31 for 21 Day Six : Who’s the Slow Learner? A Chronicle of Inclusion and Exclusion

 AZ with  Sandra and Sean  March 2014 

Today is    Sean McElwee's  twenty second birthday.  I  have met Sean and his Mom  Sandra  at CA  TASH in 2014  .  

 Sandra  wrote a book about her son's educational experience  called  Who is the Slow Learner.  I  decided to  let her talk about  her book and  if you like  it then you can  enter for a giveaway  at the end of the blog 

 AZ: Why did you write the book?

 Sean in kindergarten 

Sandra: The real purpose was to educate and inspire while entertaining in the hopes that parents could learn, and educators could see that they hold the key to success…or hell.  Who’s the Slow Learner? A Chronicle of Inclusion and Exclusion was an accidental book.  Sean had a text-book perfect elementary school inclusion experience, but secondary school was a stark contrast. I started documenting the bad behavior of the administrators and educators and five years when Sean graduated from high school I looked back and thought, “I couldn’t make this stuff  up!” That’s when the idea of turning Sean’s story into a book, but it couldn’t just be the secondary school experience. Parent’s needed to know what to watch out for, but it would have been too depressing. So I broke out the elementary school communication notebooks, IEPs and started recreating each grade chronologically. 

I searched and searched and I couldn’t find one book that chronicled a student with special educational needs from preschool through high school graduation. We have plenty of the ‘baby born, parents mourn’ stories but none that provide practical realities of the school-age years.

I wrote the book as a memoir, simply because I enjoy reading real-life memoirs.  My hopes were that parents could learn first how inclusion was supposed to be supported and accommodated as it was in Sean’s elementary school…and what legal tools they have to use when it isn’t provided appropriately from the secondary school experiences.

 AZ Chapman : What has been the feedback for the book?

 A lot of people like  Sandra's story that shows that when you
 include   everyone benefits 

 Sandra: I am thrilled to have 31 Five-Star Ratings on Amazon.com.  Parents have told me they purchased the book for their teachers and administrators and have had them comment they never looked at Inclusion from a parent’s perspective before.  This has led to positive changes in their schools, and THAT is the feedback that makes my day. Some of the headlines from the ratings on Amazon ‘Highly recommended,’ A must read for teachers and parents,’ Invaluable resource,’ and my favorites comment that they couldn’t put the book down.

 Sean in forth grade 

AZ Chapman: What advice do you have for future special education teachers?

 Sandra: My advice for special educators and general educators alike is to always have high expectations for their students. To learn to collaborate as a team and to spend the time they are in school learning to differentiate instruction so they can teach one subject to learners of different abilities and learning styles.

 Sean  with the baseball team.  He was  an assistant to the team
during his  high school years 

 AZ Chapman: What is Sean up too now?

 Sandra : Sean is about to turn 22, and is attending community college focusing on acting classes. He is an assistant coach for a Challenger Flag Football team, volunteers in a SundaySchool class and goes dancing every chance he has.   He was just hired to work at Home Depot!  He has a full social life and enjoys doing presentations and signing books.  In his spare time, Sean loves to make music videos using an app on his Iphone.  He’s currently single, but has a girl that he is trying to woo.

    

 Thank you Sandra

  Enter for a chance to win a copy of this book  by leaving a comment on this post. The giveaway will close on  the 31st.   Winners will be   announced on   November forth. 

 Click here for  the book's  website 

 Click here  for  the book's Facebook  page 

AZ Fiction Reading List

    From the time  I was young,  I  have loved to read and  as  I have gotten  older I  have had  to discover books about  characters with disabilities , cuz  lets  face it   reading about  average  people   is  boring when u have a disability  because  you  do not have anything  to relate to,    Here are some books that I have found and loved   that have  characters that live with disabilities   I have just  finished American  Lit  so  keeping with the  theme  all of these  books   are  written by Americans.


   

  ACCIDENTS OF NATURE  

     I   first learned of this book through   other youth leaders at I am  Norm.    This is about  a  girl  with CP who  has  been mainstreamed her whole life but goes to summer camp for those with disabilities.  Very  good  but  it is set in  1970  so the  R  word will rear  its ugly  head.   Talks about  the average
 community vs  the special  needs  community in an accessible way.

OUT OF  MY MIND 

  If you have a child friend student   who has  a speech impairment you need to read this book. This is the story of a little girl with  prety significant  CP.   She can not walk or talk  but  knows exactly whats  going on.  This  needs to be turned into a movie.   It is viral that parents read this book 

 The Story of Beautiful  Girl 


1968  A women with developmental disabilities  gives birth to a baby  girl  only problem is  she lives in an institution She  runs away with her deaf boyfriend and  she comes to the home of a retired school  teacher.     Unfortunately  the women and her  boy friend  are caught  but the girl  is not found  by the officials   Read  how their lives unfold.  R  word is in  the book.  The book  captures the  disability rights movement.  

  Nobody's  Perfect 

 Great book written about a deaf  girl  who is bothered by the fact that a new girl does not like her.  Turns out that  the new girl has a secret
    One of the Authors  is  Marlee Matlin   the deaf actress who is best known for Children of a Lesser  god. 
 She also has written two other books , yet I like  this  one the best. 

 Wonder 


   A  kid who looks different starts the fifth grade for the first time. Very  good read  talks about bullying.

 Still  reading this  one.  This is about  three kids  who have recently moved  into   a SF   home   that   was  once owned by a author.     The  youngest of the three kids has dyslexia.  They  go on a adventure  to save their mom and dad.   Fairly  new book

 Memory keepers daughter 


  A doctor delivers his own   twins .  A boy and a girl with down syndrome.     He sends the  nurse  on call  to take the baby to a group home;however, she refuses. Things are complicated because the Doctor's  wife  thinks that the child has died.



   Part one of the list. Do you guys have more Fiction books.  Next up is memoirs