Diverse Text Set #1-Special Education
Don't Call Me Special: A First Look at Disability
Summary:
Don't Call Me Special: A First Look at Disability is a book that helps teach children about what a disability is and how it "looks" in everyday life. This book explains that sometimes we cannot see disabilities, and just because people have disabilities, it does not mean they cannot do what everyone does. This book highlights ways that students with disabilities learn differently, the special equipment they may use to be successful, how students with disabilities now go to school just like everyone else, and how students help with those with disabilities around them. This would be a great book to read to children to teach about disabilities.
Critical Review:
Don't Call Me Special is written in a way that does not stereotyping students with disabilities. This book is not one where just one of the characters in the book has a disability; it describes what different disabilities look like. There are no "characters," it is simply teaching about disabilities. All kinds of disabilities are included in this book including students in wheelchairs, students with crutches, polio, reading difficulties, visual impairments, and learning disabilities. The illustrations are bright and colorful and take up most the pages, and they depict what the text is talking about. For example, when the text talks about special equipment, the students in the illustration are using a computer, and one of the students is using a special stylist. The illustrations help tell more of the story. The children of different races are drawn with the same clothing. The details in this book are correct. The author describes many disabilities in a way that is easy enough for younger students to understand. The author does not go into a lot of detail, but enough for students to know that there any many different types of disabilities, both visible and non-visible. The author also touches on how students with disabilities used to attend separate schools with special teachers, but they no longer do, which is accurate information. There a few words that may be unfamiliar to some students and these are listed on the last page with definitions. The words included are assume, equipment and unique. As this book is written for younger students, these are words that they may not know the meaning of. There is interconnections between the people in the book. There are children with and without disabilities all playing and working together; there are also children of different races/cultures included in all aspects of the book. The questions that are included throughout the book encourage the reader to think about things that they and people with disabilities may have difficulties with.
Classroom Connections:
Main Theme- There are people with disabilities all around us, especially in school. You may be able to se them, you may not, but in reality people with disabilities are just like us. They may use different things/strategies to help them be successful, and they take longer to do some things or do them in a different way, but they can do the same things as everybody else.
Activities- There are many activities that could be used with this book. I could incorporate it into an interactive read aloud lesson and involve students in meaningful discussion. This book could also be used if I have a student with a disability, and the other students are struggling to understand it; this would be a good book to help teach about disabilities and what they mean for the student and those around them.
Additional Resources:
- Author: Pat Thomas
- Illustrator: Lesley Harker
- Publisher/Year: Barron's Educational Services, Inc, 2002
- ISBN Number: ISBN-13: 978-0-7641-2118-0
- Number of pages: 29 pages
- Lexile Reading Level: 820 (Grade 3)
- Interest Level: K-2
- Genre: Nonfiction
Summary:
Don't Call Me Special: A First Look at Disability is a book that helps teach children about what a disability is and how it "looks" in everyday life. This book explains that sometimes we cannot see disabilities, and just because people have disabilities, it does not mean they cannot do what everyone does. This book highlights ways that students with disabilities learn differently, the special equipment they may use to be successful, how students with disabilities now go to school just like everyone else, and how students help with those with disabilities around them. This would be a great book to read to children to teach about disabilities.
Critical Review:
Don't Call Me Special is written in a way that does not stereotyping students with disabilities. This book is not one where just one of the characters in the book has a disability; it describes what different disabilities look like. There are no "characters," it is simply teaching about disabilities. All kinds of disabilities are included in this book including students in wheelchairs, students with crutches, polio, reading difficulties, visual impairments, and learning disabilities. The illustrations are bright and colorful and take up most the pages, and they depict what the text is talking about. For example, when the text talks about special equipment, the students in the illustration are using a computer, and one of the students is using a special stylist. The illustrations help tell more of the story. The children of different races are drawn with the same clothing. The details in this book are correct. The author describes many disabilities in a way that is easy enough for younger students to understand. The author does not go into a lot of detail, but enough for students to know that there any many different types of disabilities, both visible and non-visible. The author also touches on how students with disabilities used to attend separate schools with special teachers, but they no longer do, which is accurate information. There a few words that may be unfamiliar to some students and these are listed on the last page with definitions. The words included are assume, equipment and unique. As this book is written for younger students, these are words that they may not know the meaning of. There is interconnections between the people in the book. There are children with and without disabilities all playing and working together; there are also children of different races/cultures included in all aspects of the book. The questions that are included throughout the book encourage the reader to think about things that they and people with disabilities may have difficulties with.
