Meeting Individual Needs
Modifying Art for a Purpose
Art is a perfect way to com- bine creativity with con- cept and skill development for students who learn
differently. I have observed that my
life-skills class students remember
what I’m teaching much better when
I include a hands-on art activity as
part of the lesson. They really enjoy
seeing colors, manipulating different
art tools, and using various media, so
it is easy to take this enthusiasm and
build meaningful lessons that address
important knowledge and skills.
Ranella Franklin
This activity addressed the functional goal of learning to identify
and understand the meaning of a
safety sign while providing practice
in fine-motor development, eye-hand
coordination, following directions,
problem-solving, and self-expression.
Everyone’s exit sign was different
and students were quite proud of the
results.
A Lasting Impact
Students invited all visitors to look at
their work, which provided another
opportunity for them to both describe
what they had cre-
ated and explain the
meaning of an exit
sign. In addition,
whenever we moved
through the build-
ing on our way to
lunch or PE, students
started pointing out
all of the exit signs that they could
see. This continued for several weeks
after the lesson.
Using art to expand
on important concepts
makes learning more
meaningful and fun
for students with
disabilities.
The Exit Sign
Learning to read
functional signs is
an important safety
skill that we regularly
address. Most recently
this involved the exit
sign. Our school was
planning a fire drill
and I decided this would be a good
time to discuss exit signs—their purpose, what they look like, and where
they are located. “Exit” became one of
our words of the week—each day, students heard the word, identified it in
the word list, read the word, and wrote
the word as they were able.
Using art to expand on important concepts makes learning more
meaningful and fun for students
with disabilities. As a special education teacher with an art background,
I encourage art teachers who have
inclusion students to explore the possibilities of adapting/modifying their
lessons to address functional needs
such as learning about safety signs.
With a little creativity, not only will
an activity take on more relevance,
but it will become a more purposeful
form of “modification” for students
with special needs who are included
in a regular art class.
Ranella Franklin is a special education
life skills teacher at Joe C. Bean High
School, in Fort Worth, Texas. rfranklin@
eisd.org
Students explore and understand prospective content for works of art.
Art Activity
I also incorporated the exit sign into a
collage-type art activity. On 12 x 18"
( 30 x 46 cm) white paper, I outlined
in marker bubble-type block letters
that spelled the word “exit” for each
student. We used these to name the
letters, trace them with a finger, and
read the word. Students next cut strips
of red and orange paper into small
pieces. Finally, they spread glue into
one letter shape at a time, smeared
the glue around using a spreader stick,
and filled in the letters with the small
pieces of red and orange paper.
