Designing a high-quality lesson idea supporting Universal Design for Learning principles

Content Area: Geometry

Check Selected Select one below:
■ Experiment with transformations in the plane

⬜ Understand congruence in terms of rigid motions

⬜ Understand similarity in terms of similarity transformations

⬜ Translate between the geometric description and the equation for a conic
section
⬜ Select another that works for you!
Designing a high-quality lesson idea supporting Universal Design for Learning principles

How you can address the UDL principles for the selected information above? Determine what tools can
be used to support and enhance student learning BY ALL students.
Mild Intellectual Disability
Low Tech ideas: We could use 3D Model cubes to allow students with Mild Intellectual Disabilities to
better be able to learn since they can physically see how the transformations happen. They could also
use 2D shapes or figures to be able to visually see how the objects reflect and transform.

High Tech ideas: Students could use Geogebra to be able to see how the changing of different
coordinates affects the overall outcome of the shapes.

Supportive APPS: Geogebra/Online Virtual Manipulatives

UDL Strategy (Wheel): The first strategy I would use is “Explicit opportunities for spaced review and
practice.” The second strategy from the UDL strategy wheel is “highlight patterns, critical features, big
ideas, and relationships.”

Attention Difficulties
Low Tech ideas: In order to address the attention difficulties that some students have, a center-based
activity that requires students to constantly be engaged by moving to different stages instead of just
sitting in one place for a while.

High Tech ideas: To identify the issue some students have with keeping their attention focused on
math would be to allow them to use an electronic math worksheet that has students organize and
work through problems on a computer.

Supportive APPS: MyMathLab or MathPad

UDL Strategy (Wheel): The first UDL strategy I would use is “vary activities and sources of information
so that they can be personalized and contextualized to learners lives.” The second UDL strategy from
the UDL wheel I would use is to “provide tasks that allow for active participation, exploration, and
experimentation.”

Physical Disabilities
Low Tech ideas: Some of our students might have physical disabilities which could make normal
activities difficult but if we incorporated the X-Y Stamp it would allow graphing the transformations to
be easier.

High Tech ideas: If a student has a physical disability to their arms or hands we could use alternative
keyboards or text-to-speech technology to assist them.
Designing a high-quality lesson idea supporting Universal Design for Learning principles

Supportive APPS: Speak It! or Draw Free for iPad

UDL Strategy (Wheel): The first UDL strategy I would use is to “Provide alternatives for physically
interacting with materials.” The second UDL strategy in the classroom I could use is to “use keyboard
commands for mouse action.” In the classrooms we could also “consider switch options, alternative
keyboards, and customized overlays for touch screens and keyboards.”

English as a Second Language

Low Tech ideas: Speaking slower as a teacher and providing additional wait time can be beneficial to
English Language Learners (ELLs), because it gives them time to process the concepts. Additionally,
presenting the students with a vocabulary bank with diagrams/examples of each concept could aid
ELLs in understanding the relationship between the words/phrases and the math concepts that
coincide with them. Manipulatives such as 2D figures would certainly be helpful for ELLs as well, as
with each transformation, the teacher can say what the transformation was after demonstrating it
with the figures.

High Tech ideas: Students who are ELLs could benefit from Eureka Math which is used to translate
curriculum modules into the native language of the student. My Math by McGraw-Hill is another
software program that would benefit ELLs, because it is designed to challenge students at the various
levels of language proficiency (i.e. Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging).

Supportive APPS: Google Translate could be used to establish fundamental terminology regarding
transformations (i.e. rotation, dilation, reflection, translation).

UDL Strategy (Wheel): Pre-teach vocabulary and symbols especially in ways that promote connection
to the learners experience and prior knowledge; present key concepts in one form of symbolic
representation with an alternative form

Sensory Impairment
Auditory
Low Tech ideas: Writing down what is important
would be useful for someone experiencing an
auditory impairment, as they might be more
capable of seeing what you are writing than
hearing what you are saying. Give the students
an opportunity to process any information on
the board, as those with auditory impairments
Visual
Low Tech ideas: Students who have visual
impairments could perhaps benefit from
manipulatives like 2D figures, because someone
experiencing dyslexia might see the coordinate (-
3,4) as (4,-3) or vice versa, and having physical
models representing before/after transformations
could help them discern between the two (i.e.
accounting for the coordinates after the
Designing a high-quality lesson idea supporting Universal Design for Learning principles
may rely on visual communication and cannot
both look at the teacher and the board.
High Tech Ideas: Using a projector/Smartboard
to display information pertaining to geometric
transformations while facing the class would be
helpful, as a student with an auditory
impairment may find it difficult if not impossible
to hear you with your back turned to the class at
the board. Perhaps finding an educational
resource that features videos where the
instructor signs (i.e. if the student knows sign
language) could help students with an auditory
impairment learn more effectively.
Supportive APPS: Watching Khan Academy or
YouTube videos on geometric transformations
with subtitles.
UDL Strategy (Wheel): Provide students with
spell checkers, grammar checkers, word
prediction software; provide written transcripts
for videos or auditory clips
before/after are both placed down on an xy-plane).
Additionally, we could encourage the students to
use colors that are distinct to them to help them
identify among transformed figures.
High Tech ideas: Using Geogebra with an enlarging
feature would allow students who are experiencing
visual impairments to see the geometric figures
better and with more detail.
Supportive APPS: Listening to Khan Academy or
YouTube videos on geometric transformations
would be a good way for someone with a visual
impairment to learn the material and become more
familiar with the vocabulary used to describe
geometric transformations. Videos are great,
because you can rewind them to go over material
again if it was not clear the first time (i.e. self-paced
to listen or look at one thing at a time).
UDL Strategy (Wheel): Provide alternatives for
physically responding or indicating selections; vary
the display of information in a flexible format
including: the size of text, images, graphs, tables, or
other visual content