For my enhancement project I decided to partner with a fellow honors member, Bailey Nixon, and write an article about how to adapt classroom lessons. After discussing participles in our grammar course, we began to wonder how grammar lessons could be applied to students with autism. Both of us are passionate about learning and are studying to become teachers. After graduation, we plan on having inclusive classrooms where learning is not limited to just general education students. In order to do this and gain the best skills possible, we wanted to delve into research about students with autism and how to provide them with an effective education. Since grammar is such an important topic in every grade, we decided to research and enhance a grammar lesson that teachers could easily adapt and use with their students–whatever their learning abilities.
Our article specifically focused on a participial phrase lesson from Benjamin and Berger and focused on how to adapt it for a student with Autism. We worked closely with Dr. Smith, our ENGL 382 professor, and she helped guide us throughout the whole project. Together we came up with new lesson ideas, new goals for the students, and discovered how they could be implemented in the classroom. We also created some handouts that could be used in the classroom as well. Due to the circumstances, we had to present our project virtually but regardless it was still a great experience. This enhancement project taught me a lot about myself and I could not have done it without Bailey or Dr. Smith.
I have attached our article regarding our research that we submitted for publication.