Key Strategy

Create accessibility for all students in a virtual environment using Universal Design for Learning and its key features of access:  representation, action and expression, and engagement.

Key Features of Access for Universal Design

Online Learning Structures

Asynchronous Learning

Before Asynchronous Learning

During Asynchronous Learning

After Asynchronous Learning

Synchronous Learning

Before Synchronous Learning

During Synchronous Learning

After Synchronous Learning

Resources

References

Key Features of Access for Universal Design

For details on Universal Access, see Features of Access and Understood.org

Online Learning Structures

Asynchronous Learning

Definition:  Asynchronous learning in virtual environments allows students to participate and complete work on their own time.  Students receive materials from teachers in the form of readings, videos, and websites and submit work via email or Google Classroom by a given deadline.

Before Asynchronous Learning

Preparing Students

Preparing Instruction

• Teach students how to review materials prior to completing assignments.
• Make sure students know where materials are located and how to access them
• Provide clear deadlines, instructions for how to submit assignments, and criteria for success in a format that is intelligible to students
• Create assignments with clear instructions that include models, examples, and clear criteria for success.

• Focus asynchronous learning on preparing for a lesson or a follow up to a lesson to reinforce synchronous learning. Do not present new material to ELLs/MLLs/SWD asynchronously.
• Provide a recording of instructions or tasks for ELLs and developing readers to do on their own.
• Record a read aloud of a text or other online session so that students can listen to it on their own.
• Provide students context for what they are learning by preparing simple emails, slide decks, or documents for review.

• Present new information to students in the form of short videos, slidedeck presentations, or a read aloud of a text. Remember students may have difficulty accessing new information on their own, so select the content judiciously.
• Translate materials and/or instructions if possible

During Asynchronous Learning

Online Platform Strategies

Teaching Strategies

• Remind students to view the models and examples in an assignment with clear visual or verbal cues as they are needed to answer questions.  
• Use Google Classroom to assign students the tasks.  Use email or text message if that is a better option for students.
• Students send in assignments either through Google classroom, email/text, or as verbal recordings of the work.

• Pair students strategically as online buddies so they can meet independently via FaceTime or Google Hangout to complete an assignment together.

After Asynchronous Learning

Follow-up

Assessment

• Create peer feedback routines for students to comment on each others’ work in Google Docs or Google Slides.
• Use the comment function to provide feedback on individual students’ work
• Focus feedback on specific elements and ask students to respond to the feedback.
• Call the student on the phone to talk through the assignment.

• Students revise their work based on feedback from peers and teachers.
• Students re-submit revised work.
• Use equitable grading practices especially for assignments students will struggle to complete without accommodations or supports.

Synchronous Learning

Definition:  Synchronous learning in virtual environments requires students to join a live classroom at a given time.  Materials are presented through screen share features, videoes, or presentation slides.  Sessions can be recorded to be reviewed at a later time.

*For ELLs/MLLs & Developing Readers in English

During Synchronous Learning

Online Platform Strategies

Teaching Strategies

• Provide audio files along with text so that students can choose to listen to the content while the teacher reads or after the teacher reads.
• Record readings during the lesson to post after.
• Use interactive software or digital features that allow students to click and drag content to sort and categorize words, pictures, visuals, and other relevant information.
• Use virtual breakout rooms for co-teachers to support groups of students.  Have clear outcomes from the breakout room, such as students reporting back to the teacher and/or classmates either verbally or in another format (on a Google Doc, in the chat box, etc).

• *Strategically pair students together, such as ELLs and SWDs.

• Add closed captioning to presentation slides.
• *Use the private chat feature to “warm call” a student. It is tempting to call only on students who naturally want to participate or who know how to maneuver the online platform, but be mindful that students need a lot of opportunities to participate and will want to contribute in a virtual setting.
• Use poll or quiz functions in an online classroom.

• *For ELLs, translate questions ahead of time so that students can see the question written in the poll in home language.
• For ELLs, ask a student to verbally translate the questions for classmates.

• Give extra wait time for students to answer the question to support participation.
• Give frequent time checks so that students know how long they will be doing an upcoming task and how much time they have remaining to complete a task.
• Ask all students to respond to certain questions, so that ELLs and students who struggle with literacy cannot opt out of producing language to express their thinking. Modalities for responding include using the chat function, whiteboard function, and Google documents, or Padlet..
• Use community building prompts and reflection questions to give students space to share their feelings and anxieties about social distancing and the pandemic.
• Explicitly address reading, writing, and language goals either through mini-lessons or breakout rooms with co-teachers to support ELLs and developing readers in English.

After Synchronous Learning

Follow-up

Assessment

• Allow students to record answers verbally on a device to complete assignments instead of writing.
• Reach out to students who did not show up to class online. Call students (don’t just text them) to see how they are doing.
• Hold a virtual space for students to share their feelings and ask questions they have about the coronavirus outbreak. Create community online by giving students a chance to talk about their experiences with their peers.
• *Allow students to answer questions or respond to assignments in home language. This is perhaps even more important in a virtual setting than in person, as students will not have had sufficient comprehensible input in the lesson to internalize new language needed for the content they are learning and will be more likely to express understanding using home language.

• Use equitable grading practices and a “do no harm” approach to help take students’ individual situations into account.
• Assess students specific reading, writing, and language goals to determine progress. Decide on possible actions and next steps based on formative assessments.

Resources

References

• Universal Design for Learning Guidelines
• Understood.org for Educators
• English Learner Success Forum