Author and educator, Amanda Alexander discusses how engaging a developmentally disabled community through art based learning helped create a better community. It all started when the author was selected by the University Service-Learning Fellowship to participate in monthly seminars during the 2012-2013 academic year. The seminars consisted of listening to guest speakers, writing reflections, reading information about service-learning, discussing service-learning possibilities, teaching methods, relationships, research from other faculty around the world, and develop lessons plans. Through these trainings she was able to create and implement a Teaching Art Curricula. Main goals of the curricula was to help the people who have disabilities connect
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The eleven variables on the Driscoll model are awareness of community, involvement with community, commitment to service, career choice, self-awareness, personal development, academic achievement, sensitivity to diversity, autonomy/independence, sense of ownership, and communication. Educators were looking to see if students started to show knowledge of community history, change in attitude toward involvement, plan for future service, show change in awareness of strengths, participate in extracurricular activities, participate in class, and show understanding of diversity. Students were measured through a pretest questionnaire, posttest questionnaire, student reflections, and observations. This course consisted of several art making sessions with roughly thirty-six developmentally disabled adults. Students had to work in groups of six occasionally to create or discuss different forms of art. For example, they acted out a scene from the book they were reading in class and they participated in group discussions about poetry and how it connected to them. A major part of the course was the volunteer hours the learners participated in. Each student was required to volunteer ten hours out of the semesters to support stronger relationship building and understanding of the community. Through creating short stories, …show more content…
Working with special needs children is going to be a milestone every teacher encounters at some point in their classroom. In the article it stated how one of the activities were for the students to act out parts of a book or play they had covered in class. In many elementary classrooms, teachers use reader theaters all the time to help their students get creative and comprehend the story. Also, activities like this help students get over fear of being judged and become more comfortable in their environment. This article gave great ideas and examples of how adults with learning disabilities were learning and benefiting from art integration inside of the classroom. Through the curriculum of an art course students became more comfortable and confident in the environment they were learning, working and living in. As a teacher candidate we have to figure out how to connect the children, school and their community. Amanda Alexander did a great job with connecting all three by having her students participate in community service and exposing their art to the community. She organized free events where her students were able to showcase their writings, paintings and drawings they made in class. I believe this was a great opportunity for her children because the outside community was buying
The eleven variables on the Driscoll model are awareness of community, involvement with community, commitment to service, career choice, self-awareness, personal development, academic achievement, sensitivity to diversity, autonomy/independence, sense of ownership, and communication. Educators were looking to see if students started to show knowledge of community history, change in attitude toward involvement, plan for future service, show change in awareness of strengths, participate in extracurricular activities, participate in class, and show understanding of diversity. Students were measured through a pretest questionnaire, posttest questionnaire, student reflections, and observations. This course consisted of several art making sessions with roughly thirty-six developmentally disabled adults. Students had to work in groups of six occasionally to create or discuss different forms of art. For example, they acted out a scene from the book they were reading in class and they participated in group discussions about poetry and how it connected to them. A major part of the course was the volunteer hours the learners participated in. Each student was required to volunteer ten hours out of the semesters to support stronger relationship building and understanding of the community. Through creating short stories, …show more content…
Working with special needs children is going to be a milestone every teacher encounters at some point in their classroom. In the article it stated how one of the activities were for the students to act out parts of a book or play they had covered in class. In many elementary classrooms, teachers use reader theaters all the time to help their students get creative and comprehend the story. Also, activities like this help students get over fear of being judged and become more comfortable in their environment. This article gave great ideas and examples of how adults with learning disabilities were learning and benefiting from art integration inside of the classroom. Through the curriculum of an art course students became more comfortable and confident in the environment they were learning, working and living in. As a teacher candidate we have to figure out how to connect the children, school and their community. Amanda Alexander did a great job with connecting all three by having her students participate in community service and exposing their art to the community. She organized free events where her students were able to showcase their writings, paintings and drawings they made in class. I believe this was a great opportunity for her children because the outside community was buying