Classroom Connections:
Main Theme- There are people with disabilities all around us, especially in school. You may be able to se them, you may not, but in reality people with disabilities are just like us. They may use different things/strategies to help them be successful, and they take longer to do some things or do them in a different way, but they can do the same things as everybody else.
Activities- There are many activities that could be used with this book. I could incorporate it into an interactive read aloud lesson and involve students in meaningful discussion. This book could also be used if I have a student with a disability, and the other students are struggling to understand it; this would be a good book to help teach about disabilities and what they mean for the student and those around them.
Additional Resources:
- Learning to Give Website (Lesson Plans)
- This is a link to the Learning to Give website and takes you to a section on the website about disability awareness. It has tons of lesson plans ranging from kindergarten to twelfth grade. It also has service projects that you can do with your students, project ideas you can incorporate, and other resources for you to use.
- Link
- Pat Thomas- Official Website
- This is the official website of the author. It include a little about the author, information about books that she has written, link to her blog, and contact information for Pat.
- Link
- YouTube Read Aloud
- This is a link to a read aloud of the book on Youtube.
- Link
The Pirate of Kindergarten
Summary:
The Pirate of Kindergarten is a book about a kindergarten whose eyes play tricks on her. She sees double, and this makes it hard for her to learn. Her vision impairment makes it hard for her to see things the way they actually are in real life and the way others see them. When she doesn’t pass her eye exam at school, her mom takes her to the eye doctor where she gets fitted for frames and gets an eye patch to get her by until her glasses come in. This book is an interesting story about how sometimes we can’t see a disability, but there are people and things to help a person with a disability to be successful.
Critical Review:
The Pirate of Kindergarten won the Schneider Family Book Award in 2010. The author, George Ella Lyon, has won many awards for books she has written; these awards include the Lamont Hall Award and the Golden Kite Award. The illustrations in this book are very well done. The author used bright colors throughout the story and this attracts readers. Sometimes the images are through the eyes of Ginny in which you can see double of the object, a lot like Ginny would see. There are connections with others from other cultures and races throughout the book. Ginny has African American classmates in her class, and she is interacting with them throughout the story. The eye doctor in the story is also African American and he helps Ginny get all fixed up. The story is about Ginny and her vision problem, but it is portrayed tastefully. Ginny is not stereotyped, and she is not pitied in the book. The book simply shows what it would be like to have a vision problem like Ginny’s and how it can lead to disorientation and sometimes others do laugh when you trip over a chair. It shows there are ways that people with disabilities can overcome difficulties.
Classroom Connections:
Main Theme- The main theme of the text is that there are others around us who have disabilities that we may not be able to see. Other people see the world differently than we do sometimes, and it is not always their fault. There are resources out there for students to make them more successful in school, no matter what they might face. With the right help and the support of others, everyone can be successful in their own way.
Activities- There are many activities that can be done with this book. If you have a student that has a vison impairment, this could be a book that you read aloud to the class so the class understands what it may be like for that student, and so they see a little more into what it means to have a vision impairment. This may also be something that you could read aloud to a student that may be struggling with accepting that they have a vision impairment; sometimes kids seeing that others struggle with the same thing can help them be more accepting of themselves. This book could also be used to teach your class about disabilities and that others see the world differently than we do sometimes, and it is completely okay.
Additional Resources:
- Author: George Ella Lyon
- Illustrator: Lynne Avril
- Publisher/Year: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2010
- ISBN Number: 978-4169-5024-0 (Hardcover)
- Number of pages: 40 pages
- Lexile Reading Level: 580 (Grade 2)
- Interest Level: 4-8 years
- Genre: Fiction
Summary:
The Pirate of Kindergarten is a book about a kindergarten whose eyes play tricks on her. She sees double, and this makes it hard for her to learn. Her vision impairment makes it hard for her to see things the way they actually are in real life and the way others see them. When she doesn’t pass her eye exam at school, her mom takes her to the eye doctor where she gets fitted for frames and gets an eye patch to get her by until her glasses come in. This book is an interesting story about how sometimes we can’t see a disability, but there are people and things to help a person with a disability to be successful.
