OVERVIEW & PURPOSE
Test, Fowler, Wood, Brewer & Eddy (2005) indicate that for students to become successful self-advocates, they need a knowledge of self, a knowledge of rights, and the communication skills to advocate. This lesson focuses on developing the communication skills to request accommodations and supports. Many researchers and educators have identified this type of lesson as critical to the development of self-advocacy skills and have incorporated role play as a means of improving communication skills (Prater, Smith Redman, Anderson & Gibb, 2014; Campbell-Whatley, 2008; Hart & Brehm, 2013; Summers, White, Zhang & Gordon, 2014). This lesson builds on the work of Prater et al. (2014), who used acronyms to teach students to request accommodations. It also adds a problem-solving and conflict resolution focus when requesting accommodations. Lopez (2017) and Holzberg (2017), using the SACR tool (Self-Advocacy and Conflict Resolution), have demonstrated that conflict resolution skills can support students with improving their self-advocacy skills.
Lesson Materials:
4.0_ Developing Communication Skills
4.2_ Accommodations Role-Playing Cards
Continue to Lesson 5: Motivation and Security
Self-Advocacy in High School 