Ability Awareness Lesson Plan (Due 4/25/2011)

Name:

This lesson is designed to discuss Autism. There may be a student with Autism in the class and his/her behavior may affect the class climate and/or the student’s social relationships with other classmates. This lesson is designed to help all students understand what Autism is and how it might feel to be an individual with Autism. This lesson will help students understand differences and similarities between people with and without Autism. I think this would be a great lesson to teach even if there aren’t any students with Autism in the classroom. Most likely at some time in their lives they will meet someone or have a friend who has Autism.

  1. Where & When Lesson will be delivered: 2nd – 5th grade classrooms could be during “social studies” or “classroom meeting time”. Content of discussion could be more or less in depth depending on the age and level of the students in the class.
  1. Materials Needed:Autistic Planetby Jennifer Elder[s1]
  1. Objectives of Lesson: Students will develop an understanding for the diagnosis of Autism and what types of attributes are present in students with Autism, through reading the book Autistic Planetand participating in a classroom discussion.
  1. Anticipatory Set: Have students come to the carpet for a story. Have a brainstorming session on the board about the word “Autism”. What do you think this means? Have you heard this word before? What kinds of words come to mind when you hear this word? You could do a KWL chart for this lesson with the class.
  1. Introduction (inform students how the lesson links to their school expectations, course objectives, etc.): Before reading the story, talk to students about the school wide and classroom rules of being “respectful”, “kind”, and “safe”. Go over the meanings of these words and how they relate to how we talk to and about others. Remind students of the classroom expectations of using kind words when talking about each other, and how we can show respect for each other by understanding that everyone is different and this is okay. (The classroom should hopefully already be a place of community, respect, and safety, where diversity is honored).
  1. Procedures (List your activities, including any discussion questions and transitions along the way):
  • Begin reading the story to the class
  • “In our world, all trains run on time with kids conductors on the line.” After reading this line, ask students what they think this means? Why are they talking about the trains being on time? Go on to tell the class that many times people who have Autism like to stick to schedules and be on time. How is this similar to someone that you know with Autism? How do you think schedules can be helpful for people with Autism?
  • “Where every seat is a rocking chair?” Who do you think there are people sitting on rocking chairs? Explain how these types of chairs can help people with Autism to concentrate. Do you think having a chair like the one in the picture would help you concentrate? Why do you think it might help you concentrate?
  • “We memorize each word we hear, go home and play it back by ear.” This may be true for some people with Autism, but it doesn’t mean that all people with Autism can listen to music once and play it back perfectly. Sometimes with some things, people with Autism can learn quite quickly. But that doesn’t mean that everything is learned really fast. Some times people with Autism can learn something fast and other things take longer. Can you think of anything that is really easy for you? Can you think of something that is very hard for you? (Think Pair Share).
  • “And when the world spins out of line, you’re always welcome back to mine.” What do you think this line means? “Spins out of line” means you might feel like things are out of control or kind of crazy. Have you ever felt kind of frustrated or bothered if there are things that you can’t control or change? How did that make you feel? Do you think boy is being a good friend when he says, “You’re always welcome back to mine?”
  1. Conclusion (Review the lesson objective and point students forward by connecting the lesson to future changes [e.g., practical steps they can take to display the skills taught in the lesson]): After reading the book, discuss things that we learned about Autism. Go back to the brainstorming list and add and/or change some of the things that students wrote. Discuss how all students and people are similar and different in many ways. If we were all the same things would be quite boring! We learned a little about how the girl in the story who has Autism explains her world. She talked about things that she likes to do, things that are hard and things that are easy for her. That is the way she explained her “planet” of where she is from. How would you explain the planet that you came from? Another lesson or activity to do in the future could be for students to make their own planet about themselves.
  1. Assessment/Reflection/Next Steps (Describe how you will assess learning of the skill/topic; How you will reflect on the lesson; What next steps you will take to ensure skill is reinforced throughout the school year)This[s2] activity/lesson should be one of many activities around community and positive classroom dynamics that support diversity and make students feel safe and respected in the classroom. This could be one of many types of “disabilities” discussed in the classroom throughout the year. Design classroom activities that show students how we are all similar and different in many ways and how this creates our special and unique classroom!

* In doing this activity I also found three other great books about kids with disabilities by Amanda Doering Tourville:

  1. “My Friend has Dyslexia”
  2. “My Friend has ADHD”
  3. “My Friend has Down Syndrome”

[s1]Good use of literature.

Will you need an overhead projector for the KWL chart or brainstorming sessions?

[s2]Good. How will you assess if they understood what autism is? Will you plan to ask probing questions in the next lesson/activity, etc.?