5 steps involved in this strategy: IPLAN Inventory Provide

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The Self-Advocacy Strategy

• Becky Kjellsen,
• Courtney Zander,
• Miranda Townsend
• Rachel Christianson

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Definition

• Self-Advocacyan individuals ability to
  effectively communicate, convey, negotiate, or
  assert his or her own interests, desires, needs,
  and rights.
• Involves making informed decisions and taking
  responsibility for those decisions

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What is the Self-Advocacy Strategy?

• A motivation strategy that students can use when
  preparing for and participating in any type of
  Education or Transition Planning Conference.
• Designed to enable students to gain a sense of
  control over their own learning and development.
• Students learn
• How to inventory their learning strengths
• Areas to improve or learn
• Choices for learning
• How to set goals for learning and preparing
  themselves for the transition from school to
  adult life
• How to identify current interests and needs with
  respect to career and employment goals,
  independent community living, medical and legal
  services, and leisure and recreation activities
• How to communicate ALL of this information in
  conference situations and to take an active role
  in making decisions

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Continued.

• 5 steps involved in this strategy IPLAN
• Inventory
• Provide your inventory information
• Listen and respond
• Ask questions
• Name your goals

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Who benefits from this strategy?

• Adolescents and adults in a variety of
  situationsif students are expected to be active
  participants in decision-making processes that
  directly affect their education and future lives
• May be beneficial for parents who are expected to
  play a continuing and significant role in
  planning their childs education and development
  activities
• The Self-Advocacy Strategy can be used for all
  types of students, but was specifically designed
  for students who have developed patterns of
  negative attitudes and avoidance behaviors toward
  school, learning, and development

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Who teaches this strategy?

• General and special education teacher
• School counselors
• Career and special needs counselors
• Rehabilitation counselors
• Child advocates
• Youth counselors
• Any person who coordinates education, transition,
  or career conferences and wishes to empower
  students or clients to make decisions and take
  ownership of their lives

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Four considerations when deciding to teach the
Self-Advocacy Strategy

• The desire to enhance student motivation,
  independence, and personal responsibility for
  learning and development.
• The willingness to create and maintain
  environments that provide students or others with
  opportunities for success.
• The willingness to recognize that differences
  often exist in individual perceptions of
  educational and transition needs and goals,
  skills and motivation and to accommodate those
  differences.
• The willingness to give students opportunities to
  make choices about their learning and development
  experiences and accommodate those choices.

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Scenario 1

• A 17 year old senior in high school, preparing
  for her transition IEP.  She wants to attend a
  four year university, focusing on a journalism
  major for her future career
• Goal The student will correctly demonstrate 5
  out of 5 steps
• of the I PLAN Strategy
• 11.LVS.1.2 Students can evaluate logical and
  critical thinking used in communication.
• 11.W.4.1 Students are able to organize and link
  related information from multiple sources.

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Inventory

• Gives students an opportunity to identify and
  list their believed education and/or transition
  strengths, areas to improve or learn, goals,
  needed accommodations, and choices for learning
• All of this information is entered on an
  Education Inventory or Transition Inventory (a
  sheet the students takes to the conference)

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Education Inventory

• Student Name_____________
• Date_____________ Updates__________
• EDUCATION INVENTORY
• Strengths
• Reading Skills Writing Skills
• Math Skills Study Skills
• Social Skills Career Employment Skills
• 2. Areas to Improve or Learn
• 3. Goals
• School Goals
• Academic Goals
• Social Goals
• Career/Employment Goals
• Extracurricular Goals
• Future Goals

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Transition Inventory

• Name____________
• Date________ Updates___________
• Strengths
• Independent Living Skills Career Employment
  Skills
• Financial Consumer Skills Social
  Family-Living Skills
• Citizenship Legal Skills Health Wellness
  Skills
• Community Involvement Skills Leisure
  Recreation Skills

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Provide Your Inventory Information

• Focuses on providing input during the conference

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Listen and Respond

• Relates to effectively listening to others
  statements or questions and responding them

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Ask Questions

• Involves asking appropriate questions to gather
  needed information

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Name Your Goals

• Involved communicating personal goals and ideas
  on actions to be taken

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How to teach the Self-Advocacy Strategy

• Stage 1 Orient and Make Comments
• Students are introduced to the concept of
  education and transition conferences and how
  learning this strategy gives them more power and
  control over their own learning and development
  experiences in and out of school
• Students are asked to make a commitment to learn
  the strategy while the instructors also makes a
  commitment to teach the strategy to them

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How to teach the Self-Advocacy Strategy

• Stage 2 Describe
• Education and/or transition conferences are
  defined
• The type of conference or meeting in which the
  student is likely to participate and the general
  characteristics of those conferences or meetings
  are described
• Students are shown how they can personally
  benefit by attending conferences and meetings and
  apply the Self-Advocacy Strategy
• The I PLAN steps and the SHARE behaviors are
  described to students

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SHARE Behaviors

• Sit up straight
• Have a pleasant tone of voice
• Activate your thinking
• Tell yourself to pay attention
• Tell yourself to participate
• Tell yourself to compare ideas
• Relax
• Dont look uptight
• Tell yourself to stay calm
• Engage in eye communication

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Scenario 2

• A 25 year old working in a supported employment
  setting. She wants to work more independently
  from her job coach. She is preparing for a
  meeting with her job coach

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How to teach the Self-Advocacy Strategy

• Stage 3 Model and Prepare
• The I PLAN steps of the strategy are
  demonstrated while the instructor thinks aloud so
  the students can hear the necessary cognitive
  processes as well as see the obvious behaviors
  involved in performing the strategy.
• Students complete their Education or Transition
  Inventorythe instruction is designed so that
  each part of the Inventory Step is modeled and
  then students immediately complete that part.
  When demonstration for the Inventory Step of I
  PLAN is complete, students will have completed
  the Inventory they will use at the upcoming
  education and/or transition conference.
• When and how to communicate during a conference
  or a meeting are demonstrated.

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How to teach the Self-Advocacy Strategy

• Stage 4 Verbal Practice
• Students are first asked questions to ensure they
  know what to do during each step of the strategy,
  and where, when, and why they need to use it.
• Students are asked to verbally rehearse the I
  PLAN Steps and the SHARE Behaviors

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How to teach the Self-Advocacy Strategy

• Stage 5 Group Practice and Feedback
• Participation in a group in a simulated
  conference
• The instructor reviews what takes place during a
  conference or meeting, who will participate, and
  what the students responsibilities involve
• The instructor asks questions to individual
  students and require them to respondafter each
  response the instructor and other students
  provide feedback on how each student effectively
  used the strategy

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How to teach the Self-Advocacy Strategy

• Stage 6 Individual Practice and Feedback
• The instructor meets with students individually
  to allow for individual practice, feedback, and
  mastery
• The student becomes responsible for taking the
  initiative and getting more actively involved in
  using the strategy

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How to teach the Self-Advocacy Strategy

• Stage 7 Generalization
• Students are assisted in using the strategy
  during actual conferences or meetings, and they
  are helped to adapt the strategy for a variety of
  meetings or conferences (job interviews,
  performance evaluations, negotiations with
  parents, etc.)
• 3 distinct phases occur during this stage
• Preparing for and conducting the planning
  conferenceprovide each student with an
  opportunity to directly use the acquired skills
• Preparing for other uses of the strategymakes
  students aware of other formal and informal
  conference and meeting situations where they can
  use their newly learned strategy
• Preparing for subsequent conferencestudents
  review the purpose of particular conferences or
  meetings, as well as the importance of their
  participation