Special Education Art Project - Artistic Addresses

Many music and art teachers are frustrated with thecity, and state.
fact that children with disabilities are integrated into- Incorporate several games to make learning fun
their classrooms and yet the educator lacks theand utilize various learning styles: 1. A die was
training to deal with the needs of these students.modified with labels (house numbers, street name,
The teachers state that everyone in the classroomcity, and state). Students took turns throwing the die
suffers in the long run. Many special educationand giving the appropriate answer. 2. A camera was
teachers are quite interested in integrating the artssent home with the students to record house
into their classroom curriculum, but they lack thenumber and street sign. These photos were used in a
training opportunities and/or personal time to developmatching game.
such a plan. This article discusses a lesson plan that- Develop an art project to reinforce this lesson. The
can be used by a team consisting of art teachers,students created address pillows. Students were able
special education teachers and teaching artists. Ato choose from a variety of fabric backgrounds.
collaboration would be developed between theStudents were then instructed to choose their house
teachers within the school to create an inclusivenumbers from numbers cut from a variety of fabrics.
program based on the arts and tied into testingStudents glued the numbers to their background.
standards in the curriculum area that is most neededThen they chose letters from a selection of foam
for that school.letters to spell out their street name. These letters
The Goals:were also glued to the background. Throughout this
1. To create collaborative activities between specialprocess students were encouraged to check the
education teachers and general art/specialist teachers.accuracy of their work against an index card
2. To increase the quality of art activities available forcontaining their address. Students were provided with
students with disabilities.a variety of embellishments to personalize their pillow
3. To increase the knowledge of beneficialthese embellishments included flags, dogs and cats,
adaptations of art curricula for students withcars, hearts, smiley faces, etc. once the pillow top
disabilities.was dry students had the opportunity to work
4. To provide evidence of the benefits of the arts toone-on-one with the artist on the sewing machine.
children with disabilities in the form of improvedThey sell the pillow top to a back fabric of their
academic, social and/or affective functioning.choosing and stuffed it with fiber fill. The finished
5. To disseminate techniques and findings to teachersprojects were displayed in the school hallway for
statewide on the findings from this pilot programother students to admire. Students held discussions in
6. To create a program report for the disseminationclass about what the various embellishments they
of information to improve the knowledge base ofchose meant to them.
teachers state wide.The Results:
The Students: 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade boys withOverall this was a very successful project. The
various diagnosesstudents had fun creating their pillows and learn the
The Subject/Goal: geography, with focus on homeimportance of their address. The teachers
addresses. The students did not know theirappreciated having the time to plan and work
addresses and what that meant or why it wastogether. The special education teacher was happy
significant.to demonstrate how capable her students are. The
The Process:art teacher expressed delight in learning how to
- Lessons focused on house numbers, street name,structure a project for maximal success.