High School

Mission of the Student Advocates

Student Advocates take action to inspire and enlighten students, educators, and others about learning differences to create a more inclusive environment for future generations.

◗ INSPIRE

Advocates inspire students to advocate for themselves and their peers both inside and outside of the classroom.

◗ ENLIGHTEN

We enlighten future generations of educators by sharing the importance of understanding learning differences.

◗ ENCOURAGE

We encourage changes in teaching practices to better meet the needs of students with learning differences.

The Advocates Know What Works

The presentations include a video featuring Landmark students, personal stories, interactive exercises, and questions and answers. The Advocates also share what teaching and learning strategies work best for them and how aspiring teachers can incorporate these tools into their classrooms. Examples include Landmark's Six Teaching Principles, such as presenting information in varied ways, making lessons active and kinesthetic, using templates, encouraging self-advocacy, and more.

Partway through their presentation, an Advocate asks an audience member to read a few pre-selected sentences aloud that have been purposely manipulated to simulate what a person with dyslexia sees when looking at text. The person reading aloud clearly struggles with the text and often displays signs of embarrassment or shame. That is the point. Out of these difficult first-hand experiences comes empathy and compassion.