Critical Review:
The Pirate of Kindergarten won the Schneider Family Book Award in 2010. The author, George Ella Lyon, has won many awards for books she has written; these awards include the Lamont Hall Award and the Golden Kite Award. The illustrations in this book are very well done. The author used bright colors throughout the story and this attracts readers. Sometimes the images are through the eyes of Ginny in which you can see double of the object, a lot like Ginny would see. There are connections with others from other cultures and races throughout the book. Ginny has African American classmates in her class, and she is interacting with them throughout the story. The eye doctor in the story is also African American and he helps Ginny get all fixed up. The story is about Ginny and her vision problem, but it is portrayed tastefully. Ginny is not stereotyped, and she is not pitied in the book. The book simply shows what it would be like to have a vision problem like Ginny’s and how it can lead to disorientation and sometimes others do laugh when you trip over a chair. It shows there are ways that people with disabilities can overcome difficulties.
Classroom Connections:
Main Theme- The main theme of the text is that there are others around us who have disabilities that we may not be able to see. Other people see the world differently than we do sometimes, and it is not always their fault. There are resources out there for students to make them more successful in school, no matter what they might face. With the right help and the support of others, everyone can be successful in their own way.
Activities- There are many activities that can be done with this book. If you have a student that has a vison impairment, this could be a book that you read aloud to the class so the class understands what it may be like for that student, and so they see a little more into what it means to have a vision impairment. This may also be something that you could read aloud to a student that may be struggling with accepting that they have a vision impairment; sometimes kids seeing that others struggle with the same thing can help them be more accepting of themselves. This book could also be used to teach your class about disabilities and that others see the world differently than we do sometimes, and it is completely okay.
Additional Resources:
- Extension Activities
- This PDF provides a few fun extension activities that teachers could use after reading the book to their class. .
- Link
- George Ella Lyon- Official Website
- This is the official website of the author. It includes information about the author, information about the books she has written, appearances, resources for teachers and librarians, and workshop for writers.
- Link
- Lynne Avril Information
- This link is to a blog with an interview with Lynne Avril that talks about books that she has written, things she is interested in, how she got started as an illustrator, how she get stated on her illustrations, as well as other interesting things.
- Link
Back to Front and Upside Down
Summary:
In Back to Front and Upside Down the school’s principal, Mr. Slipper, is having a birthday. He excitedly comes into Stan’s classroom and tells the class it is his birthday. The teacher, Miss Catnip, tells the students that they are going to make a birthday card for Mr. Slippers. Stan is excited to make a birthday card for Mr. Slipper until Miss Catnip explains that there will be writing involved. The teacher writes “happy birthday” on the board, and Stan realizes that when he writes his letters are back to front and upside down. He is too afraid to ask Miss Catnip for help because he thinks others will laugh at him. When Stan is visibly upset at recess, his friend asks him what is wrong, and Stan tells him and shows him his letters that are back to front and upside down. His friend reassures him that nobody will laugh at him and that he should ask for help. The teacher helps Stan and his friend, Mimi, says that she needs help too. The teacher helps them and with a lot of practice, they both have cards they can give to Mr. Slippers for his birthday.
Critical Review:
Back to Front and Upside Down is the winner of the Schneider Family Book Award and the winner of the Paterson Prize for continued excellence in children’s literature. Author/illustrator, Claire Alexander, has also won other awards for her other books including the US Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. The illustrations in this book are really well done. The illustrations are very bright and inviting to readers. The characters in the story are animals, all kinds of animals including ducks, pigs, dogs, cats, and bunnies. They show what the author is talking about in the text. They don’t, however, show what Stan’s writing/letters look like, and this would be beneficial for students to see what it looks like and why Stan needs help. There are no letters that you can see on the papers that the students are writing on in the illustrations. Stan is not tokenized in this book. He is the main character and has trouble, but nobody knows about until he shows his friend. The others in the story do not even know he is struggling with it. Then after his friend convinced him to ask for help because “we all have to ask for help sometimes,” he finally asked for Miss Catnip’s help. When he finally asks for help, he realizes that there are other students that need help also, and the teacher helps them too. The characters in this story are animals. This could be to avoid bias of actually children, gender and race. As animals, they don’t have a race. You can’t say “oh, Stan is an African American or Asian student,” because you cannot tell from the story. Animal really don’t have a gender associated with them unless they are named, and you call tell from the name. However, the author did chose to name the character Stan, which is a male’s name. Males are more likely to have dyslexia, so this could be a stereotypical character as Stan is a male with dyslexia. This is made up by another character, being a girl, also asked for help and then Stan was not the only one.
