• Pre-teach vocabulary and symbols, especially in ways that promote connection to the learners’ experience and prior knowledge

• Provide graphic symbols with alternative text descriptions

• Highlight how complex terms, expressions, or equations are composed of simpler words or symbols

• Embed support for vocabulary and symbols within the text (e.g., hyperlinks or footnotes to definitions, explanations, illustrations, previous coverage, translations)

• Embed support for unfamiliar references within the text (e.g., domain-specific notation, lesser-known properties and theorems, idioms, academic language, figurative language, mathematical language, jargon, archaic language, colloquialism, and dialect).

Clarify unfamiliar syntax (in language or in math formulas) or underlying structure (in diagrams, graphs, illustrations, extended expositions, or narratives) through alternatives that:

• Highlight structural relations or make them more explicit

• Make connections to previously learned structures

• Make relationships between elements explicit (e.g., highlighting the transition words in an essay, links between ideas in a concept map, etc.)

• Allow the use of Text-to-Speech

• Use automatic voicing with digital mathematical notation (Math ML)

• Use digital text with an accompanying human voice recording (e.g., Daisy Talking Books)

• Allow for flexibility and easy access to multiple representations of notation where appropriate (e.g., formulas, word problems, graphs)

• Offer clarification of notation through lists of key terms

• Make all key information in the dominant language (e.g., English) also available in first languages (e.g., Spanish) for learners with limited-English proficiency and in ASL for learners who are deaf

• Link key vocabulary words to definitions and pronunciations in both dominant and heritage languages

• Define domain-specific vocabulary (e.g., “map key” in social studies) using both domain-specific and common terms

• Provide electronic translation tools or links to multilingual glossaries on the web

• Embed visual, non-linguistic supports for vocabulary clarification (pictures, videos, etc)

• Present key concepts in one form of symbolic representation (e.g., an expository text or a math equation) with an alternative form (e.g., an illustration, dance/movement, diagram, table, model, video, comic strip, storyboard, photograph, animation, physical or virtual manipulative)

  1. • Use of a manipulative in mathematics

     • A video to further help understanding learning

• Make explicit links between information provided in texts and any accompanying representation of that information in illustrations, equations, charts, or diagrams