Human Rights & People with Disabilities
- Kate Strein
- Apr 19, 2022
- 2 min read
For the past six years, we've ended the year by reading Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men." The students always enjoyed this novel; but I was ready to try something new. The ending of this novel didn't sit well with me, and sent a message to students that people with disabilities should be killed if they can't control themselves. I don't agree with this, and I didn't want to risk having that message inadvertently sent to students. So, I chose a different novel with a character with a disability: Sharon M. Draper's "Out of my Mind." This novel gives students the perspective of a young lady with Cerebral Palsy, and shows how she's empowered by her support system and advocates. It send a much more positive message to students, and invites them to consider their perspective of people with disabilities. My hope is that we will all see the person first, then recognize their abilities and strengths, rather focus on the disabilities and differences.
The unit started with some background information on Cerebral Palsy. After the lesson, students took notes on their new learning in the doodle notes (a visual and creative way to have students take notes) I created (see attached). Next, We reviewed the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, along with a discussion of which rights we thought people with disabilities might be denied. In order to add in the global component, we took a day to explore how people with disabilities are treated around the world. We began by reading this article and summarized the key details in doodle notes (see attached). For the fourth country, student groups had to research another country and find 3 facts on how they treat their citizens with disabilities. The final lesson/activity before reading was the mini-lesson and notes on point of view. The novel is told in first person point of view, from Melody, the character with Cerebral Palsy. Student recorded their new learning into the point of view doodle notes (see attached).
Finally, we began reading the novel "Out of My Mind," beginning each day with a vocabulary mini-lesson or review, and ending with comprehension questions. I used most of the pages from this novel study packet in TPT.
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