Teaching Social Skills

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Teaching Social Skills

• March 17, 2004

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What is Social Skills Instruction?

• Communication Skills
• Problem Solving Skills
• Self-discipline

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Why are Social Skills important to teach?

• Effectively interacting with peers leads to
  positive adjustment to school
• Poor social skills highly correlates to low
  academic achievement
• We cant assume kids know to interact socially
  WE HAVE TO TEACH THE SKILLS!

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Interpersonal Violence

• The second leading cause of death for 15 to 24
  year olds.
• Majority of victims are related to or acquainted
  to their attackers.
• Again WE HAVE TO TEACH SOCIAL SKILLS!

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Second Step in Lebanon

• Piloted in two schools 97-98
• Word spread of the benefits
• Partial district implementation 00-03
• Teachers sharing kits
• Limited district training
• Full implementation 03-04
• One teacher per kit
• Training available through
• EBS District Coordinators

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Implementation Struggles

• I dont have time to teach one more thing.
• Kids should already know this.
• I teach math, not social skills.
• This is the parents job to teach, not mine.
• How do we ensure that implementation is occurring
  at all grade levels in all K-8 schools?

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Implementation Successes

• You dont have time not to teach it.
• It becomes part of our weekly schedule and kids
  love it.
• I am able to reflect back to the weekly lesson
  through other curriculum in our day.
• You invest the time now to save the time later.

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Second Step Benefits

• Gives kids practice
• Language
• Short, concise lessons
• Safe environment to share feelings
• Opens doors for difficult students
• Builds relationships

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What is in the kit?

• Family Resources
• Lesson Cards
• Posters
• Video
• Teachers Guide
• Administrators Guide
• Puppets (preschool/kindergarten)
• Song tape (preschool/ kindergarten)
• Hearts (preschool/ kindergarten)

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Lesson Tips

• Begin first week of school
• Connect to EBS lessons
• Consistent date and time
• Use the kit to help problem solve in other areas
• Practice with puppets

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More tips

• Conducive environment
• Establishing group expectations
• Sharing the floor
• Make lesson card visible all week
• Use vocabulary in other curriculum
• Teach lessons in sequential order
• Adapt lesson to your style and audience
• Use teachable moments

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Lesson Components

• Concepts
• Objectives
• Materials
• Notes to the Teacher
• Story and Discussion
• Activity
• Wrap-up
• Transfer of Learning

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Lets take a look
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Summary

• Target times to teach weekly
• Intervene using Behavior Expectation language
• Watch for and reinforce students using skills
• Comment on student use
• Review and recall skills often
• Integrate the behavior expectations into other
  lessons
• Model the behavior yourself
• Recognize and reward students for behavior

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Questions