Lesson One
Part One: Disability Awareness/ Self Reflection
I will ask the students to listen and just think about the following questions:
I will read them slowly, and pause for about 30 seconds after each one.
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1. Do you know someone who has a special need that they face every day of their life?
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2. Do you know students who are not as capable as you are in Physical Education in the gym?
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3. Do you have a relative, friend, neighbor who has difficulty completing daily living tasks like cooking, cleaning, dressing?
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4. Do you have friends or a classmate who can do Math, or shoot a basketball better than you?
Discussion:
I will lead a discussion of question number 3 and 4 in a personal way. I will ask students to speak about their feelings and their answers. Then we will list some of the student responses on the board. I will give my own personal examples and write them on the board. The discussion will continue with asking the students to think about how they would fill in these blanks:
"I can help with. . .. . .. . ..."
"I need help with. . .. . .. . ."
Each student will then receive two different sentence strips, one of each of two different colors. The students will spend about 20 minutes writing their thoughts on the two sentence strips, with pencil first, and then tracing over with marker or crayon. I expect that some students will have difficulty really reflecting on their own strengths and weaknesses and perhaps a student will use the same phrase as his neighbor. (For example, "I can help my little cousin with his Math homework.")
We will hang the sentence strips up on the board or on a wall for all to share, in two separate areas. The teacher will have two headings, one for each of the two areas ready:
"These are the things we NEED HELP with."
"These are the things we CAN HELP with."
Each student can have two pieces of tape or a thumb tack with which to hang his/her own sentence strips if the teacher allows. This physical activity is a good way to engage the students and keep their interest and excitement.
All areas where students need help will become apparent; all areas students feel competent will also be grouped together.
Students will be asked to read their sentence to the class if there is time. I will underscore the fact that the real private feelings of our strengths and weaknesses may be difficult for us to think of. And, most important, each of us in the room must be supportive and not tease one another when we each read the areas in which we need help.
Part Two: Disability Awareness / Hearing Impaired girl
I will introduce Children's Literature for reading and response to text. I have chosen the book, I Have a Sister, My Sister is Deaf, by Jeanne Peterson. This book is a short, 14 page book with black and white line drawings of the two sisters. The older sister is the narrator of this story about her five year old younger sister who is Hearing Impaired.
( Application was made to purchase 25 copies of this book through YNHTI)
I am planning that 25 copies will be available, so students can read the book to themselves while I read aloud. During the story, the older sister is able to interpret the actions and simple sign language her sister uses. She explains to the reader that her sister is capable of expressing herself in many ways. She also shares the meaning of many of the sister's actions that others may not understand.
I will read the book to the class while each student follows along with a personal copy of the book.
Response to text: After reading the book, students will read this question and write their answers:
The older sister of the Hearing Impaired/Deaf girl understands everything her sister does. She explains her sister's actions to their friends.
What does she tell others? How do you know that she truly knows all about her sister's life? Use examples from the text to show that the older sister understands what her sister feels and why she does the things she does.
Homework:
The books may be sent home for each student to read to his/her family. Also, I may assign the students to read and DISCUSS this book with their family. Written "Family Homework" may be assigned, where a parent/guardian will sit and answer questions like the following four questions from Lesson One/Part One.
1. Do you know someone who has a special need that they face every day of their life?
2. Do you know students who are not as capable as you are in Physical Education in the gym?
3. Do you have a relative, friend, neighbor who has difficulty completing daily living tasks like cooking, cleaning, dressing?
4. Do you have friends or a classmate who can do Math, or shoot a basketball better than you?
Note for Teachers of grades 5 and 6:
Welcome Home, Jellybean, by Marlene Fanta Shyer, Aladdin Paperbacks, Simon & Shuster, NY, 1978 (152 pp.) is recommended. For older students, this novel for students aged 9 -12 is about a boy whose family decides to take their teenage daughter home from a residential school. The sister has cognitive challenges which greatly impact her life, but her parents, not happy with the living situation at the school take their 13 year-old daughter home to live. The story is told from the perspective of the brother.
Spaceman, by Jane Cutler, Dutton Children's Books, New York, New York, 1997 (138 pp.) is recommended as another source of fiction for older students. This fast-paced and authentic novel is about a boy with multiple learning problems. This book promises to change the way readers think about their classmates.
Part Three: Buddy Read
I will enlist the help of a partner teacher who teaches a younger group/ lower grade. For example, a Third Grade class may partner with a Kindergarten or First grade class. Then, each student will meet the younger student who will be a partner in a Buddy Read. The older student will sit with his/her partner and read the book Time should be given for the two students to briefly discuss the book.
If the classrooms are small, this activity may take place in a larger setting, such as the Library/ Media Center. A second arrangement can be: I will divide my students into two groups, Group A and Group B. The younger class will also be divided. Group A from Third Grade can meet with Group A from First grade in the Third Grade room. Group B Third Graders can meet with Group B First graders in the First Grade Room.
Part Four: Inclusion
I will ask the students:
Did you know that students with disabilities can look just like everyone else? If someone has a COGNITIVE disability, or one affecting his/her thinking or learning, s/he may look and act similarly or differently from other kids. Most often, people may suspect a person has a cognitive or INTELLECTUAL disability when s/he looks, speaks or acts differently. When you are out at the park or out at the grocery store, do you see people who you suspect are handicapped or disabled in some way?
