Disability Awareness Month–Aimee Mullins: For October and disAbility Awareness Month introduce your more advanced students to this famous athlete by listening to her speak and then discussing her ideas. At the end of this lesson are other resources to continue talking about and understanding people who are differently-abled.
Warmup: Introduce the idea of being disabled. What is disability? What does it mean to be disabled? What words do you associate with disability? What do you think of when you think of adversity? What does it mean to overcome adversity? (5 Minutes)
Words to explain to the children: mangled, done in, unwholesome, etc.
Introduction: Read this quote by Aimee Mullins and tell them to think about it as they listen and answer questions: “There’s an important difference and distinction between the objective medical fact of my being an amputee and the subjective societal opinion of whether or not I’m disabled. Truthfully, the only real and consistent disability I’ve had to confront is the world ever thinking that I could be described by those definitions.”
Practice (20 minutes): Watch the Ted Talk with Aimee Mullins. The first few minutes are the most important because it’s when words are discussed. Afterwards, the dialogue may become too complication and they’ll understand different questions depending on their skill level.
http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_the_opportunity_of_adversity.html
Application (20 Minutes): Why was Aimee Mullins upset about the words in the Thesaurus?
Do you think the words should be changed? If so, how would you change the words or change their meanings?
How could children be affected by these words?
Aimee Mullins mentioned that the Greeks and Romans thought that the uttering of a word made it true. Do you believe this to be the case?
Why does Aimee Mullins believe that adversity is an opportunity?
What is the difference between the objective medical prognosis of Aimee Mullins being an amputee and the subjective societal stigma of her being disabled?
Aimee Mullins quotes Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of a species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but those who are the most adaptable to change.” Have you or someone you know ever been transformed through conflict. If so, how?
Why is Aimee Mullins not sure if she would want to trade prosthetics for flesh and bone legs?
Extras: A song by differently abled people about being differently abled rather than disabled:
An interesting song because it shows people who are differently-abled in a variety of ways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJql7HYs2gQ
Other interesting talks on disability- Caroline Casey “Looking Past Limits” on being legally blind: http://www.ted.com/talks/caroline_casey_looking_past_limits.html
Teach Like A PCV 