My Grandsons teacher e-mailed this to my daughter last night. I think it is a great idea...we already do some of it with my Grandson. I think this will help the children understand their disability better. Maybe you might want to introduce this to your Special Ed teacher.
HI- I have recently begun a self-awareness unit with your kids. So far, we have looked at learning styles (i.e. more right or left brained, primarily kinesthetic,auditory ,or visual) and academic and personal strengths and weaknesses. Today we looked at the components of an I. E.P. as a part of this. I walked the kids through their IEP's , giving a brief explanation of each page. We discussed several related topics- that Special Ed. has changed a great deal from what it was 20 years ago and it doesn't mean you are 'dumb', that I have many students with I.Q.'s higher than their teachers but they can't show their knowledge due to something getting in their way, that you can be really really a good thinker but not be able to express your thoughts on paper etc. that Special ed is a huge umbrella that provides support for a whole spectrum of student needs, based on something intrinsic getting in the way of my students being able to show their knowledge. etc.
The kids had some great questions and although I kept it general, I told them if they had specific questions i would be happy to address those.
Because kids sometimes misinterpret what they hear, it may be they will come away with some misconceptions. Hopefully they will verbalize these to you, and then you to me if so!
By the way, from here, we will look up famous people with various disabilities on the Internet and together compile a list, we will go to the library for a book talk on books that give info on various disabilities and also books about kids overcoming challenges in general, the kids will do research on strategies to compensate for weaknesses and in the course we will put together a list of informative websites for info, then culminate in the kids putting together a visual presentation on the computer and using smart-boards (yikes! I'm being dragged into the 21st century!) about themselves, strengths weaknesses, goals, strategies.