Appendix A: UDL Look‐for Tool

This tool can be used by teachers, instructional coaches, and evaluators to observe and set goals for more universally designed learning opportunities in the classroom. The tool was designed with a focus on instructional coaching and instructional coaching questions, because of its documented impact on teacher efficacy.

Table A.1 10 Focus areas for UDL observations.

Provide Multiple Means of Engagement
WHATWHYHOWHow does this impact students?Instructional Coaching Questions
Learning Objectives
Firm grade‐level learning objectives, based on the standards, are visible to students and referred to throughout the lesson.		UDL is about firm goals and flexible means. Teachers need to be clear about the purpose of a lesson. The goal must be identified as a method or content standard to plan for flexibility and autonomy in the lesson. Standards posted on the board or a student handout but not discussed exclude students who may struggle to decode them. If the teacher shares the lesson’s purpose through a lecture, some students may struggle with auditory processing. Additionally, standards and learning goals that are discussed but not posted require learners to expend cognitive resources remembering why they are engaged in a task or activity. Therefore, it is important that the standards are visible and discussed, so all students know why they are learning.
  • Posts lesson objectives
  • Refers to objectives multiple times throughout the lesson
  • Clearly aligns instructional materials and assessments to stated goals
  • Provides opportunities for students to craft their own goals as they work toward those objectives
  • Has ongoing opportunities to reflect on where they are in relationship to the goal
  • Understands the purpose of the lesson and can share in their own words
  • Crafts personalized goals for how they will work toward the learning objectives
  • How are students supported in understanding your goals and creating their own?
  • How are students supported in connecting the material to their own lives and goals?
  • What might be the impact if students could see, connect with, and reflect upon goals (both yours and their own)?
Student Identity
The learning environment and lesson design affirm the identity of all students.		Neurodivergence is a product of both genetics and sociocultural influences. What students know, how they know it, and how they process new information is largely influenced by their lived experiences. Identity‐affirming classrooms create feelings of safety and trust for students while also honoring their funds of knowledge and models they use to understand the world—models based on their cultural experiences and social relationships. Teachers need to build safe, positive relationships with students and model what they look and sound like to foster collaboration and community and affirm student identities.
  • Uses materials that reflect the lived experiences and identities of all learners
  • With advance notice to students, consistently calls on multiple students, using their preferred names and pronouns, throughout the class session
  • Warmly interacts with each student in every class session
  • Helps students build connections with each other
  • Positively responds to teacher and classmates
  • Has a sense of belonging and feels seen, heard, and valued
  • Feels safe to take strategic risks to become expert learners
  • How are students invited into the learning environment and/or learning experiences?
  • How are students supported in creating a learning community?
  • How does the learning environment affirm student identity and reflect their authentic selves?
Social Emotional Learning
The learning environment and lesson design address the social and emotional needs of all in the classroom.		Feelings of safety and belonging are essential for students to be able to engage with their classmates, teachers and the content. Addressing each student’s social and emotional needs is essential for academic engagement.
  • Provides options for students to self‐regulate their emotional state throughout the lesson
  • Purposefully plans opportunities and provides structures for students to interact with classmates to collaboratively construct meaning
  • Practice self‐regulation throughout the lesson
  • Students interact with the teacher and classmates
  • How are students provided opportunities to connect with their classmates? How are students encouraged to share their social and emotional needs with the teacher and one another?
Collaboration and Community
The classroom fosters engagement, collaboration, and community.		All learning is both social and emotional. Research shows that brain networks supporting emotion, learning, and memory are fundamentally intertwined. It is neurologically impossible to think deeply about or remember information without an emotional connection. Brain development is also socially contextualized—we learn through, with, and from our relationships with others. Many learners improve sustained effort and persistence when they have options to collaborate with peers. Collaborating with diverse peers is also a critical life skill.
  • Draws out personal and cultural connections of the learners to the content or skill
  • Uses multiple strategies for students to work with diverse partners (jigsaw, think‐pair‐share, etc.)
  • Presents scaffolds to support collaborative work (i.e., sentence stems, group norms, protocols)
  • Collaborates productively with diverse partners
  • Demonstrates agency by using appropriate strategies, tools, and scaffolds to support effective group work
  • What opportunities do students have to work with diverse partners in your learning environment?
  • What scaffolds and tools could you provide to students so they can collaborate more effectively?
  • How do you respond when you see students hesitant to interact with diverse partners?
The Recognition Networks/Provide Multiple Means of Representation
WHATWHYHOWHow does this impact students?Instructional Coaching Questions
Flexible Methods
The learning design provides students with flexibility in how they learn, make sense of language, and build understanding.		Students have a variety of learning needs and preferences. Their learning profiles are jagged based upon the task, the content, outside circumstances, etc. By providing students with a variety of options to interact with and make meaning of language, content, concepts, and skills, students are more likely to engage in deep learning.
  • Provides opportunities for students to customize their learning experience to reflect their learning needs
