Curriculum Barriers

In my previous post, I blogged about three types of UDL barriers in schools: Instructional Barriers, Environment Barriers and System Level Barriers.  On Stephanie L. Moore website, she analyzes these barriers and provides checklists to pinpoint barriers in your school.  The following post will focus on curriculum barriers. 

In my Assistive Technology class we discussed curriculum barriers and explored the Curriculum Barriers Template presented by CAST.com. The example below illustrates how  the template organizes information.  Student strengths/weakness and potential barriers are organized according to classroom materials and instructional methods. 

CAST.com Curriculum Barriers Template

One benefit of the template is that teachers can use it across curriculum areas.  Also, the chart presents the information in a format to that is easy to read and teachers can easily refer back to the template when writing lessons. However, one disadvantage to using the Curriculum barrier template is creating a single template is very time consuming. And according to the people at CAST, teachers should create a template for each subject area because students abilities change depending on the subject matter, skills and activities.  In my class we discussed the option of creating one general template that can be used in all curriculum areas, which I absolutely agree with.  In the future I plan to organize my student barriers in format that is general to all curriculum but specific to student needs.