Section 3: Other UDL Ideas

Engagement
Activity

How would this help students meet the

goal?

Anticipatory set given, or have students

close their eyes and imagine they are
camping in the woods. Describe how it
starts to thunder lighting and downpour.
Ask how they would adapt to their
situation and discuss.

This activity would activate background

knowledge in students who may have
experience with camping, heighten
salience of autonomy, relevance, and
choice as they decide how to take action
given this situation.

Ask student to restate goal of lesson during

introduction while displaying on the board

This would heighten the salience of

goals and objectives by having students
physically and orally review the lesson
goals as well as having it on the board to
refer to. This will offer multiple ways of
displaying the information and can
incorporate the use of prompts or
scaffolds for visualizing the desired
outcome.

When students become frustrated with

multiple resources or tools for
representation, encourage them to selfregulate and focus on the task at hand by
taking it one step at a time.

This will help students manage their

emotions during the bulk of the lesson
as well as seek external emotional
support and develop coping skills
throughout the lesson.

Representation
Activity

How would this help students meet the

goal?

Have student view video of a giraffe

eating. Have them note what they find

Students will be able to view the video

while noting what they find interesting

interesting about the video and let

students share important points while
noting adaptations

which will get them thinking about

adaptation specific characteristics
related to animals. This allows for the
customization of displaying information
in a fun way.

Decode key terms and vocabulary while

promoting understanding across languages
by offering multiple media to facilitate
decoding of text and visuals.

Students will decode key terms by

looking at root words or context clues
within the vocabulary. Also including
visual representations for defining the
text will foster comprehension for ELLs.

Not only use examples of adaptations in

animals but include adaptations in plants
and humans, etc

This will highlight patterns and big ideas

within the lesson goals. Students will be
able to use graphic organizers to
emphasize key relationships as well as
use multiple examples to explain the
lesson objectives.

Action and Expression

How would this help students meet the
goal?

How would this help students meet the

goal?

Offer a bird beak adaptation lab for the

students in which they explore how
different bird beaks (utensils) work better
for different kinds of bird foods (beans,
rice, etc)

This provides a physical activity to get

students familiar with adaptations and
how they actually affect some animals.
Students are able to participate handson within the lesson and lab activity.

Provide checklists for students to complete

as they research and explore resources
while preparing for assessment and
presentation

This will guide appropriate goal setting

in students which will keep them on
task and on schedule while scaffolding
expected appropriate behavior.

Provide students with helpful feedback

throughout the lesson by asking questions
to guide in the self-monitoring and

This will scaffold the students learning

and keep them on task as they will
realize the teacher is paying attention

reflection process

to detail and what is being

accomplished. The students will be able
to take this opportunity to ask
questions, get help, and clarify lesson
goals and objectives while selfassessing and reflecting upon their
work.