Workshop at a Glance

Workshop at a Glance

The workshop will begin on Sunday evening upon the arrival of all participants with a social gathering. The workshop will conclude the following Saturday in time for afternoon or evening flights.

The workshop will be conducted with a variety of sessions including in person, via zoom, through panel discussion, pre-taped, and onsite.

Throughout the week topics to be covered include:

  • The history of the disability rights movement
  • What is Ableism?
  • FDR's disability experience and impact on his leadership
  • The FDR Wheelchair Statue Campaign
  • FDR Presidential Library’s digital archives
  • What is the role of public memorials?
  • Application of Universal Design for Learning
  • Teaching History Using Memorials to Multicultural Children
  • The Influence of African Americans in the FDR Administration
  • Japanese American Incarceration

We will make time for you to explore the wonderful city that Washington DC is. There will be free time and guided exploration of some iconic landmarks. You will visit the FDR Memorial, the Martin Luther King Memorial, the Tidal Basin and see many other sites along the way including the U.S. Capitol, and DC neighborhoods. We will provide tips for what to do and see in DC from real Washingtonians.

Participants in week 2 (July 23-29) will be able to attend the annual commemoration of the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act held by the FDR Committee at the FDR Memorial.

 

SAMPLE SCHEDULE

These sessions are subject to change but are representative of the sessions that are being developed. Free time will be allocated along with other opportunities for group work and individual work.

Residential Project Dates: July 9-15, 2023; July 23-29, 2023

Sunday:

  • Arrival of participants
  • Evening – Welcome meetup. Icebreakers and introductions. Review agenda and answer questions. Led by Project Faculty

Monday:

Sessions to include:

  • Disability Law: Guiding questions: How do disability laws impact what I do in the classroom and what are the short term and long-term outcomes for my students?
  • Classroom Realities Session to cover disability bias, stereotypes, preconceptions, and the lived experience. This session will include small group interactions, reflection and journaling. This will be a time for frank discussions to share difficulties, realities, and concerns and explore guiding questions.
  • Panel with young people with disabilities - lived experiences. What teachers should know from those who lived it.

Tuesday:

Sessions to include:

  • Site visit to FDR, MLK Memorials and other memorials. Themes: FDR’s legacy and the impact of disability on his leadership. Civil rights movement and linkages to the disability rights movement. Guiding question(s): What is the role of memorials? Who are they for? How is the disability rights movement tied to the work of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and how to incorporate this into instruction?
  • Lecture on FDR, Eleanor and their legacies.
  • Session on the fight for the FDR wheelchair statue.

Wednesday:

Sessions to include:

  • Keynote: How to teach from an intersectional framework using memorials to teach civil rights history.
  • Online Interactive Session: Practical teaching tools and resources to draw from using the FDR Presidential archives.

Thursday

Sessions to include:

  • Session: Panel Discussion: Planting Seeds of Intersectional Disability Justice: Women of the Roosevelt Era: Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary McLeod Bethune, Helen Keller. Their impact then and now and how to embed their stories into curricula.
  • Site Visits: Mary McLeod Bethune Statue in Lincoln Park, DC. Coordination for visit with the National Park Service (NPS). Speaker from NPS to facilitate conversation with Project Faculty about the historic nature of the statue, and the importance of Mrs. Bethune in civil rights. Also to be covered will be the statue on the other side of Lincoln Park - (the Emancipation). We will give an overview of the controversy of that statue.
  • Site visit to the US Capitol - site of the “ADA Crawl” in March 1990 when disabled Americans crawled up steps of the Capitol calling for passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This is a short contemplative visit led by Project Faculty.
  • Site visit on accessibility at the FDR Memorial and lessons for other memorials and cultural sites. Additional site visit to the FDR Memorial with an in depth focus on the accessibility issues such as the misunderstood Braille, the different portrayals of FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote, and other inclusion concerns for effective teaching for all students. This visit will also allow for contemplative time to visit the Memorial having learned about the story of the fight for the wheelchair statue and the ADA Crawl.

Thursday:

Sessions to include:

  • Individual time/ independent study time to explore FDR’s lived experience as a disabled person.
  • Review of Universal design for learning
  • Developing your group project
  • Areas of further study:
    • African American issues during the FDR era
    • Japanese American incarceration during WWII
    • FDR and the Holocaust

Friday:

Work time

Saturday morning:

  • Submission of lesson plan content
  • Group presentations
  • Closing remarks
  • Presentation of certificates of completion
Practical information
FAQ