Julie Calfee, a high school English teacher, knows the hard work of nurturing students’ self-regulation. Many of her students come from environments in which they haven’t been provided opportunities or guided toward self-regulated behaviors. Julie realizes that she has to remove judgment and let her students begin where they are. In the case of homework, that might mean some students only complete 2 of the 15 questions on the homework assignment. Instead of judging them for their incomplete work, she recognizes that these students are learning how to set aside time for homework, a task they typically find insurmountable. She doesn’t stop there, though. Julie uses the UDL framework to help her design lessons and environments that support her students as they determine a starting point for self-regulation. She then builds on that level of accomplishment through setting higher and higher expectations.
