EDLD 5364 - UDL Lesson Reflection

     One of our assignments this week was to create a UDL lesson Plan through the Cast website.  I watched many tutorial videos and read many different articles in order to gain knowledge about the process.  The website is very user friendly and informative.  I found the process to be a great learning experience.  I feel like using this model for planning helped me to be completely prepared and ready to teach the lesson.  The main concern I have with the process was the amount of time it took me to produce one lesson.  I do not feel as if it is reasonable to ask teachers to use this process daily.
     I have taught World and American History for 15 years.  I have also had the pleasure of teaching may different types of students from low achieving, 504, special education, hearing impaired, gifted and talented, honors, and last but not least the average student.  I have always used differentiation in my class in order to help students to become successful.  Yet, I have also concentrated on building a relationship with my students first.
     By showing my students that I truly care about them,  I usually developed a relationship that allowed me to also place high expectations on their achievements.  If my students did not master the lesson on the first try, then they were allowed or expected to perform the lesson again.  The school that I teach at issues every student an apple laptop.  While I allowed and pushed for the use of technology, I had many students who preferred a textbook, pencil, and paper.  That was one of the ways that I differentiated.  The students had their choice of what tools they wanted to use.  My students always passed the state mandated tests, and the results were always 97 to 100 percent passing.
     My conclusion is that the UDL process is beneficial because it stresses differentiation.  I believe that teachers must become more flexible with their lessons in the classroom.  Students learn in different ways, and this is the direction that education is moving.  I have used SIOP and now UDL lesson planning strategies, and the result is the same.  It would be impossible for a teacher to use this process to prepare their lessons daily.  I have approximately 6 hours in planning and creating my UDL lesson plan that is going to take 90 minutes to teach.