An Updated UDL Framework When We Really Need It
CAST recently released new Universal Design for Learning (UDL) 3.0 guidelines. Many of the updates address barriers to learning rooted in bias and exclusionary practices.
As it turns out, the updates couldn’t have come at a more critical time.
We can dissect all of the reasons why we’re here ad nauseam but the bottom line for me is this: the incoming federal administration’s agenda and rhetoric threaten the safety, well-being, and civil liberties of historically marginalized people including immigrants, members of the LGBTQ+ community, students with disabilities, women, Native Americans, and people of color.
Students and educators will face a lot in the years ahead. We’ve seen it all before.
That’s why it’s more important now than ever to harness the power of accepted frameworks like UDL to help educators honor each and every learner’s strengths, lived experiences, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, and learning differences. UDL 3.0’s focus on developing empathy, challenging exclusionary practices, and cultivating the joy of learning can help keep teachers and students focused on meaningful and inclusive learning during the contentious years ahead of us.
The Power of UDL
UDL, Universal Design for Learning, is a framework developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). It helps schools meet the diverse needs and individual learning differences of students.
In architecture, the idea of “universal design” helps create spaces that are accessible to everyone; for example, by including ramps, elevators, wide doorways and other features in the original building design. The UDL framework does the same for education. It helps educators create inclusive and dynamic learning experiences for students from the outset, not as an afterthought or clunky retrofit.
UDL prioritizes designing “multiple means” of access related to three learning principles:
- Engagement: sparking interest and motivation in learners
- Representation: presenting content in different ways
- Action & Expression: providing options for students to demonstrate their learning
Each of the three UDL principles has more specific considerations teachers can use to design accessible learning experiences. Download a copy of UDL 3.0 , available in many languages, for an overview of all of the guidelines.
Shifts You’ll See in UDL 3.0
The updated UDL framework reflects very important shifts:
- Intersectionality and Identity – Recognizing students’ unique identities and backgrounds, emphasizing how cultural, linguistic, and personal experiences shape learning.
- Learner-Centered Language – Moving from educator-driven to student-centered language, fostering learner agency and giving students more control over their learning.
- Balance of Individual and Collective Learning – Valuing both independent and community-focused learning, respecting interdependence in cultures prioritizing community.
- Inclusive Environments and Bias Awareness – Promoting creating inclusive spaces by actively addressing biases to reduce barriers, challenging exclusionary practices, using diverse representation through the “doors, mirrors, and windows” metaphor.
- Emotional Growth over Compliance – Shifting from an emphasis on “self-regulation” to “emotional growth,” focusing on self-awareness, empathy, and emotional development.
- Joy and Play in Learning – Recognizing joy, play, creativity, and collaboration as essential for a well-rounded and engaging learning experience.
Common UDL Implementation Challenges
Minimize learning barriers and create pathways for everyone. Recognize the unique backgrounds, strengths, and needs of each learner. Sounds great, right?
It is! But, as is true with many educational frameworks, implementation of UDL comes with both benefits and challenges. For teachers who support multilingual learners (MLs), the challenges include:
- Ambiguity: UDL principles, while powerful, can sometimes feel vague.
- Surface-Level Implementation: Without clear, concrete examples, there’s a risk of implementing UDL on a surface level, missing the depth it requires.
- Balance between Universal and Personalized Instruction: While UDL emphasizes accessibility for all, it can sometimes feel like it dilutes highly individualized supports.
- Language Development Support: “Barrier removal” can lead to taking language out of lessons, rather than teaching the language functions and features unique to each content area of schooling.
So how can teachers translate the three UDL principles into best practices for multilingual learners?
UDL for Multilingual Learners: Your Jumping In Point
Before thinking about UDL strategies specifically, start by reflecting on your context:
- Who are your students? Think about all your multilingual students collectively and each one individually. What are their unique strengths, learning styles, cultural and linguistic and academic backgrounds, and areas for growth?
- What curriculum and standards are you using? Does your district provide High Quality Instructional Materials? What built-in supports exist already in your curriculum that can be leveraged for multilingual learner success?
- What is the genre of the task students are expected to produce in any given lesson? Explicitly apprenticing students to language functions and features of the tasks of schooling removes linguistic barriers.
- What content area is your lesson in? Tailoring language to specific content needs (e.g., narrative language in ELA vs. argumentation in math) can make learning more accessible and meaningful.
- How can both language and content be assessed by both teachers and students?
- How can we leverage student’s linguistic assets?
- How can content and English Language Development (ELD) teachers collaborate with other related staff to plan challenging curriculum with support in safe, inclusive learning environments.
Next Step: Translating UDL Considerations into Best Practices for Multilingual Learners
Now that you have your context centered in your mind, you can connect UDL considerations and multilingual learner best practices. Here’s an example.
First, let’s look at one of the UDL guidelines for Engagement:
Here’s the UDL guideline again, this time with the corresponding section of a UDL 3.0 for Multilingual Learners tool I created. To “translate,” I thought about the UDL consideration and the work of English language development experts.
The UDL for MLLs tool I created is not an exhaustive list, but rather an artifact of how I translate UDL into UDL for MLLs. I have included expert resources at the end of this blog post. You’ll also see an option to join our mailing list. We’ll send you a copy of the UDL for MLLs tool as our thanks!
A Win-Win for All Students
In today’s culturally and linguistically rich classrooms, teachers face the challenge of adapting high-quality curriculum that engages all students, especially multilingual learners.
One key principle of UDL is that “what is good for some, is good for all.” When we teach in ways that benefit MLs, we elevate the learning experience for the entire class.
