Lets meet Lee!
Lee is an 8yr old boy from China. He lost his family recently and was adopted by a local couple. He just moved to the United States two weeks ago and was enrolled in the 3rd grade at the local elementary school. According to his records, Lee learned basic English in China but his proficiency is unknown as he has not verbalized a word in Chinese or English since his arrival. Lets consider UDL assessment accommodations for Lee.
According to the National Center on Universal Design for Learning (which can be found at this website: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines), Principle I calls for the teacher to "provide multiple means of representation." The reacher must be concerned as to whether Lee understands classroom instruction in English. If he is not able to understand the lesson taught by the teacher, we cannot very well expect him to be able to pass any classroom tests or standardized tests. After multiple attempts of speaking with Lee, he does not seem to understand any more than a few simple words. It becomes clear to his teacher that Lee is going to need some representation accommodations.
Lee's teacher decides to use this website: http://translate.eu/english/chinese_traditional-english/ which allows Lee to translate words he does not understand into Mandarin throughout the day. She also uses this website herself to translate her lecture outline and main points into Mandarin so Lee is able to follow along. Her hope is that she can transition Lee from translating everything into Chinese to him becoming less dependent on the computer over time. Hopefully, her lessons will be understood with little help at some point this year.
