Holding the Door Open

Special Education Internship - Spring 2019

Throughout my placement in a 7th-12th grade Autistic Support classroom at The School at

McGuire, I learned part of the philosophy behind teaching students with low-incidence disabilities. The

population served at McGuire are students who are capable of and need to be taught the basic life skills

and academic knowledge needed to succeed in every-day life. Thus, I determined that holding the door

open would be an appropriate skill to teach as students could easily learn this tangible and common

social skill. As demonstrated by my lesson, I utilized strategies that benefit students with autism to

deliver my instruction in an accessible manner. By implementing a video, social story, and modeling, I

designed my instruction based on the needs and capabilities of my students.

Every student is a whole child who is capable of learning and achieving academic and life

skills. To benefit students with differing abilities and learning styles, however, the teacher must be

flexible and capable of adapting instruction. As demonstrated by this lesson, I considered the

capabilities of my students and implemented strategies that would foster students’ achievement in the

area of learning and practicing how to hold a door open. As the standard states, the teacher must

understand how students differ in their abilities and approach to learning. Even within my classroom at

McGuire, the students varied greatly in how they learned and responded to teaching. For example, my

student Nick benefitted greatly from the video of people holding the door open for each other. Yet my

student Alixey responded well to the characters in the social story. All the students benefitted from my

modeling as they were able to mimic my actions. The different strategies I implemented proved to be

effective and developmentally appropriate for the strengths and needs of my students with autism.

This lesson proves to support the goal of the standard regarding diverse learners. My designed

instruction considers the different learning styles and approach to learning of my students with autism

and fosters their achievement of holding open the door. Furthermore, as we continued to practice this

skill in the weeks following my lesson, students began to generalize the skill which demonstrates they

benefited from my instruction.

 GENEVA COLLEGE
BEAVER FALLS, PA

HOLDING THE DOOR OPEN FOR OTHERS

NAME: JENNA MARCISZ DATE: 8 MARCH 2019

COURSE: EDU 473 GRADE LEVEL: 7-10TH AUTISM SUPPORT

I. TOPIC AND GENERAL GOAL

O To recognize the social cue for holding the door open for others and understand how to appropriately
respond when others hold the door open.
II. REFERENCE TO PA OR COMMON CORE STANDARDS
O 16.2.8.D Analyze various types of conflict and determine appropriate resolutions.
O 16.3.8.A Examine the impact of decisions on personal safety, relationships, and group interactions.
III. LESSON OBJECTIVES
TSWBAT…

o watch a video of people holding the door open for each other
o hold the door open for peers and the teacher
o say thank you when the door is held open for them
o sort visual guide cards into the appropriate sequence
o color a page of characters holding the door open
IV. MATERIALS
O visual guide cards
O coloring page
O video modeling of holding the door open
O pictures from the video of the 3-step process
V. A. INTRODUCTION
O Good afternoon, students! Today we are going to learn how to hold the door open for others. We are
going to watch a video of people holding the door open for each other.
O Show the video of people holding the door open for each other. Allow students to watch and observe
the process. Ask students: “What happened in the video? Someone held the door open for others!”
Hold up the visual guide card and use the video side-by-side with the visual guide cards.
O To hold the door open for others, follow three steps (use visual guide cards):
1. If you see someone is close to you, hold the door open for them.
2. Hold the door open until everyone walks through the doorway.
3. Say thank you when someone holds the door open for you.
O Review the steps of holding the door open for others a few times.
O We are going to practice holding the door open for each other. Say each students' name and state,
“Line up and follow M!”
B. LESSON DEVELOPMENT (ACTIVITIES, PROCEDURES)

