UDL Supports
Practical ways to open the daily Fix It and Write routine to every learner, organized by the three principles of the CAST Universal Design for Learning Guidelines 3.0.
The goal of UDL is learner agency: learners who are purposeful and reflective, resourceful and authentic, and strategic and action-oriented. Design for the edges and the whole class benefits.
Multiple Means of Engagement
The "why" of learning: recruit interest, sustain effort, and support self-regulation.
Welcoming interests and identities
- Optimize choice and autonomy (7.1)
- Optimize relevance, value, and authenticity (7.2)
- Nurture joy and play (7.3)
- Address biases, threats, and distractions (7.4)
Sustaining effort and persistence
- Clarify the meaning and purpose of goals (8.1)
- Optimize challenge and support (8.2)
- Foster collaboration, interdependence, and collective learning (8.3)
- Foster belonging and community (8.4)
- Offer action-oriented feedback (8.5)
Emotional capacity
- Recognize expectations, beliefs, and motivations (9.1)
- Develop awareness of self and others (9.2)
- Promote individual and collective reflection (9.3)
- Cultivate empathy and restorative practices (9.4)
In this calendar:
- Most prompts offer a choice: "use Monday's idea, or…" (7.1). Themes come from students' lives and Texas places (7.2).
- Fix It is a hunt with a known number of errors, not a test (7.3). Nothing on the page is graded.
- Each week names its goal in the "I can" statement on Friday (8.1), and the red-pen reveal gives instant, specific feedback (8.5).
- Partners fix and share together (8.3). Friday's 1–4 finger self-rating builds reflection (9.3).
Multiple Means of Representation
The "what" of learning: perception, language and symbols, and building knowledge.
Perception
- Support opportunities to customize the display of information (1.1)
- Support multiple ways to perceive information (1.2)
- Represent a diversity of perspectives and identities in authentic ways (1.3)
Language and symbols
- Clarify vocabulary, symbols, and language structures (2.1)
- Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols (2.2)
- Cultivate understanding and respect across languages and dialects (2.3)
- Address biases in the use of language and symbols (2.4)
- Illustrate through multiple media (2.5)
Building knowledge
- Connect prior knowledge to new learning (3.1)
- Highlight and explore patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships (3.2)
- Cultivate multiple ways of knowing and making meaning (3.3)
- Maximize transfer and generalization (3.4)
In this calendar:
- Projector mode, large type, a reading-friendly typeface, and light or dark display (1.1). Read every sentence and prompt aloud (1.2). Names in the sentences reflect Texas classrooms (1.3).
- Each page names the day's focus and shows a key to the editing marks (2.1). Fix It is framed as standard written English for a reader, not a judgment on how anyone talks (2.3, 2.4).
- One conventions focus a week, spiraled back in later weeks, makes the pattern visible (3.2). Friday asks students to apply it to their own writing (3.4).
Multiple Means of Action and Expression
The "how" of learning: interaction, expression and communication, and strategy.
Interaction
- Vary and honor the methods for response, navigation, and movement (4.1)
- Optimize access to accessible materials and assistive and accessible technologies and tools (4.2)
Expression and communication
- Use multiple media for communication (5.1)
- Use multiple tools for construction, composition, and creativity (5.2)
- Build fluencies with graduated support for practice and performance (5.3)
- Address biases related to modes of expression and communication (5.4)
Strategy development
- Set meaningful goals (6.1)
- Anticipate and plan for challenges (6.2)
- Organize information and resources (6.3)
- Enhance capacity for monitoring progress (6.4)
- Challenge exclusionary practices (6.5)
In this calendar:
- Students can fix with editing marks, on a whiteboard, aloud, or in writing (4.1). The pages work with screen readers and keyboard navigation (4.2).
- K–2 students draw, dictate, or write (5.1). The week moves from plan to draft to revise to edit, so support fades as skill grows (5.3).
- Monday's plan organizes ideas before drafting (6.3). Friday's "I can" rating, kept in the notebook, lets students track their own progress (6.1, 6.4).
Five quick wins
- Say the error count out loud. "There are three errors" turns guessing into searching.
- Accept every way of showing a fix: marks, words, pointing, or a partner's voice.
- Use the band toggle to give a small group a lower- or higher-band version of the same day.
- Normalize revision. Wednesday's weak model shows that good writers change their sentences on purpose.
- End with the reader. Ask who the writing is for and what they need to understand it.
Framework: CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 3.0. Lynnfield, MA: Author. udlguidelines.cast.org. The guideline names are listed for planning support; this site is not endorsed by CAST.