Choosing Their Own Voice

Recently, our 4th grade class finished reading the book Rules, by Cynthia Lord.  The book is about a young girl who has a younger brother with autism.  The young girl, Catherine, has a loving relationship with her brother, but has a difficult time with the way others see him.  She is protective of him and at the same time embarrassed.  During a visit to her brother David's OT clinic, she befriends a boy who is confined to a wheel chair and is unable to speak.  He uses a communication book which allows him to point to words in order to have a conversation.  At the same time Catherine is trying to make friends with the "cool" girl who moved in next door. She is torn between her brother, her new friend who can not speak, and pretending they don't exist in order to impress her new neighbor.  As we read this book, we focused on the question: "What does it mean to have voice?"  

After we finished reading the book, I gave my students a communication book of their own with words that I chose for them.  They were not allowed to add words of their own to the book, but their friends could.  In the novel, Catherine adds to her new friends communication book so that they could have conversations about things that were important to her.  My students also had to rely on others to give them words.  

After some time, I asked them questions that they had to answer using their books.  They agreed that it was a fun activity, but also very frustrating not to be able to say exactly what they wanted to.  I tried asking them questions that they would have difficulty answering with the words I had given them.  Earlier that day our chapel message was about being an ambassador for Christ.  My students really took this lesson to heart, so I asked them how they could be ambassadors for Christ.  Knowing that I did not give them the words that I would expect them to use to answer this question, I expected them to be frustrated.  To my surprise, they all flipped to the back of their communication books, where I had left blank spaces for their friends to add words.  Each one of them had the words, Christ, God, and Love!  They chose to add these words to each others books so that they could communicate better, not the words, video games, One Direction, or Mindcraft.  When they contemplated the need to have their own voice heard, they chose the words: Christ, God and love.They never cease to amaze me!