What should a teacher do if their students have below grade-level reading abilities AND have unique needs both in and out of the classroom? That is the reality for me and my students, kids who experience an intersection of needs and ability that make it so that I must design my lesson to both reach them where they are at and provide ways for students who may have been academically left behind to engage in the lesson. 

To briefly summarize my job, I am an ELA interventionist for high school students. That means that I exclusively work with students who have lower than grade-level reading and writing abilities, who typically also need extra support, both in and out of the classroom. I am no stranger to Kimberlé Crenshaw’s idea of intersectionality, but when I heard about Universal Design for Learning (UDL), it helped solidify how my job is uniquely positioned to help students using UDL.

With the intersection of my students' needs in mind, I have designed a representation of the students who come into my classroom with my department’s logo in the middle to symbolize the place these students will come to receive the support they need. Support that, now with UDL in mind, will be more focused on things like improving the students general level of comprehension, with things like transfer and highlighting patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships, which is something I know my students struggle with (CAST, 2018). 

References:
CAST. (2018). The UDL guidelines. CAST. https://udlguidelines.cast.org

Spencer, J. (2021, August 24). What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL2xPwDrGqQ

TED. (2016). Kimberle Crenshaw: The urgency of intersectionality [Video]. TED Talk. https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en