Page 14 - Learning for All – A Guide to Effective Assessment and Instruction for All Students, Kindergarten to Grade 12, 2013

12 • Learning for All
Only by helping every student reach his or her potential can we hope to close the achievement gap between groups of students.
Three Effective Approaches
Instruction that both responds to the characteristics of a diverse group of students and is precisely tailored to the unique strengths and needs of each student can be achieved using the principles and guidelines associated with three instructional approaches:
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL),
• differentiated instruction, and
• the tiered approach to prevention and intervention.
Used in combination, UDL and differentiated instruction enable educators to respond effectively to the strengths and needs of all students. UDL provides teachers with broad principles for planning instruction and designing learning environments for a diverse group of students, whereas differentiated instruction allows them to address specific skills and difficulties (Raynal & Rieunier, 1998). The two approaches overlap, sharing certain goals and strategies, such as providing a range of instructional strategies, resources, learning tasks, and assessment tools in order to meet the different strengths, needs, levels of readiness, and learning styles or preferences of the students in a class.
Figure 3. UDL and Differentiated Instruction
Source: Adapted from Education for All, K–6, p. 9.