ROLE MODEL VIDEOS

Accessible resources - this was developed, I believe in the UK.
at the Worcestershire City Council I believe, and they have this acronym SCULPT.
‘S’ means keeping the Structure simple with headings, so it’s easy to understand,
‘C’ - making sure that we have the correct Colour and contrast.
You know that in the British Council brand that’s a key area, so
that people can see clearly a good contrast
between the background and the letters, for example.
Using images, so that’s the ‘U’ so
We should be using the alt text to explain the images, only using the images
so not using them to actually convey meaning.
The ‘L’ that’s for the Links, so we should be describing links, not just put huge hyperlinking,
to make the resources accessible to everybody, also for people using screen readers.
We also have learners with sensory issues. So, for example
In terms of the contrast, that’s very important for them as well.
‘P’ stands for Plain English, so keeping it simple.
‘T’ is for Tables, again keeping those simple.
There is more information, so if anybody wants to ask questions or wants to find about more information afterwards, please get in touch.

Instructions. It’s very important to give clear instructions.
Giving one instruction at a time.
This is very important for attention spans.
I’m terrible! Someone often gives me instructions verbally - I just don’t remember them.
I really can’t cope with them.
As I said earlier - this is not just for our students
who have an identified learning difficulty,
This is for everybody.
If we do this in a classroom, it will help all our students.
We have to keep it short; we need to check that students have understood.
So not just: do you understand?
But asking them specifically to make sure they have understood.
We may need to repeat them, or we may need to give them in different forms.
We may have to do this for a couple of the learners in the class,
but as I said, it will benefit everybody in the group.

Related to that is also: Allow “think time”.
If you ask a question to the entire group,
you are probably going to always get the same students answering.
We have to think how we can do that to allow learners time to think.
I’ve seen teachers do that for example:
They are not allowed to say anything for 10 seconds or 30 seconds, however.
I’ve seen teachers who experiment with this.
It is really beneficial for everybody in the class.
Also, they are these students who sometimes
tend to dominate are not dominating.
So everybody has an opportunity to think
before they actually say anything.

And again, linked to both of these I think is that reducing that memory load.
We often find that students with learning difficulties
They are often associating working memory problems,
working memory difficulties, so that’s another way
that we can help support all our learners in the classroom.

I mentioned earlier I have high expectations.
This is sometimes a reason for not labelling a student as well.
If someone tells you that they have a student with dyslexia in your group for example,
we may automatically expect less of them.
I think for all our learners we have to have those high high expectations.
And believe that they can achieve what they want to achieve.

Get mentioning their self-esteem that we saw earlier on the slide,
that’s going to help them to develop that language learning
and enjoy that language learning