New POW: Universal Design for Learning: Making Learning Accessible for ELL Students

Our world is increasingly diverse and globalized. Teachers are dealing with multilingualism and bilingualism in the classroom more regularly.

According to the National Council of Teachers of English:

• ELL represents that fastest growing segment of the student population, with the highest growths in grades 7-12.
• English Language Learners now represent more than 10 percent of the nation’s K-12 enrollment.
• Non-native English speakers ages 14-18 are less likely to complete high school than native English speakers.

Diversity in languages provides an opportunity for these students; there are strengths and assets of being able to speak more than more language.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that provides ALL students equal opportunities to learn. It encourages teachers to design flexible curricula that meet the needs of all learners. The goal of implementing UDL principles is that it makes the teaching and learning in the classroom engaging and accessible. One of the benefits of UDL is that students have a range of needs, skills, interests, and experiences. UDL hopes to maximize these differences by building curriculum that responds to the needs of the students.
According to the National Center on Universal Design for Learning, “The UDL framework enables educators to plan their instruction with all kinds of learners in mind. ELLs, while limited in their English proficiency, come to school with tremendous variability in their home language skills, from full oral and literate proficiency, to very limited skill sets. Rich English-language instruction that provides students with oral and written access to their native languages has at its core the UDL principle of multiple means of representation.”

Pepper has released a new workshop focused on Universal Design for English Language Learners as part of it’s Pepper Online Workshop (POW!) content. This workshop will explore short videos specific to incorporating UDL strategies for ELL students and examining the principles of UDL design as related to English Language Learners.
You can check all of our new POW content by visiting the Courses and Workshops section on your dashboard.

Introducing Pepper Online Workshops (POW!)

POW! Are you ready to add some Pepper into your personalized, online learning plans?

PCG Education is introducing a new series of content collections - Pepper Online Workshops (POW!) – focusing on the hottest topics that educators are dealing with across the country. Our new workshop series is based on WestEd’s powerful collection of resources from their Doing What Works project featuring amazing videos, interactive planning tools, and other research-based materials.

In the spirit of keeping with Pepper’s core values, these online workshops – although much shorter – will remain true to our vision – to provide K-12 educators with high-quality, interactive, engaging, research-based and applicable to your school environment.  

Currently, users can find workshops focused on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for Math, Science, and Language Arts. You can learn more about UDL by checking out a previous blog post, Making Learning Accessible for All: Universal Design for Learning.

Look for our new workshops this week focused on using Literature Circles in the classroom.

PCG Education will be releasing new POW content collections every week. To find these new workshops, visit your Pepper dashboard and click on the updated "Courses and Workshops" link.

Then, find the tile labeled "keep learning" to access our new Pepper Online Workshops.

Please visit us at PepperPD.com/courses to review the new online workshop series and sign-up today.

Making Learning Accessible for All: Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching approach to help all learners be successful. According to the National Center on Universal Design for Learning, “UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional goals, methods, materials, and assessments that work for everyone--not a single, one-size-fits-all solution but rather flexible approaches that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.”

UDL focuses on three principles of learning:  “why”, “what”, and “how”. (http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html)

WHY - The “why” of learning is about engagement. The goal of this principle is to provide students with a purpose for learning. To do this, UDL encourages the use of a variety of methods to exposing students to why what they’re learning is relevant. Relevance and connection will help motivate students to learn.

WHAT - The “what” of learning is about representation or how we present the content to the student. The goal of this principle is to provide the content in a way that appeals to individual student learning styles. Understanding that students learn in a variety of ways enables a teacher to provide multiple ways for a student to receive important information: visual, auditory, or kinesthetically.

HOW - The “how” of learning is where the student takes over. This is their opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of what they have learned. The goal here is differentiation - providing students with a variety of options for showing what they have learned. Allowing students to have a voice and some choice in how they showcase their learning is critical.

The National Center on the Universal Design for Learning continues to state that “the purpose of UDL curricula is not simply to help students master a specific body of knowledge or a specific set of skills, but to help them master learning itself—in short, to become expert learners. Designing curricula using UDL allows teachers to remove potential barriers that could prevent learners from meeting this important goal.”

As you participate in Pepper Courses, look for ways to incorporate the why, what, and how of the Universal Design for Learning into your lessons. You can also utilize the Pepper Resource Library to find ways to engage and present content to your students. The Universal Design for Learning can help make understanding content a reality for all types of learners.