Especially for Teachers

Bright Ideas Lesson Plans

ESE Wizards

From the premise that learning occurs best when the student finds it interesting, timely, pertaining to the real world, for several years, now, your newspapers have been one large slice of the Reading Pie. Daily homework involves the determining of Who, did What, When,Where, and, ideally, Why, of some item of news within the last twenty-four hours. The student is asked to further classify his news item as Local, State, National, World, or Outer Space.

So, who are these wizards, so in touch with the world scene? They are Exceptional Education students, mostly ten and eleven years old, with such labels as mentally retarded, specific learning disabilities, emotional handicapper - the list goes on. These are the children who often take the newspapers to lunch with them, imitating what they have seen out of grown-ups, and in a calculated effort to play head games with other students who could tend to consider themselves more gifted.

These are the children who had read and talked of the government shut-down, and e-mailed President Clinton their thoughts on the matter - and that weekend the shutdown was modified, for which they assume total credit, of course they know what to talk about in their letters to the American service people in Bosnia, even if it has to go by "snail mail," for they have seen the articles, the pictures, of these people leaving family here, building pontoon bridges there, and plodding through the snow and mud. When Israel´s Rabin died, they sent their note of sympathy by way of E-mail friends in a kibbutz outside of Jerusalem, they received an acknowledgment from the country they can find on the map - well, at least most of the time, they can find it. When their non-sports minded teacher challenges some news item with an unusual score, or thinks the XXX of the Super Bowl only means a math lesson, they get their newspapers, find, and point out their "proof."

Of course, kid-like, they keep up with their favorite shows, try to find the store with the most tempting price on some prize pair of shoes, like the comics, treasure the cartoons, and know that while everyone´s name appears in a newspaper usually at least three times, (birth, marriage and death), they have their own clippings. If you should say, "What in the world is going on?" you should get their usual answer:" "Read the newspaper, and you will know!" Thanks again for helping it happen!

P.A. Arnold
Hurst Elementary

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