Side Walls

LEARN

What to consider for the side walls of the room

What are the crucial tools that learners need to build their understanding and express what they know?

Consider how you are supporting language and symbols and expression and communication

Access Check:

Are there digital copies of the resources?
How can you highlight the most relevant resources and retire those that are done?
Do the resources support barriers embedded in language, symbols, and expression and allow for productive struggle elsewhere?

“All learning is the interaction between the learner and their environment."

–David Rose

Supporting learners to understand language and symbols

Check out the Provide Options for Language and Symbols Guideline

To Support Language and Symbols on the Side Walls consider...

Creating interactive posters to support key information
Color-coding key functional or syntax elements - in language and math
Using multi-lingual tools in Google Sheets, Word, and Powerpoint
Anchoring all content specific vocabulary with a picture

“The alternative to good design is always bad design. There is no such thing as no design.”

–Adam Judge

Supporting learners to express and communicate their ideas

Check out the Provide Options for Expression and Communication Guideline

To Support Expression and Communication on the Side Walls consider...

Celebrating that everyone's work looks different and showing that in the envrionment
Creating space for learners to share and brag about the tools they are using and how they help
Finding a variety of tools that support ongoing practice including audio recording, graphic organizers, and narrated slides

Try out CORGI

A series of digital graphic organizers with accessibility features built in that guide learners processing of information and even automatically creates a Google Slide show for students to modify.

Screenshot of the CORGI program showing four different graphic organizer templates

COLLABORATE

Interview a colleague:
1. What is your design challenge?
2. How do you hope students will interact with the learning environment?
3. What barriers are getting in the way? Consult the UDL guidelines - What options might minimize those barriers?
Read the UDL Learning Spaces Idea Kit with a colleague. Choose three cards to explore and use for brainstorming.

DESIGN

Choose a space in your classroom to consider. Use the Learning Environment Map to build and experiment In that space, what barriers do you want to address? What new predictable options could you offer?

Screenshot of the learning environment map in Google draw.

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