Emerging America - Disability and Community Leadership Unit
Emerging America - Disability and Community Leadership Unit
*This lesson was developed by Emerging America and links to an external source.
Summary:
In lesson 1, students explore primary sources and their own experiences to become familiar with ideas about disability and ways that students, their community, and their school can support access for everyone. In lesson 2, students identify and agree to ways to make decision-making inclusive. Students discuss characteristics of good leaders using illustrated stories of disability advocates. In lesson 3, students explore a case study of disability advocacy to dig deeper into how civic leaders strengthen their communities.
All three lessons can be taught in one grade or introduced over multiple grades. All three lessons can be taught in one grade or introduced over multiple grades.
Lesson 1: Introduction: How Can We Include Everyone? Grades K-1 and 2-3
Students become familiar with disability and ways that their community and school support access. Primary sources and examples from the school help students think about different types of disabilities. Students discuss how they can support inclusion of all students.
Lesson 2: What Makes a Good Leader? Grades K-1
Students will become familiar with disability and ways that their community and school support access. Students will identify and agree to ways to make decision-making in their classroom inclusive. Students will discuss and identify characteristics of good leaders.
This lesson works best if students have already completed Grades K-1 “How Can We Include Everyone?”
Lesson 3: Advocate for Access and for Rights Grades 2-3
Students examine the story of the first public curb cut as a case study of advocacy for local government policy. Students analyze the impact of local advocacy on people with disabilities and express their ideas in the design of a historical marker. This lesson could stand alone or support a larger study of local government.
This entry links to the resources that are owned by the creators and listed here for easier access within our database of lessons and resources.
Subject and topic:
Civics and History, Disability History
Grade level:
K - 3
Duration:
Lesson 1: 40-50 minutes
Lesson 2: 75 minutes
Lesson 3: 75 minutes
Our Notes for teaching these lessons:
Please note that the format of Emerging America lessons at the time of review was not well-suited for screen readers with the excessive use of tables and images with insufficient descriptions. We share this for blind teachers as well as teachers who have blind students who may need additional description provided.
We welcome your feedback as you teach these lessons, Please share your notes with us by emailing us.
General guidance for this unit:
We recommend using our book list instead of the one provided. Specifically, the book “This is How We Play” may be useful for this lesson.
This guidance may be helpful to read prior to this lesson: www.DisabilityEqualityEducation.org/setting-classroom-celebrate-difference.
Be mindful that teaching about the importance of accessibility and inclusion while ignoring areas where your school and classroom environment remain inaccessible and not inclusive can cause confusion for both disabled and non-disabled students.
Example: Teaching that “we include everyone in this classroom”, when not everyone is fully included can dismiss the experiences and silence a student who isn’t.
Lesson 1:
When students are asked to come up with ideas, keep in mind that not all disabled people will want the same thing. For example, just because a student knows someone who is blind and uses large print, not all blind people do. Be sure to leave space to acknowledge that individuals have their own needs and preferences in this discussion.
An important part of this conversation is to do planning, but also to ask.
A sign of true inclusion is when all of your hard work leads someone to show up and ask you to make something accessible for them.
Lesson 2:
Lost in a Desert World may be available online for teachers to read ahead of the lesson.
This is an ambitious lesson for K-1, we recommend expanding to 3rd grade for more quality discussion.
Be cautious not to imply that the only thing you need to succeed is a positive attitude, or that those unable to remain positive are less worthy.
There is a useful site about Roland Johnson for kids here: https://kids.kiddle.co/Roland_Johnson
Lesson 3:
This is an excellent supplement to an introduction about local governments and how advocacy can affect the work of local government. This lesson provides a clear example using case study on the topic of curb cuts as the issue in question. We recommend this as a supplement to already existing lesson(s) and not complete on its own.
Extension opportunity: How could the markers be more accessible? Find an example of a historical marker getting in the way of access. (posted signs blocking the sidewalk or a curb cut, or jetting out of a wall/building)
Extension opportunity: A discussion of what curb cuts are and who they help initially as well as a conversation about the “curb cut effect” while being careful to not imply that accessibility only matters it helps “real people.”
Links to download lessons:
Homepage for Disability and Community Leadership Unit
Lesson 1: Introduction: How Can We Include Everyone?