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Guest Blog Post: Defining Civic Equity for Students with Disabilities

Published on Fri, 03/04/2022

Two students, a girl and a boy, each work at a table.

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 

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Wendy Harris lesson on "How Activists Create Change" for Black History Month

Published on Wed, 02/02/2022

Black Panther Newspaper front page, with banner headline "HANDICAPPED WIN DEMANDS - END H.E.W. OCCUPATION", photos of black demonstrators in wheelchair, with sign,

Wendy Harris teaches at Metro Deaf School in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has been a classroom teacher for Deaf students of all ages since 2003 and currently splits her teaching duties between high school social studies and teaching braille and other skills to the school’s DeafBlind students ages 2-21.

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English Learner Collaborations project to Teach the Language of Social Studies

Published on Mon, 10/04/2021

Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies logo - open book with teachers apple atop stylized like a world globe 
In a 10th grade classroom, a newly arrived student from Sudan, a returning student from a migrant worker family, and a student whose family came from Cambodia in the 1970s are among the 25 students in a US History class. These three students have been silent in all previous class discussions.
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Closing the Gap in Civics for Students with Disabilities in Classrooms from K-12

Published on Wed, 09/08/2021

Smiling young student in wheelchair with teen by school bus.

Mind the Gap

Students gain knowledge and skills in civics and history when schools provide effective instruction and when students have opportunities to express their voice and to engage in activities like service-learning. Yet American education is falling far short–in elementary grades in particular–and especially for students with disabilities. 

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Disability, Protest, and the 504

“I Can’t Even Get To The Back of the Bus” – Disability, 504 and the Power of Protest

This lesson investigates why and how people take action to make a difference. Building from an inquiry-based RAN chart, the lesson explores the context of the 1977 protests calling on the Federal Government to actually implement 504 access legislation. Featuring a variety of primary sources, including testimony of activist Ed Roberts.   

What is our value? A look at undervalued people

What is our value? The principle that people are paid for their work does not always work as it should; many people who have been historically undervalued have contributed to American society, including many people of color, people with a disability, women, and children. Students view images and text of people whose lives may not have been adequately valued by their contemporaries. Students examine those documents, do further research, and come to their own conclusions about how those individuals should have been and should be valued, and possibly assisted.

Single Point Rubric

Rubrics are frequently used to communicate expectations and standards to students. Making expectations as clear, simple, and easily understood as possible is a practice of value to all learners.

A streamlined rubric form, using one column to specify the target standard, offers advantages for accessibility–especially fewer words to absorb–over more typical multi-column rubrics. This Single-Point Mastery Rubric is an example. 

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