Finding Belonging through Children’s Books Rating Scale

This scale is developed to guide selections of children’s books to support children finding belonging through various identities or challenges. Directions: Read through the book. Identify characters and topics, including topics requiring care. Then rate. List Topics Requiring Care: List events or emotions that require care in use (IE death, suicide, abuse, trauma)

Explorations in Belonging Through Children’s Books About Migration

This session will actively engage with the theme of migration, supporting participants in learning about the 12 types of human migration using selected picture books and engagement activities for fun engagement with specific concepts of migration. Audience members will rotate to stations. Sponsored by: Melinda Burchard (education) Boyer 432 Activity stations include: Station 1: David Hazen. Types of migration. Station 2: Sarah Myers and Lauren Trumbore. Original lands of Indigenous People. Station 3: Emily Nell with Sami Fisher. Native American languages. Station 4: Lijuan Ye and Will Reeder. Exploring Chinese Traditions. Station 5: Aly Poole and Catie Brubaker. Finding Beauty in Sad Migrations. Station 6: Kiersten Gilmore and McKenna Murphy. Refugee Experiences. Station 7: Jordan Bashore and Lenora Maendel. Honoring Migration Stories

Perspectives and Practical Strategies for Disability-Related Behavior Challenges in Ministries to Children and Youth

Challenging behaviors happen, even within Sunday schools and ministries to children and youth. This essay explores spiritual and theoretical perspectives about disability and addressing behaviors. Teachers, leaders and volunteers may benefit from example practical strategies for planning for and responding to such challenging behaviors, especially the social, emotional and behavioral challenges related to disability

A Mother’s Prayer through the Five Words of a Son with Autism

Recently, my friend has been figuring out that her child has autism, processing what that means for education, for church, and for family life. She grapples with lost expectations, daily challenges, confusion, and isolation. My parenting journey is not her own, but I relate to her pain and her hopes. I wrote this first for her and now share this piece in love specifically for parents of children with disabilities. Through a very specific lens of parenting a child with a disability, using the five words of my son with severe autism, I reflect upon the deep meaning of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:8-13

Formative Assessment: Identifying and Supporting Student Success in Information Literacy Processes

The Every Student Succeeds Act (2016) requires that teachers teach using evidence-based, and scientifically-researched teaching practices. With this, pre-service teachers at undergraduate institutions must learn how to find, evaluate and compare the results they find, and then determine how to implement such practices with fidelity. All Messiah College students pursuing any sort of teacher certification spend significant time in one upper level course to address finding and evaluating evidence-based practices. Instructors of that course co-teach a unit through three in-class workshops with their Education Librarian. This study examined relationships between students\u27 perceptions and experiences with information literacy, their information literacy behaviors, and self-efficacy about finding evidence-based practices. Students completed pre and post surveys and recorded screencasts as part of the assignment to verbalize their thinking and demonstrate research behaviors, which created opportunities for immediate librarian supplemental intervention as needed. The screencast recordings also provided student feedback that allowed for refinement of future upper-level, discipline specific information literacy instruction sessions. Results demonstrated that early information literacy experiences from high school and their early undergraduate years are a strong predictor of self-efficacy and higher performance later in the discipline-specific tasks of finding, evaluating and writing about evidence-based teaching practices

Teaching Special Educators to Critically Evaluate Children’s Books for Cultural Responsiveness

