Embedded Files
Remembering Alice Wong (1974-2025)
One of the first texts recommended for anyone interested in Disability Studies is Wong's first publication, Disability Visibility (here's the website if you'd like to learn more).
A "fierce luminary", a MacArthur genius grant recipient, an advisor under President Barack Obama, a brilliant writer, and a self-described disability oracle, Alice Wong shared her story - and stories from many others - in an ongoing effort to make the overlooked, ignored, and undervalued visible. She saw storytelling as opportunities to inform, connect, and create change - as evidenced by her award-winning anthologies and memoir.
With the Disability Visibility Project, Wong shared stories of joy, activism, vulnerability, humor, and self-determination - reframing disability from something to be pitied or used for inspiration to one of lived experience, culture, and power. Her legacy resonates deeply with educators committed to inclusive storytelling, student self-advocacy, and equitable representation because she taught us that the most impactful and transformational stories come from those who live it.
CASEL Competencies (2000)
Courageous Learning lessons are based on these five focus areas that guide teachers to student empowerment. When students are more self-aware, through modeling and practice, they are better self-advocates and more engaged learners!
Self-awareness: The abilities to understand one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. Evidence of skill development includes identifying emotions, having a growth mindset, and developing a sense of purpose.
Self-management: The abilities to manage one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations. Evidence of skill development includes goal setting and showing courage to take initiative.
Social awareness: The abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. Evidence of skill development includes showing concern for others, expressing gratitude, and taking others’ perspectives.
Relationship skills: The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups. Evidence of skill development includes practicing teamwork, demonstrating leadership, and seeking and offering support.
Responsible decision making: The abilities to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations. Evidence of skill development includes creative problem-solving and personal reflection.
What is Student Empowerment?
What is Student Empowerment?
Most of Courageous Learning is based on "The CASEL 5" with the goal of identifying student strengths in each area and building on them. When students have the opportunity to build and practice these skills, we can go beyond awareness to advocacy and empowerment.
Most of Courageous Learning is based on "The CASEL 5" with the goal of identifying student strengths in each area and building on them. When students have the opportunity to build and practice these skills, we can go beyond awareness to advocacy and empowerment.
“Given the relationship between self-determination and in-school and postschool outcomes, researchers have suggested that self-determination -- and more specifically, student autonomy, self-regulation, psychological empowerment, and self-realization -- potentially mediates the relationship between school-based factors (e.g., student factors, family involvement, and transition practices) and outcomes” (Schrogen, 2017).
“Given the relationship between self-determination and in-school and postschool outcomes, researchers have suggested that self-determination -- and more specifically, student autonomy, self-regulation, psychological empowerment, and self-realization -- potentially mediates the relationship between school-based factors (e.g., student factors, family involvement, and transition practices) and outcomes” (Schrogen, 2017).
This connection between school-based factors and student outcomes is parallel to the connections in social emotional learning and special education. Attendance and graduation rates are connected as much as progress on IEP goals is connected to student confidence and engagement.
In order to build students' self-awareness, we have to bring attention to all of their relative strengths and accomplishments by modeling reflection, spotlighting positive traits and behaviors, and leading with a growth mindset. One of my favorite (and research-based!) ways to do this with younger students is through the use of daily positive affirmations because the practice of self-affirmation lowers levels of self-protection behaviors, reduces defensiveness, reduces students’ physiological stress responses, and improves academic performance (Klein et al., 2011). Overall mental health benefits include greater self-control and more feelings of love, compassion, and connectedness (Nelson et al., 2014).
Taking that even further, research in the function of inner speech includes the role self-talk plays in cognitive tasks. Vicente & Manrique wrote, “...inner speech seems to play a significant role in tasks that allows for verbal self-regulation, such as reasoning, planning, memory, or attribution of mental states” (2011, p. 212). Reasoning, planning, and memory are all related to executive functioning skills, which we also know affects a majority of students with disabilities.
Guided imagery is very similar to the practice of daily positive affirmations. The key difference is that a teacher guides students through a script - you talk while the students visualize - you direct their attention to certain things and guide their interaction(s) within the prompts (Kagan, 2022). Taking what we know about positive affirmations and applying that to guided imagery gives students a safe space to explore what it might feel like to embrace a variety of positive emotions and reflect on the things that bring those feelings up in their daily lives.
Kagan, S. (2022). Emotion-friendly teaching: Accelerating social-emotional learning. Kagan Publishing.
Klein, W. M. P., Harris, P. R., Ferrer, R. A., & Zajac, L. E. (2011). Feelings of vulnerability in response to threatening messages: Effects of self- affirmation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 1237–1242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.05.005
Shogren, K.A., Villarreal, M.G., Lang, K.M., Seo, H. (2017). Mediating role of self-determination constructs in explaining the relationship between school factors and postschool outcomes. Exceptional Children, 83(2), 165–180.
https://doi-org.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/0014402916660089
Vicente, A. & Manrique, M. (2011). Inner speech: Nature and function. Philosophy Compass, March 2011, 209-219.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2010.00369.
