Teacher Letter
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Dear Teachers,
My name is Meaghan Whedon and I am studying Elementary Education and Special Education at Ball State University. In my culturally diverse English class, we had to choose a book topic that related to subjects such as LGBTQ, race, religion, or disabilities. Since I have a passion for special education, I felt the need to research and create activities based off a book that pertains to a disability. In the children’s book, The Black Book of Colors, Thomas, a boy who is blind, describes what color is like to him through sound, touch, smells, and tastes. While reading the story, I realized this would be a wonderful learning opportunity to broaden my knowledge on disabilities. I focused on blindness and created different activities so that students could grasp the idea of what it is like to be blind or visually impaired. However, it is also important to consider that individuals who are blind can still do everything that people who are not visually impaired can do, just with different modifications. I made sure to incorporate this within my activities.
The theme statement I chose for The Black Book of Colors was "color is not always what you see". Before reading this story, if somebody had asked me to describe the color green, I would have stared back at them blankly. After reading this story, I understand how to explain color without using “sight” and can explain color using the other four senses instead. Color does not have to be “seen” to be understood. For example, Thomas, the boy who is blind and narrates the story, describes green as, “He says that green tastes like lemon ice cream and smells like grass that is just been cut,” (Cottin, Faría, 2008). In addition, there is the texture of grass that has just been cut for students to touch. This is the perfect way to describe green and students can “see it” without their sight. By the end of the activities, I want students to understand that just because one sense, in this case sight, is impaired, does not mean all senses are impaired.
Before creating the different activities, I researched information about blindness. One statistic, according to Junior Blind of America, was that 47,000 people become blind each year, which results to about one person every eleven minutes. With these numbers, the chances of having a student who is visually impaired or blind in the classroom is high. Before informing the students, I wanted to have basic knowledge and facts so that I could answer any questions students had during the activities and discussions. Making students aware of impairments and blindness in the eye allows them to be more understanding, sensitive, and informed about the subject. I came across multiple websites that were kid-friendly and informative for students, such as http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/sight/visual_impaired.html
In addition, I also interviewed Carlos, a faculty member at Ball State who went blind in his elementary years. Carlos works in the technology department and discussed how technology has drastically made his life easier just in the past decade. It amazed me to see how he could maneuver the different machines and adjust them so that they read the directions out loud to him. This emphasized how I want to show students that just because you have an impairment does not mean you are limited in what you can do. After researching visual impairments and blindness, I tried to find a simulation that would be able to show the different ways people can see. I wanted students to visualize darkness, blurriness, or even different colors in their site. The simulation I chose showed an original image and then the same image with the vision disorder for students to compare. This would let the students really see the difference in the images. Finally, the last aspect of the project I researched was different craft and hands-on activities. Surprisingly, there was controversy with the activities that had children being blindfolded. Carol Castellano, who has wrote many informational books about blindness and vision disorders, stated that these activities made people who actually (take out) do have vision disorders seem incapable of doing everyday tasks compared to sighted people.
"Sighted students will probably have trouble performing tasks under blindfold that they are accustomed to doing with their eyesight. Is the goal to show them how hard it is to be blind? Sighted students will probably be nervous giving over their safety to a guide who is walking them around. Is the goal to show that blind people are helpless and dependent and must put their trust in good-hearted sighted people in order to get anywhere or to keep from falling down a flight of stairs?" (Castellano, 2006).
Due to the controversy, I adapted the activities so they could either be done in the dark with the students’ eyes closed or blindfolded depending on what you thought was best for your class. After the activities were complete, I had students answer questions that showed them that even with a vision impairment, individuals who are blind can still do anything a sighted person can do.
Each of my tasks are designed to teach the students a different aspect (take out) about having a visual impairment. Using Bloom's Taxonomy, (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating) I created tasks that would fully stimulate the students’ learning. The "Remembering" task correlated to my first activity of asking students questions, watching the book trailer, and finally reading the book. I wanted to get the wheels turning and find out the information students already knew about vision impairments. The "Understanding" task correlated with the vision loss simulation so students could begin to inform themselves and see the differences in the impairments. The hands-on and craft activities came next. The "Applying" task went hand-in-hand with “Tic-Tac-Toe in the Dark” because students were able to model what it is like to use other senses to accomplish activities. The "Analyzing" task worked well with the “What's in the Bag?” activity because students were once again able to experiment by using their other senses, such as touch and sound, to figure out what items were in the bad. The last two activities, “Describing Colors” and “Creating Your Own Book”, worked well with the Bloom's levels of "Evaluating" and "Creating". After the students were able to see examples from The Black Book of Colors on how(delete) to describe colors, the teacher could evaluate them on how they could describe their own colors. By creating their own book and creating a textured illustration, this expanded the student's creativity level. Finally, after each of the activities, I had the students “Think and Ink” so they could reflect on what they did and the teachers could see how much information they obtained. In conclusion, The Black Book of Colors is an amazing teaching opportunity and I hope you are able to use it in your classroom.
