How+they+intersect

= Differentiated Instruction ** and the Three **Universal Design for Learning Principles =

===**The following section looks at the three** UDL **network appropriate teaching methods,** recognition, strategic, and affective , in order to address the ways in which differentiated instruction coordinates with UDL theory. Differentiated instruction is designed to keep the learner in mind when specifying the instructional episode related to content, process and product **.** ===

===Recognition learning: Content, Process & Product === The first UDL principle focuses on pattern recognition and the importance of providing <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">multiple, flexible methods of presentation when teaching patterns—no single teaching methodology for pattern recognition will be satisfactory for every learner. The theory of differentiated instruction incorporates some guidelines that can help teachers to support critical elements of recognition learning in a flexible way and promote every student’s success. Each of the three key elements of differentiated instruction, content, process, and product, supports an important UDL Teaching Method.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">content guidelines for differentiated instruction support the first <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">UDL Teaching Method for recognition networks, provide multiple examples, in that they <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">encourage the use of several elements and materials to support instructional content. A teacher following this guideline might help students in a social studies class to understand the location of a state in the union by showing them a wall map or a globe, projecting a state map, or describing the location in words. Also, while preserving the essential content, a teacher could vary the difficulty of the material by presenting smaller or larger, simpler or more complex maps. For students with physical or cognitive disabilities, such a diversity of examples may be vital in order for them to access the pattern being taught. Other students may benefit from the same multiple examples by obtaining a perspective that they otherwise might not. In this way, a range of examples can help to ensure that each student’s recognition networks are able to identify the fundamental elements identifying a pattern.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This same use of<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> varied content examples supports a second recommended practice in UDL methodology, <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">provide multiple media and formats. A wide range of tools for presenting instructional content are available digitally, thus teachers may manipulate size, color contrasts, and other features to develop examples in multiple media and formats. These can be saved for future use and flexibly accessed by different students, depending on their needs and preferences.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The content guidelines of differentiated instruction also recommend that <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">content elements of instruction be kept concept-focused and principle-driven. This practice is consistent with a third UDL Teaching Method for recognition, <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">highlight critical features. By avoiding any focus on extensive facts or seductive details and reiterating the broad concepts, a goal of differentiated instruction, teachers are highlighting essential components, better supporting recognition.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The fourth UDL Teaching Method for recognition is to <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">support background knowledge, and in this respect, the assessment step of the differentiated instruction learning cycle is instrumental. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By evaluating student knowledge about a construct before designing ins﻿truction teachers can better support students’ knowledge base, scaffolding instruction in a very important way.
 * === UDL: Recognition Network === || === Differentiated Instruction: Varying Content, Process, Product === ||
 * Multiple Flexible methods of Presentation || Several Elements and Materials to Support Instructional Content ||
 * Multiple Meida and Formats || Varied Content Examples ||
 * Highlight Critical Features || Concept Focused and Principal Driven ||
 * Support Background Knowledge || Assessment Before Designing Instruction ||

<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Strategic learning: <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scaffolding
<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">People find for themselves the most desirable method of learning strategies; therefore, teaching methodologies need to be varied. This kind of flexibility is key for teachers to help meet the needs of their diverse students, and this is reflected in the 4 UDL Teaching Methods. Differentiated instruction can support these teaching methods in valuable ways.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Differentiated instruction recognizes the need for students to receive <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">flexible models of skilled performance, one of the four UDL Teaching Methods for strategic learning. As noted above, teachers implementing differentiated instruction are encouraged to <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">demonstrate information and skills multiple times and at varying levels. As a result, learners enter the instructional episode with different approaches, knowledge, and strategies for learning.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When students are engaged in initial learning on novel tasks or skills, <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">supported practice should be used <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">to ensure success and eventual independence. Supported practice enables students to split up a complex skill into manageable components and fully master these components. Differentiated instruction promotes this teaching method by <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">encouraging students to be active and responsible learners, and by asking teachers to respect individual differences and scaffold students as they move from initial learning to practiced, less supported skills mastery.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In order to successfully demonstrate the skills that they have learned, students need<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> flexible opportunities for demonstrating skill. Differentiated instruction directly supports this UDL Teaching Method by reminding teachers to <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">vary requirements and expectations for learning and expressing knowledge, including the degree of difficulty and the means of evaluation or scoring.
 * === UDL: Stragegic Learning === || === Differenitated Instruction: Scaffolding Content, Process and Product === ||
 * Flexible Models of Skilled Performance || Demonstrate Information and Skills Multiple Times and at Varying Levels ||
 * Supported Practice to Ensure Success and Eventual Independence || Respect for Learning Differences: Scaffolding ||
 * Flexible Options for Demsonstrating Skill || Vary requirements and Expectations for Learning and Expressing Knowledge ||

<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Affective learning: <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lear﻿ner Engagement
<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Differentiated instruction and UDL Teaching Methods bear another important point of convergence: recognition of the <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">importance of engaging learners in instructional tasks. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Supporting affective learning through flexible instruction is the third principle of UDL and an objective that differentiated instruction supports very effectively.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Differentiated instruction theory reinforces the importance of effective classroom management and reminds teachers of meeting the challenges of effective organizational and instructional practices. Engagement is a vital component of effective classroom management, organization, and instruction. Therefore <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">teachers are encouraged to offer choices of tools, adjust the level of difficulty of the material, and provide varying levels of scaffolding to gain and maintain learner attention during the instructional episode. These practices bear much in common with <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">UDL Teaching Methods for affective learning: offer choices of content and tools, provide adjustable levels of challenge, and offer a choice of learning context. By providing varying levels of scaffolding when differentiating instruction, students have access to varied learning contexts as well as choices about their learning environment.

(CAST.org/publications, 2010)
 * UDL: Affective Learning || Learner Engagement ||
 * Supporting affective learning through flexible instruction || Importance of engaging learners in instructional tasks ||
 * Offer choices of content and tools, provide adjustable levels of challenge, and offer a choice of learning context || Offer choices of tools, adjust the level of difficulty of the material, and provide varying levels of scaffolding to gain and maintain learner attention during the instructional episode ||