... of Representation! of Expression! of Engagement!
My favorite part of these aspects of the UDL framework is the endless ways that relevant information can be used for student learning. Relevancy is undoubtedly the root from which great ideas can grow when using these aspects to create lesson plans. How do we know what's relevant to students? Well of course, this ties back to creating relationships with our students! If we utilize any free moments to connect with students on a social level, then we will know what is relevant to their lives. I don't want to assume that ethnic students are only concerned with ethnic issues. Assuredly, each student has many interests and concerns, but leveraging the their interests with content is a primary goal for me. I want to use topics that are relevant to the most students while also drawing out the most meaning to the lesson. This task in my mind, is where mediocre lessons meet great lessons. It's a matter of balance and leverage. By starting with the standard or learning goal in mind and then taking what we know about our students (that is not necessarily written on paper) and using a handful of relevant topics we can create dynamic lessons that students may find a personally engaging. We can then design our lesson to loop back around to our learning goals. Providing students a closed loop learning that layers upon itself as we move through content into deep learning. Within this learning loop we would use our relevant topics in ways that allows students to demonstrate what they have learned, and provide challenges and motivators for learning.