Language Matters
A note about AAC use & the language of "share" vs. "write"
The lessons in Courageous Learning about telling, writing, publishing, detailing, etc. are intentionally described as sharing one's story because, regardless of a student's preferred method of communication, every story matters and needs to be shared.
In the book Against Technoableism: Rethinking Who Needs Improvement, Ashley Shew wrote, “The experiences and authentic stories of disabled people give us a lot of insight into our technological futures… Hearing stories from others’ perspectives is fundamental to preparing for uncertain futures - and to have imagination about how the world could be, and could be different. Such stories should galvanize how we consider the future,” (2023, p. 123 & p. 131).
AAC user, Bob Williams (2000) said, "We all need to communicate and connect with each other - not just in one way, but in as many ways as possible. It is a basic human need, a basic human right. And more than this, it is a basic human power."
Creating a Classroom Where Everyone Belongs
Before students are confident in sharing their stories, they need to feel like a safe and valued member of their community. We can help them by building a classroom community where they are represented, where their work is celebrated, where there is always room to grow, where their feelings matter, and where connections can be made.
Classroom Libraries - Representation in children's literature matters. The stories children hear, the illustrations they see, and any interactions they have with literature have the potential to impact their feelings of belonging. Representation of varying skin tones, participation in various religions, different family structures, and disabilities are just a few of the things our kids need to see in order to make connections to literature. As an attendee at the 2025 Council for Exceptional Children's Division of Autism and Developmental Delays Conference, I learned about the Dolly Gray Award. Their website not only lists and organizes, but celebrates books with characters with Autism and other disabilities - a perfect place to find more book suggestions for your classroom library!
Visible Belonging - Teachers everywhere work hard to make their classroom environments inviting, engaging, and exciting for their students. Much effort is put into deciding on themes, bulletin boards, organization, seating, the list goes on. The most "perfect" looking classroom may not be the most inclusive though. The “Reggio Emilia Approach” encourages teachers to think of student work on display as visible listening and a source of motivation for continued learning (Rinaldi, 2004). Students who can see themselves in their classrooms feel like an essential part of the class's success.
Growth Mindset - Explicit instruction of a growth mindset gives more control of learning to our students and, in turn, students often perform at higher cognitive levels because of the shift in their beliefs about themselves (Peterson, 2018). In contrast, students with a fixed-ability mindset are more likely to engage in performance avoidance or avoiding challenging situations that they believe are beyond their self-perceived limits (Farrington et al., 2012). With practice and modeling, students who develop a growth mindset are more likely to be patient while trying to make connections to lessons, giving teachers more time to actually teach!
Recognizing body feels - According to Kelly Mahler (2019), for some of our students, “trying to teach emotions before exploring body signals is like trying to read a book in the dark." She explains, "You need light to grasp the words, just as you need body signals to comprehend emotions.” Kelly created the Interoception Curriculum and hosts online learning for teachers focused on supporting students in making connections between their body and their emotions. When we understand that our students' bodies, minds, and feelings are all connected, we create a more open and loving classroom community.
Art & SEL Connections - Casciano, R., Cherfas, L., & Jobson-Ahmed, L. (2019) took previous research linking arts to academic success and cognitive growth and went a step further by linking arts integration to progress in engagement, self-control, interpersonal skills, and leadership. They discussed findings that include gains in self-efficacy, self-regulation, self-expression, decision-making, problem-solving, and feeling valued. The reasons they identified that may have contributed the most to growth in these areas included fun, multi-sensory experiences with less focus on competition and more on connection. Students who spend time in resource classrooms are often there in smaller groups - with less competition and more focus on connection - a perfect opportunity to embed social-emotional learning and art!
Casciano, R., Cherfas, L., & Jobson-Ahmed, L. (2019). Connecting arts integration to social-emotional learning among special education students. Journal for Learning through the Arts, 15(1). DOI 10.21977/D915139672
Farrington, C. A., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T., Johnson, D. W., Beechum, N. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become learners: The role of noncognitive factors in academic performance. A critical literature review. Chicago, IL: Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Mahler, K. (2019). The interoception curriculum: A step-by-step guide to developing mindful self-regulation. Kelly Mahler.
Peterson, L. (2018). Can explicit teaching of a growth mindset in early elementary increase student ability? Concordia University, St. Paul ProQuest Dissertation & Theses, 10837770.
Rinaldi, C. (2004). In dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, researching and learning. London: Routledge.
