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With
Open Arms: Creating School Communities
of Support for Socially Challenged Kids
Using Circle of Friends, Extracurricular
Activities, and Staff Learning Teams
is for many different types of children,
as the excerpt from pages 9 - 11.
Who Can Benefit From a Circle of Friends?
The following examples illustrate who
you might consider forming a Circle of
Friends for.
James is a 7th grader with Asperger
Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder.
He's a straight A student with incredible
background knowledge in subjects ranging
from aeronautics, Ancient Egyptian history
and culture, to advanced algebra. But
he has limited social skills and rarely
interacts with peers. James picks his
nose, chews pencils and paper obsessively,
and has tantrums when schedules change
or things don't happen the way he thinks
they should. He has extreme difficulty
doing group projects, a common activity
in the middle school curriculum. When
other students try to talk to James, he
frequently becomes rude, either ignoring
them or telling them he doesn't have time
for them.
Mr. Jones, high school principal,
seems to spend an inordinate portion of
his day disciplining the same three boys
over and over. They constantly disrupt
classes and are rewarded by the attention
they receive from the other students.
Miranda is a popular cheerleader and
academic and social leader in her 9th-grade
class. She always had a heart for "the
underdog." She just tried to befriend
a new girl, Tammi, who had recently been
placed in a foster home in her school
district. At first things seemed to go
O.K., but lately Tammi has made some mean
comments about cheerleaders being "stupid
airheads" that bother Miranda. Miranda
wants to reach out, but is angry with
Tammi for her cruel comments.
Jason is a good-looking 10th-grade
boy with ADD. His difficulty focusing
in class has made success in traditional
academic subjects a rarity for him. So,
although he is a talented wrestler, Jason
often sits out meets since he is frequently
on the fail list at school. Jason excels
in car mechanics and construction classes,
but often blurts out inappropriate comments
to peers in an effort to get their attention.
Although he had friends in grade school,
he is rarely invited to the homes of those
kids any more. He is starting to gain
acceptance from the drug-using "party
crowd" and is considering joining
rather than living in isolation from his
peers.
Courtney, a bright, pretty, but extremely
overweight 6th grader recently moved into
a foster home in the district. She tries
to get attention by starting fights with
her peers and freely discussing her history
as an abuse victim. The other students
are afraid of her and avoid her whenever
possible.
Tom is a 10th grader with a reputation
for being a bully. He has lately targeted
two special education students on his
bus, one of whom has autism and the other,
mild mental retardation. He has been calling
them names like "retard" and
teaching them to say vulgar words they
do not know the meaning of.
Maria is an ELL (English Language
Learner) student, whose family recently
moved to the United States from Guatemala.
Maria speaks very limited English and
was found crying in the girls' bathroom
during lunch. Apparently, she is too
overwhelmed and scared to walk into the
cafeteria. She rarely interacts with anyone
during the school day.
Teachers in a local middle school
have expressed concern about the number
of cliques cropping up and the unusually
cruel way students have been treating
each other this year. They have spoken
to their classes whenever the opportunity
presented itself, but little seems to
have changed.
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