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Guest Blog Post: Content Teachers Take Your Seat at the Table

Published on Mon, 05/02/2022

How to empower students by participating in IEP and 504 team meetings

By Laurel Peltier, Collaborative for Educational Services

Emerging America has benefitted at key moments from Laurel's deep experience as a teacher and leader in support of students with disabilities. We are pleased to add her insights on ways that History and Civics teachers can support IEP and 504 teams to the Accessing Inquiry clearinghouse of resources.


 

Guest Blog Post: Defining Civic Equity for Students with Disabilities

Published on Fri, 03/04/2022

Updated 07-15-2022

By Leah Bueso

Civic Engagement Research Group, University of California, Riverside

 

“Disability is a natural part of the human experience and in no way diminishes the right of individuals to participate in or contribute to society.”

- Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 

Distance Check-in

Teachers strive to engage all learners. A 'best practice' is to create multiple ways for students to communicate what they need, and multiple ways to check in to see how students are learning. Simple online survey tools can provide an avenue for students to communicate how they are doing. 

Civil Rights & Disability: 1990 ADA, IDEA, & the Juvenile Justice System Today

Kelley McDermott, History teacher in a Massachusetts Department of Youth Services facility developed this lesson to attract her 8th grade students interest in research and public policy. Historically, students with disabilities are disproportionally caught up in the juvenile justice system. The lesson employs many strategies and tools for accessibility from Emerging America's Accessing Inquiry course. These include a focus vocabulary analysis and Universal Design for Learning plan.

"Bricks and Mortar" Vocabulary Strategy in Social Studies

A large, discipline-specific vocabulary is a distinct challenge for Students with Disabilities and other diverse learners in History and Social Science. Concepts like "citizen" or "rights" are complex, culturally fluid, and difficult to picture. While the vast number of specific or historical technical terms like "longitude," "veto," "cuneiform," and "carpetbagger" require depth of context and background experience. 

Using Visual Primary Sources

Published on Tue, 10/01/2019

Visual Literacy: Making Lessons Accessible and Inclusive

Guest Blog Post by Wendy Harris, High School Social Studies & Teacher of the Blind at Metro Deaf School in St. Paul, Minnesota.  

You want to get your students to work with primary sources, but you have students who struggle with reading English text. Maybe they have a learning disability, English is not their most comfortable language, or any number of other reasons. Sound familiar?

Reforming American Society with Dix and Mann

The instrumental role Dorothea Dix played in reforming prisons and mental institutions, and the actions of Horace Mann in his campaign for free public education are at the center of this lesson. How did improvements in conditions for people in the public charge, whether prisoners or people institutionalized because of disability, come about? How did the the idea of who gets to be educated change? By focusing attention on the strategies used by these social reformers, the lesson engages students in critical thinking about the methods of reformers as well as their goals.

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