Building Wings
Calling All Students to Self-Advocacy
by Jerry Stemach & Carol Seibert
With the help of Bill Reeder, Fairfax County Public Schools in VA and Schaumburg Public Schools in IL, Jerry and Carol present a strong case for building confidence in students to 'take charge' or 'advocate' for their own learning. Jerry says, "It is a call and a challenge to all of us to understand our role more clearly, and to give our students the tools they need to become their own best advocate." Carol then gives you a lesson plan including all the tools you need to explore and create a student self-advocacy program in your own school.
What the Experts Say
— Bill Reeder, Director,
Assessment, Assistive Technology and Support
Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
"Our job is to empower students to 'take charge' of their own learning. We provide support groups and mentor programs in the belief that, if we build it, they will come, and they will succeed. I can personally attest to the fact that student self-advocacy works.”
Bill added, “Self-advocacy is a natural and winning strategy for students with disabilities. We have implemented self-advocacy initiatives in Fairfax County Public Schools for several years now. Our advocacy efforts have grown into a variety of approaches including after school support groups, Assistive Technology (AT) clubs, student mentors, summer writing camps, and more.
"Last school year, we added Don Johnston’s compelling autobiography, Building Wings, as a component to many of our advocacy efforts. The results have been fantastic! Students relate to Don’s early struggles, conflicts, and his ultimate triumph and success. One of our high school students wrote the following note to Don:
'Your book really made me think about how to live life. No one in this world is perfect. People are weak in some areas and strong in others. For example, Mr. Johnston, look at you now. No one would think of you becoming so successful in life. I learned a lot from you. You know a lot of people in school call me slow and stupid. I just look at them and walk away. In your case, I learned that if you really want to be successful you must keep trying.' "
Jerry says, "If you are like me, you recycle many publishers’ catalogs and newsletters and favor only a handful that merit precious space in your bulging file drawers or, better yet, as a planned initiative in your teaching schedule.
This article from the August 2007 issue of the LeaderLink is one that merits special attention because it is instructive about a strategy that is vital to the success of your struggling students and about the person who inspired this strategy.
If this sounds like a sales pitch for Don Johnston Incorporated, know that it is born out of my 25 years of experience serving students with disabilities, reviewing a plethora of products, and finding a few that have emerged as indispensable interventions. Trust me when I tell you that Don Johnston is a name you can trust!
Don Johnston’s company is successful because Don Johnston, the student, was not. ...he could not learn like other kids. ...Instead, he flapped awkwardly through his early grades until his enthusiasm for learning was pummeled by peers and teachers who saw him as a trouble-maker.
Then one day — it was in eighth grade — Mrs. Tedesco intervened. In doing so, she not only supported Don but, through his success, has unwittingly helped thousands of struggling students take charge of their learning potential!
Student Self Advocacy
Mrs. Tedesco taught Don the most important lesson of his life: to be successful in school, he would have to take charge of his own learning. He would have to figure out for himself how he learned best and how he could gather the resources he would need to be successful. As a pre-schooler, he had been in charge of his own learning; as a student, others took charge, often forcing round Don into square holes that only exacerbated his problems.
It took Don nearly 40 more years to even talk about his struggle, then a few years more to write about it. He still struggles as a writer, but he knows that writing expertly is not a criterion for his personal success. Don knows to seek out resources for certain skill areas. I am extremely honored and proud that he asked me to assist him in writing his autobiography.
His story as a struggling learner is told to other struggling learners and to those who teach and support them. It is a call and a challenge to all of us to understand our role more clearly, and to give our students the tools they need to become their own best advocate.
Self-Advocacy: National Leaders Show the Way
Fairfax County Public Schools, VA and Schaumburg Public Schools, IL have long enjoyed reputations as innovators who implement “best practices” across the grades and curricula. Recently, they featured Building Wings as a springboard to student self-advocacy and Don’s mailbox is bulging with heart-felt testimonials from other struggling learners who are now empowered to follow in his footsteps.
As a result of these models, we have collectively created a unique student self-advocacy program that you can re-create for the benefit of your students. Let’s get started with these great lessons and valuable tools to start your student self advocacy program!
