South Carolina Individualized Language Acquisition Plan- Universal Design

Universal design principles address policies and practices intended to improve access to learning and assessments for all students. Universal design principles are essential to developing and reviewing instructional and assessment content because some ways of presenting content make it difficult for some students to show what they know. When educators employ universal design techniques, they can better understand what students know and can do. Universal design techniques should be applied consistently in instruction and assessments. In contrast to retrofitting, these techniques are integrated into teaching and assessment from the start. Educators should consider the following principles of universal design: 

	Inclusion of diverse student populations; Precisely defined instructional and assessment constructs;   Maximally accessible, non-biased content; Compatibility with accommodations;  Simple, clear, and intuitive instructions and procedures;   Maximum readability and comprehensibility; and   Maximum legibility.

Universally designed instructional and assessment content may reduce the need for accommodations and alternate assessments. Nevertheless, universal design cannot eliminate the need for accommodations or alternate assessments. Universal design can provide educators with more valid inferences about the achievement levels of all students. The universal design of assessments does not simply mean that instruction and assessments are carried out in a computer-based environment. With greater implementation of technological solutions, thinking about accommodations and universal design may change. Traditionally, educators have thought of universal design as coming first and accommodations being applied during instruction and assessment. With current technology, educational stakeholders can build some accommodations into instructional and content for evaluation design and redefine some accommodations as universal supports to empower greater numbers of students with optimal accessibility options. View the South Carolina Accessibility Support Document for additional information.

Allowable accommodations for MLs on state assessments should be regularly used in the classroom.

South Carolina Individualized Language Acquisition Plan- Instructional Accommodations

• Provide access to grade-level curriculum;
• Alter the environment, not the curriculum;
• Do not change the learning outcomes;
• Happen in the content-area classroom; and 
• Should not impact grading, though how learning is assessed may change.

Note: Accommodations marked with an asterisk are also considered best practices and will take you to the Best Practices page. Allow alternative response options for assignments and assessments Allow for assignment/assessment retakes or corrections Bilingual dictionary Chunk assignments/assessments into manageable pieces Grading with a rubric based on the student’s level of English proficiency Individual instruction Paired oral and written instructions Permit student errors in spelling and grammar except when explicitly taught and assessed, Acknowledge errors as indications of learning, Allow edits for certain language errors *Pre-teach key vocabulary and key content Provide a copy of notes *Provide sentence frames or sentence stems *Provide word banks Small group instruction Teacher use of simplified language Use of instructional tools such as highlighter, calculator, etc. Use varied print and audio texts, such as recorded books, graphic novels, etc. *Visual cues