Designer Perspectives

Offer ways of customizing the display of information

• What options do learners have for how content looks and sounds?

Offer alternatives for auditory information

• What options are available for auditory information?

• Is there flexibility in pace?

• What visual and tactile materials support the auditory information?

Offer alternatives for visual information

• What options are there for visual information and text?

• What auditory and tactile material supports the visual information?

Designer Perspectives

Clarify vocabulary and symbols

• What options and supports exist for unknown vocabulary?

• What options and support exist as alternatives to text?

Clarify syntax and structures

• What visual models support making meaning of new content?

Support decoding of text, mathematical notation, and symbols

• What options have you created for decoding?

• What supports have you created for difficult texts and symbols?

• How are learners recording their learning of new symbols and words?

Promote understanding across languages

• What options are there for answering in languages other than English?

• What supports exist for English speakers to learn from emergent bilingual students?

Illustrate through multiple media

• What different media do learners have access to?

Designer Perspectives

Activate or supply background knowledge

• What background knowledge is assumed in today’s learning?

• How is background knowledge available in the environment?

• What common experience have you created to draw from to ground the connections we make?

• What supports are available to build background knowledge while learning new content?

Highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas, and relationships

• What supports are available to make connections?

• What supports exist to emphasize important concepts?

• How are learners prompted to connect current learning across domains and contexts?

Guide information processing and visualization

• What graphic or tactile supports are available to guide understanding?

• What metaphors and frames support learner thinking?

Maximize transfer and generalization

• What prompts exist for learners to make connections across domains and contexts?

• What structures and instruction focus on how to recognize similar concepts and skills in other contexts?