Read…Reassure…Repeat

By Shayla Miller

A Remedy of Reading: Breaking Through Bipolar Disorder

How does reading impact the intense mood swings

felt by one bipolar student?

Why Her? Why This Topic?

• Free therapy• Both book worms• My college experience• Our first encounter

How Did We Get Here?

• Fernbank Elementary• Emory/ CDC• Inclusion Classroom• Homeschooled Until Now• Midyear Entry into Class

How Will We Get Answers?

• Interview student• Reading Interest Survey• Interview parent• Journal entries• Observations

Who Is She?

• 10 years old, White female• Early puberty, tall and thin• Homeschooled/ Brilliant• Quiet, reserved, and mature• Massive amounts of family

tension

What Does Everyone Else Think?

Students• weird• mean• scary• quiet• sad

Teachers• troubled• scarred• lonely• angry• mentally disturbed

What is She Like?

In-School• depends on the day• depends on the

observer• helpful• withdrawn• loves reading and

writing• unmotivated• playful• moody

Out-of-School• depends on the day• depends on the observer• happy• angry• swimming and piano• won’t eat or sleep• childlike• adolescent tendencies• emotional

What She Says…

• “I love reading. I disappear from here and go there and no one sees me but I’m there.”

• “It calms me down. I get really mad and I don’t know why…and if people let me read then I’m fine.”

• “I’ll read it but I really only like when things are stories. Everything should be a story.”

I Finally Figured Her Out

Before• unfinished work• no motivation for

school or work• unhappy and

temperamental• sloppy• least amount of effort

possible

After• more class

participation• USUALLY smiling• completes work• homework still an

issue• pride in work• better penmanship• more detailed

What Was Used?

Materials• historical fiction• newspaper articles• blogs• journal entries• novel study packets• reading inventories• pretests

Strategies• choices, choices,

choices• adaptive scheduling• comics, poems, and

kids’ books• collaborative learning• directed reading• literature searches

What Did I Learn About Her?

• interviews and inventories showed:–manages mood swings with reading– escapes peer judgment with reading

• journal and observations showed:– heightened stress over peer

assumptions– reading allows her to forget being

different

What Did I Learn About Teaching?

• don’t judge a book by its cover• you can’t fix all problems, but

you can help ease the stress• great need for teacher training in

mental disorders

What’s Next For Her?

• individualized education plan• opportunities to co-teach• long, hard journey with

medicines, treatments, and therapy