The website listed above is yet another website that serves as a tool for teachers to reference to help explain UDL principles. It allows teachers to choose a fictional student and curriculum and they themselves analyze the barriers that would cause the student to not be able to reach success based on the materials and methods used. From this perspective, teachers can begin to understand how the simplest methods they use for their class might not be effective for EVERYONE in their class and can hinder their learning as a result. It lets the teacher step back and see it from an outside perspective.
In allowing teachers to create a blank template for analyzing students in their own classroom, I chose to select a few students I worked with in one of my student teaching placements a few years back. It allowed me to reflect on the methods and materials I had used to instruct the students as well as see how their learning was greatly affected due to their needs not being fully met. For instance, one particular student in my section ,*Josh, had low vision. The materials used to instruct him for Math, Social Studies, and Reading were textbooks with normal print which is very small to him. The books were not specialized and made bigger to fit his needs. Therefore, a potential barrier had been drawn since Josh had difficulty reading the print. Another student in my class was a girl names *Hannah. She has strong collaboration skills and likes to work with others and works well. For math in particular, once students were finished with group work, a worksheet would be assigned for enrichment purposes where the students would work independently while the struggling students received help from the teacher. Despite the fact that Hannah could complete the work on her own, this task was not allowing her to draw on her collaboration skills with peers. In hindsight, looking back on this made me realize as a future classroom teacher how important it is to get to know the abilities, strengths and weaknesses of ALL your students from the very beginning. In doing this, you can alleviate some of the barriers that might and most likely will occur if you do not reach all your students in ways that will let their skills and disabilities shine!!!!!
* names have been changed for privacy reasons
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