Classroom Connections:
Main Theme- With practice and persistence, we can do a lot of things. This book is about dyslexia and the struggles that go along with that. Stan writes letters backwards and upside down, but with practice and guidance from his teacher, Stan is getting better at writing his letters the correct way.
Activities- This book could be used to teach confidence and self-esteem. You could also use this story to teach about persistence and the important of practice. When your students are struggling and thinking they can’t do something, this would be a good book to read aloud to the class. This book could also be used to teach about dyslexia and to help students understand what it is and how it affects learning.
Additional Resources:
- Author: Claire Alexander
- Illustrator: Claire Alexander
- Publisher/Year: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2012
- ISBN Number: 978-0-8028-5414-8
- Number of pages: 28 pages
- Lexile Reading Level: 800 (Grade 3)
- ATOS Reading Level: 2.6
- Interest Level: 4-7 years
- Genre: Fiction
Summary:
In Back to Front and Upside Down the school’s principal, Mr. Slipper, is having a birthday. He excitedly comes into Stan’s classroom and tells the class it is his birthday. The teacher, Miss Catnip, tells the students that they are going to make a birthday card for Mr. Slippers. Stan is excited to make a birthday card for Mr. Slipper until Miss Catnip explains that there will be writing involved. The teacher writes “happy birthday” on the board, and Stan realizes that when he writes his letters are back to front and upside down. He is too afraid to ask Miss Catnip for help because he thinks others will laugh at him. When Stan is visibly upset at recess, his friend asks him what is wrong, and Stan tells him and shows him his letters that are back to front and upside down. His friend reassures him that nobody will laugh at him and that he should ask for help. The teacher helps Stan and his friend, Mimi, says that she needs help too. The teacher helps them and with a lot of practice, they both have cards they can give to Mr. Slippers for his birthday.
Critical Review:
Back to Front and Upside Down is the winner of the Schneider Family Book Award and the winner of the Paterson Prize for continued excellence in children’s literature. Author/illustrator, Claire Alexander, has also won other awards for her other books including the US Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. The illustrations in this book are really well done. The illustrations are very bright and inviting to readers. The characters in the story are animals, all kinds of animals including ducks, pigs, dogs, cats, and bunnies. They show what the author is talking about in the text. They don’t, however, show what Stan’s writing/letters look like, and this would be beneficial for students to see what it looks like and why Stan needs help. There are no letters that you can see on the papers that the students are writing on in the illustrations. Stan is not tokenized in this book. He is the main character and has trouble, but nobody knows about until he shows his friend. The others in the story do not even know he is struggling with it. Then after his friend convinced him to ask for help because “we all have to ask for help sometimes,” he finally asked for Miss Catnip’s help. When he finally asks for help, he realizes that there are other students that need help also, and the teacher helps them too. The characters in this story are animals. This could be to avoid bias of actually children, gender and race. As animals, they don’t have a race. You can’t say “oh, Stan is an African American or Asian student,” because you cannot tell from the story. Animal really don’t have a gender associated with them unless they are named, and you call tell from the name. However, the author did chose to name the character Stan, which is a male’s name. Males are more likely to have dyslexia, so this could be a stereotypical character as Stan is a male with dyslexia. This is made up by another character, being a girl, also asked for help and then Stan was not the only one.
Classroom Connections:
Main Theme- With practice and persistence, we can do a lot of things. This book is about dyslexia and the struggles that go along with that. Stan writes letters backwards and upside down, but with practice and guidance from his teacher, Stan is getting better at writing his letters the correct way.
Activities- This book could be used to teach confidence and self-esteem. You could also use this story to teach about persistence and the important of practice. When your students are struggling and thinking they can’t do something, this would be a good book to read aloud to the class. This book could also be used to teach about dyslexia and to help students understand what it is and how it affects learning.
Additional Resources:
- Claire Alexander- Official Website
- This is the official website of Claire Alexander, the author and illustrator of this book. It includes information about Claire, contact information, her blog, other books she has written, and courses that she teaches.
- Link
- YouTube Read Aloud
- This is a read aloud of the story on YouTube.
- Link
- Book Trailer
- This a trailer for the book on YouTube that can be found on the publishers YouTube channel. It shows the main theme of the story and is short enough to play for students as a teaser or talking point. This could also be used if you did not have time to read the whole story.
- Link