Thank you for your time,
Meaghan Whedon
My name is Meaghan Whedon and I am studying Elementary Education and Special Education at Ball State University. In my culturally diverse English class, we had to choose a book topic that related to subjects such as LGBTQ, race, religion, or disabilities. Since I have a passion for special education, I felt the need to research and create activities based off a book that pertains to a disability. In the children’s book, The Black Book of Colors, Thomas, a boy who is blind, describes what color is like to him through sound, touch, smells, and tastes. While reading the story, I realized this would be a wonderful learning opportunity to broaden my knowledge on disabilities. I focused on blindness and created different activities so that students could grasp the idea of what it is like to be blind or visually impaired. However, it is also important to consider that individuals who are blind can still do everything that people who are not visually impaired can do, just with different modifications. I made sure to incorporate this within my activities.
The theme statement I chose for The Black Book of Colors was "color is not always what you see". Before reading this story, if somebody had asked me to describe the color green, I would have stared back at them blankly. After reading this story, I understand how to explain color without using “sight” and can explain color using the other four senses instead. Color does not have to be “seen” to be understood. For example, Thomas, the boy who is blind and narrates the story, describes green as, “He says that green tastes like lemon ice cream and smells like grass that is just been cut,” (Cottin, Faría, 2008). In addition, there is the texture of grass that has just been cut for students to touch. This is the perfect way to describe green and students can “see it” without their sight. By the end of the activities, I want students to understand that just because one sense, in this case sight, is impaired, does not mean all senses are impaired.
Before creating the different activities, I researched information about blindness. One statistic, according to Junior Blind of America, was that 47,000 people become blind each year, which results to about one person every eleven minutes. With these numbers, the chances of having a student who is visually impaired or blind in the classroom is high. Before informing the students, I wanted to have basic knowledge and facts so that I could answer any questions students had during the activities and discussions. Making students aware of impairments and blindness in the eye allows them to be more understanding, sensitive, and informed about the subject. I came across multiple websites that were kid-friendly and informative for students, such as http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/sight/visual_impaired.html
In addition, I also interviewed Carlos, a faculty member at Ball State who went blind in his elementary years. Carlos works in the technology department and discussed how technology has drastically made his life easier just in the past decade. It amazed me to see how he could maneuver the different machines and adjust them so that they read the directions out loud to him. This emphasized how I want to show students that just because you have an impairment does not mean you are limited in what you can do. After researching visual impairments and blindness, I tried to find a simulation that would be able to show the different ways people can see. I wanted students to visualize darkness, blurriness, or even different colors in their site. The simulation I chose showed an original image and then the same image with the vision disorder for students to compare. This would let the students really see the difference in the images. Finally, the last aspect of the project I researched was different craft and hands-on activities. Surprisingly, there was controversy with the activities that had children being blindfolded. Carol Castellano, who has wrote many informational books about blindness and vision disorders, stated that these activities made people who actually (take out) do have vision disorders seem incapable of doing everyday tasks compared to sighted people.
"Sighted students will probably have trouble performing tasks under blindfold that they are accustomed to doing with their eyesight. Is the goal to show them how hard it is to be blind? Sighted students will probably be nervous giving over their safety to a guide who is walking them around. Is the goal to show that blind people are helpless and dependent and must put their trust in good-hearted sighted people in order to get anywhere or to keep from falling down a flight of stairs?" (Castellano, 2006).
Due to the controversy, I adapted the activities so they could either be done in the dark with the students’ eyes closed or blindfolded depending on what you thought was best for your class. After the activities were complete, I had students answer questions that showed them that even with a vision impairment, individuals who are blind can still do anything a sighted person can do.
Each of my tasks are designed to teach the students a different aspect (take out) about having a visual impairment. Using Bloom's Taxonomy, (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating) I created tasks that would fully stimulate the students’ learning. The "Remembering" task correlated to my first activity of asking students questions, watching the book trailer, and finally reading the book. I wanted to get the wheels turning and find out the information students already knew about vision impairments. The "Understanding" task correlated with the vision loss simulation so students could begin to inform themselves and see the differences in the impairments. The hands-on and craft activities came next. The "Applying" task went hand-in-hand with “Tic-Tac-Toe in the Dark” because students were able to model what it is like to use other senses to accomplish activities. The "Analyzing" task worked well with the “What's in the Bag?” activity because students were once again able to experiment by using their other senses, such as touch and sound, to figure out what items were in the bad. The last two activities, “Describing Colors” and “Creating Your Own Book”, worked well with the Bloom's levels of "Evaluating" and "Creating". After the students were able to see examples from The Black Book of Colors on how(delete) to describe colors, the teacher could evaluate them on how they could describe their own colors. By creating their own book and creating a textured illustration, this expanded the student's creativity level. Finally, after each of the activities, I had the students “Think and Ink” so they could reflect on what they did and the teachers could see how much information they obtained. In conclusion, The Black Book of Colors is an amazing teaching opportunity and I hope you are able to use it in your classroom.
Thank you for your time,
Meaghan Whedon