  • Anticipates each student’s varying needs and provides structures to support each student’s understanding (i.e., word banks, sentence stems)
  • Customizes their learning experience knowledge and/or understanding of content
  • In what ways are students encouraged to customize their learning environment?
  • are students supported in understanding the key vocabulary or symbols necessary for your content? In what ways are students encouraged to construct their own meaning?
Flexible Materials
The learning design provides students with flexibility in the scaffolds, strategies, and tools they use as they work toward the learning objectives.		Not all students need the same level of support to work toward mastery of grade‐level standards. Too often, teachers provide scaffolds and accommodations to students with disabilities or English language learners but the scaffolds and supports are not available to all learners. UDL practitioners embrace intrapersonal variability and the importance of context in learning. What is necessary for some students may be valuable to other students so it is critical that all students know the tools that are available to them so they can become more expert in their learning.
  • Provides linguistic scaffolds to all learners (word banks, sentence stems, and digital tools like voice‐to‐text)
  • Models how scaffolds/tools might be used
  • Provides time for students to reflect on which scaffold(s) would work best to support their learning
  • Demonstrate agency by choosing appropriate strategies, tools, and scaffolds to learn and demonstrate and communicate knowledge
  • What barriers did you notice in your lesson design that inhibited either student engagement or accessibility to the content?
  • What were some of the scaffolds you provided to eliminate those barriers?
  • What would be a good next step for you to continue to remove barriers and offer scaffolds to support student learning?
Provide Multiple Means of Action and Expression
WHATWHYHOWHow does this impact students?Instructional Coaching Questions
Flexible Assessments
Assessments are flexible and construct relevant so students have options for how they share their thoughts, ideas, and skills.		Construct‐relevant assessments connect directly to the learning goal, measuring growth or proficiency relative to the target. When we design construct‐relevant assessments, there are flexible pathways for all students to show their progress toward firm goals. Too often, one‐size‐fits‐all assessments prevent students from sharing their thoughts and ideas and demonstrating their skills. When teachers highlight firm goals, they can ask, “Is there more than one way for students to share what they know? What can they do?”
  • Clearly aligns assessment to learning objectives
  • Provides clear success criteria and rubrics
  • Provides exemplars and/or non‐examples so students have models
  • Provides options and choices for assessments
  • Demonstrates agency by choosing appropriate pathways to share their learning, aligned to clear success criteria
  • Proposes alternative assessments for how they share what they know, aligned to objectives and rubrics
  • Tell me more about how these pathways allow all students to work toward the same learning objective.
  • What options do students currently have for sharing their thoughts, ideas, and skills?
  • In what ways do students have the ability to revise and improve work?
Formative Assessments
Formative assessment data is used to target instruction and frame feedback.		In inclusive classrooms, it is critical that teachers both universally design and differentiate instruction. Using diagnostic and formative assessments provides in‐time feedback that teachers can use to meet the needs of all learners.
  • Creates flexible groups of students, based on formative assessment data, to provide targeted feedback and support
  • Provides students with opportunities to reflect on and revise their work after small group instruction
  • Is responsive to teacher and peer feedback
  • Makes corrections based on teacher/peer feedback
  • Revises their work and their strategies based on teacher/peer feedback
  • How do you use formative assessment data to drive small group instruction?
  • How do you leverage blended learning models so you can work with small groups of students?
  • Do students have the opportunity to retake the assessment, based on feedback, to receive a higher score?
Self‐Reflection
Opportunities are provided for students to self‐reflect on their choices and their work.		Learners differ in the ways to stay focused, and self‐regulate to stay motivated when learning gets challenging.
In order to engage our learners, they need opportunities to think about what strategies are working for them to remain focused, what they are learning and what choices they used to move toward the learning goal. The concept of metacognition is important in all aspects of school and life, as it involves self‐reflection about one’s current position, future goals, potential actions, strategies, and outcomes.
  • Schedules time for students to self‐assess and reflect with questions/sentence frames for example,
  • Did the choice help you learn more about _____? Why or why not?
  • Moving forward, what choice do you need to advocate for yourself and become an expert learner?
  • Practices self‐regulation when they are frustrated
  • Is self‐aware and can identify what choices work and do not work for them instead of relying on the teacher
  • Challenges themselves to become more resourceful and reflective, create new goals for themselves
  • What opportunities are offered for students to reflect on the learning and the learning process? How are those opportunities connected back to the goals of the learning (both yours and theirs)?
Feedback
Feedback from students, both formally and informally, is encouraged and welcomed.		UDL is about choice and voice. We cannot serve our learners if they do not have opportunities to co‐create their learning spaces. In universally designed classrooms, students have numerous opportunities to share feedback about what is working for their learning and how the learning environment could better meet their needs.
  • Asks students to propose alternatives to how they learn and share what they know
  • Asks students to share what is working about the lesson and share ideas for making the lesson more relevant and meaningful
  • Takes advantage of opportunities to share meaningful feedback about their learning
  • How do you create opportunities for students to provide feedback on the learning process?
  • How do you acknowledge student feedback?
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