Empowering English Learners: Strategies for Inclusive Education with Pear Deck

As our classrooms grow more diverse, the urgency to adapt and enhance educational practices for English Language Learners (ELLs) becomes more pronounced. With English Learners expected to make up 40 percent of the school-age population by the 2030s, embracing inclusive education and leveraging technology like Pear Deck are crucial steps forward.

Ensuring accessibility for all

Central to bridging the opportunity gap for ELLs is ensuring every student has access to education that meets their unique needs. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework offers a blueprint for creating flexible and customizable learning experiences, essential for the diverse landscape of today's classrooms. This approach emphasizes the importance of offering multiple means of representation and engagement, from visual and auditory alternatives to customizable content and language support.

Pear Deck emerges as a vital tool in this inclusive education landscape. It supports UDL principles by offering:

• Interactive slides that blend videos, images, and audio to cater to diverse learning styles.
• Customization options, like font adjustments and text-to-speech features, making learning materials accessible to all students, especially those developing English skills.
• Built-in translation tools that allow students to instantly translate any slide text into Spanish, Chinese, Cantonese, or Vietnamese, without leaving the Pear Deck session.
• Picture dictionaries and read-aloud functionality that help students understand new vocabulary and hear English text spoken aloud in real time.

Language support in Pear Deck

One of the most common challenges for teachers is keeping instruction moving while meeting the real-time needs of multilingual learners. Pear Deck includes a built-in Student Toolbox with Translation Tools, offering instant, discreet language support directly inside every Pear Deck session.

How it works:
When teachers enable the Student Toolbox in their Pear Deck settings, every new session automatically includes these supports for students across commonly used devices:

• Translate: Instantly see selected words or phrases in Spanish, Chinese, Cantonese, or Vietnamese.
• Read Aloud: Hear English text spoken aloud using text-to-speech.
• Copy Translations: Save translated text for later review or study.

Leveraging Pear Deck for diverse assessments and engagement

With the UDL's emphasis on multiple means of action, expression, and engagement, Pear Deck's interactive slides provide a dynamic platform for formative assessments, fostering an environment where students can express their understanding in various ways. This adaptability enhances the learning experience, offering immediate feedback and fostering a deeper connection between students and the material.

Formative assessment and feedback

Effective formative assessment and timely feedback are pivotal in supporting ELLs. Pear Deck excels in providing educators with tools to deliver instant feedback, essential for tailoring instruction to meet students' needs promptly. This immediate response system allows for a more responsive learning environment, crucial for language development and comprehension.

Engaging collaborative teaching and learning

Collaborative teaching strategies are increasingly important in supporting multilingual learners. Pear Deck facilitates this by enabling co-teaching and co-assessment within its platform, aligning with goals to develop language and literacy skills in a supportive, equitable learning environment.

Learn more about supporting English Language Learners with Pear Deck

Interested in learn more? Check out our guide, "Empowering English Learners: Strategies for Inclusive Education with Pear Deck".

By integrating Pear Deck into our classrooms, we embrace a future where every student, regardless of their language background, has the opportunity to thrive and succeed. And with new real-time translation and read-aloud tools built right into every session, language barriers no longer have to mean learning barriers.