Specifics About the Learning Materials
Below are a list of items regarding the learning materials found in Express Diversity!:
- 5 Learning Modules
- Appendices
- A. Resources
- B. Adaptations for students with disabilities
- C. Assessment for students
- D. ED! Program evaluation form
- E. Bulletin Board Kit
- Family Letters and Vocabularies
- Video
- Challenge Cards
Note: VSA recognizes that simulation activities can cause more harm than good if done without careful attention to leading the students through a discussion to help alleviate their fears of acquiring a disability, or having difficulty performing an old task in a new way. However, simulation activities can still be an engaging introduction to the concept of disability.
5 Learning Modules
Module 1: Introduction to Disability
Module 1 is a blind-folded sculpting activity, the only the only simulation activity in the guide.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify three-dimensional forms.
- Identify techniques for sculpting and creating texture.
- Create a textured three-dimensional form.
- Discover that there are different ways to accomplish tasks.
- Discover that experiencing problems and/or barriers can result in new insights.
Module 2: People First
Module 2 is a creative writing activity engaging students in selecting an event on the Timeline of Disability History from 1400 to the present day and writing about it as if they were there.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify language that shows respect for people with disabilities.
- Use people-first language in creative writing and dialogue.
- Identify changing attitudes toward disabilities throughout history.
Module 3: Communities for Everyone
Module 3 is an art mural activity in which the students work together to re-design their community as a barrier free community where everyone has access to everything.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify barriers that can impede people with disabilities.
- Identify ways communities can support and provide equal access for people with disabilities.
- Create a mural depicting a barrier-free environment.
- Demonstrate techniques for showing perspective.
- Discover that an accessible environment supports people with disabilities in pursuing their interests and is better for everyone.
Module 4: Important Contributions
Module 4 is a performance art activity where the students create a talk show with a host interviewing guests with disabilities (students may select from the 22 portraits and biographies of individuals with disabilities provided in the bulletin board kit, or the teacher may ask them to select an individual from the list of Famous and Not-So Famous People with Disabilities included in the kit and have the students conduct their own research.
Learning Objectives:
- Recognize contributions people with disabilities have made to society.
- Identify appropriate questions and issues for a dramatic performance involving the contributions of people with disabilities.
- Create an interview that highlights the contributions of people with disabilities.
Module 5: Inventions and Independent Living
Module 5 is a visual arts activity where the students are given a challenge of daily living for a person with a disability (ten are provided) and they must solve it creatively, two sample inventions by Rube Goldberg illustrate that the solution does not necessarily have to be realistic.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify adaptations for and assistive technology that support people with disabilities.
- Create an imaginative solution to a fictitious problem experienced by a person with a disability.
Appendices
A. Resources: An annotated bibliography, related organizations and suggested web sites.
B. Adaptations for students with disabilities (includes the following disabilities: physical and motor, learning disabilities, communications, behavioral and emotional, deafness and hearing impairments, and developmental)
C. Assessment for students: Includes forms for teacher's evaluation of students' work with the modules' learning objectives.
D. ED! Program evaluation form
E. Bulletin Board Kit:
- Teacher's Guide to the Timeline of Disability History
- Timeline of Disability History from 1400 to the present day
- Biography Cards with Portraits
- Secret Service File Photo
- American Sign Language Alphabet
- Sample Braille Alphabet Card
- Interesting Facts Poster about disability and society
Family Letters and Vocabularies
Letters, in English and Spanish, explain to families of children involved in this program what the program is, the details of the learning module the child has experienced, includes a list of vocabulary words and definitions used with the program, and encourages additional participation in the program at home.
Challenge Cards
Ten challenges and two sample inventions by Rube Goldberg are provided to accompany Module 5. The challenge cards engage students in creatively solving a problem of daily living for a person with a disability, and illustrate that the solution does not necessarily have to be realistic.
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