Inclusive Learning: How substitute teachers can use Universal Design for Learning strategies.

As a substitute teacher, you make a difference in the lives of your students by ensuring they feel heard and supported. There are best practice strategies that you can use so that they have an inclusive learning experience. For example, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) model provides guidelines that allows you to meet students where they are—whether you are there just a day, a week, or the entire year. 

Universal Design for Learning: What is it?

Created by CAST, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inclusive learning, the Universal Design for Learning framework can be used in all learning environments to support learner agency—the ability of students to actively participate in their education. 

When you’re working as a substitute teacher, you don’t usually have the luxury of knowing your students and providing individualized education. However, it’s possible to maximize student learning by applying certain principles that can help you meet your students at their level. 

Here, we’ll focus on three of the UDL principles to help you support students as a substitute teacher: engagement, representation, and action/expression. 

Engagement. 

For students to be engaged with the content you’re teaching, it’s important that they know what they’re learning, why they’re learning it, and how they’ll know when they’ve mastered a topic. When students understand what they’re learning, they’re able to begin the process of making connections between the material and their own lives. This helps them to solidify new terminology, objectives, and information. 

Providing students with multiple means of engagement allows them to bring their authentic selves to the learning process. The engagement section of the UDL encourages educators to optimize choice and autonomy. For example: 

• Allow students to decide whether they’d like to work alone or in a group. 

• Allow students to choose whether they complete their work on paper, on a tablet, or on a computer.  

Emphasizing the relevance of the content can also be helpful for student engagement. 

•  Ask students to talk about connections they see between the material and their daily lives.  

• Ask if they can forecast connections between the material and their potential future lives. 

Representation. 

Every learner is different. While understanding the unique needs of every student in a class does not fall under substitute teacher duties, you can use your limited time to serve students with different needs to the best of your ability. 

• Remember that not all students are on the same reading level, and vocabulary that comes naturally to some students may be more difficult for others.  

• Provide multiple ways to ingest information. For example, provide the option of reading, exploring a diagram, or listening to audio. This allows students to choose the learning method that’s best for their needs. 

Representation also requires educators to remember that each student (and each teacher) experiences the world differently. Exploring varying perspectives can provide an educational experience for everyone in the classroom and can remind students that their personal views are valid and respected. When you show respect for individual opinions, students in the class will be more likely to do the same and feel more supported when it’s time for them to share their views. 

Action or expression. 

Students express what they’ve learned in different ways. Some students may prefer to share what they’ve learned out loud, while others may prefer to write their thoughts. Offering multiple ways for students to share objective mastery can help students thrive despite learning differences. 

If you work in the same classroom for several days or weeks, you may have the opportunity to scaffold expression opportunities for students.  

• Encourage a student who prefers to write to share an answer out loud with the class.  

• For a student who typically prefers to verbally state their response, you may start encouraging them to explore written responses by asking them to write a single-sentence answer to a question. 

• Honoring each student’s process can help remind them that they’re valued, accepted, and recognized. 

Encouraging learner agency: real-life teaching tips.

Keeping engagement, representation, and action/expression in mind as pillars of your teaching framework can help your students maximize their potential. 

Some actionable ways to encourage learner agency while you’re substitute teaching include: 

Be clear.  

Students need to be told what they are going to do, why they’re going to do it, and how they’re going to know when they’ve done it. Going over the objective and learning goals at the beginning and end of each lesson creates a cohesiveness that helps students focus on how they’ll individually achieve the day’s goal. 

Provide nonjudgmental support.  

Pay close attention to your students. When a student is struggling, simply offer help without judgment. Some students worry that substitutes might judge them for having trouble with a task their regular teacher thought they could complete. 

Use think-alouds.  

Walking students through your thought process can help them develop their own cognitive strategy. For example, for a test question asking students to explain the water cycle, you might begin a think-aloud by saying, “I know that precipitation happens, and the water comes down to the ground. After that, the water has to go somewhere. Some of it goes into the ground, but some has to go back up to the sky, where it will eventually rain again. That means evaporation has to happen.” 

Provide flexibility when you can.  

As a substitute teacher, executing the classroom teacher’s lesson plan is your job. If you can provide flexibility, it can help students take agency over their learning process. For example, you can let students decide whether to work individually or in groups, write or speak their responses, or use pen, paper, or multimedia options. 

Grow as a substitute teacher with Kelly Education.

Universal Design for Learning is just one instructional strategy. If you’re looking for other ways to improve your practice, check out our library of articles including: Instructional strategies for substitute teachers, Classroom management for substitute teachers, and How to introduce yourself as a substitute teacher. 

If you or someone you know is interested in substitute teaching jobs, fill out our brief interest form. One of our recruiters will contact you to share more about the requirements and process to work at one of our partner schools. 

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