Holistic Outline

Experiment 3: Poem

Each part will have about 5 stanzas with approximately 6 short lines each. The parts will not be labeled; their labels here are for organizational purposes only.

Part 1

The beginning of the poem will be a description of what it feels like for me to walk into and help out in the preschool classroom in which I worked. I will discuss the students’ likes and dislikes, quirks, etc. The most important facet of this part is that I will not mention the fact that it is a classroom of students that have autism until after I have described the joyful classroom. Revealing that the students have autism will be last part of this part.

Part 2

In part 2, I will discuss the idea that typically developing people rarely interact with

people with autism, simply because of the way society is set up. I will elaborate on how

and why this is an issue, including how it makes people behave when they do interact with people with autism.

Part 3

In this part, I want to describe what it feels like for people with autism in daily life. A lot of

what these people have to deal with is overstimulation from their environment. Often,

people on the spectrum have meltdowns in public places because the sounds and lights

are too overpowering. Part 3 will explore what happens in their heads when they

become overstimulated, along with what happens in their environment and how they

respond. It will be slightly accusatory as it addresses the reader as ‘you,’ someone who

stares and uses the word ‘retarded.’

Part 4

Part 4 will expand on the use of the ‘R’ word including why it’s offensive and

inappropriate in all situations, not just when used towards people with special needs.

Part 5

In this final part, I will describe people with autism in a simple, yet highly positive light by

using simple sentences and descriptive adjectives that can also be used for typically

developing students. I want to conclude the poem with the idea that people with autism

are just as awesome as people without it. This takes us full circle to the beginning,

where I had introduced the students as if they were typically developing kids.