1/20/2021
Topic:
Students With Disabilities
Alan Pearson
|
I remember, will never forget actually, this one particular student with Autism that attended my 7th grade Visual Art class. In the state in which I was teaching at the time; there was funding for 1 on 1 assistance for certain students in need. Every week twice a week an Aide would accompany my student into the room and assist him with his work. The student could not communicate verbally and the Aide was instrumental because she was with him full time and learned his mannerisms and non verbal cues. Much of my interaction with him was via his Aide as an Interpreter.
Fortunately he really seemed to enjoy and love drawing. When he came to class he would always present me with his latest drawing of a "floor fan" for which he seemed to have a fascination. Through these very detailed, observational renderings I could see that his hand eye coordination was quite good, but often during class the Aide would need to "guide" his hand to varying degrees to draw things that were related to the assignments being presented (mainstream mostly). The Aide and I often consulted before class about what we could do to modify the presentations and what a reasonable expectation might be. Results were varied and I began to wonder what, if anything was getting through to my student.
Eventually we came to one of my favorite lessons; a unit on Self-Portraiture. I liked it because it involved a student creating a raw, untutored "Before" self-portrait before beginning the Unit and then creating an "After" self-portrait at the end of the Unit. The differences when compared were impressive, especially to the students, and I truly enjoyed sharing in their realization. But what about my Autistic student? The Unit was too long to simply "give him something else to do"...!
After consulting with his Aide I decided I would give him the same assignments as the other students and monitor his progress one drawing at a time. He started with the "Before" drawing and, with a little guidance from the Aide completed the raw, extremely disproportionate, very cartoon-like self-portrait. Well, I thought, at least it isn't a floor fan! As the Unit progressed so did my student. The Aide helped him through drawing Eyes then Noses then Lips... Finally it was time to do the "After" portrait. The student was given paper pencil and mirror, the Aide reached for his hand...and...I stopped her. Not on this one, I told her; let him try it on his own.
Over the years I have collected copies of some of the most impressive Before and After pictures from my students from this Unit. This Autistic student's Before and After are in that folder. No, his After wasn't some incredible masterpiece...but when I saw it I couldn't believe how much better it was! The eyes were HUMAN not cartoon, eye brows, a nose with normal nostrils lips both upper and lower not just a line for a smile...it was an actual self-portrait! It still chokes me up a little many years later, not because he drew a better picture, but because even through all of the formidable obstacles in between us I knew i was still reaching him in there. |
2/8/2021
Topic:
Tools and Strategies
Alan Pearson
|
I often have quite a few students with learning disabilities in my classroom. One of the most prevalent is ADD or ADHD. I have an ELMO type device installed in the ceiling of my room which allow me share both my computer screen (internet) and live drawing demonstrations performed at my desk. Both types of presentation are projected on a very large screen at the front of the room which I have found to be very effective at getting and maintaining the attention of my more easily distracted students. |