O Walk in front of the students towards the door and model the process of holding the door open. Look
behind and notice students are following me through the door. Hold the door open for them until
they all walk through the doorway. Prompt students to say thank you when walking through the
door.
O Give each student an opportunity to hold the door open for others. Prompt a student to walk through
the door first, hold the door open for the rest of us and prompt the other students to say thank you to
the student who held the door open.
 O Repeat the process until every student has held the door open. Return to the classroom and review
the steps of holding the door open using the visual guide cards.
O Review the three steps of holding the door open. If students appear to be grasping the process and
responding to the visual guide cards, shuffle the cards and ask students to sort them in the correct
sequence.
O Give students the coloring sheet and tell them to write their name at the top of the page. Provide
students with colored pencils/crayons to color the sheet.
C. EVIDENCE OF DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION (CONTENT, PROCESS, PRODUCTS, LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT)

O Process: Students with different learning types will engage in a variety of activities. Since many of
these students learn best visually, they will benefit from the watching the video and using the visual
guide cards. For students who learn best kinesthetically, they will experience holding the door.
O Learning Environment: Students will practice holding the door open in a setting outside of the
classroom. As they experience holding the door for others by using different doorways, they may
generalize that experience to doors outside of the school.
D. CLOSURE (SUMMARY)

O Good job today learning how to open the door for others! As we learned, there are 3 steps to follow
when opening the door for others: 1) If someone is close to you, hold the door open for them. 2)
Hold the door open until everyone walks through the doorway. 3) Always say thank you to the
person who holds the door open. Now you know when you should hold the door open for others.
VI. ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION
O Diagnostic: As students are watching the video for the first time, I will observe whether they
comprehend what is happening in the video. If students are not able to identify the content of the video, I
will fill in their background knowledge. The video showed someone holding the door open for others.
O Formative: As students are completing the task of holding the door open, I will assess whether they are
understanding the process of holding the door open. They should see that others are close to them and
hold the door open until everyone walks through while other students say thank you.
O Summative: Shuffle the visual guide cards and prompt students to sort them into the correct sequence.
Assess whether students understand the process by whether they sort the cards correctly.
VII. MODIFICATIONS AND/OR ACCOMMODATIONS
O Accommodation:
O As students practice holding the door open for others, I will provide verbal prompts for each step
of the process. If students get off-task, I will redirect them to completing the task of holding the
door open. Depending on the student’s needs, some may need more prompting than others.
O Modification:
O Rather than just describing how to hold the door open for others, I am providing a video that
models the process. This allows students to watch the video several times and then replicate the
process on their own.
VIII. INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS
O Math: The visual guide cards are numbered. If students are unsure how to sequence the cards, they can
use math skills and use the numbers 1-3 to sort them in the correct order.
O Art: Students will integrate art into the lesson by completing the coloring sheet.
O Writing: Students will practice writing skills by writing their name on the coloring sheet.
Holding the Door Open – Social Story

Doors are used to go into

different rooms and buildings.

When I want to walk through

a door, I need to hold it open.
 Sometimes other people will be
walking behind me when I go through
the door.

I can hold the door open for them.

This is a nice thing to do.
 Thank
you!

People like when the door is held open

for them. They will say thank you.
Thank
you!

I can hold the door open for others. I

can say thank you when others hold
the door open for me.

Holding the Door Open – Video

Rather than attaching the video, I am showing screenshots of the key points from the video. All participants in the
video gave consent to having their picture shown.

STEP 1:

Before you walk through a door, check behind you to

see if anyone is close to you. If someone is close, hold
the door open for them instead of walking through
the door.

Coleman is demonstrating this step of the process. He is

checking behind him before walking through the door.

STEP 2:

If someone is walking close behind you, you can hold

the door open for them. That person might say
“thank you.” If they say, “thank you,” you can say
“you’re welcome!”

Coleman holds the door open for Adam while he walks

through the door. Adam smiles and says, “thank you” to
which Coleman responds, “you’re welcome.”
 STEP 3:
Sometimes other people will be close to the door.
You can keep holding the door open until
everyone walks through.

Mel is close to the door. Coleman continues to hold

the door open for her.

STEP 4:
After everyone has walked through and no one
else is close to the door, you can walk through the
door.

Coleman walks into the library after everyone has

walked through the door.