Sophomores, in Mrs. Langley’s first-period honors literature class at Lambert High School, taught a revised fairytale to one of the special education classes, and it was highly successful.

Mrs. Langley’s class began working with Ms. Nicoletti’s special education class the week of September 9, 2019. The class created a revised version of the nursery rhyme Little Red Riding Home and organized a lesson to teach the kids with disabilities. The students created a foldable of the story, and the special ed class drew pictures on them to draw out the story.

“We’re just teaching her to pick apart the plot…find the different elements of the plot and draw a picture of it…a rhetorical analysis but a little simpler,” a student from Mrs. Langely’s honors literature class said.

Pictured left is of one of Ms. Nicoletti’s students with her drawing of the Little Red Riding Hood story.

Pictured underneath is of one of Ms. Nicoletti’s students working on the foldable

The idea to begin working with Ms. Nicoletti’s class came about when Mrs. Langely and Ms. Nicoletti had a conversation about how they are passionate about the subject. They wanted to have Langely’s AP Literature class and Nicoletti’s Special Education class collaborate and learn from each other.

While this was the first year she had sophomores work with the class, last year was the first year where she officially began the project. During the school year of 2018-2019, Mrs. Langely had her 12th grade AP Literature class work with the special education class for the first time. 

In comparison to the now-graduated seniors, the sophomore classes were, “I had to prep the 10th grade a little bit more… they’re embracing it more for the other kids, though.” Nicoletti commented on how, because the sophomores were not only teaching the content but also learning it at the same time, they were able to connect more with the students and try harder with their work.

Because of how successful the project went this month, the 10th grade Honors Literature class will continue working with Ms. Nicoletti’s special education class throughout the rest of the year.