What are the barriers in my classroom?

 

At the beginning of this journey, Katie Novak had us think about the barriers we already knew all or some of our students face in their learning. This was during the summer (in July) so we could only think about our students in general terms based on prior knowledge but not specifically about our new students' profiles in Powerschool and our own personal experience with them. It is incredible how many potential barriers we identified solely based on our experiences. ! 

I teach a grade 1 class that happens to be a HUB partner class. Therefore I knew that I would have at least  2 or 3 students that would receive some type of ISP (Tier 2+ and above) support or tier 2 support. I could identify that some students would have some self-regulation and behavioral needs and that my lessons need to take their need for movement and their shorter attention span into consideration. All grade 1 students have a shorter attention span than 4th-grade students, so time focused on listening to lessons is already a barrier for all. 

Some other barriers to the student's well-being and learning could be social-emotional, self-management, and lack of collaborative skills. Our students are COVID kids and have known only restrictions and restrictive learning environments.  I knew that I would need to be mindful of these barriers and slowly develop their independence with the help of various supports and scaffolds. After all, they are learning to be learners and they were going to be brand new to our campus and to "how we do things". The challenge was even greater as my own learning space was restricted and I would need to find new ways to create a learning environment that mitigated the barriers put up by COVID as much as possible. Not an easy task. 

By far, one of the major barriers to learning I knew I would need to focus on is the language barrier for non-English speakers. MEAL (Mainstream EAL students) students, or Level B as they are called now, were not going to be a new thing for me and the rest of the grade 1 team. However, SEAL students, now called Level A students, would be brand new to us. In the past, we had dedicated SEAL classes to help our non-English speakers get started and "up-to-speed". This year each class would get up to 3 Level A students who need extra support in class. 

So, even before we met our students and had a chance to identify some of their specific barriers, we already had a good long list of barriers that we either had already been addressing in our teaching or that we would need to address in our teaching. UDL training could not have come at a better time. When I finally met with my students, I could identify more specific barriers for each learning goal. 

As you embark on your UDL practice, think of your specific goal (What do you want the students to learn or to demonstrate?), then think of the barriers your students could face in reaching the goal. Next, look for and offer different pathways that would allow students to reach the learning goal. The aim here is not for you to end up making 20 separate lesson plans, but to give your students options that will allow all of them to overcome their barriers. Allow your students to try different options and soon they will find the one that fits their learning needs. 

I know, I know...easier said than done!! But That is what I am trying to do in my practice. Sometimes I am successful, sometimes I need to return to the drawing board. It's a process!!