Book Studies
Disability Acceptance Through Literature
The Arc of PA’s Include Me program is excited to present “Disability Acceptance through Literature,” a virtual book study for students. Books selected by our facilitators provide opportunities to learn about the many aspects of disability through the perspective of school age protagonists.
Discussions center on understanding, acceptance, presuming competence, and friendship. Values like compassion, honesty, authenticity and diversity steer the ship, and we love when conversations are led by students’ interests. These book studies are an innovative way to provide students interested in reading with a structured opportunity to connect with other students across Pennsylvania. We strive to make the book studies accessible, with:
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- audio recordings of each chapter,
- vocabulary resources,
- engaging visual content for discussions, and,
- by providing copies of the book to families as the book studies gear up.
These four or eight week book studies make room for silliness and curiosity, and we’re proud of the stigma-blasting power of the program (and that of the students themselves!).
Include Me connects each book study and accompanying lessons to the Pennsylvania Academic Standards.
For more information, contact: cmorrison@includemepa.org or jmacsisak@includemepa.org
SEE OUR Spring 2024 BOOK STUDIES!
(click on an area below to view)
Children Ages 5 - 8; Thursdays at 5:00 pm, beginning April 25th, 2024
Title: Tools We Use, A Disability acceptance story series
Group: Kids 5-8 years old
Day/Time: Thursdays, 5:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Dates: April 25 – May 9 (3 weeks)
Join us Thursdays at 5:00PM starting April 25th for a springtime “Story Tour”, our Disability Acceptance through Literature program for 5- to 8-year-olds! The group will meet weekly for 45 minutes via Zoom. We’ll read a different children’s book aloud each week and talk a bit about the story together. All learners are welcome!
Registering will save you a seat. Before our first meeting, you will receive an email with the zoom link we’ll use to join in every week.
Lineup for our Spring 2024 Story Tour includes:
– Whose Shoes, by Stephen R. Swinburne
– Eddie the Elephant Has Something to Say, by Alison Johns; Illustrated by Tara Put
– Wiggles Stomps and Squeezes Calm My Jitters Down, by Lindsay Rowe Parker; Illustrated by Rebecca Burgess
Registration is closed. Stay tuned and join us for our next book series!
Questions? Contact Celia at cmorrison@includemepa.org and Jennifer at jmacsisak@includemepa.org.
Children Ages 8 - 12 ; Wednesdays at 6:30 pm, beginning April 10, 2024
Title: Good Different, by Meg Eden Kuyatt
Group: Kids 8-12 years old
Day/Time: Wednesdays, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Dates: April 10 – May 29 (8 weeks)
Join us Wednesdays at 6:30 PM beginning April 10 for our new middle years pick for Disability Acceptance through Literature! The group (8 to 12 year-olds and our Include Me facilitators) will meet weekly via Zoom. All learners ages 8-12 are welcome!
Registering will save your child a seat. Include your mailing address so we can send you the book! Before our first meeting, you will receive an email detailing how to log in to the google classroom, and the Zoom link we’ll use to join in every week. Audiobook recordings will be available.
Selah knows her rules for being normal.
She always, always sticks to them. This means keeping her feelings locked tightly inside, despite the way they build up inside her as each school day goes on, so that she has to run to the bathroom and hide in the stall until she can calm down. So that she has to tear off her normal-person mask the second she gets home from school, and listen to her favorite pop song on repeat, trying to recharge. Selah feels like a dragon stuck in a world of humans, but she knows how to hide it.
Until the day she explodes and hits a fellow student.
Selah’s friends pull away from her, her school threatens expulsion, and her comfortable, familiar world starts to crumble.
But as Selah starts to figure out more about who she is, she comes to understand that different doesn’t mean damaged. Can she get her school to understand that, too, before it’s too late?
Register Here
Questions? Contact Celia at cmorrison@includemepa.org and Jennifer at jmacsisak@includemepa.org.
Teens Ages 12-17; Mondays at 6:00 pm, beginning April 8, 2024
Title: The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Group: Teens ages 12-17
Day/Time: Mondays 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Dates: April 8 – May 20 (7 weeks)
Join us Mondays at 6:00 pm for our newest pick for the ‘Teen’ DATL book study crew! The group and our facilitators meet weekly via Zoom.
Registering will save you a seat! Include your mailing address so we can send you the book box. Before our first meeting, you will receive an email detailing how to log in to the Google classroom and the Zoom link we’ll use to join in every week. Audio recordings of each chapter will be available.
Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.
So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?
Register Here
Questions? Contact Celia at cmorrison@includemepa.org and Jennifer at jmacsisak@includemepa.org.
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