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Classroom Profile and Barriers

Ashley Hoisington
September 30, 2020
EDUC 4702

Classroom Review
I can plan for my students by getting to know the:
Strengths of the Class Needs of the Class
(such as strong in an academic or (such as IPP’s, ELL, reading levels, behaviors,
social/emotional area, personality, etc.) potential accommodations needed, etc.)

• Some of the strengths in the classroom • 5 students have an IPP (Learning

are:
o Creative/artistic
o Thinking outside of the box
o Motivated, focused, hard working
o Kind and polite
o Building healthy and positive
relationships
o Friendly, open-minded
o Sense of humor/funny
o Helpful and caring
o Confident, assertive, strong-
minded
o Love of reading
o Love of math/science
o Hands on and learning through
exploration
o Unafraid to express oneself
o Inquisitive
• Many students share some of these
strengths, but some are also unique to
individual students. Be sure to use these
strengths throughout the classroom and
build on students’ abilities/passions.
• Whenever possible, reframe a
traditionally negative behavior into a
positive frame- chatty=expressive,
competitive=unafraid of challenge, etc.
o Doing this will reinforce those
positive behaviors you want to see
in the class while avoiding the
potential to make students feel bad
disability, ADHD, Anxiety/mental health,
ODD [undiagnosed], 2 students waiting
Ed psych results)
• 2 ELL students (one student is below
grade level, one student unknown- need to
do some benchmark testing to see where
they are at)
• Most of the students are below reading
level, only 6 are at grade six level
• Most students are at grade level for math,
8 students fall into the lower level
• General areas of support:
o Writing/reading/ math
o Focus/attention
o Executive function and SEL skills-
positive self-talk, problem solving,
decision making
o Self-advocacy and asking for help
o Building/ maintaining positive
relationships
• Potential accommodations:
o Extra time for completion
o Chunking
o Modelling
o Frequent breaks
o Reading support
o Peer support/ work
• Be sure to confer with students often;
most of these kids will benefit greatly
from the check-in. It will keep them on
track, build relationships, and ensure you
create a classroom space where they feel
safe to ask/answer questions and work on
using feedback
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I can meet the goals for my lesson by reducing learning and environment barriers for my
students:
Potential barriers • Zones for different activities
in the classroom o Students in this class would really benefit from having
environment different zones and areas to do their learning. Many of the
students have notes on their learner profiles about doing
(such as flexible really well in a collaborative space while others prefer to
seating, grouping, process things on their own. Giving students different options
lighting, visuals, for working spaces would help them to work on self-
etc.) advocacy and identifying their own needs. This would also
allow for students to connect with their peers through class
work and work on building healthy relationship skills.
o This class also needs a designated area or set time for teacher
conferencing. It appears like many students have lower
confidence or need to be checked-in on more frequently due
to their nature. Conferring with students gives a space where
you can have conversations about learning or have
conversations about other things that you may notice in
student behaviour. In addition to the academic gains of
conferring, this allows for you to build stronger connections
with each individual student which will also improve their
classroom experience. That being said, you need to be
available throughout the lesson and work time to have quick
conferences/check-ins with students.
• Seating needs
o Flexible seating would work with the last point to provide
spaces where students feel comfortable and can make good
choices about their own learning space. This class also has
quite a few students who would benefit from having alternate
seating during lessons (ball chairs, wobble chairs, etc.) and
alternate seating for work time (the carpet or couch space
with clipboard, higher tables, etc.)
o Some students in this class also require particular seating
arrangements in order to be most effective: one student needs
to be sat with students of similar levels to receive peer and
teacher support as a group, and one student needs to be at the
front of the classroom to see and focus while sitting with
peers he is comfortable with.
o I think it would be beneficial to work with students to develop
their decision making skills to build around choosing a good
seat; set up a classroom routine where we look for “business
partners” to sit beside (someone we can get along with, but
not someone who we will chat with through the lesson). This
sort of environment would allow for students to work on their
executive function, confidence and SEL skills. Build it up so
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by the end of the year students are making their own seating
choices and only see intervention if they absolutely need it.
• Minimizing distractions
o This is a big point for the students who are coded with ADHD
or focus issues, but it also extends to benefitting al students
(we all tend to get distracted now and again, because we’re all
human!). Firstly, there needs to be a purposeful effort to
create a calming classroom space where students do not feel
overwhelmed or overstimulated by the environment. To do
this, try and use muted colours, avoid unnecessary
environmental text that could take students away from
focusing on what needs to be done. It is tempting to fill our
walls with “cutesy” things, but we need to remain cognizant
of the mental space that will take up for a student who has a
hard time coping with focus/distraction.
o It’s also important to keep a clean classroom space with
minimal clutter on desks, tables and shelves. Have only what
you need; keep it clean and tidy.
o Another thing to think about it minimizing noise distractions.
This could be as simple as the noise from the classroom
across the hall, the vent system, or traffic. Think about
playing calming instrumental music during work time at a
low level to cancel out some of the distracting noises or
creating quite spaces within the classroom if students feel
overwhelmed by environmental noise.
• Hand, mouth, and body tools
o Have various tools readily available throughout the classroom
that students can easily access should they require it. This
includes having fidgets, noise cancelling headphones, squish
balls, water bottles, small snacks, pacing strip, movement
breaks, etc. Be sure to normalize the use of these tools by
making them available for the entire class, so students don’t
begin to feel “othered” when accessing these useful tools.
• Visuals and routines
o Not only are visual cues and accessible routines/schedules
beneficial for ELL students who are likely still developing
literacy skills, but these tools also become incredibly useful
for students with weaker Executive Functioning skills. By
having purposeful visuals and cues during the lessons,
students of ALL abilities will be able to put more focus on
what is in front of them instead of having to worry about
keeping track of steps or sequencing in their minds.
o For students with developing EF, these cues in the
environment can help them develop their working memory
and organizational skills. This can look different in each
classroom, but try to have clear labels on bins/containers,
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write the schedule for the day in a place where it is easily

