We had a full group today and everyone seems to be starting off in a calm, organized, and natural manner. I am sorry that the LUNCH Points program has been delayed -- there was some additional programming necessary to complete it. It will be up and running by the weekend. If you haven’t already signed up to receive automatic blogs of groups, go to www.lunchgroups.com, select blogs, and enter your email address.
Today is our first in-office parent meeting, where I will reviewed how kids are doing, plus the general kinds of techniques we are using with them. Next Wednesday will be our first parent dinner, to be held at John O’Groats (check the calendar).
After the initial time today, some of the kids played on the Wii while the rest of the group went into the other room to do an avatar project. One child was the “interviewer” and the other chose an avatar character to become the “interviewee.” I consider this to be one of the most powerful activities we do to help with basic conversational skills. Conversation isn’t just a single skill. You have to think of what you are going to say, say it clearly and with sufficient voice volume for your audience to hear you, adjust the level of informality/formality to fit your listener’s level and the kind of setting you are in, and say it in a straight-forward manner, while avoiding excessive talking.
The first project took the longest because the two students involved (AJ and SW) were having trouble formulating responses “on the spot.” We took a break a little later today, around 10:45am, because we would be having lunch slightly later, due to the parent meeting between 1-2pm. After the break, we returned and completed two more projects prior to heading back over to Gelsons for lunch. This is rare, but it was most convenient given what was planned for today.
Below are three examples of projects involving a total of six group members. They were been edited to emphasize conversational fluidity, clarity, and reciprocal flow. This is a form of video modeling, also known as “feed-forward,” where student hear themselves engaged in more age-appropriate and engaging conversation.
Afterwards, it was off to lunch back over at Gelsons today. We had lunch a bit later than usual, around 12:30pm to have lunch and the Blue and Hero ticket raffles that followed, coincide with the parent meeting. No problems occurred and, judging by the kids’ reactions and behavior following the parent meeting, everyone seemed satisfied with their raffle prize choices.
During the parent meeting, we review the kids’ progress in general, I spoke about specific students and their behavior. Of note, and this may be a first.... WE HAD 100% PARENT ATTENDANCE TODAY! Wow. We reviewed how the web site is organized and where to find information to maximize progress during the program.
The behaviors selected by the kids was reviewed and approved by parents, so this will go live over the weekend. We also reviewed the events next week, including the request from the California State Parks to video-tape the group members as “students” taking a tour at Los Encinos. This will shown to school districts and others who may wish to view and learn about the tours and history at the park (it was nearly closed down in 2008).
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