CAST UDL Lesson Builder

I thought the CAST lesson builder was a good template to follow.  Creating a goal was a challenge for me.  I wanted to create a goal that I thought all students could achieve, jet achieve the rigor of the curriculum.  My assessment was a group project which allowed students to create a PowerPoint in which pictures as well a text could be used to help show mastery of the goal.  In my 15 years of teaching I don’t think I had ever heard of Recognition, Strategic, and Affective Networks.  These are the what, how, and why of learning.  Designing a lesson to incorporate all these networks stretched my abilities.  It made me wonder how I could better plan my lessons at school to incorporate these three brain networks.  Teachers and myself should always use multiple ways of explain the information given to students.  Teachers should always be aware of ways to differentiate learning for all students.  For example if a teacher wants her students to identify the main idea of a passage.  Some students could write this out, others would feel more comfortable typing the main idea, and still others would want to draw the main idea.  All three ways show mastery of the goal of students identifying the main idea, but let’s students with different abilities use their strengths to reach the goal.  

Check out my UDL lesson below:

 

Title:	Regions of the United States
Author:	Denise Shaffer
Subject:	Social Studies
Grade Level(s):	9-12
Duration:	3 (50 min) days
Unit Description	This lesson allows students to research the physical, political, economic and social characteristics of particular regions in North America.
Lesson Description for Day	Create a Group PowerPoint of one US region which describes the physical and cultural characteristics of a region.  Provide 3 examples of human adaptations and/or 3 modifications to the environment (including natural hazards).
State Standards	TEKS:  WG.3B Describe the physical processes that affect the environments of regions, including weather, tectonic forces, erosion, and soil-building processes. WG.4A Explain how elevation, latitude, wind systems, ocean currents, position on a continent, and mountain barriers influence temperature, precipitation, and distribution of climate regions. WG. 8A Compare ways that humans depend on, adapt to, and modify the physical environment, including the influences of culture and technology. WG.9A Identify physical and/or human factors such as climate, vegetation, language, trade networks, political units, river systems, and religion that constitute a region. WG.9B Describe different types of regions, including formal, functional, and perceptual regions. WG.16A Describe distinctive cultural patterns and landscapes associated with different places in Texas, the United States, and other regions of the world and how these patterns influenced the processes of innovation and diffusion. WG.22A Design and draw appropriate graphics such as maps, diagrams, tables, and graphs to communicate geographic features, distributions, and relationships.
Goals
Unit Goals:	Physical, political, social, and economic patterns identify regions where an interdependent relationship forms between people and the environment and changes with adaptations and the effect of natural hazards.
Lesson Goals:	Students, as a group of 4, will create a PowerPoint of one US region which describes the physical and cultural characteristics of a region.  Provide 3 examples of human adaptations and/or 3 modifications to the environment (including natural hazards).
Methods
Anticipatory Set	Anticipatory Set: Distribute a blank outline map of North America to students (paired). Students fill in as many physical characteristics as they can on the map. Encourage students to include major rivers, mountains, plains, vegetation, and climate characteristics. Students compare their outline with a physical map of North America. Lead a discussion by asking students to list places where their families would like to visit in the U.S. while on a vacation. Write these places on the board. Randomly select students to identify the name of the region, state or city and location of these places on a map of the U.S. How does physical geography play a role in the uniqueness of these places? How does human geography (culture) play a role in the uniqueness of these places? Recognition Network
Introduce and Model New Knowledge:	Students will view the eBook on Regions of the US and take notes using the KWHL chart in MS Word and posting it to Edmodo.com  Strategic Network
Provide Guided Practice:	Explain to students that they are to create a brochure that displays a vacation site, information about the site, and the location of the site.  Using the locations and questions from the "Vacation Spots" worksheet. Group students into four. Assign a role to each member of the group: Student One – the recorder (responsible for writing, drawing and organizing the brochure) Student Two – responsible for gathering information about the site’s location by region and state Student Three – responsible for the first two questions; their answers should be displayed in the brochure. Student Four – responsible for answering the last two questions; their answers should be displayed in the brochure. 4.       Give students time to create brochure in MS word or MS publisher.  Allow students to research using the internet. Provide each group a list of possible vacation sites. (Use the Handout: U.S. Vacation Sites if desired.) Students use the information available to match the family with the region, climate, and season that best fits their family scenarios request. Each group must answer all the questions in relation to their family. Using Google maps and Google earth students find their vacation spots. Each group prints and displays the brochure activity on the wall in preparation for a gallery walk. Recognition Learning Affective Learning
Provide Independent Practice:	Students take turn discuss their brochure with other students, explaining the key questions to others in the classroom.  Students take notes on the other groups brochures.
Wrap-Up:	Students participate in a gallery walk and collect information about the different vacation spots and information about the locations provided by the groups. When students are finished, they return to their computers Each student selects a vacation spot that he/she would like to visit and explains why to the other students on Edmodo.com. Then discuss with other classmates the following questions on Edmodo.com. What U.S. regions were not included in the family vacations? Why?
Assessment:
Formative/Ongoing Assessment:	Read students blogs and review their KWHL charts for areas that need to be retaught.
Summative/End of Lesson Assessment:	Students remain with the same group. Assign to each group one of the U.S. regions and one of the Canadian regions. Each group member is assigned the following duty: Research the physical characteristics (major landforms, rivers, and mountains) Research the climate, vegetation and natural disasters Research and locate major cities, economic activities and demographics (population) Research the history of the region, major ethnic groups and other cultural characteristics. Create a PowerPoint of one US or Canadian region which describes the physical and cultural characteristics of a region.  Provide 3 examples of human adaptations and/or 3 modifications to the environment (including natural hazards)
Materials	blank outline map of North America chalkboard, whiteboard or interactive board internet access and/or the library map of North America or the U.S. map, physical map of North America found in textbook or other available sources student atlases textbooks  Worksheet Vacation Spots for group brochure Rubric for group Summative Assessment