Typical Assignments

Journal

In addition to attending class sessions and carrying out weekly social activities with partners, it is suggested that students keep a journal throughout the course. This is designed to give students a means for reflecting on the information and experiences they are encountering in the course, including barriers encountered and successes and failures in dealing with them. It is suggested that the students write in their journals weekly, bring them to class on a regular basis to use during discussions of community experiences, and turn them in periodically for instructor review. This review should focus on how students are dealing with barriers and the course experience in general. Journal entries may also indicate the need for additional lesson topics not included in the curriculum package.

Final Paper

A summary paper at the end of the curriculum is an optional project that may be attractive to some schools desiring to offer academic credit for program participation. The paper is intended to allow students to review their journal entries and use those and other reflections to summarize the ways in which they have changed throughout the term, the lessons learned, the knowledge gained, and feelings experienced, the relationships formed, and the activities carried out. It can be a tool for supporting student awareness of the impact that the course has had on them and to share that with others.

Final Group Project

The last several weeks of the program are reserved for a group activitiy that involves students working collaboratively to identify and attempt to minimize or remove a significant barrier to social inclusion in their community or school. These barriers may be attitudinal, physical, or of any other type. A key element of this group project is students working together and with other supportive individuals within the community to develop and try out solutions to the barrier identified.

Class Celebration

The final lesson in the curriculum leads students in planning and holding a class celebration that marks their successful completion of the program. The celebration can be a time to invite family members, friends, community members, and other teachers and school personnel and to share with them their accomplishments including the results of the final project, lessons learned and progress achieved through the weekly partner activities, and the overall impact of the program on the lives of all the participants.