Boles 1

Carl Boles
Mrs. Debock
English 4
October 21, 2014
Annotated Bibliography
Research Question: What are teachers doing to teach our mentally ill?
Working Thesis Statement: Teachers have done many things to ensure the education of the
mentally ill
Refined Thesis Statement: I have found that teachers everywhere have found many ways to teach
their mentally handicapped students.

Sousa, David A. How the Special Needs Brain Learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2001.
Print.
This book gives a great outlook on how the mentally handicap work and how well they
work on different subjects, like math, science, history, and english. David Sousa gives great tips
on how teachers can teach and keep their mentally handicapped students happy. David also
shows the precautions to take when dealing with a child with Autism and Aspergers. In the book,
David states that these mental handicaps can cause children to be very irritable and anti-social,
but he also states that the children with this mental illness are very intelligent and loving. All the
mental illnesses David talks about in his book are illnesses special education teachers deal with

Boles 2

every day. This book is useful because it shows different mental disabilities and how teachers
can work with these children.

Sanna, Ellyn. Careers with Character: Special Education Teacher. Broomall, PA.: Mason Crest,
2003. Print.
This book shows not only the basics of teaching children with a mental handicap
but it also shows learning techniques for children with learning disabilities like hearing
deficiencies. Ellyn writes about how to better teach a blind student or a student with a
hearing deficiency. She also gives great insight on job requirements that enable you to be
a special education teacher. People that desire to be a special education teacher must pass
a comprehensive exam, or it may require additional coursework to meet a state's differing
requirements. This source is useful because it explains what it takes to be a special
education teacher.
"Intellectual Disability (Mental Retardation): Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments."
WebMD. Ed. David T. Derrer. WebMD, 16 Mar. 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.
This site gives teachers and parents great tips on how to get their mentally
handicapped child to learn in an easier and simpler way. It shows a large list of
mental retardations and what they exactly do to the brain and how it affects the
child with that disability. The author of this site shows a great care on how to
explain mental handicaps to the parents and teachers who are in care of these
children. The site gives a great outlook on how teachers can teach their mentally
handicapped students and what methods would help them learn faster and
understand the work they are being assigned. This site is useful because it

Boles 3

explains what teachers and parents can do to help their child with a mental
retardation.