udl case study

It’s the third week of school, and Ms. Thomas, a veteran middle school science teacher, is catching her breath between back-to-back class periods. She teaches six sections of 7th-grade science each day, around 125 students in total. During her planning period, she finds herself thinking more deeply about her 4th-period class, a group that, in many ways, reflects the challenges and opportunities she’s noticing across all her sections.

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Fourth period is a lively mix of students including a few she’s taught older siblings of, a few who already feel like they’ve been in her classroom forever, and others who are still figuring things out. Like any of her class periods, she has students with IEPs: two with a learning disability in reading and writing, another three with ADHD who have trouble staying seated and often blurt out answers, and a student on the autism spectrum who prefers solo work and sometimes struggles during transitions. A pair of students have behavioral intervention plans, and Ms. Thomas is already coordinating with the school counselor and intervention specialist to align support.

As she thinks about all of this, Ms. Thomas realizes she’s asking the wrong question when she focuses only on who needs accommodations. The better question might be: How do I design this lesson so more students can access it the first time without waiting for them to fall behind? In that moment, she understands that the variability in her 4th-period class isn’t the exception, it’s the norm. And it’s not just 4th period. Her 2nd period looks different, but the variability is just as present. So is her 5th period. Every group has a wide range of strengths, challenges, and learning needs.

But beyond the formal documentation, it’s the rest of the class that’s been on her mind. Several students are reading below grade level and hesitate to participate in written activities, not because of a disability, but simply because they’re behind. A few are English language learners who nod along during lessons but struggle when asked to respond with academic language. She sees students with anxiety who avoid eye contact, students with limited social skills who get left out of partner work, and more than a handful who can’t seem to organize their materials or manage multi-step tasks without reminders. The needs are everywhere and not just in a few students, but across the group.

She knows from experience that simply delivering content and hoping students will keep up isn’t enough. She’s looking for a way to plan lessons that give all students more than one way to engage, take in information, and show what they know. What she needs is a framework that recognizes this kind of learner variability and gives her practical tools to support it, not just for students with IEPs, but for every single learner in the room.

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