In our unit on Sensation and Perception, we were going to use them to to demonstrate how perspectives shift, and have a little fun. Personally, I was hoping to find a way to introduce the concept in a concrete way how to respect people with a different view of the world.
The problem is, we have one pair. I've written a grant for a class set, but that will only benefit future classes. I introduced the goggles yesterday by having a contest between a baseball player and a softball player to see who was more accurate with the goggles. I had secretly taught the softball player a trick to counteract the goggle effects- and we all had a good laugh when our baseball player was completely off target.
So, the lesson proper started off with the class sharing the goggles and trying to write their name. Not too challenging. Then a couple played "Pin the Tie on the Batman" using my 5 foot tall Batman standee ( see, he is instructionally important!). Then we took a field trip to a water fountain. A handful of students donned the goggles and tried to not only not bump into a wall, get water into their mouths, not their ears.
We went back to the classroom, all of having had a good time, and began to debrief the exercise. I asked students how they compensated for the altered perception. " We used our other senses," they replied. Some had used their finger to find the water stream then followed their sense of touch, for example. Then I asked them how they would adjust if multiple senses were not working. They admitted it would've been very hard to accomplish the task.
In a moment of unexplained inspiration, I remembered a video I had seen. I set the stage for the video by asking who had seen "Man of Steel," the seen where young Clark's senses go into overload. About half had, so I explained further. Then I asked "What if a person had sensory overload like that- how would they deal?" Not well, many responded. Then I showed the following video:
The students sat silent. They took it all in. Their look said it all. "Is that really what it's like?" I explained that autism affects your perception. Sometimes it is this bad. Other times, other individuals do not have this big of a problem.
Students shared stories of friends they know who are on the autism spectrum. Then the bell rang.
One student hung back, and explained to me that he often wondered if he might be on the spectrum. He talked of how often felt the way the video demonstrated. We talked, and he asked more questions.
In that moment, I knew, for that student, the lesson made a difference. And for the other students who now saw some of their peers struggles, it made a difference.
For me, that makes it one of the best yet.
