

  • Dade County Reciprocal Teaching Resources. These lesson plan resources from Project WebSIGHT in Dade County, Florida offer a variety of supports for implementing reciprocal teaching, including lesson plans at the elementary and middle school levels.
  • Electronic Books and Online Resources: Explore online reading including interactive stories, articles, and books. Involve readers in writing stories including adding to stories, writing new endings, creating illustrations, and facilitating discussions.
  • The Poetry Archive has an extensive collection of poets reading their own work. You can enjoy listening to the voices of contemporary English-language poets and of poets from the past. There are activities and materials specifically designed for teachers and for children.
  • 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.
  • ReadWriteThink website is a partnership of the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the MarcoPolo Education Foundation to provide educators and students with access to free-of-charge content regarding best practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction.
  • 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.
  • Writers' Window is a site for school aged young writers (aged from 5 to 18) to publish their writing.

Social Studies (images):


Video Resources:

  • Learner.org provides a teacher video library highlighting teaching practices of K-12 educators in all academic disciplines. Access to the videos is free (with registration) and has classroom demonstrations and examples of best practices relative to the topic.
  • The Story of Movies, an educational program for middle schoolers, was created by the Film Foundation in partnership with IBM and Turner Classic Movies 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." The program, available to teachers free of charge, aims to help students understand and interpret the language of film and visual images. Each teaching unit includes DVDs, a teachers' guide, and a student activities booklet. The films for study are Robert Mulligan's "To Kill A Mockingbird" (1962), Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), and Robert Wise's "The Day the Earth Stool Still" (1951).
  • Teacher Tube “The goal of Teacher Tube is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. Teacher Tube seeks to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. It is a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.”

Other:

  • This Access-to-Print document (doc) is a brief summary of twelve examples of software that support Text-to-Speech reading.
  • 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 National Center on Technology Innovation (NCTI) highlights technology features in the “Converting Text to Speech” matrix. This matrix is intended to serve as a resource that matches technology tools with supporting literature on promising practices for K-8 instruction.
  • TechMatrix - CITEd's newly updated TechMatrix will help you to find the technology tools that your students need. Search by subject, learning support, feature and/or product list in order to identify tools for your students and your setting. Customize your matrix results, and share your search with colleagues.
  • 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
  • WestEd's Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners contains links to a slide show, handouts, and related materials for professional developers (technology coordinators and inclusion teachers) that are helping teachers integrate technology into the curriculum to support diverse learners.

Teacher Grants:

  • Best Buy supports local communities through charitable donations made by stores. Each Best Buy store has an annual donation budget to contribute to youth-oriented, nonprofit organizations. If your organization fits within our focus area, please visit the store nearest you to pick up a Store Donation Application. Store personnel will review all applications and make funding decisions. Store based funding is limited. All decisions are made at the discretion of the store and all decisions are final. The store donation request process generally takes six to eight weeks for a decision.
  • Donors Choice is dedicated to addressing the scarcity and inequitable distribution of learning materials and experiences in our public schools. We believe this inequity is rooted in the following factors: shortages of learning materials prevent thorough, engaging instruction; top-down distribution of materials stifles our best teachers and discourages them from developing targeted solutions for their students; and small, directed contributions have gone un-tapped as a source of funding.
  • Jordan Fundamentals Group awards one million dollars annually to teachers across the country who motivate and inspire students toward achieving excellence. These grants are given to support teachers and provide access to additional resources. The Fundamentals grant program was born out of Michael Jordan's firm belief that education is a key to opportunity and helps build commitment to core values which foster personal excellence and achievement. Innovation Grants totaling $2500 will be awarded to individual teachers for projects that will impact classroom innovation and improve instruction. Inspiration Grants are open to winners of the Innovation Grants. Grants up to $10,000 will be awarded to teams of teachers in support of scaling up implementation of approaches developed with Innovation Grants.
  • 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.
  • SMARTer Kids Grants: To help educators purchase SMART products, the SMARTer Kids Foundation provides grants worth anywhere from 15 to 70 percent of the suggested list price of qualifying products. This program is available to educators in the United States and Canada. Read about Smarter Kids grants programs.
  • techLEARNING highlights grants and contests for educators for the 2007–2008 school year. Check out these opportunities.
  • Tool Factory and Olympus have teamed up. There are Classroom Grants and Student Photo Contests, apply today!