Universal Design for Learning and CLIL (2)

My last entry focused on  Principle 1 of  Universal Design for Learning (UDL),  which  allows all students to access information by  providing  flexibility in the ways  this information is presented.

The current post aims at providing  teachers who implement their subject through English with  some specific tools that can help to put this first principle into practice.  As in my previous post, I will list my personal selection of  tools for the following purposes: 

 

 To provide options for perception: 

 

•  Sign language dictionary by categories  

This sign dictionary is available in 40 different languages and teachers will  manage to access students with auditory processing disorders. 

 

•  Natural Readers

This free convertor will allow you to convert any English passage into MP 3   files .  

To provide options for language and symbols:

 

•    Wordsift 

Students can visualize concepts which  they find difficulty with. The word list is a very interesting section for CLIL teachers but take into account that Wordsift does not  work well with compound nouns because it operates at individual word level. 

 

•  Visuwords 

This interactive dictionary represents language visually.  Choose a word, write it in the box at the top and see the way it represents it. For example,  imagine a student wants to visualize  "bacteria".   After writing the word in the box, a mind map in different colours  is presented .  Tell students to touch a node to see the definition of that word group and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.  Model the process yourself with a couple of words and then let students continue on their own.

 

• Science/Maths/Physics/Chemistry/Biology Glossary

This multisensory dictionary  is a powerful framework for understanding  STEM concepts. It fulfills its goal to assist the student throughout  the learning process.

• Interactive Math Glossary

Students just  click on any glossary word, or enter the term in the search bar and they will find images, videos, key characteristics, visual activities,  examples and non-examples that will clarify the concept they  need to understand. 

 

To provide options for comprehension:

Presenting information through videos can be very useful to activate students' previous knowledge and foster interaction.  You can find my previous  posts on  resources  on the pedagogical use of video viewing  here   but  for the current entry   I will just  highlight 3  powerful platforms: 

 

• Flipgrid 

Easy to use and  for free.  Learners record and share short videos so as to foster debate on any topic you are interested in. 

• Neok12

This platform  offers a huge collection of educational videos, games, quizzes and puzzles on a variety of topics for all grades. 

• Khan Academy 

Who does not know about Khan Academy? Probably you  also know that it is now  available in Spanish too.

 

As I pointed out  in the previous post, by no means  can  a blog post exploit the enormous number of tools that  facilitate learning for all students but I hope the selection I have made will be useful for the readers of this blog. As you always do, please keep on writing  to me if you need any further  guidance or just to  give me some feedback on the usefulness of the tools I have described.