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Teacher’s toolbox

The following activities correspond with the information presented in this module. Designed with groups in mind, these tools are a great way for your students to discover important information about themselves, which may influence their college decisions.

My learning style

  1. Discuss learning styles in your classroom. Before the discussion, have the students take a learning style survey to determine their learning style. Then, create a chart with the following headings:
    Visual Auditory Tactile
         
  2. Have students talk about the ways that help them study and remember information, and then put the ideas in the corresponding column. Add any additional ideas for ways to study under the headings.

Knowing my strengths

Discuss strengths with the class. Have the students brainstorm a list of strengths and write those on the board. Afterward, have the students go up to other students in the class and tell them one strength that their classmate has. Have the students refer to the list of strengths on the board if they are having difficulty. Also, circulate around the room and assist students. Have the students keep a list of the strengths and place them in his or her portfolio.

Accepting my disability

  1. Have the students work individually, in pairs or in groups. Have them research a famous or successful person with a disability. Find out what this famous person’s disability is, what his or her strengths and challenges are, how he or she became successful and some ways he or she compensates or uses other strengths to accomplish tasks. After the students finish researching, have them present their findings to the class. Encourage students to include visuals such as collages, videos or PowerPoint presentations with pictures.
  2. Invite a successful person with a disability (preferably a college student) to talk about his or her disability, how it affects his or her life and the ways he or she compensates or uses other strengths to get through school or work. Before the person comes to class, brainstorm a list of questions with the students to ask the presenter.
  3. Put the table of rethinking disability on the board. Have a discussion with your students about this chart and come up with some more labels and ways to think about those labels more positively.

My advocacy plan

Devise several scenarios or situations when students need to speak up to get what they want. For example, your friends want to go to the school football game tonight but it’s the opening night of a new movie that you really want to see. Have students write down responses using passive, assertive and aggressive communication strategies. Then role-play scenarios in front of the class.