accessible, have visual cues, etc.
• Access to the teacher
o It is important to consider your own placement in the
environment when students are doing independent or
collaborative work. Where will you be? How will you be
available through the lesson?
o For students who struggle with anxiety, it can be nerve-
wracking if they don’t know where to expect you. This is hard
for many kids, but this added stressor can become debilitating
for a student with anxiety.
o It’s important to be clear about where you will be, what you
will be doing, and how students are to give you the cue that
they need assistance. Will you be wandering around the room
and stopping occasionally? Will you be at your desk? Will
you be at a group worktable, where students can come sit if
they want? Should they put their hand up, or come see you?
Should they call you, or use a nonverbal gesture if they need
help? These are all important things to consider that will
alleviate a lot of stress for students, while still giving them the
structure and opportunity to work at their pace.

Potential Barriers to Learning (Review UDL Principles and

Description of Lesson Checkpoints identify at least one principle and checkpoint in
Plan Component each column where students in this class may have difficulty)
What will some students have difficulty with given the traditional
lesson design of chosen lesson – each of the following components
relate to the three principles of UDL – how does the lesson design
affect student engagement (engagement), how they access the
material and make sense of it (representation), and how students
show their understanding of the material (action and expression)
GOAL: Principle: Engagement, Representation, and Action &
Students identify the Expression
elements and Checkpoints:
vocabulary of poetry, • 7.2 Optimize relevance, value and authenticity
and learn to recognize • 3.1 Activate or supply background knowledge
and apply poetry- • 5.3 Build fluencies with graduated levels of support for
writing strategies practice and performance
The main issue with this goal is how broad it is; within this
lesson the big ideas addressed in the goal are completely
unattainable. When you look at the lesson, it does give several
other specific goals, which are also to broad for this lesson and
do not properly lay out what the students will be able to
accomplish/know at the end of the lesson (should be rewritten as
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a SMART goal). The goals take into account a variety of

response options, but they do not necessarily take into
consideration the varying abilities within the classroom. The
goals do not identify particular forms of representation and
expression, but they are still limiting because they are not
tailored to the learning students will be doing in this specific
lesson. The goal needs to be altered in such a way that it is more
specific to this lesson and is attainable for all students.
Overall, this lesson does not allow for the teacher to access
background knowledge or integrate student interests. This will
result in high levels of disengagement, leaving students unable
to connect with the material. Poetry is a tough topic for most
students, so the approach needs to shift in order for students to
“buy in,” and actively participate in the lesson. This class does
have multiple students with attention/focus issues, so it is
important to think about how they will connect with the lesson
in a way that will hold focus- likely a general, boring poetry
lesson will not do the trick.
This goal does not indicate any scaffolding of learning which
will become problematic for a class like this one. There are
students at many different levels for reading (most are below
grade level), as well as 2 ELL students; this makes traditional
vocabulary identification, and worksheet work (such as the one
in this lesson) quite difficult. There needs to be clear steps
within the goal to show students progressing through various
levels of understanding through a scaffolded approach.
METHODS AND/OR Principle: Engagement, and Representation
MATERIALS: Checkpoints:
Worksheet, notebook • 8.2 Vary demands and resources to optimize challenge
writing, reading (to • 1.1 Offer ways of customizing the display of information
oneself, in a group, to • 2.4 Promote understanding across languages
the class) The materials and methods in this lesson align with a very
traditional lesson. Students are given a worksheet, reading a
printed poem, and then copying down definitions and terms
associated with poetry into their notebooks. This lesson relies
heavily on student’s ability to take in traditional formats of
information, and also relies heavily on reading and writing
capabilities. This class would likely struggle with this, because
many students are below reading level and need additional
support with engagement in various areas. Students are expected
to read the long poem by themselves, then read/discuss with a
small group, and then a select few students will read the poem
out loud; as someone who struggles with anxiety myself, I can
anticipate this structure causing students undue stress, which
will block them from learning. That being said, there are a
couple of students who are on the “higher” end of things, so
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they will require more of a challenge to remain engaged in their

