Reading Lesson Plan

Understanding the Experience of the handicapped through My Left Foot

Teacher: Sharlene S. Goodliffe
Date: October 7, 1998
Day: Wednesday
Time: 8:15 - 9:20 a.m.
Class: Reading Level 4
Number of Students: 12
Age: 18-26
Proficiency level: Intermediate
Ethnicity: Mostly Asian and Hispanic
*Note: This is an expanded version of a 25-minute lesson plan that was actually carried out in the ELC on October 7. In this lesson plan, I take the whole class period, 65 minutes, and add more activities/terminal objectives. As this lesson plan deals with material that is relevant during all parts of the book (and the students will be reading this book for at least another week), the timing of this lesson plan is flexible. If discussion and activities are going well, I will not keep to the time constraints I have listed and continue with my plan on the next day.

Background information:

Expected Atmosphere: The class is on the second floor of the Amanda Knight Building. The classroom is small. There isn't a lot of room to spare (close quarters). Because things are so crowded, some activities involving a lot of movement and requiring space would be difficult. The chairs are usually set up in an angular U-shape ( ) opening toward the teacher's desk. The students seem to sit beside those who speak the same language.

Objective:

Materials:

1. My Left Foot by Christy Brown.
2. Handout
3. Information about Cerebral Palsy from the Web
4. Mama Zooms by Jane Cowen-Fletcher (oversized book)
5. 2 Scarves (to tie students' hands behind their backs)
6. Chalk and eraser (There is a chalkboard in the room)

Warm-up/Review/Discussion

Terminal objectives: Students should realize and discuss the depth of physical and emotional experiences that Christy has in chapters three and four. Students should understand the Chapters' titles and their significance. The teacher should be able to evaluate students' reading comprehension.)
*Note: The following discussion questions/comments/passages are optional. They are designed to elicit participation and discussion or provide comprehensible input where needed. Initial broad questions are written from the left margin. Additional questions or comments are indented, showing that they are optional follow-up/back-up discussion additions. It is not pertinent that all of these points be made.

Chapter 3 ÐDiscussion questions:

• What is the title of chapter three?
• In chapter three, "Home," what more do we learn about Christy's home and family?
• Is Christy's family kind to him? Friends?
  Relevant material from the book:
  
  "They had grown up with me, and in a way they found it easier to associate with me than would other boys who had never seen or been with me before. Indeed, many of them regarded my affliction as some queer sort of symbol of superiority, almost of godliness, so that they treated me with deference, respect, in a strange childish way."(18-19)
  
• What did strangers do when they saw Christy?
  Relevant material from the book:
  "I noticed how the other kids would stare at me and how Jim would tell them to scram, but I didn't think about it because I didn't see why I shouldn't be perched on my brother's back . . . It was all great fun, going on these little outings. People would sometimes stop and stare at me as my brothers wheeled me along, but I didn't worry about it because I had no idea why they stared. Perhaps I had an idea lurking in the back of my mind that there was something wrong somewhere, something about me that made people look at me in that funny way as they passed"(30-31).
  
• Does his family include him in their activities?
• What types of games did they play?
• What happened during the Halloween party?
• What is interesting about their mealtimes?
• How did Christy eat?
• Is Christy's family wealthy/poor?
• How do we know?
• Is the house big/small?

Chapter 4 ÐDiscussion questions:

• What is the title of chapter four?
• In chapter four,"Henry," who or what is Henry?
• What is the importance of Henry?
• What do you imagine Henry looks like?
  Relevant material from the book (underlines added):
  "They took me with them when they went out to play in the streets after school, pushing me along in a rusty old go-car which they called my'chariot.' Some of the best years of my life were passed in that battered old crock with the twisted handle and crooked wheels, which creaked and groaned as they raced me along in it."(18)
  "I had now improved so much that I could sit up in the go-car without having any pillows behind my back to support me. I took many a fall on those rides. When the car would topple over as they pushed it around a bend at full speed . . . "(19)
  "The old go-car was still my chariot, and I went about in it like any royal king. It was an ugly, battered old thing that nobody ever treated well. It was always being kicked, knocked over, shoved about, and trampled on . . . I had seen my first glimpse of outdoor life sitting on its seat with the feathers sticking out of it . . . "(29)
  "Old Henry had been specially oiled and polished up the night before and in consequence he was groaning a little less fiercely this morning . . . Two bottles of milk were pushed beneath the cushion of my car. They bruised my behind every time the go-car jolted."(31)
  "He pushed my car over against the wall and climbed on the side of it so that he had only to reach up his arms to reach the red apples . . . "(35)
  "they . . . picked up all the fruit, half dragged me out of the go-car, dumped the stuff at the bottom of it, beneath the torn old cushion, and then pushed me in on top of it."(35-36)
  

  Activity

  (10 minutes)
  Terminal objective: Allow students to use descriptive words to visualize the situation. Evaluate students' comprehension of the book's setting and descriptive words.

  
  Using the sections of the book listed above, have students sketch on a sheet of paper their ideas about what the cart looks like. Allow (~3) volunteers to sketch on the chalkboard. Allow students to describe their pictures. Compare pictures/ideas.

