Curriculum Barriers

In this blog, we will be discussing the curriculum barriers that students come across while in their learning environments.  Every student has strengths, as well as areas of difficulties that the teacher needs to address.

The following chart shows student characteristics, curriculum barriers, and the area in which the student expresses challenges within the learning environment.  This particular student has many interests and strengths when it comes to learning; especially in the areas of reading and language arts, and science.  Although she loves these subject areas, there are barriers that hold her back from truly understanding the material and from completing classwork.

Curriculum Element	Student Characteristic	Barrier in Learning Environment
Reading textbook and additional class materials	Student loves reading, however has difficulty doing so because of poor eyesight.  She wears glasses, as well as uses assistive technology such as a magnifying class.	Student has difficulty reading due to poor eyesight.
Group/Partner work	Student loves to interact with peers during non-stressful situations such as lunch and recess.  When it comes to working with peers in class, she often has anxiety and lacks social skills.	Student has difficulty communicating with peers because of poor social skills.
Class discussions, PowerPoint Presentations	Although the student is an auditory learner, she struggles with PowerPoint presentations due to difficulty with fine motor skills and the ability to write quickly.	Student has difficulty taking notes during lectures, leaving studying for tests and reviewing materials difficulty as most of the material being taught is not written down for future reference.
Watching video clips pertaining to course material	Student learns well from video clips; although she has difficulty seeing, she has the ability to listen well.	N/A