learning. By providing multiple entry points into the poem,
multiple representations of concepts, and a more hands-on
engaging approach, students of all levels will find success in the
lesson.
It would be helpful to provide different ways to display
information; if we used technology in a positive way to read the
poem and record answers to reflection questions it would give
students the ability to view the materials how they need to.
Students would be able to enlarge the text, zoom in, zoom out,
or have the screen read the poem. We could also support various
reading levels by giving visual and multimedia cues to add
another layer of understanding and intake of information. This
also becomes increasingly important for ELL students; poetry is
difficult for students to understand, but when you are dealing
with a potential language barrier it makes it worse. There is one
student in the class who has just moved from Pakistan, so this
student likely hasn’t engaged with this material, in this way,
before. We need to remain cognizant of language barriers;
getting to know this student will help to contextualize the best
approach. A good starting point would be to provide lots of
visuals and rely less on text, it would also be helpful to find
what these terms might be (or even get a translated copy of the
poem) in her home language.
STUDENT Principle: Engagement, Representation, and Action &
ACTIVITIES/ Expression
ASSESSMENT: Checkpoints:
Graphic organizer, • 9.3 Develop self-assessment and reflection
poetic terms/ • 2.4 Promote understanding across languages
definitions, notebook • 4.1 Vary methods for response and navigation
answers (assessment) I found there to be extensive barriers within the activities and
assessments for this lesson. As I mentioned in the last section,
this lesson is very traditional and lacks any sort of
differentiation or innovative techniques. At the beginning of the
lesson students will be given a paper copy of the poem and a
graphic organizer, they will read it silently as an individual, then
move into a group to read it. Next, students come together as a
class to view the response sheet and then they answer questions,
independently, in their notebooks. Students will then write
definitions in their notebooks; to finish the lesson, students will
reread the poem and write what they learned in their notebook.
There are so many problems with this aspect of the lesson: the
fairness, validity and reliability of the “assessment” is almost
nonexistent, the activities rely solely on the students ability to
read and copy things down into a notebook, and they are given
minimal opportunity to interact with one another and learn in a
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meaningful way.
The assessment relies on student’s ability to read/write in
English, which completely alienates ELL students if they are not
able to formulate their thoughts in a notebook. There needs to be
alternate formats for response that is inclusive of all language
abilities. This applies for native speakers of English as well-
some students are below grade level and may not be able to
formulate their responses in this way.
Students need to be given various formats in which to engage in
the material and respond for assessment purposes. If you only
allow for ONE way to do something, the fairness of the
assessment falters, leaving the assessment unreliable and lacking
in validity. Try giving students a different way to move through
the learning points of this lesson and allow space for check-ins
during work time to make sure students are all on the right track.
Another important consideration for this would be in reference
to checkpoint 9.3. We know many students in this class require
some extra support in the development of Executive Function
and Social Emotional Learning. These all loop back around to
self-awareness, problem solving, and decision making. In order
to support these students and help others hone these important
skills, it would be beneficial to implement strategies of self-
assessment and reflection. Begin working with students to
identify learning goals, then work with them to self-assess and
see where they struggle/excel. It is important to end lessons with
a brief reflection to solidify the importance of these skills.
STUDENT Principle: Representation, and Action & Expression
ENGAGEMENT: Checkpoints:
Readings, pen-to- • 5.2 Use multiple tools for construction and
paper, group communication
discussion (beginning) • 2.1 Clarify vocabulary and symbols
The most engaging part of this lesson is the very beginning
when students are asked about what things they are grateful for
and prompted to discuss why. After that, students are engaged in
a lot of independent, and quite work. This lesson depends on
pen-to-paperwork, which makes it virtually inaccessible to most
students in this classroom. Because this lesson also relies on
vocabulary work, it is important to consider alternate ways to
present that information. Is having students write the word and
copy it down really the best way? I think it would be helpful to
break this lesson down over a couple of days to give students a
meaningful opportunity to engage with each movie piece. As far
as the vocabulary work goes, it would help students to
understand the terms if they could practice applying them in
different situations (poetry or speech). Having students engage
with the vocab in a meaningful way would allow them to
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internalize their learning for application later on.

Giving students more innovative ways to engage with the
learning material would provide learning experiences that can be
applied to a wider range of contexts outside of the ELA
classroom. In addition to this, it would be advantageous to
provide many tools for use in the classroom that they can choose
from at any given time. Students will work on developing their
autonomy when given a degree of choice during learning. This
will benefit all students, no matter their ability level, and
continue working towards removing stigma associated with
using such tools (sensory, or academic).