Helping Critically Ill Children and Their Families

This interdisciplinary and inclusive unit deals with organizations that support critically ill children and their families and can be used in any grade level in middle or high school. Depending upon the level of the students, this unit could be a joint project between general and special education students or special education students and a school organization, such as Student Government Association, either at the same site or separate sites. The students will assess the needs of these particular organizations during the initial stage of the process. This service-learning project will combine persuasive writing in language arts, research in health and science, creation of a budget in math, and a variety of projects in art class to benefit these organizations. For example, in 2009, students collected pajamas, and sorted them by size, folded, rolled, tied, and labeled them for distribution.

Given the many options and the flexibility built into this service-learning project, it is hoped there will be few problems identifying appropriate service-learning opportunities within this framework for students receiving special education services, similar to their nondisabled peers.

This unit is aligned with the Maryland State Curriculum.