A note on language
This unit follows the recommendation of the Autism Association of Australia in using identity-first language to describe Autistic people. The unit will also use a capital ‘A’ when describing those who identify as members of the Autistic community. Please remember that Autistic people are diverse and have their own preferences. This extends beyond the Autistic label, as some people prefer to say that they are Neurodivergent or ‘on the spectrum’. It is always best to ask someone how they identify and use that language accordingly. See Victoria’s State Disability Plan for more information on identity- and person-first language, and the More Resources section for a list of websites that discuss language use.
Connecting to prior knowledge
Begin by activating students’ knowledge about autism. Introduce the idea that, while people share many similarities, we all have unique differences and our brains think and feel in different ways. Also emphasise that everyone has their own strengths. In small groups, ask students to discuss the activities that they feel confident or skilled doing. Invite each group to share their strengths with the class, supporting students to identify commonalities and differences.
Now explain that, just as everyone has strengths, we each have experiences or tasks that we find challenging. Ask students to discuss the tasks that they find challenging in their small groups. Again, share with the class and reflect on the commonalities and differences. These discussions are designed to highlight diversity and similarities in the way people think and feel, setting up an understanding of neurodiversity.
Explain that Autistic people have unique strengths and that their brains might process information and experiences differently to non-autistic people. For example, they might focus their attention on topics they are passionate about and develop a deeper understanding of those topics (asking an Autistic person to relate these ‘special interest’ subjects to the topic in discussion can be a helpful way to form understanding). They might come up with ideas and creative solutions that non-autistic people would not consider.
At the same time, Autistic people may face challenges that are similar to or different from the challenges experienced by non-autistic people. Some might be sensitive to particular sounds, textures, objects, or sudden alterations to their environment/situation. Others may find social interactions and communication tricky. They may use more or fewer words when speaking, rely more on gestures, relate the topic to something they’ve experienced or understand more deeply, or use digital tools to help them communicate.
Show the class an image of a rainbow. Explain that when we look at a rainbow we see a group of many different colours; this is called a spectrum. Use this to introduce the idea that autism is a spectrum, since Autistic people have many different characteristics, strengths, and challenges. Explain that every Autistic person has their own story and that no two people are exactly the same. As many Autistic people will tell you: ‘If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.’ As the unit progresses you may spot a real rainbow after a rain shower, providing a meaningful opportunity to discuss the concept of a spectrum further.
To give students more insight into the experiences of Autistic children, play this video by the Icelandic Autism Charity Foundation for Children. After watching, ask students to share their observations about Dave’s strengths and challenges.
NOTE: Exploring neurodivergence with young children can be a sensitive topic. Be mindful and respectful of Autistic students in your class and those with a close connection to the Autistic community. In consultation with them and their families, consider whether these students would feel empowered to share their experiences and knowledge of autism – or not, if that is their preference. You could also invite a special guest, like an Autistic parent or an Autistic member of the school community, to talk to the class about their own experiences and knowledge of autism – but only if they feel comfortable and empowered to do so.
Exploring the text in context of our community, school, and ‘me’
Prepare for the next experience by filling a box with a few personal items, such as a soft toy, a photo, a favourite book, and so on.
Bernie Thinks in Boxes is written by Jess Horn and illustrated by Zoë Bennett. Horn uses the metaphor of boxes to represent how the main character’s brain works. To help students understand this metaphor, present them with the box you prepared earlier and ask how they might use it. Explain that the box is filled with objects that are important to you. Show students each object and talk about their importance, as well as how you and others might interact with them. Explain that boxes can help us to keep things organised.
Show students the text Bernie Thinks in Boxes. Discuss the features of the book, such as the front cover, back cover, blurb, and spine. Depending on how early in the year it is, you might also demonstrate how to hold the book and turn the pages. Return to the front cover and explain that this story is about a child who imagines boxes in her brain to help organise her thoughts. Revisit the previous discussion about physical boxes and discuss the connection to Bernie’s imagined boxes.
NOTE: For the purpose of tracking page numbers, the first page of the story will be considered p. 1.
Read the text, connecting the events in the story to the earlier discussions about autism, strengths/challenges, and the metaphor of boxes. You might like to use some of the following prompts with students:
- What are the activities that Bernie likes to do?
- What are Bernie’s strengths?
- What does Bernie find challenging?
- How would you feel if you saw a friend react the way Bernie did?
- What questions do you have about the story or the characters?
Pause on pp. 21–22 during the first reading, when Bernie and Mum are sitting on the step outside their house, to make predictions. Ask students what Bernie might have planned for Toby. Have them share their predictions with a partner before you continue reading. Once you finish the book, ask students to think about their predictions and whether they were accurate. Provide reassurance if they were not. Explain that it is natural for readers to wonder what will happen next in a story while they are reading. Sometimes their predictions are correct and sometimes they are not; both types of predictions are valuable.
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Rich assessment task
So far in this unit, students have considered how people’s strengths and challenges are similar to and different from one another. They have also considered the concept of a spectrum and the fact that autism is a spectrum, with no two people being exactly alike. Re-read Bernie Thinks in Boxes and work together to list Bernie’s strengths and challenges. Then rewatch the video about Dave and identify his strengths and challenges.
