Overview
Justice Speaks has carefully crafted and patented a Pre-K through 12th Grade curriculum with easy to follow directions for presenters, educators and students. This curriculum, titled “Your Guide for Forming and Informing Citizen Advocates for Service Animals,” is designed to create and inform the students who will be our future citizen advocates. The lesson plans outline the role of the teacher and provide engaging activities that build on and reinforce what came before. Our goal is to expose children to alternate lifestyles and special needs to help them respond with compassion and understanding when they encounter service dogs in the real world.
Our content is aligned with Colorado Academic Standards for Reading, Writing and Communicating. The curriculum addresses all types of disabilities, both seen and unseen.
The goals of our curriculum align with the Colorado Department of Education, including:
- Disability awareness: Making accessibility real and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including website and educational experiences.
- Data collection, analysis and continuous improvement: Justice Speaks provides meaningful performance and assessment data that teachers, parents and administrators can use to make decisions at every level.
- Disability education and technology implementation: The Justice Speaks implementation plan is designed for the unique needs of the elementary grades, whether in urban, suburban, or small and rural school districts.
- Reading, writing and communication academic standards: The curriculum offers guidance and resources for social emotional learning and culturally responsive education. Each module provides information and evidence-based practices that help students become proficient in the content, concepts and skills within the Colorado Academic Standards for Reading, Writing, and Communicating.
Training Course Details
The total curriculum is organized into four groups: Pre-K & K, 1–4, 5–8, and high school. This approach allows for a truly comprehensive functional curriculum for students with and without developmental disabilities.
Our curriculum is broken into three modules. Each takes around 60 minutes to complete. Each module includes skill cluster sequences and activities related to daily living situations. We recommend spreading the activities out over 2–3 weeks depending on your class’s schedule and needs, and reviewing each module before you start training. Let us know if you have any questions!
Each module includes pre- and post-assessments.
We’ve designed our curriculum to be engaging and hands-on. Some activities include:
- Games
- Art projects
- Meeting a service dog
We provide many specific supplies such as posters, but teachers will need to provide more basic classroom supplies like markers and printed copies of materials.
Our Curriculum
Our curriculum includes custom lessons for grades Pre-K through 12.
The Pre-K to 2nd grade teaching manual is free to download.
Web Game
Our curriculum includes a fun, engaging web game students use to learn more about service dogs. The game leads students through different scenarios to better understand what service dogs do, how they differ from pets, and how they should (and shouldn’t) be interacted with.
The online game reinforces student learning in a new format and gets students thinking about real world application of the content.
Pre-K Games
Certificates
Younger students receive a certificate when they finish the Justice Speaks training. Certificates get kids excited to master a topic and can be a talking point for the child to tell their families what they’ve learned and further spread understanding of service dogs.
We also have badges for the kids to help them let others know their qualifications!
Download the Citizen Advocate Badge (PDF, 0.9 MB) Schedule Your Training
Trainers
Cathy Burds
Founder
Join Us in Making a Difference
If you can't bite 'em, educate 'em!™
Invest in a world where service dog handlers are embraced and understood. Every contribution, big or small, makes a meaningful difference.
Donate Now