Al Capone Does My Shirts

NAME: Leiloni Cloutier SUBJECT: Al Capone Does My Shirts
GRADE LEVEL: 5-9 LENGTH: 30 Minutes
NUMBER OF STUDENTS: 5

Objectives

1. As a result of this lesson, students are given an experiential understanding of what it might feel like to be autistic. It is meant to connect students to peers with autism by shared awareness of sensory disregulation and difficulty. When given similar obstacles in lesson that peers have to cope with constantly due to neurological wiring, students might feel less inclined to exclude peers on the autism spectrum having a newfound sensitivity to the experience.

Materials/Special Arrangements/Individual Modifications
Have the room arranged in three stations before the students arrive. Station 1 should be labeled visual processing and have the following materials: glasses with Vaseline coated lenses, maze worksheets, where’s Waldo worksheets, line paper and markers or crayons. Station 2 should be labeled auditory processing and have the following materials: an ice pack, headphones, and an excerpt from Temple Grandin’s Thinking in Pictures. Station 3 should be labeled motor planning with the following materials: sneakers with shoelaces, and mittens.

During Instruction

Introductory Activity: Give the students a minute to decide which station they want to sit at before explaining the exercises at hand.

Developmental Activity:
1. Each student should have three minutes at each station. Give them a one-minute warning.
2. The teacher should walk around the room to each station explaining what each station is to do.
3. At station one the students need to put on the glasses and try to complete one maze worksheet (Appendix A) and one Waldo worksheet (Appendix B.) When they are done they are to do the same worksheets without the glasses on. Have them write how they felt, how long it took them and their emotional and personal response.
4. At station two the students need to place the ice pack on their seat and put on the headphones. Then someone needs to read an excerpt from Temple Grandin’s Thinking in Pictures. When the students are done they are to make note of their ability to process what is being read to them, their physical response to the ice pack, and personal and emotional response.
5. At station three the student is to put on the pair of mittens and try to tie both shoes as they normally would. They should make note of how long it takes them. Then the student should retie their shoes without the mittens on and compare their times. They should take note of their emotional and physical response and the level of difficulty it takes them to do such an every day task.
6. After each student has had the opportunity to experience each station, have them sit back in their desks.
7. Give the students two minutes to write a letter to a person with autism, expressing the difficulties they experienced with each activity.

Concluding the Lesson:
Each student will read their letter out loud to the class.

POST INSTRUCTIONAL

Evaluation of Student Learning: Evaluation of student learning will be based on the following:
1. The student’s participation in each station.
2. The student’s written letter.