Unit+Overview

Overview Students will identify people and places in their own lives, and learn about some places in their town. They will learn about strangers, and what to do if they get lost. An officer will visit the students to talk about police help. Students will learn about appropriate behavior in public, and how to use public restrooms. They will create assistive necklaces with emergency contact information on them, and decorate them. This will culminate in a visit to a local park, and afterwards, a discussion on what they saw and did.

Student Audience This is a Social Studies and Life Skills unit for students in the severe/profound classroom of an elementary school.

Timeframe This unit is designed for 10 days of 45 minute instruction, with an additional day of 3 hour field trip.

Rationale This unit allows children with special needs structured interaction with the world around them. It offers the building blocks to skills they will be using all through their adult lives. This unit gives children the tools to know what is expected of them, as well as what to do when the unexpected happens. Positive interaction with the world helps all children to lead full and rich lives.

Unit Objectives Students will be able to identify the people and timelines in their own lives, and to have positive feelings about assistive devices and use them in a situation of getting lost. They will also be able to ask to use/help with the bathroom in public places, and the types of behaviors that are acceptable. This unit also incorporates fine and gross motor skills, storytelling, memory exercises, turn taking, identifying similarities and differences, and decontextualization.

Unit Standards Within the special education classroom, flexible standards to meet both the life skills and the Colorado requirements mean using a variety of disciplines. Some of the standards addressed in this unit are: Social Studies K-2 standard 4: Civics Reading, Writing and Communicating 1-3 standard 4: Reasearch and Reasoning Comprehensive Health K-2 standard 2: Prevention and Risk Management in Health Geography K-4 standard 2:Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change. Geography K-4 standard 6: Students apply knowledge of people, places, and environments to understand the past and present and to plan for the future.

Variations or Adaptions Since this unit is designed for a special needs classroom, there will be many modifications for students of varying needs. Lessons are designed to fit a variety of deficits along the spectrum of exceptionality. When doing voice overs for things such as podcasts, students who use sign language or PECS books will have the oportunity to use video recorders so they may see themselves communicate just as vocal students hear themselves. Units have been tailored so that students may participate to the levels which are appropriate to their development, on a spectrum from writing the names of their families, down to just writing their own names. Many activities use the addition of Paras to assist as needed. Students will also have the preparation of their teacher to assist with things such as remembering phone numbers and addresses, and many units are designed to be group activities, allowing students the assistance of their peers. Many activities encourage memory skills from prior lessons, as well as verbal assists from educators and peers.