Midterm Project

Hi Brisa,

I am so glad you took this topic on! I think addressing disability when children are young will help people later in their lives be more compassionate and willing to alter their own behavior/attitudes towards people with disabilities in order to make more accessible communities. With you second grade lesson plan, I really appreciated the different characters that were portrayed on the how are you feeling today slide. While this might not directly address disability, it is a subconscious introduction to the idea that people look different from one another, but that does not mean these characters cannot feel their emotions. I also appreciate the active participation built in to the lesson. Particularly with new ideas that children might not understand right away, it is easy to design a plan in which the teacher is just lecturing to students. However, this does not challenge the students current ideas of what disability and disability justice are; it does not even require them to think. By including active participation, students are forced to use their own idea to come to a conclusion about disability justice.

Another element to the project that I really appreciated was the space for doodling/drawing at the end of the KWL chart. Many children find putting their thoughts into words difficult. While there are no guidelines for what the students should draw in that box, if their minds are on the topic of disability and disability justice, it is likely that they will draw something related, even if interpretation is required. Space for drawing allows students with different learning styles to participate in a way that is most accessible to them. It also allows some space for relaxation in an otherwise challenging task for the second grade level, as they are required to think more critically to answer the above questions. Finally, the sheet indirectly addresses the student's differences, as they are each going to have different strengths and weaknesses and require assistance from classmates in different ways.

Overall, I really appreciate how this lesson plan pushes students to consider a variety of differences that they might see, from visual differences to cognitive differences, to physical differences. It also taught students how to stand up for their peers with differences and address ableist thoughts and activities, such as the game of tag. I would love to see a followup lesson plan for later in the year where students can discuss the changes they have made to their attitudes and behaviors around people with disabilities.