But we need to make sure we keep it a win-win.
Sometimes teachers leverage great strategies for most students while still ignoring multilingual learners; for example, by assuming the tasks are too challenging for them. That runs completely counter to UDL and high quality experiences. These strategies that are vital to multilingual success AND can also benefit all students.
Here are ways UDL principles can be applied to support multilingual learners while fostering a richer, more accessible learning environment for all students:
1. Developing Empathy
The president-elect has run on a platform of hatred toward marginalized groups. Empathy is a much needed skill our future leaders need if we want the world to be better than it is today.
2. Embracing Multilingualism
Multilingual spaces inherently embody the UDL principles of empathy, removing barriers, challenging exclusionary practices, and embracing intersectionality by fostering inclusive learning environments that value linguistic diversity and student identity. All students benefit from this.
3. Making Language Visible
Removing language demands from tasks (simplifying or changing expectations, such as having students make a picture instead of developing an argument) is not a good practice for multilingual learners. Instead we need to “make language visible” by helping students learn to identify the language they need to succeed academically.
4. Explicitly Teaching the Language of Schooling
The language of school is specific and often challenging, even for native English speakers. We can equip students for rigorous tasks by explicitly teaching language they need for those tasks.
Using the WIDA 2020 framework, for example, teachers can learn to identify the language functions and features of four key genres of schooling and apprentice these language choices to all students. If the curriculum requires that students write a scientific explanation, we can teach the language of explanations, even to newcomers.
By embedding language instruction within content lessons—such as teaching cause-and-effect language in science or persuasive language in social studies—teachers make learning accessible without sacrificing rigor. Simultaneously developing content and language is fundamental to fostering multilingual learners’ growth in both academic knowledge and linguistic proficiency.
5. Amplifying, Not Simplifying
Often, well-intentioned teachers simplify tasks to make content accessible, but this can limit MLLs’ exposure to rich, academic language. Best practices for multilingual learners emphasizes amplifying instead of simplifying – meaning, instead of watering down the content with photos and simplified text, we teach how to read and write in the language for the content.
For example, in a history lesson, instead of rephrasing complex ideas into simple sentences, teachers teach students how to analyze complex sentences, and how to create them as well. This approach ensures that all students are exposed to complex language and ideas, allowing them to rise to the challenge with appropriate support.
6. Promoting Student Discourse
Opportunities for students to engage with peers in meaning-making activities about content and language are essential for multilingual learner success. By designing classroom activities that embed talk routines and collaboration about content and language, teachers give MLs a safe space to practice language while deepening their understanding.
In this post-pandemic world, coupled with social disengagement brought on by student overuse of digital communication, all students benefit from thoughtful opportunities for student-to-student interactions.
If you would like a copy of EdQuity’s UDL 3.0 for Multilingual Learners tool, please sign up for my mailing list and we will send it to you!
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References
- Accurso, K., & Mizell, J. D. (2020). Toward an antiracist genre pedagogy: Considerations for a North American context. TESOL Journal, 11(4).
- Besser, S. & Westerlund, R. (2024). Making language visible in social studies. A teacher toolkit for teaching disciplinary literacy in social studies. Routledge.
- Brisk, M. E., (2023). Engaging students in academic literacies. SFL genre pedagogy for K-8 classrooms. Routledge.
- Calderón, M. (2020). Breaking down the wall: Essential shifts for English learners’ success. Corwin.
- Cooney, K.A., & Hamman-Ortiz, L. (2024). A translanguaging approach to teaching and learning. MATSOL Currents, 46(2), 51-63.
- de Oliveira, L. C., & Westerlund, R. (2021). A Functional Approach to Language Development for Dual Language Learners. Journal of English Learner Education. (12)1.
- de Oliveira L. & Westerlund, R. (2023). Scaffolding for multilingual learners in elementary and secondary schools. Routledge.
Derewianka, B. A. (n.d.). Teaching and Learning Cycle. Victorian Association of TESOL and Multicultural Education. - García, O., Johnson, S. I., Seltzer, K., & Valdés, G. (2023). The translanguaging classroom: Leveraging student bilingualism for learning. Caslon.
- Gebhard, M. (2019). Teaching and researching ELLs’ disciplinary literacies: Systemic functional linguistics in action in the context of U.S. school reform. Routledge.
- Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning. Heinemann.
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- Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as a social semiotic. Edward Arnold. Digital Age (pp. 249-270). Equinox.
- Honigsfeld, A., & Cohan, A. (2024). Collaboration for multilingual learners with exceptionalities: We share the students. Corwin Press
- Honigsfeld, A., & Cohan, A.. (2024). The Exceptions that Prove the Rule. Language Magazine, Vol.24 No.3), pgs. 27-30
- Lucas, Tamara, Villegas, Ana Maria, & Freedson-Gonzalez, Margaret (2008). Linguistically responsive teacher education: preparing classroom teachers to teach English language learners. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(4), 361–373.
- Muhammad, G., Love, B. L., Winn, M. T., & Scholastic Inc. (2020). Cultivating genius: An equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy.
- Safir S. & Dugan J. (2021). Street data a next-generation model for equity pedagogy and school transformation. SAGE Publications. April 5 2024
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WIDA. (2020). WIDA English language development standards framework, 2020 edition: Kindergarten–grade 12. Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. - Zwiers, J., Dieckmann, J., Rutherford-Quach, S., Daro, V., Skarin, R., Weiss, S., & Malamut, J. (2017). Principles for the Design of Mathematics Curricula: Promoting Language and Content Development.