I will continue asking and students will discuss:
1. Do we INCLUDE all students in our school? In our classroom?
2. What does the word EXCLUDE (the opposite of INCLUDE) mean?
3. What does it mean when you and your friend EXCLUDE another child from playing a game with you?
4. Have you ever been EXCLUDED from a game or activity by others?
A. I will use this as a written response activity where the students will write a brief answer to each of the above four questions.
B. Or, this can be used as a class discussion activity.
C. Also, if the teacher desires, she can pair the students up. Two students will sit together, one will ask the other and the other can answer. Then the two will switch tasks and after that, the teacher will lead a whole class discussion
D. Family homework: Students may be asked to bring these four questions home to discuss and write answers with a parent/guardian or older sibling.
Then, I will introduce the "Inclusion law" named "IDEA" of 2004, (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) the Federal Law. I will tell the students that this law protects students with disabilities, so that they will all have access to the General Education curriculum, the subjects that all students are taught. They will not be isolated or taught in a separate setting all day away from the other students. They will not be sent away to a "special" school. They will not be taught in the basement in a corner classroom.
Because of this law our school district must make sure that every student has the right to study along side his/her Typical or Non-Disabled Peers and learn in the same General Education setting with all of the other students.
Then I will read the definition of Intellectual Disability.
"Significantly sub-average general intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior and manifested during the developmental period that adversely affects a child's educational performance." (3)
To make comprehension of the above definition easier I will use these simple definitions:
Sub average means below average.
Intellectual functioning means thinking and problem -solving ability.
Developmental period means during childhood.
Adverse affect means making a problem for the person.
Then I will say: "Students with cognitive or thinking and learning disabilities, including "Intellectual Disabilities", may look and act differently from other kids. Sometimes, students may know or suspect if classmates have a severe Intellectual Disability by the way they look, act and learn."
I will ask students: "What do you think it means to INCLUDE all students?"
Volunteers will read answers to the above four questions about being Included and being Excluded.
After discussion, I will read the following definition:
Inclusion:
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"Providing to all students, including those with significant disabilities, equitable opportunities to receive effective educational services, with needed supplementary aids and support services, in age-appropriate classes in their neighborhood schools, in order to prepare students for productive lives as full members of society."
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National Center on Educational Restructuring and Inclusion (1)
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We will discuss any unfamiliar words that students mention.
Lesson Two
Part One:
Responsibility and Caregiving:
In order to further take the perspective of a disabled young person, our students will read passages from the non-fiction book:
Being the Other One, Growing up with a Brother or Sister Who Has Special Needs, (Strohm, Chapter 7)
Growing Up Fast pages 81 through 83
Finding the Positives page 86
For students who will have difficulty with the readability level (which is approximately Fifth Grade level) have students read teacher-prepared readings quoting siblings' thoughts from Chapter 7.
See "Appendix" (before the Bibliography) for the page of siblings' quotations.
After reading the accounts of brothers and sisters who have cared for their siblings with disabilities, the students will write reflections of how they felt.
Part Two:
I will introduce the students to a second non-fiction book. We will read personal accounts of two teenage students with Down syndrome, Jason and Mitchell. The book includes their parents' perspectives, in their book, Count Us In, Growing Up with Down Syndrome. This book is organized in interview format (Question and Answers) .
I will photocopy pages 63 -65 from Chapter 6, "Having Fun" and pages 142-144 from Chapter 12, "Becoming Independent" so that each student can read the interviews. Because these two students are writing from the perspective of young adults, our students will see how an adult with a cognitive deficit may live an independent life.
After completing the reading, I will ask the students to imagine how the author's mothers prepared the interview questions for this book. The questions covered many aspects of the lives of these young men, from childhood to the present.
Each student will compose one or two questions for a "Mock Interview" which s/he will have the opportunity to ask Jason and Mitchell, if given a hypothetical opportunity to meet one of the authors of this book. This question could be posed to another young person or young adult with Down Syndrome, similar to the two who were quoted in this book.
Then the students will read their questions aloud to the class. Other students can offer suggestions for the possible answers to their fellow students' questions.
Lesson Three
Culminating Activity:
I will ask that each student close his/her eyes for one minute in order to think and reflect upon what they have learned over these past lessons. I will ask them to choose the most important new fact they have learned.
After they open their eyes, I will ask for volunteers to raise their hands and then share with all of us the one new fact they have learned about Cognitive Disabilities, Inclusive Education, and Down syndrome. This one fact should be the MOST important information they have learned because they will be asked to share it with others.
After listening to each other, each student will choose the one thought or idea to share with other students or adults in our school. Hopefully, there will be no duplication of ideas. Each student will draw a poster with one or two sentences or a motto to teach to be printed at the top or bottom of the poster. The picture can be a drawing or a collage or any other creative media, in order to share this new idea/knowledge.
Since Celentano Museum Academy presents four quarterly Museum Night/Days (after the conclusion of each marking quarter), posters will be displayed and explained.
Other culminating student products might be:
Typed mock interviews with ID adults can be displayed and shared.
Literature that we read can be summarized in a few typed paragraphs and shared