A quick look ahead to transition planning
In Kentucky, anyone can look at what’s called Youth One Year Out (YOYO) data analyzed by the team at the Kentucky Post School Outcomes (KYPSO) Center. While the survey is optional for our graduates, with a response rate over 60% in 2023, the results indicate that we can still do better when it comes to transition planning - and we can start that planning in elementary school! Many elementary teachers may not realize that, when it comes time to set a post-secondary goal, students' interests are at the center and given the highest priority. Courageous Learning aims to empower students to share, advocate, and own their ideas so that this process is easier as they get older.
Some of my favorite resources for building comprehensive lesson and unit plans:
Dula, T. S. (2017). STEAM for the school counselor. Mar-Co Products, Inc.
Perez, K. (2022). The social-emotional learning toolbox: Practical strategies to support all students. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Erikson, K. & Koppenhaver, D. (2020). Comprehensive literacy for all. Brookes Publishing.
Kagan, S. (2022). Emotion-friendly teaching: Accelerating social-emotional learning. Kagan Publishing.
Mahler, K. (2019). The interoception curriculum: A step-by-step guide to developing mindful self-regulation. Kelly Mahler.
Ruyle, M., Child, L., Dome, N. (2022). The school wellness wheel. Marzano Resources.
#YourStoryMatters
When I found the literature subgenre of Disability Life Narratives, I found stories I immediately wanted to share with former students, their families, and pretty much everyone I know.
In Rebekah Taussig’s book, Sitting Pretty (2020), she tells the story of a deaf-blind person on a plane who was able to communicate with another passenger who happened to know some sign language. A few photos of the exchange went viral and the focus was on the “helper” as a heroine, someone helping a poor victim of circumstance. Taussig questions why the focus wasn’t on the broken system that will take the guy’s money but refuse to make any accommodations for him or find a way to communicate with him without relying on the chance that someone nearby would be willing and able to help. Did anyone ask him if he was okay with this story, this situation, his photos being shared online? Taussig identifies as a disabled woman and wrote in her memoir about several personal experiences and the ways she learned to cope with difficult social situations by experiencing them. There was no direct instruction in navigating the world of emotions and behaviors when she was younger. This really resonated with me when I read her book for the first time because I wanted to better prepare my students for dealing with these inevitable social interactions, but the curriculums and lessons I had access to simply did not address them.
On the California Teachers’ Association (CTA) webpage, a teacher points out that educators with disabilities often have more empathy and can add value to a district simply by being a role model of inclusion (Baker, 2022). Without the curriculum to teach social skills and without experiencing disability myself, I think it is important to highlight role models and narratives that play a part in supporting students with disabilities to share their own stories and communicate their feelings and needs. Direct instruction in CASEL's five social competencies and exposure to both role models and narratives are necessary for fostering the development of social and coping skills in students. Researchers Altman and team (2022) found that people with intellectual disabilities can write with age-appropriate structure when given the support and accommodations to tell their stories. The empowerment project discussed in their article is a model for encouraging people with disabilities to be included, as results indicated an increase in utterances and improvement in coherent writing. If strategies exist to support their writing and role models were more available to them, I can only imagine the possibilities for students with extensive support needs to become better prepared in social situations.
Count Us In (Kinsley & Levitz, 2007), another memoir written by authors with disabilities, includes a very candid discussion of Jason Kingsley’s and Mitchell Levitz’s careers, relationships, school life, sexual encounters, marriage, finances, opinions on politics, and gaining independence. I am purposefully including this in the post in order to spotlight and promote the experiences of authors with disabilities. For the same reasons, I include Emily Ladau’s book, Demystifying Disability (2021) which highlights her experiences with emotional regulation, relationships, and coping strategies and makes a case for teaching these at the elementary school level for people with similar abilities to Emily’s. It's not only about the future awkward conversations on relationships and navigating emotions, though. People with extensive support needs at any age need appropriate strategies for dealing with feelings and they often need explicit, intentional instruction and practice to cement their learning of those strategies that many of us pick up on naturally by watching others when we’re young.
Altman, C., Avraham, I., Meirovich, S., & Lifshitz, H. (2022). How do students with intellectual disabilities tell stories? An investigation of narrative macrostructure and microstructure. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 35(5), 1119-1130. https://doi-org.northernkentuckyuniversity.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/jar.12997
Baker, T. (2022, February 9). Your voice: The value of educators with disabilities. California Educator. https://www.cta.org/educator/po sts/the-value-of-educators-with-disabilities
Kinsley, J. & Levitz, M. (2007). Count us in: Growing up with Down Syndrome. HarperOne.
Ladau, E. (2021). Demystifying Disability. Ten Speed Press.
Taussig, R. (2020). Sitting Pretty. HarperCollins Publishers.
Language Matters
The language around disability has changed drastically, and continues to evolve with society, laws, teacher education programs, and advocacy movements. For example, in just the time it took me to develop Courageous Learning, I have seen a shift from "Moderate and Severe Disabilities" to "Extensive Support Needs" indicating a less stigmatizing and more holistic approach to working with individuals.
