Talking Together followed Socially Wise implementation for a class of 6-7 7th grade students in a 6-8th grade middle school. The students attended this class period typically for literacy supports. Individually the students had been identified with learning disabilities and/or emotional support needs and all have IEPs. The classroom includes para educator support and one student has individual TSS support (agency wrap services) to help maintain attention to task.
Talking together lessons were held from the end of September through November of 2019 on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for about 70 minutes. The Recorder's Log was completed by rotating students, selected at random. Students struggled with recording accurately and "nice comments" were not differentiated from participation points, if any were actually made. For this group of students, refraining from negative comments and call outs and engaging with the content were all significant victories.
As will be seen in the data, the students reduced their number of disruptions and significantly increased their participation as a community. The number of interruptions would increase if more than a week occurred between lessons, possibly due to attention seeking behavior when the guest teacher (myself) returned after a longer period of time. A group contingency of class reinforcer for meeting the group goals for participation, low interruptions and unpleasant gestures was established from the beginning and supported student engagement. Chocolate and pizza go a long way! Making negative comments remained low. The students struggled with memorizing the exact language for the discussion skill, rules and support skill. They were able to follow the steps with the cue cards in their folders as a scaffold. Most are able now at 3 months postvention to cite the SEE steps without a prompt or the cue card while working on FRAME and other SIM lessons.
As an extension activity for the student who requires individual prompting from an aide, a chart of calling out vs. participation questions was developed to be used during inclusive classroom programming which shows an overall trend of reduction of calling out although not extinction.
Talking together lessons were held from the end of September through November of 2019 on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for about 70 minutes. The Recorder's Log was completed by rotating students, selected at random. Students struggled with recording accurately and "nice comments" were not differentiated from participation points, if any were actually made. For this group of students, refraining from negative comments and call outs and engaging with the content were all significant victories.
As will be seen in the data, the students reduced their number of disruptions and significantly increased their participation as a community. The number of interruptions would increase if more than a week occurred between lessons, possibly due to attention seeking behavior when the guest teacher (myself) returned after a longer period of time. A group contingency of class reinforcer for meeting the group goals for participation, low interruptions and unpleasant gestures was established from the beginning and supported student engagement. Chocolate and pizza go a long way! Making negative comments remained low. The students struggled with memorizing the exact language for the discussion skill, rules and support skill. They were able to follow the steps with the cue cards in their folders as a scaffold. Most are able now at 3 months postvention to cite the SEE steps without a prompt or the cue card while working on FRAME and other SIM lessons.
As an extension activity for the student who requires individual prompting from an aide, a chart of calling out vs. participation questions was developed to be used during inclusive classroom programming which shows an overall trend of reduction of calling out although not extinction.