Student Voice Through Writing and UDL

Over the past two and a half years I have been focusing my study on how to create a more

effective student driven writing workshop into my high school English classroom. While immersed in the Universal Design for Learning this week, I wanted to find ways that I could incorporate this framework into my blended writing workshop plans. I was able to find an article entitled “Integrating UDL into Secondary Writing Instruction to Promote Accessibility and Equity” written by Courneay Kelly and Sarah Tanner-Anderson.

Their article discussed many of the issues that we, as educators, face daily in our classrooms as we try our best to differentiate our instruction to help all of our students succeed in their learning goals. According to Zumbrunn and Krause, “effective writing instruction must encourage student motivation and engagement, begin with clear and deliberate planning, but also remain flexible” (347). This resonated with me because it is important to get our each and every one of our students motivated to become engaged in their learning process. We, as educators, have to make deliberate choices in our planning in order to actively engage all of our students in the learning. Throughout the article Kelly and Tanner-Anderson walk through how we can engage our students in writing through the UDL principles of representation, engagement, and action and expression. In the article Kelly and Tanner-Anderson discuss how these UDL principles can be met while engaging students in a writing workshop. Some of these strategies include teacher modeling, collaboration, interactive writing, providing mastery-orientated feedback to students, personal goal setting, the inclusion of different technologies in order to produce and share, and demonstrate what students have learned, as well as the inclusion of an abundance of different planning and guiding tools such as graphic organizers and checklists (Kelly & Tanner-Anderson, p. 60-62).

UDL Strategies

Engagement strategies that I find extremely important in the writing workshop classroom are giving students feedback in a timely manner in order to allow them time to go back and reflect on their work and make changes where necessary. Self-reflection on the learning process has also been hugely beneficial to my students.

Representation strategies that I use often include the use of various graphic organizers based on student choice or even the self construction of their own if they see fit. I also try to engage student interest through prior knowledge and cross curricular connections.

Action and Expression strategies are a wonderful way for students to showcase what they have learned through a variety of means. Students can create videos or podcasts discussing what they learned through their writing process or to discuss the piece that they have written in order to share it with others. Also teaching students how to actively engage in their research by annotating and taking notes is hugely beneficial to student learning and comprehension during the writing process.

A collaborative, student choice driven writing workshop has been a wonderful way for my students to become more active and engaged in their learning process. They are able to choose topics that mean something to them, learn how to research and share their ideas with others using 21st century tools, and even engage in new authentic learning experiences. Students learn from modeled lessons, engaging in their own research, collaborating with other students during peer editing and topic discussion, through feedback given on their writing, and from self learning reflections. The UDL approach to lesson planning and creating an engaging learning environment through writing allows for students to truly connect with their ideas in order to express themselves and their learning processes in ways that allow for their voices to be heard.

References:

CAST, Inc. (2023). About universal design for learning. https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl#.XGn5889Kho4

Kelly, C., & Tanner-Anderson, S. L. (2018). Integrating udl into secondary writing instruction to promote accessibility and equity. Virginia English Journal, 68(1), 57-63.

Zumbrunn, S., & Krause, K. (2012). Conversations with leaders: Principles of Effective Writing Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 65(5), 346-353.