“All The Way To The Top” book lesson plan
In this lesson students will learn new vocabulary words and explore important civil rights themes by reading the book “All the Way to the Top” by Annette Bay Pimentel. “All the Way to the Top” tells the childhood story of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, who climbed all the way to the top of the stairs of the US capitol in 1990 to encourage congress to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Jennifer has cerebral palsy and became famous for the photos taken of her while climbing the stairs without a wheelchair at just 8 years old. The book tells the story from her perspective and covers how she felt she was not treated equally in her community and how she and other activist worked to get the ADA passed.
Image description: Cover artwork for “All the Way to the Top”
Analyze a Poem for Theme - DEE the Chickadee
This lesson will help students to analyze the theme of a poem. Students will compare their understanding of how they view disability before and after reading the poem. Students will compare the message and theme of the poem and contrast the bird in the poem to the life of a person with a disability.
Image Description: Chickadee sitting in a baseball hat
Blind Willie Johnson Lesson
Students will learn about one of the most influential blues guitarists of the early 1900s, Blind Willie Johnson. They will read an article detailing his life and how he is remembered. The class will then listen to an example of his music, and covers of his music. Students will also discuss how blind musicians can help advance the discussion concerning the stigma of disability.
Image description: halftone photograph of Blind Willie Johnson
Build A Web - Interdependence Lesson
Students identify with each other some things they like and pass around a ball of twine. The twine represents a web and every student will be holding a part of it to keep it strong. Students will reflect on their own webs in their lives and create their own webs using crafting materials.
Image description: spider web
Common Lit - Analyzing the Author's Point of View with "I'm a Disabled Teenager, and Social Media Is My Lifeline" Lesson
In this opinion piece, students will learn about one teenager’s perspective on the value of social media, especially for people with disabilities. Students will analyze the author’s point of view about social media.
Image Description: Logo of CommonLit which looks like an open book
Common Lit - Analyzing Text Structures with "Everyone Can Play" Lesson
In this text, students will learn about how video games are being adapted to meet the needs of players with disabilities. Students will practice analyzing text structures. They will understand how paragraphs build on one another and how authors organize their writing using specific text structures such as subheadings.
Image Description: Logo of CommonLit which looks like an open book
Crip Camp Curriculum
In this collection of lesson plan, students will learn about media literacy and apply those skills to the media created for the film CRIP CAMP; will explore the concepts of power and justice, and how they relate to disability rights and disability justice; will explore the concepts of power, civil rights, and human rights, and how these concepts relate to disability rights, and then apply those skills to the media created for the film CRIP CAMP; will understand how language is connected to power and ableism; and discuss how the strategic use of power helped the disability rights movement in the US evolve.
Image Description: “Crip Camp Curriculum” in white text on green background
Critical Media Analysis: Autistic characters in children’s media
Summary:
In this lesson, students will look at four different characterizations of autistic children in contemporary media. They will watch excerpts or videos featuring the characters, read about the characters, and study how they were created. They will then fill out an evaluation chart to analyze the different depictions. They will have a group discussion as a class and write a reflective response.
Issues considered will include: character’s role within the show/movie; who was involved in writing/creating the characters; what public response has been; and so on. The lesson will conclude with a group discussion and students will complete a journal-style piece of writing as an exit ticket.
The characters that the students will learn about are:
Julia from the television show Sesame Street;
Pablo from the television show Pablo;
the main character from a Pixar short called Loop;
Carl, from the show Carl the Collector.
Image Description: Upper left quadrant is Julia, a muppet with yellow skin and orange hair. Upper right quadrant shows the main character from Loop, a girl with brown skin and dark hair who is reaching with her hands to touch reeds. Bottom left quadrant shows Pablo, a hand-drawn boy with light skin standing on a green hill with a rainbow behind him. Bottom right quadrant shows Carl, an illustrated raccoon wearing an argyle sweater.
Dad and Me in the Morning Guided Reading Lesson
This lesson revolves around the book Dad and Me in the Morning by Patricia Lakin. The book tells the short story of a boy and his dad getting up early to see the sunrise. The book is unique because the boy in the story is deaf and the book shows the different ways he and his dad communicate. It is a great example of how the disabled perspective can be brought to a story that most children can relate with. In this lesson the teacher will read the book page by page and stop on each page to have students figure out all the different ways the boy and his Dad are communicating. The students will compete to see who can find the most ways.
Image description: Cover art from “Dad and Me in the Morning” book
“Different: A Great Thing to Be!” - Similarities and Differences Lesson
This lesson has five activities which can be spread between multiple days as time allows within English Language Arts blocks. Through a teacher-led interactive read aloud and whole class discussion of the story: “Different: A Great Thing to Be” by Heather Avis, students will be encouraged to identify similarities between themselves and the main character in the story, Macy, and their classmates, as well as embrace differences within themselves, Macy and their classmates.
