Hammill Institute on Disabilities

Using C.H.A.O.S. to MainstreamAuthor(s): Judith JacobsSource: Learning Disability Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 3 (Summer, 1983), p. 358Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1510451 .

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-LDQ APPLICATION . . .

USING C.H.A.O.S. TO MAINSTREAM

C.H.A.O.S. (Children Having Another Outstanding School Experience) represents a

unique way of mainstreaming primary-age, special day class students into regular classrooms. After dividing the school year into 4- to 6-week blocks of time, each teacher sets aside one hour of class time each Friday after- noon and selects a variety of elective subjects to teach the students. Examples include movement exploration, weaving, playing the recorder, paper machO, pantomime, skits and plays, word games, and dance. Students make a first and second choice of electives. Based on these choices teachers form fairly evenly divided

groups of children for the Friday classes, scheduling special day class students together with regular class pupils.

Field testing in San Gabriel revealed that teachers found special education students no more or no less difficult to teach than regular students who, in turn, learned to accept special day class students as just "another bunch of kids." Finally, special day class students were ex- posed to other students and teachers in addition to a variety of new subject matter. Overall, everybody agreed that C.H.A.O.S. helped everyone gain a better understanding that "we are not so very different from each other."

- Judith Jacobs San Gabriel School District, CA

THE "BROWN CURVE" To provide them an opportunity to explore

the relationship between what is given and what can be done, students receive a sheet of paper (18" x 24") containing an organic brown shape glued slightly off center. (The shape should have a sigmoid line, or teardrop quality.) Students are asked to describe the shape. What does it look like? What does it make them think of? Next, they are encouraged to make it part of a painting

and are equipped with a pallette of tempera paint. They can leave the shape alone or make designs on it-but the shape must become an in- tegral part of their painting. The teacher may ask where they have seen the shape before, or if

they can identify things made with this shape. This project enhances the development of

problem-solving skills, because each student must develop an artistic composition incor- porating a predesigned shape.

The Brown Curve

-Mary Jeanette Martz Junior Arts Center Los Angeles

THE MATCH STRATEGY The following match strategy is designed for

students having trouble understanding that a pic- ture represents a three-dimensional object, as well as for students whose vocabulary is inade- quate for describing objects or events.

Using picture books depicting everyday sur- roundings and a paper bag filled with objects cor- responding to the pictures in the book, the teacher first reads the book to the children. After having spent some time looking at and discuss- ing the pictures and the content, each child is asked to reach into the bag and pull out one ob- ject, such as a rock, tree bark, pine cone, toy in- sect, candle, etc. The teacher then gives each child the book and lets him/her turn the pages until he/she finds a picture of the object. At this point, vocabulary can be supplied to describe

358 Learning Disability Quarterly

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