Teaching Special Educators to Critically Evaluate Children’s Books for Cultural Responsiveness Session Date: Saturday June 25, 2022 Session Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Location: Washington Convention Center, 144B-C Active Engagement of Participants: Participants at this presentation will learn about bibliotherapy, and cultural responsiveness within special education. They will view data from a study that used critique and engagement with children’s books as one way support growth in cultural responsiveness for pre-service teachers. Participants will critique I Talk Like A River (Scott, 2020), a 2021 Schneider Family Younger Children Book Winner using the Finding Belonging through Children’s Books Rating Scale. Next, participants will view example story boards, and will be invited to sketch a story board of their own using the book, I Walk with Vanessa: A Picture Book Story About a Simple Act of Kindness (Kerascoët, 2018). Participants will be invited to discuss their own ideas for use of children’s books to promote cultural responsiveness of future special educators. All participants will receive a handout, including the list of books used. How Pre-Service Teachers Engaged with Children’s Books: Cultural responsiveness within special education is an expected competency of initial practice in that field (Council for Exceptional Children, 2020). One teacher preparation program worked to improve cultural competence in pre-service special educators, focusing first in two courses, with two projects in each of those courses requiring engagement with culturally responsive children’s literature. Twenty students participated in a junior-level course about high incidence disabilities. In that course, students critiqued a selection of books addressing varied components of marginalization, such as disability, race, poverty, immigration, etc. In the first course, students designed an instructional unit using a Schneider Family 2013 winner in the Middle School category, A Dog Called Homeless (2012). They identified standards for reading and writing, as well as learning objectives emphasizing a function of bibliotherapy. A significant portion of the grade for that assignment was earned for evidence of cultural responsiveness, including support of resilience, community, change agency, or disability-related Identity. Twenty-two students participated in a senior-level special education course about behavior. In that course, students critiqued books for helpfulness as bibliotherapeutic resources when intervening for social and emotional challenges. Students then engaged specifically with the ALSC Recommended book, I Walk with Vanessa: A Picture Book Story About a Simple Act of Kindness (Kerascoët, 2018). Applying course concepts about reconciliation as a special education behavior practice, students focused on the bully in that story. Using white boards, students worked in groups to sketch a story board as if for a book proposal to the author/illustrator team Kerascoët, proposing a story for that bully about finding forgiveness, and restoring to community. Study Instrumentation: To assess any growth in cultural responsiveness, students complete pre- and post assessments using the Culturally Responsive Special Education Experiences and Efficacy Scale ([Author Removed for Review]2021), rating their number of experiences serving individuals and families in special education who also experience other marginalization such as poverty, under-represented race, immigration, etc., then rating their self-efficacy for such culturally responsive practices. As a tool to facilitate the book critiques, students used the Finding Belonging through Children’s Books Rating Scale ([Author Removed for Review]2021). Using this scale, students rated and compared children’s books for use in promoting specific bibliotherapeutic functions (identity, catharsis, and problem-solving for solutions) for various types of diversity or childhood challenges (Forgan, 2002; Nasatir and Horn, 2003). Prior to students rating the books, three researchers reached inter-rater reliability. The students’ book ratings were gathered using survey software, then compared to the scores of the researchers, and relationships with their experiences and self-efficacy in culturally responsive special education practices (as measured by the Culturally Responsive Special Education Experiences and Efficacy Scale, [Author Removed for Review]2021). Teacher-made rubrics were used to score instructional design and story board products. Collaborations:Guidance to improvements to this teacher preparation program were provided by two external experts in Civil Rights and racial justice. Dr. Christina Edmondson is a scholar, public speaker, social media leader, and author of such books as Faithful Antiracism (Edmondson, 2022). Dr. Todd Allen is a university faculty, diversity administrator, and founder of the Common Ground Project and Returning to the Roots of Civil Rights Tour, teaching participants about the the history of Civil Rights in America. Multiple Perspectives of the Presenters:The three presenters bring multiple perspectives to building cultural competencies in educators. One presenter is a first-generation American of southeast Asian descent who is passionate about social justice. The second presenter is an African American who is passionate about urban education. Both of those undergraduate researchers are completing teacher certifications in both special education and elementary education, and both plan to teach in intercultural settings. The third presenter is a university faculty member with over thirty years experience serving or teaching children with disabilities and preparing future special educators

Comparing Candidates on Issues when Voting: Resources for Teaching Media Literacy in Special Education

While voting rights for adults with disabilities vary across states, the skill of voting is one important practice of citizenship, and thus active engagement in community. The skills required to inform voting require reading comprehension to reason with information, and self-determination to make choices based upon that information. This resource supports special educators of high school or postsecondary individuals with intellectual disabilities to articulate personal opinions on political issues, and to then compare political candidates using those issues

Who is my friend? Resources for Teaching Media Literacy in Special Education

Possible characteristics of autism or intellectual disabilities include vulnerability or gullibility in social situations. Therefore, some teens or adults with autism or intellectual disabilities may struggle to discern who is a true friend. In the context of media literacy, such challenges can lead to confusion in social media friend requests or related safe behaviors in using social media. This media literacy team intends for this resource to support teachers of special education or adult education to teach teens or adults with intellectual disabilities or autism about discerning friendships in the context of media literacy. A sample lesson is included

Recognizing Bias in Social Media News: Resources for Teaching Media Literacy in Special Education

With the empowerment of social media news literacy, students in special education can interact with their world with deeper competencies of critical thinking skills and civic engagement. In exploring personal and news biases, online users will have the tools to effectively grapple with the content found in their newsfeeds. The included lesson uses current social media news stories. Students will be able to identify vocabulary communicating possible bias, including absolute words or phrases, words or phrases communicating degree, and words or phrases that are positively or negatively charged

Examining the Lived Experience of Disabilities through Gender and Race [Presentation & Handout Activity]

Presented at the 2024 Messiah University Humanities Symposium. 3–4 p.m. “Examining the Lived Experience of Disabilities through Gender and Race” Jointly sponsored faculty–student colloquium: Boyer 432 •Melinda Burchard, Ph.D., Professor of Special Education •Sarah Myers, M.S.L.S., Public Services Librarian, Murray Library •Mila Acosta-Morales (2027) •Mireliz Bermudez (2025) •Grace Rhinehart (2025) •Maddie Unger (2025