Paper Sample on UDL-Transform Math Course Syllabus for Student-Centered Learning

Introduction

Universal Design for Learning is vital for empowering teachers as well as students to transform education (Morin, 2020). There are transformational models in the world where student-centered, modified learning surroundings are creating positive students directing their inimitable learning experience along with monitoring their improvement, by the use of recent technologies to anchor their learning.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Step One

Math course syllabus is the one, that I would like to examine through the UDL lens.

Step Two

A Math course with effective planning helps the students to get a clear understanding while in class. While teaching mathematics topics, there are some professional practices to be considered, and after the practices, students should share their experience and apply whatever they learn in lesson assessment. As the teacher explores the main lesson components, he will learn the relationship-building needs as well as the use of technology to involve as well as support the students. I chose this lesson because it needs teachers and students’ attentions as they teach themselves various applications such as additions, subtraction, multiplication, and division among others. Also, students get involved in so many activities such as solving percent equations, defining and calculating unit rates as well as cost, writing and solving proportions, calculating sales tax, discount, and commission.

Step Three

Various features meet the criteria in the checklist, and some of these include goals and objectives. There is a particular target for every lesson, and teachers should ensure each student meets these goals. For example, students may be expected to acquire skills in writing and simplifying ratios of fractions, mixed numbers, and decimals by the end of one lesion, and the teacher ensures this is achieved by giving the students an exercise at the end of every lesson.

The objectives should match with the content requirement and the skills of the students. Every teacher should aim at something and not only to ensure the topic is covered but also to ensure students understand what is being taught. In most cases, depending on the lesion, students may fail to understand what the teacher is intending, but once they are involved in various practices, understanding becomes easy for them (Ralabate, 2017). In the math lesson, the teacher should use any available resources as well as materials to ensure the students are involved for them to understand better.

Another feature is that the content and the assignment of the course are ranged according to the content state standards. After every lesson, there is the assignment given by the teacher to range whether the students are getting what the teacher is teaching. The questions should concern the topic being taught to avoid the confusion. In most cases, when the teacher realizes the student did not understand the lesson, he or she may sacrifice to repeat the whole topic for understanding because the is a goal that is targeted at the end of every lesson.

Also, communication and information skills are merged and taught being an integral curriculum part. Skills such as reading, interpreting, and constructing bar graphs, pictographs, line graphs, and histograms are taught in this course since it is part of the lesson. Many students take time in the conversation where they apply various concepts to improve their skills. It may seem to be hard for the students to perform properly while they are practicing, but with consistency, they enhance their understanding. In this lesson, this feature has been met, and teachers give students some questions for practice at the end of every lesson. This has been the right way of monitoring student’s understanding during the lesson.

Step Four

Additional materials in math topics are essential since they provide new information as well as examples that students may not be aware of or may not come across during the lesson. In most cases, they help the students in understanding since they may use simple language as well as examples that are vital to the learners. Nevertheless, they have various challenges because in the absence of the teacher, in case the students have a question, they cannot be answered unless they wait until the nest lesson. Also, most students and especially average performance may not be concerned with the recommended resource hence limiting their understanding, and this makes a difference in student performance. Besides, there might be a shortage of these resources, and some students may not find them; thus, the teacher should recommend additional material that is accessible by all student.

Use of technology is vital in teaching, and most of the teachers encourage use since it is a way of developing various skills. These may include learning through phones, laptops, and desktops, among others. However, this may result in a challenge to the students because some of them may not be able to use or access them (Thomas et al., 2015). There are several limiting factors such as power, unable to use, or they may be missing in some areas hence limiting the student from using them during the lesion. Another this, technology never offer explanations but instead provide the content in text-only hence leaving various questions in students.

Step Five

For the students’ needs and UDL criteria to be met, class discussion are essential. Some students may find a challenge to understand when the teacher is teaching but immediately, they get involved in a discussion group, it becomes easy for them to understand the topic. Group discussion gives students who have low self-esteem to ask the question since they may feel comfortable when asking other students, a question than when they are asking the teacher. Low self-esteem has been a significant challenge for various students hence making them unable to express themselves during math lesson time.

Sometimes, the math teacher may decide to invite a new teacher to lecture some topics, especially after realizing the topic is hard. This has been the right way of catching students’ attention because most of them get eager to know what the new teacher has for them as well as the teaching skills used. It becomes hard for students to fail in such topics because they are not used to the new teacher. Also, giving assessment questions at the end of every week is essential for meeting their needs. In some instances, weekend assignment keeps the students busy and for a serious student who is eager to know more becomes eager to learn various materials to understand the topic better. Some of these students use much of their time in classwork and use their free time in completing the assignment t that doing other things that are not beneficial.

Conclusion

In conclusion, depending on the UDL checklist, math course is suitable for evaluation. It keeps both the teacher and the students involved as thru try to meet the topic requirements. As the teacher explores the main lesson components, he will learn the relationship-building needs as well as the use of technology to involve as well as support the students. I chose this lesson because it is a lesion that needs teachers and students’ attentions as they teach themselves various things in it. Despite the challenges that accompany the lesson, many teachers, as well as students, can overcome them through frequent practices.

References

Morin, A. (2020, April 17). What Is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? Retrieved July 07, 2020, from https://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/treatments-approaches/educational-strategies/universal-design-for-learning-what-it-is-and-how-it-works

Ralabate, P. (2017, December 11). Universal Design for Learning: Meeting the Needs of All Students. Retrieved July 07, 2020, from https://www.readingrockets.org/article/universal-design-learning-meeting-needs-all-students

Thomas, C. N., Garderen, D. V., Scheuermann, A., & Lee, E. J. (2015, May 8). (PDF) Applying a Universal Design for Learning Framework ... Retrieved July 7, 2020, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276517608_Applying_a_Universal_Design_for_Learning_Framework_to_Mediate_the_Language_Demands_of_Mathematics