Students will work in small groups to compare and contrast Bernie and Dave’s strengths and challenges. Provide each group with a poster-sized Venn diagram so that they can draw and/or write the strengths and challenges in the relevant sections. Support students as needed, prompting them to doodle and write key words and/or scribing for those who require assistance. Each group can share their findings with another group. The finished diagrams can be displayed in the classroom or compiled into a class book as an artefact of students’ learning.
Responding to the text
Bernie experiences a range of emotions in the story, and her body responds differently in different situations. Re-read Bernie Thinks in Boxes and ask students how Bernie might be feeling in each situation. Ask them to justify their answers based on their observations about the words and images. You might also prompt them to make connections to their own experiences. Possible prompts include:
- How do you think Bernie feels when she sees Miss Williams at the shop (pp. 7–8)?
- Can you think of a time when something didn’t make sense to you? How did you feel? What did you do?
- How does Bernie’s body respond when she is unsure of a situation (pp. 13, 18)?
- How does your body respond when you’re feeling unsure?
- Bernie is nervous about going to Toby’s party, but she perseveres. Can you think of a time when you felt nervous but persevered?
Revisit the metaphor of boxes (see Literature > Exploring the Text in Context of Our Community, School, and ‘Me’). Ask children what they think it means to ‘think in boxes’. If possible, bring in an assortment of objects (e.g. a party hat, toilet paper, some broccoli, a balloon) and ask the class to sort them into two boxes labelled ‘home’ and party’. Talk about how our brains associate certain objects (like a party hat) with certain settings (like a party). Then take an object out of the home box (e.g. the broccoli) and put it in the party box. Ask the children how they would feel about broccoli being served at a party instead of cake. Suggest that, because the broccoli wasn’t initially in the party box, it might seem strange to serve it at a party. This will help students to understand Bernie’s boxes and why she gets upset when things aren’t in the right box.
Now look through the book and ask students what they notice about the objects, settings, and people in Bernie’s boxes and how they are categorised. If you have a document camera or visualiser, you could use it to enlarge the illustrations. Work together to sort the boxes according to location/situation (e.g. home, school) or routine (e.g. eating times).
Turn to pp. 17–18, when Bernie is at Toby’s party. Ask students what they think these sentences mean:
Bernie wondered if she could just put her School Box into her Park Box. But it was too big.
Now turn to pp. 29–30, when Bernie takes the cake to school. Examine the illustration on the right and ask students why the Cake for Toby Box fits inside the School Box. Discuss the fact that the cake is one small new element being added to a more predictable situation, making it a more manageable change for Bernie.
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Exploring plot, character, setting, and theme
There are multiple settings and situations in Bernie Thinks in Boxes. Ask students to identify what they are and who is present. Different characters respond to Bernie in different ways depending on where they are and what they are doing. Ask students to discuss how the characters respond to Bernie in different moments throughout the story. You might create a table like the one below to help organise their observations.
| Setting / situation | Characters present | How Bernie responded | How the characters responded to Bernie |
| At the shop | Mum, Miss Williams | ||
| At Toby’s party in the park | |||
| At home, on the step, after the party |
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Rich assessment task
Re-read Bernie Thinks in Boxes, then have students complete a sketch-to-stretch task to explore and expand their thinking about the text. Ask each student to fold or divide a piece of paper into four quadrants and draw four things they’re thinking about after hearing the story again. This could be the characters, the events, their own emotions, or how the story connects to autism.
Have students share their completed sketches in small groups. Encourage them to discuss any questions they still have about the text or autism. You can listen as you circulate, recording key points to better understand what they find important. You can explore any unanswered questions throughout the rest of the unit.
Examining text structure and organisation
Explore the developments in Bernie’s emotions over the course of the story. Revisit the earlier discussion about her feelings in different situations (see Responding > Responding to the Text). Write a list of emotions that students identify from the book, and guide them to expand the list by introducing new or less familiar vocabulary. Consider adding these words to an emotions word wall for students to refer to as the unit progresses.
Explain that illustrations can provide insight into characters’ emotions. Zoë Bennett uses visual techniques to convey how Bernie is feeling through her facial expressions and body language. Explore the illustrations on each page, drawing attention to how Bennett uses lines to represent emotions on Bernie’s face (e.g. drawing her eyes wide open and her eyebrows pointing up in the middle of her face to represent worry). Also highlight the shapes Bennett uses to represent emotions in Bernie’s body (e.g. drawing her fists clenched and her body curled up to represent frustration).
NOTE: Some Autistic children may display intense feelings (like distress or fear) through an emotional state that might register as something different to neurotypical people, like boredom. Sometimes the best course of action is to ask if an Autistic child is enjoying themselves, or if they’d like any accessibility alterations to make things more comfortable for them.