  Presentation/discussion of my visualizations:
  Henry describes a lot about Henry, but I had a hard time figuring out what it must have looked like. At first I imagined a go-cart (sketch an outline and explain my idea of an American go-cart). Why could Christy's go-car not have been like the one I had in my head?
  Then I thought of a chariot. Christy calls his go-car a chariot. What is a chariot? (Describe chariots if necessary. Sketch on board.) Could Christy's go-car have been like a chariot? What makes his go-cart like a chariot for him? (physical versus emotional descriptions). What did Christy think of the cart?
  Then I thought of a wagon (sketch on board). A wagon is something we use to pull children.

  Post-activity discussion
  What things do we know about the cart? (It has wheels. It has a handle. It is rusty. It is usually pushed. It has a torn cushion. . . ) With the information we have received, we know some things about the cart, but we may all still have different ideas about what it looks like. It is helpful to think about the setting of the book (consider the time, place, and situation). If we think of our own time, place, and situation, we may not be able to picture things correctly.

  Presentation/Discussion

  (10 minutes)
  Terminal objective: Introduce and define Cerebral Palsy.

  My two main sources of information are:
  http://www.ninds.nih.gov/healinfo/disorder/cp/cphtr.htm
  *This site includes 22 pages of information about the history of CP, how many people have the disorder, different forms of CP, other medical disorders associated with CP, causes, risk factors, prevention, early signs, diagnosis, management, and treatment of CP.
  http://www.childmmc.edu/cmhweb/CMHDepts/GaitLab/cpinfo.html
  *This site includes only some of the above information (2 pages), but it is more concisely written (almost an outline form).
  

  There are many other sites about Cerebral Palsy, but I found the above sites to be the most helpful.

  1. Use highlighted parts of the sources above to introduce and discuss Cerebral Palsy. Make certain to substitute simpler vocabulary words where necessary.
  2. Draw a small stick figure on the board. Take the words Cerebral and Palsy, and describe them separately:Cerebral - Of or pertaining to the brain or cerebrum. (The American Heritage Dictionary 2nd College Edition). Circle the head on the board.Palsy - Paralysis. Condition marked by loss of power to feel or to control movement in any part of the body. (The American Heritage Dictionary 2nd College Edition). Show the body on the board.
  3. Explain that Cerebral Palsy is characterized by a break in communication between the brain and the body. Show this visually. Explain that often those with Cerebral Palsy are just unable to control certain parts of their bodies. Some cases are more severe than others. Discuss what Cerebral Palsy would not allow Christy to do. What things could he do? (Make certain we discuss the ability of Christy's brain, and that often those with CP have normal mental capacity.)

  Discussion/Activities

  (12 minutes)
  Terminal objective: Have the students understand and discuss the physical and emotional experiences of those who have CP, and have them describe the treatment of handicapped persons in their own countries.
  1. Tie two students' hands behind their backs and tell them that they cannot speak, but they still can hear and understand things. Continue discussing with the rest of the class. Ask questions about how handicapped persons are treated in their countries and about handicapped persons they know. Discuss the many different terms that are used to describe handicapped persons; discuss negative and positive words for describing diseases or disorders. Allow students to find words in their own languages that are both positive and negative. Allow the students that had their hands tied to speak and communicate their feelings as they were excluded from participation.
  2. Tie another student's hands behind his/her back and tell him/her that he/she cannot speak, whisper something to him/her that he/she should tell someone else. Allow him/her to try to communicate these thoughts to another classmate. Later take the restrictions away from the student and ask him/her to express the limitations he/she felt and the freedom he/she felt when he/she was finally able to communicate.
  3. Have another student come up and only allow him/her to use one leg. Tell him/her that he/she is not allowed to speak. Have other students come up and treat the now disabled person how they think he/she would want to be treated. Have them try to have a conversation. Later see what types of feelings they might have had. Have the student who was unable to talk discuss how he/she would want to be treated. Discuss things like pity, sorrow, awkwardness . . . Discuss why people might stare, walk away, become frustrated, pity . . . Is this type of disease contagious? hereditary? Do you think all families would treat a handicapped member of their family like Christy's family treated him? Why? Why not?

  Reading activity

  (6 minutes)
  Terminal objective: Allow students to hear and see a short story read to them. Give students the opportunity to see how another family dealt with a handicapped member of the family.
  Read Mama Zooms aloud. Discuss positive and negative reactions to handicaps. Discuss what types of things families with handicapped members deal with.

  Presentation

  (6 minutes)

  Terminal objective: Students should be aware of the Americans with Disabilities Act and some organizations that try to make it easier for handicapped persons to travel, to have access to buildings, to obtain an education, to receive treatment . . . )
  Briefly discuss the similarities/differences between how handicapped persons were treated/helped in the setting of the story and now. Introduce the Americans with Disabilities Act and tell of other organizations that try to make handicapped persons' experiences less difficult today. Compare wheelchairs and elevators to the sketches they have of Henry. Briefly allow them to discuss laws or organizations in their own countries and their ideas about them.

  Homework

  (1 minute)

  Terminal Objective: Have the students apply the understanding and information they have gained from class today to the reading for tonight. In tomorrow's lesson, check to see if the students have grasped the main idea of each chapter (using the chapter headings).)
  Read chapters five and six considering how the loss of Henry changed Christy's life and paying attention to the attitude changes that Christy experiences as he grows up and realizes his disabilities. Pretending you are Christy, write three sentences describing how you feel at the end of chapter six.