The majority of the adult individuals at our center have moderate mental retardation. That means a lot of concepts have to be broken down. We are a translator of sorts. There are 27 individuals in the Thinking group and me. The group has been together for 3 years learning things like critical thinking, self advocacy, rights, and the exploration of their feelings and thoughts. We haven't been together all summer, so everyone is fresh, happy, and ready. We decided teach "our physics!"
First thing was to give them supplies. They each received a notebook, pencil, ruler, a cartoon bookmarker, and a couple of small slips of paper with date and two terms spelled out. Not everyone can copy letters yet, but marks are made.
Next they worked on pronouncing the word, "physics." We did this phonetically. We told them that physics meant the science of how people and things work together; it's all about relationships!. This they love. On the board, we drew two stick figures standing apart. They named them Tyler and Jennifer. Then we said, "ok ... now watch this!" There were many oohs and ahhs! So then we asked, "what just happened?" Most of them were excited to say, "You just erased Tyler and moved him closer to Jennifer!" Then I said, "I see! Then tell me, how did this happen?" This was too hard. So we concluded for them, "physics will help us explain how Tyler and Jennifer get together!" They liked that idea ... a lot!
Then, we thought we'd move on to scalars. We figured inches would work. We found most of them could draw a straight up and down line on their paper, but when I asked them to measure it, the brightest counted all 12 numbers on the ruler instead of the 10 1/2 inches for the line on their paper. And, most of them didn't understand the inch (") symbol. It's ok. Their notes included the two stick figures.
This is the start. We are all very proud of their "thinking" work!
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