Friday, May 18, 2007

Spider-Man

Lauren and I have a six-year old student in our class who was diagnosed as 'borderline' or 'mildly' autistic. Autism and Asperger's Syndrome are not something that I know too much about although I continue to learn more all the time. My feeling is that no one knows too much about it, but I could be wrong. This boy is extremely sensitive, very emotional, funny, endearing, frustrating, artistic, surprising, gentle and sweet. When he smiles and his face lights up you cannot help but smile yourself.

Yesterday I asked the students to write about something they know a lot about. As I conferenced with the children I noticed many of them writing pages and pages detailing facts about their families, Greek Mythology, pets, shopping, non-fiction and pizza. However, one student (the one mentioned above) was frustrated because he was having difficulty understanding the task. He knew he wanted to write about Spider-Man but could not verbalize his thoughts to me. I gave him encouragement to write something, anything about Spider-Man. Then I left him and went to meet with other students. About 10 or 15 minutes later he brought me an 11 page story. It's sequential, beautifully drawn and shows that he knows a lot about Spider-Man. Not bad for such a short span of time. Lauren and I were both impressed. He was proud of himself.





















There is a line in Tennessee Williams "A Streetcar Named Desire" that is spoken by Blanche while she is out with Mitch. She says "Sometimes, there's God so quickly". My interpretation of this is that in an instant we can be struck by amazement such as when a secret is revealed and we are suddenly happy. That is what I felt when I read this story. And while I read it his face lit up..."God, so quickly".

4 comments:

Joy Keaton said...

Okay, I'm going to say it here and now for the record: you either warn people up front to have a box of tissues ready - or I will no longer read this blog! So there!

And I agree with your interpretation of Blanche's line - I always thought that's what it meant. And boy, you had it here.

Good Spiderman. :)

Where's the damned Puffs when I need 'em?

marxsny said...

Not to mention the fact that Spider-Man embodies or is at the very least a metaphor for the "kindness of strangers" that Blanche has "always relied upon".

Sebastien Millon said...

Wow! Seriously, his drawings are unbelievable, he has such a great sense of line... really, I'm blown away. I don't have any experience with kids who have autism or Asperger's syndrome (my sister does). I've heard so many stories about how talented and amazing some of these kids are. And these drawings are a testament to an amazing talent. I hope he keeps expressing himself through his drawing, really beautiful.

Anonymous said...

These are the students that surprise and inspire us everyday.

Amazing artwork! It is so fascinating how all of the characters have similar features and qualities.

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