Image Description: a light purple background with 7 different colorful birds standing on a thin branch. The text above says “Each of us is different and that’s a good thing!” The word different is bigger and each letter is in vibrant different colorful patterns.
“Different - A Great Thing to Be” Rhyming Lesson
Students will identify personal similarities and differences between peers. Students will listen to read/listen to “Different… A Great Thing to Be” and identify rhyming words. After the lesson, students will write a poem about being different.
Image Description: cover of the book "Different: A Great Thing to Be!" includes an illustration of a girl with long brown hair holding flowers. Her eyes are closed and she's wearing glasses.
Disability and Disability Arts Invisible Disabilities/Autism/Poetry/Golden Shovels Poetic Form
Lesson title: Disability and Disability Arts - Disability and Disability Arts Invisible Disabilities/ Autism/Poetry/ Golden Shovels Poetic Form
This is a three part lesson to introduce the student to disability and a disabled artist's work. Disability arts is an art form where the context of the art takes on disability as its theme. Disability art is about exploring the various realities of what it's like to be disabled. The theme of disability may be used in a variety of ways in how the artist chooses to represent the theme in their work. This lesson uses poetry created by Ian Fay.
Image Description: black and white illustration with the title “Golden Shovels by Ian C. Fay” in bold open letters. The background is filled with dense, intricate doodle pattern.
Disability Justice Lesson Plan - Education Amplifier
In this lesson plan, you’ll find six modules that you can mix and match, that all teach about different aspects of disability rights and disability justice.
Image Description: Education Amplifier’s illustration of Lydia X.Z. Brown
Don’t Call Me Special: Reading and Discussion
This is an introductory lesson on physical disability using the book “Don’t Call Me Special” by Pat Thomas. The educator will read aloud the book and ask questions about the text. Students will learn about making assumptions and what physical disability can look like, as well as how equipment can help students with disabilities access all parts of their life.
Image description: cover art for the book “Don’t Call Me Special”
Dots: An Introduction to Braille Lowercase Letters
This is a fun way to introduce the braille alphabet in English (Grade 1 braille) to young learners. Sighted and blind learners will use an exploration of braille to reinforce their knowledge of lowercase letters. This activity can also give students, sighted and blind, a fun way to explore sight words.
Image description: Hand moving over a text in braille
Easterseals Short Films Lesson Plan
Students will review the social model of disability and then apply it to 4 short films created for the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge. “The Easterseals Disability Film Challenge gives filmmakers—with and without disabilities—the opportunity to collaborate to tell unique stories that showcase disability in its many forms (disabilityfilmchallenge.com).” Students will watch the 4 winning films, and then break into groups to focus on analyzing one film as a group.
‘Emmanuel’s Dream’ Lesson Plan
Students will read ‘Emmanuel’s Dream’ by Laurie Ann Thompson, the true story of Emmanuel, a boy from Ghana who could only use one leg. Students will then complete a worksheet with a blank tshirt on it where they will write a word or phrase about how they are different but they are proud of that difference.
Image description: Cover image for “Emmanuel’s Dream”
Equity is Essential: Working to Achieve Access for All Lesson
Students will read Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability by Shane Burcaw and consider what it means to have a disability, what inclusion means and how to create a more accessible world.
Image description: Cover for the book “Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability”
Everyone Spoke Sign Language - The Chilmark Deaf Community
In this lesson, students consider how people communicate when they do not speak a common language. The Chilmark Deaf Community serves as a case study to engage with the wide variety of languages spoken on the Island (presently and in the past). From 1694 to 1952, Martha’s Vineyard - and specifically the towns of Chilmark and West Tisbury - had an unusually large population of people with hereditary deafness. As a result, the residents of the Island developed a local dialect of sign language, used by hearing and deaf people alike, allowing the Deaf community full and unbiased integration into Island society at large. Scientists and researchers studying the causes of deafness took great interest in Martha’s Vineyard because of deafness’ prevalence there.
Image Description: A mural with 4 simplistic cartoon-style characters drawn in black on a light tan background using sign language, movements are shown with arrows. There is foliage at the bottom and a brick wall at the top of the photograph.
Exploring Nancy Polette’s “The Spy with the Wooden Leg: The Story of Virginia Hall” with the help of a reading journal
The students will learn how to use a reading journal to aid their exploration of a biography “The Spy with the Wooden Leg: The Story of Virginia Hall” which will be read as a class and individually. This reading will be slow in order to help support students’ discovering how to read, process, and reflect upon biography in the form of a chapter book and use this information to enrich their study of History. Many aspects of this lesson are flexible and can be adapted to the needs of your students.
Some themes of war may be difficult for some students, it is recommended that no new difficult content be introduced on a Friday or before a long break so that the class can have the support they need as they learn about these difficult themes.
Image Description: cover of the book “The Spy with the Wooden Leg: The Story of Virginia Hall By Nancy Polette”