This lesson is part of the series, Picturing Accessibility: Art, Activism and Physical Disabilities [1], which provides students opportunities to discuss what they know and don’t know about accessibility, ableism, and stereotypes regarding people with disabilities.
When children have spent time learning about an issue, it is important for them to have a chance to express their opinions and work on ways for fighting for what they believe in. This final lesson in the series offers students and teachers choices for continuing to explore issues of accessibility and equity for people with physical disabilities in their own schools and communities. Drawing on what they have learned about challenging stereotypes and the interaction between art and activism, students will brainstorm, plan and take steps toward carrying out plans they can make in their daily lives to work toward social justice for people with physical disabilities.
Additional Resources
Inspiring stories of children’s activism
can be found here [2], and ideas for children’s activism are available here [3],
here [4] or here [5], among other places. Other stories about activism in
relation to ableism in particular can be found here [6], here [7] and here [8].
Objectives
Students will:
Essential Questions
Materials
Glossary
accessibility [ek sess uh BIL uh tee]
(noun)
the
quality of being possible to get into, use, make use
activism [AK-tuh-viz-uhm]
(noun) actively getting involved in meeting the goal of a
particular cause
ableism [EY-buh-liz-uhm]
(noun) discrimination against people with disabilities
Procedures
Standards
Activities address the following Common Core Anchor Standards [9] for Language Arts
and Social Studies.
SL.3.1. Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
SL.3.3. Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail
SL.3.4. Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace
SL.3.6. Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.
Links:
[1] http://www.tolerance.org/activity/picturing-accessibility-art-activism-and-physical-disabiliti
[2] http://www.biography.com
[3] http://www.compassionatekids.com/activism.shtml
[4] http://www.freechild.org/youth_activism_2.htm
[5] http://www.tolerance.org/homeschooling.gomilpitas.com
[6] http://www.tolerance.org/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_rights_movement
[7] http://www.tolerance.org/isc.temple.edu/neighbor/research/dislists.htm
[8] http://www.tolerance.org/homepages.sover.net/~alipsitt/Disability_Activism.html
[9] http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA Standards.pdf