As a special education teacher since 2008, I have seen the change from regular social use of the dreaded and outcasted “r-word” to somewhat less offensive words for people with disabilities like “crippled” and “handicapped” to an environmental focus shift with descriptions of places and groups as “inaccessible” or “ non-inclusive”. As an undergraduate student in 2006-2008 and a graduate student in 2010-2016, person-first language was a hard and fast requirement for speech and writing. Person-first language describes a person with a disability by “literally putting the person first (e.g. child with autism), and separating the person from the disability in order to separate them from the stigmas that come along with their diagnoses” (Andrews et al., 2022, p. 2).
Crippled, handicapped, and other terms for describing people with disabilities like mentally ill, lame, gimp, imbecile, and even special* have been called into question by people with disabilities and their allies over time. Language continues to evolve for many groups of people, diverse groups in particular (Dunn & Andrews, 2015). A more recent movement from person-first to identity-first language is mostly attributed to self-advocating Disabled people who say that society should not attempt to separate someone from his/her/their disability. Identity-first language, sometimes referred to as disability-first, quite literally puts the disability first in phrasing (e.g. autistic person), and “has been used for many years in Deaf culture but has more recently been adopted by a wider swath of the disability community, particularly those who identify as disability rights advocates” (Andrews et al., 2022, p. 3). Among the arguments for not separating a person from the disability, Brown (2011) said “it is impossible to separate a person from autism, just as it is impossible to separate a person from the color of his or her skin”.
*The terminology special needs suggests that there is this other group of people who have needs that are different from most, thus perpetuating ableist ideas about disabled people (Powell, 2019). Powell (2019) also states that describing a person’s needs as “special” is dehumanizing and, in an emergency situation, can cause them to be viewed as some extra thing that has to be dealt with or addressed in addition to others’ more regular needs. Instead, disabled people must be included in emergency preparation and response planning. This takes the argument against “special needs” outside of education and into the bigger societal picture.
Andrews, E. E., Powell, R. M., & Ayers, K. (2022). The evolution of disability language: Choosing terms to describe disability. Disability and Health Journal, 15, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2022.101328
Brown, L. X. Z. (2011, August 4). The significance of semantics: Person-first language: Why it matters. Autistic Hoya. https://www.autistichoya.com/2011/08/significance-of-semantics- person-first.html
Dunn, D. S., & Andrews, E. E. (2015). Person-first and identity-first language: Developing psychologists’ cultural competence using disability language. American Psychologist, 70(3), 255–264. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038636
Powell, R. (2019, January 15). I prefer that you say I’m “disabled”. Dame Magazine.
Research behind Choice Boards and Activity Menus
Part 2 of Courageous Learning is all about using Activity Menus to increase collaborative efforts in resource classrooms and allow team members the flexibility needed in that classroom environment.
Sandven, Goering, and Montgomery (2023) compare class rubrics to restaurant menus and they suggest starting with students' interests and strengths in order to build menu(s), just like chefs build a menu around a restaurant's theme and their customers' preferred cuisine. Menus can be created and used for a simple lesson plan or an entire semester, alone or in conjunction with other learning tasks, and with students in any grade with a variety of ability levels. Maunsell's research (2019) focuses on higher education students who are not yet proficient English speakers or readers. Giving this group of learners a menu of strategies to choose from, specifically addressing prior knowledge, text features, and vocabulary development, they are more likely to feel prepared and stay engaged for reading assignments, even at the post-secondary level. This will, in turn, improve reading fluency and comprehension skills.
When “virtual school” became a norm in 2020, teachers and counselors took to creating and sharing choice boards. Teachers could engage students by letting them pick from a variety of approved videos to watch, sites to visit, activities to complete, etc. by simply displaying them like a BINGO game board. Elementary and special education teachers in particular used choice boards to encompass several curriculum areas and would include highly preferred and non-preferred topics/subjects so that students would choose a few of each. SEL curriculums were probably some of the hardest to address virtually since talking about coping strategies and developing communication skills in a very different (and scary) routine is hard for anyone.
“Choice boards offer a way for teachers to differentiate instruction while providing activities that will also encourage the students and promote learning. When creating choice boards, it is important to include activities that target every type of learning style. Give students the chance to explore each skill/topic in a different way.” (SpecialEdLessonPlans.com, n.d.).
Maunsell, M. (2019). Academic prereading activity menus to support international ESL students in higher education. CATESOL, 31(1), 1-12.
Sandven, M., Goering, C., & Montgomery, A. (2023). Choice, agency, engagement: Choosing intellect through a menu approach. Voices from the Middle, 30(3), 50-53.
SpecialEdLessonPlans.com. (n.d.). Choice Boards. SpecialEdLessonPlans.com. https://specialedlessonplans.com/choice-boards/
Page updated
Report abuse