How can educators design instruction that engages and challenges all students?

Transcript: Shauntā Singer, PhD

Barriers that exist in teaching and learning are those things that get in the way of students meeting various learning goals. And so those roadblocks, barriers, challenges can exist in the form of various things. And what we like to think is that the barriers intuitively or inherently are not in the student, but they can be unintentionally produced in the methods, materials, goals, and assessments that we as instructional designers create. For example, printed material may be how we would traditionally present content. But we have learners who would either prefer and/or have limits to being able to access the information that’s in printed material. And so that material becomes inflexible or access to the material becomes the barrier. And so the idea behind identifying barriers is to think proactively about what specific materials, methods we may use and try to eliminate those barriers so that more students are able to meet those goals. Or, in our example, more students are able to access the information that’s in that printed text. I like to think of printed text for some as being very inflexible, meaning if students have challenges like reading, if they have any visual impairments that prevent them from being able to actually see the print on the paper, perhaps language is not their first language or language of choice, accessing the content in that printed material would be very difficult. And so that’s a very fixed or inflexible material. To make it more flexible and/or eliminating the barriers, we could make it digital so that we could translate or so that it could be spoken out loud to learners who may have those visual impairments. And so the barriers again are things that may be inherent to the particular material that we use. But eliminating the barriers would allow students to meet those goals again in our example, accessing that information in that printed text.

Transcript: Sarah Wisecarver

I really don’t think about barriers in my students. If they are struggling with a lesson, I am constantly thinking about what is the goal of the lesson and what can I do to remove the barriers for them so that they can meet those goals? What options do I need in place? We use the Guidelines as a framework to make that learning accessible for all. So as I am designing my lessons, I’m thinking about how is this lesson going to be accessible to them? For instance, if it’s a reading comprehension lesson, do they have to read it on their own? Could they read it with a partner? Could they read it with me? Is there an audio where they could just listen to it? If the goal is comprehension, could they listen to the audio and still meet that comprehension goal? Absolutely. So thinking about that barrier being curriculum and not the student and providing these options all the time. Students know in my classroom that these are options that are always available to them. Is their table area too loud at the time? Do they need a quieter setting? Do they need to go sit on the floor with a clipboard? Do they need noise-canceling headphones? Do they need to go use a stand-up desk? All of those things are always available, and they advocate for their learning. I’m not telling them what they need as far as helping to make their learning grow and move forward. They are trying to make those decisions. And we have conversations, too. I do work with elementary students. Sometimes they make a decision that might not be the best decision for their learning. Perhaps they thought they needed to work with a partner. And then I notice that they chose a partner that happens to be their best friend, and they get a little chatty and off task. But then I have that conversation, that reflection piece. I’ll go over and speak to them and say, you know, “I’m noticing that maybe the goal of the lesson isn’t being [laughs] done right now. What could we do? What could you do as a learner to meet that goal?” And then have them self-reflect. “Oh, Mrs. Wisecarver, I guess I probably maybe should go work with someone else or work by myself.” It just takes a few seconds, a few minutes, maybe, but having them kind of stop and reflect on it, too.

I always try to think about learner variability, too. So when we’re designing and thinking about the barriers in the curriculum, it’s really saying that at all points and every day, students are variable. I may have a student who’s working really hard, doing a math lesson by themselves at the time. But then the next lesson is a reading lesson, and they’re not engaged in what the content is for that lesson. So even though they worked really well by themselves for that math lesson, maybe they need some support that day on the reading lesson. They don’t understand the vocabulary, or it’s just not something that they have a lot of background knowledge and information about. So maybe they could sit with me for that piece. So there’s that constant ebb and flow in the room of what do they need at that time.