Demonstrate how lines can be used to express different emotions (e.g. joy, frustration, fear, calmness) by drawing a series of faces on the board or on butcher’s paper. Ask students to consider the emotions word wall and choose words that describe the facial expressions you have drawn. You can repeat this activity by inviting students to draw more faces on the board/butcher’s paper.
Now ask students to choose one of the emotions Bernie experiences in the story. They can use paper and pencils/markers to draw her face, using the visual techniques demonstrated above to represent her emotions. They can also label the emotion using a word from the emotions word wall.
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Examining grammar and vocabulary
The next experience draws on Playing with Grammar in the Early Years by Beryl Exley and Lisa Kervin (pp. 2–4) to support teaching about simple sentences. Students will learn about the noun group (who or what is taking part) and the verb group (what is happening) in a sentence.
Begin by explaining that simple sentences tell us who or what is taking part (the noun group) and what is happening (the verb group). You could write these words on the board in red (‘who or what is taking part’) and green (‘what is happening’), corresponding with the colours used for the participant and process in functional grammar. Write examples of simple sentences on the board and ask students who or what is taking part and what is happening. Underline the ‘who/what’ in red and the ‘what happens’ in green. Examples from Bernie Thinks in Boxes include:
- ‘Bernie thought in boxes.’ (p. 1)
- ‘Bernie’s tummy squeezed.’ (p. 13)
- ‘Bernie did not wave back.’ (p. 18)
- ‘Bernie listened to her legs.’ (p. 19)
- ‘Bernie led mum to the kitchen.’ (p. 23)
Choose sentences based on the time of year and your students’ knowledge. For example, you might start with sentences involving Bernie and an action, then branch out to those involving other characters or circumstantial information later.
Finish by asking students to choose an image from the text and write a simple sentence that includes who or what is taking part in the image and what is happening. They can then identify the ‘who/what’ by underlining those words in red, and the ‘what happens’ by underlining those words in green.
Rich assessment task
Drawing on students’ prior learning about emotions and simple sentences, guide them to produce a class book about emotions featuring Bernie (or themselves, if preferred).
Allocate different emotions to students or allow them to choose their own. Each student will contribute to the class book by drawing a picture of Bernie conveying the focus emotion, applying what they have learned about facial expressions and body language. Alongside their drawing, students should write at least one simple sentence to introduce the emotion (e.g. ‘Bernie feels worried’, ‘Bernie feels happy with her friend’).
Model creating your own page before students begin, reminding them what they have learned about visual techniques and the components of simple sentences. Collate the finished pages into a book and display it in the classroom.
NOTE: Remember that some Autistic children might display a different visual reaction to neurotypical children; there are no wrong displays of emotion.
Alternatively, students could use an app like Book Creator to publish the class book. They could type and draw on screen or capture photographs of each other, showing different emotions on their faces or through their body language. You will need to teach students how to use this tool beforehand and provide guidance throughout.
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The final experiences in this unit draw on the theme of identity in Bernie Thinks in Boxes. Students will be asked to reflect on and represent their own identity as they work towards a final multimedia presentation.
Revisit the metaphor of thinking in boxes (see Literature > Exploring the Text in Context of Our Community, School, and ‘Me’). Remind students of how Bernie uses boxes to categorise different situations in her life. Set up three boxes in the classroom and place a few artefacts in each one to represent different situations in your own life (e.g. a family box, a school box, a hobby box). Explore each box with the class and explain how you have categorised the artefacts and situations.
Now ask students to think about three boxes that might be part of their lives. You might prompt them by asking:
- What are some places you visit frequently?
- What are your interests?
- Who are your friends?
- Who is in your family?
- What are some objects and activities that are important to you?
Students can then draw their three boxes using paper and pencils/markers. Ask them to share their drawings with a partner and explain what the boxes represent and what objects are included.
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If you can access it, read The Museum of Me by Emma Lewis. If you cannot find a copy, you can talk generally about museums and ask students if they have ever visited any. Afterwards, discuss the idea of a museum of objects that represent who students are. Explain that the boxes they drew earlier are part of what makes them ‘them’ (their identity). They will now use these drawings to construct physical boxes and fill them with objects to represent different areas of their lives (just like in The Museum of Me, if you read it).
Provide students with three physical boxes (approx. shoebox-sized) along with a variety of visual arts materials (e.g. coloured paper, cellophane, cardboard, tissue paper, scissors, glue, sticky tape) to decorate the interior of their boxes. They can produce drawings, make collages, and take and print photos to include in their box. You might support this process by sending each child home with a copy of their box drawings and asking their families to send in objects/photographs for the physical boxes.
Rich assessment task
The culminating experience for this unit is the presentation of the completed boxes. The presentations will be filmed for future reference. Students will discuss the artefacts in their boxes and how each one represents their identity (what makes them ‘them’). They will also discuss the design and construction of the boxes.
Model a presentation using your own boxes, demonstrating how to talk about the artefacts and what sort of language to use. Allow time for students to rehearse their presentations with a partner. Consider offering some visual or written prompts to support their thinking.
The filmed presentations can be shared with families at a school event (with permission) or sent home with individual students. Alternatively, they could be shared with a buddy class.
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