Teaching Social Skills, Creating Successful Students (PDF)

© 2014, Father Flanagan’s Boys Home Teaching Social Skills, Creating Successful Students Accepting No Skill to Teach “Accepting ‘No’ for an Answer” (Teachers can choose to expand this lesson by using the book, I Just Don’t Like the Sound of No!, by Julia Cook). This lesson has several parts to it and can be split up into four or five lessons, if desired. Objective Students will generate situations in which they received a ‘no’ answer and evaluate the way they handled the situation. Students will practice the skill by role-playing the situations, playing “Mother, May I?”, and earning positive consequences by accepting ‘no’ for an answer in their day-to-day activities. Materials Needed • Skills poster or skill steps written on board • Equipment to show you-tube video • Large space to play “Mother, May I?” • Decorated bulletin board • I Just Don’t Like the Sound of No! by Julia Cook (optional) • Stars out of thick paper Planned Teaching Ask students if they’ve ever been told ‘no’ before. When students respond, ask them what they did when they were told ‘no’ and ask how that turned out. Guide the conversation towards evaluating effective and less-effective ways to respond to the answer ‘no’. Tell the students the steps of “Accepting ‘No’ for an Answer” and refer to your wall poster or write them on the board: 1. Look at the person. 2. Say ‘Okay’. 3. Stay calm. 4. If you disagree, ask later. Show the short video about how to accept ‘no’ for an answer. (This video also includes the skill of how to accept criticism and consequences.) http://bit.do/BT_No (Optional) Read the book I Just Don’t Like the Sound of No! by Julia Cook. Discuss what RJ learned. Ask students why it might be important to appropriately accept ‘no’ for an answer?  © 2014, Father Flanagan’s Boys Home Practice • Tell students they will practice accepting ‘no’ for an answer. They will work with a partner and partner A will ask partner B for something or for permission. Partner B will say ‘no’ and partner A will demonstrate the skill of accepting ‘no’ for an answer. Students can choose their own scenario to ask for or you can give them a scenario. For example, for the first practice, you can instruct partner A to ask the “teacher” if they can go to the library and the “teacher” says ‘no’. For the second practice, partner B asks their “parent” if they can go to a friend’s house and the “parent” says ‘no’. Using home and school examples may help children generalize the skill. • Students will also practice accepting ‘no’ for an answer by playing the game “Mother, May I? or Father, May I?” You need an open space. The teacher will be the “mother” or “father” and will stand on one end, alone. The children line up, shoulder-to-shoulder, on the other end, about 10 or 20 feet away. Teach the children some of the various steps of the game: i.e. baby steps, scissor steps, giant steps, jumping-jack steps, karate steps, or jump steps. Tell the children they will ask you, “Mother, may I take (a certain number of a particular type of) steps?” Prepare them that you might say ‘yes’ and you might say, ‘no’ and they need to follow the skill steps of how to accept ‘no’ for an answer so that the game will be fun for all. Ask the students to remind you of the steps of how to accept ‘no’ for an answer. During the game, take turns asking each child to ask for permission until someone reaches the teacher. • (Optional) If you have read, I Just Don’t Like the Sound of No! by Julia Cook, ask the students to remind you of what RJ got to put up on the bulletin board when he said ‘yes’ to ‘no’. (A say ‘yes’ to ‘no’ star.) Tell the students that you will be ‘catching them being good’ and when you see them saying ‘yes’ to ‘no’, they will earn a star, get to write their name on it, and decorate it as they desire. You will place it on the “Say ‘yes’ to ‘no’” bulletin board. Assessment Assess and reward students with positive consequences or a say ‘yes’ to ‘no’ star. Use specific praise with students when issuing the consequence to ensure they understand they have earned the positive consequence for accepting ‘no’ for an answer. For more activities and printables get I Just Don’t Like the Sound of No! Activity Guide for Teachers by Julia Cook from Boys Town Press, http://bit.do/Press_No.    The Boys Town Education Model We have many options to meet your needs! The first step is to just have a conversation to talk about your goals and needs. We help you develop a plan that can range from attending an on-campus national workshop to having Boys Town Trainers come to you to train staff, trainers, and consultants. Just like behavior interventions and supports it is not one size fits all. If you want to learn more about our Model and tools, be sure to visit our website. We have webinars, articles and resources with information on how our model can help you build social and emotional competencies in all students to improve school culture and build positive relationships. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN IMPLEMENTING THE BOYS TOWN EDUCATION MODEL IN YOUR CLASSROOM OR SCHOOL? If so, be sure to take advantage of all the resources we have to help you! FREE on-demand webinars you can watch anytime Low-cost on-demand training to help you practice the teaching interactions, increase your fluency and confidence and learn more about helping children learn skills and develop their social and emotional competencies. Free Social Skills Lesson Plans Check out the Boys Town Press for additional resources and books that are designed to support behavior change and skill teaching. ARE YOU IMPLEMENTING THE BOYS TOWN EDUCATION MODEL IN YOUR CLASSROOM OR SCHOOL? Empowering Learning Communities | Transforming Social Climates @BoysTownTraining @BT_Ed Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to be the first to know when we have new resources available! 800.545.5771 [email protected] boystowntraining.org Visit boystownpress.org and use CODE B4Z775W77 to receive 30% off your next order of Boys Town Press Books* (Exclusions apply)