“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
Astrophysicist Dr. Wanda Diaz-Merced: Introduction to Sonification
This is a lesson about Astrophysicist and Computer Scientist Dr. Wanda Diaz-Merced who is a blind scientist who studies the stars by listening to data converted into sound through a process called sonification.
Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data. To put it more simply, Sonification is the process of using sound to convey information or turning data into sound. Sometimes, sonification can convey more detailed information better than visual representation can.
Sighted and blind people use sonification to gather information. And blind people can use sonification to study the stars and the universe.
This lesson can supplement Science units about Sound, Space, or Technology. It can even be adapted to supplement Music lessons about pitch and tone.
Image Description: The image is a digital artwork featuring a black and white photo of a Wanda Diaz Merced, who is wearing a headset with a microphone and appears to be speaking. She is set against a colorful, abstract background that includes a large orange circle, a smaller yellow circle, and a blue brushstroke. There are also various abstract shapes and patterns, including dots and lines, scattered around the image. On the left side, vertically, it says "SONIFICATION OF STARS" and on the right side, horizontally, it reads "WANDA DIAZ MERCED" in yellow text.
Book Read A Loud Video List
On the YouTube page linked you will find a playlist with dozens of read a loud videos of books that we believe will add opportunities to incorporate disability representation in natural, positive ways to your class.
Image description: colorful books on a dark bookcase
Calendar of Events
A calendar of events that recognizes various days (and months) is an easy way to bring the conversation about disability into your classrooms and schools. Including discussion of disabled people throughout the year sends a message to all that disabled students are recognized and valued as a part of the education community.
Image description: calendar page tilted at an angle, reading glasses rest on the bottom corner of the calendar
Coloring Books, Pages and Clip Art with Disability Representation
Including coloring pages and artwork in lessons (some of these allow you to use as clip art) that includes disability representation furthers the goal of regularizing disability by seeing it and offering opportunities to learn and ask questions.
Image Description: small images of the coloring books on a yellow background
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
“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 History through Primary Sources
As our friends from Engaging America state, “Primary sources … can provide entry points and deepen exploration into historical events. Primary sources add immediacy, such as the faces in a photograph, the emotional tone of a drawing or song, or the complex look of a handwritten document. Documents from multiple points of view can illuminate conflicting ideas and events. Varied media, including maps, oral histories, published reports, and graphs offer many options for connection and investigation”.
We share these collections or primary sources as tools to continue introducing disability into the conversation from natural perspectives, using disabled people to tell their own stories whenever possible.
Image Description: Article from Dallas Times Herald, Wednesday, January 14, 1986 in section “Community Close-Up” titled “Police on sidewalk wheelchair ramps changed”
Full image description can be found at: https://adaptmuseum.net/gallery/picture.php?/451/category/16
‘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”
Mechanical Engineering: Wheels and Gears - How One Invention Can Lead to Another featuring Ralph Teetor
This lesson is a STEM lesson followed by a History lesson with an ELA activity. The STEM lesson explores basic concepts of mechanical engineering and physics while showing that the parts, knowledge and skills used to develop old, even ancient machines can be used to create new machines.
The students will learn that machines are made up of smaller parts and that often the same parts are recombined to make sometimes very different machines. These parts operate according to standard scientific principles. The students will explore wheels and gears as they think about the small parts that machines like bicycles and cars have in common. They will think about how the same parts can be combined to invent new machines.
During the next part of the lesson, the students will learn about Ralph Teetor, the blind mechanical engineer, who built on his knowledge of bicycles and used his degrees in Mechanical Engineering to become a successful businessman and automotive engineer. He invented modern cruise control among many other things, often—but not exclusively—leading to improvements in the design of automobiles.
Students will gain a better idea about how inventors use their existing knowledge and education to invent new things. They will learn that sometimes prejudice leads people to be resistant to new ideas, while imagination, work, and education can lead to new opportunities and inventions. When these students are older, when they think about cruise control, they’ll remember that blind people—just like sighted people—can have a variety of talents, skills, and interests.
Image Description: 4 gears in shades of blue on a background of grey gears
Play Map: Designing Inclusive Spaces
Students will map out where they have recess. Students will be asked to reflect on the physical accessibility of their environment (i.e. 3 steps to go from classroom to outside, playground has woodchips and a step up). They will draw out a map for their current environment and then create new map that is a inclusive play area.
Image description: wheelchair accessible playground equipment and people playing on it
Portrait of the Whole Person - Disability Rights Washington
Portrait of the Whole Person is a curriculum for elementary school students designed to teach students how disability rights fit into the broader civil rights movement, to perceive disability as a reflection of societal views of differences, and to treat people with disabilities with respect and dignity. It contains four distinct lesson plans comprised of three in-class instruction lesson plans and one lesson plan governing the research and writing of a biographical sketch and creation of a portrait of a notable person with a disability. It is also complete with a graphic organizer, rubrics, a power point, and a list of references students can use for research.
Image Description: Disability Rights Washington logo with “Portrait of a Whole Person Curriculum Overview” written below and drawings of 3 different people in colored pencil.
Posters with Disability Inclusive Content
Posters with disability representation. Most are free to download, though some can be purchased as well.
Image description: Corkboard wall with many signs of assorted size and colors.
Recognizing Literal and Figurative Language, Idoms & Metaphors
In this 3 part lesson, students will learn how to recognize idioms and explain the difference between literal and figurative language
Students will determine what assumptions are made in certain situations and text using literal and figurative language.
Image description: Graphic showing a cat pulling on a child’s tongue with the text “Cat got your tongue? English Idioms”
The Sneetches Lesson
Students will read/watch the story of The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss. Students will think about prejudice and bullying. Students will learn that differences are not a bad thing and that no one should have to change to please others.
Image description: Cover art from the book “The Sneetches”
The Social Model of Disability
This links to our Social Model of Disability resources page which contains videos and examples of how to introduce and teach the Social Model of Disability.
Thukpa for All - Reading Guide and Lesson Plan that Addresses the Social Model of Disability
Students or teachers read Thukpa for All by Praba Ram and Sheela Preuitt and consider how the story relates to the social model of disability.
Image Description: Cover of Thukpa for All is light yellow/orange divided in 7 panels. 3 on left and 3 on right have characters from the book. The top center panel has the title of the book and a bowl of noodle soup with steam rising from it. The bottom center panel has the names of the authors and illustrator.