Reflection
Successes and Challenges
The content of the social stories finds the perfect balance between familiar topics that children have context and background knowledge for and new, exciting settings that children may not have previously been exposed to. No two stories take place in the same environment, which is highly engaging for students as they cannot wait to find out where their characters will go next. This curriculum is also engaging for students because the characters are realistic and relatable. The characters in the story appear to be about the same age as my students and represented a variety of genders and ethnicities, so all participants found at least one character that they were able to identify with personally. My students also found comfort and connection in the fact that these characters were flawed and made mistakes. My students were able to see that it is okay to make mistakes as long as they learn how to appropriately handle difficult situations and make a better choice next time. There was no shame or negativity related to making mistakes because it was framed as an opportunity to grow, which is something that my students sincerely needed to see demonstrated.
This curriculum was also successful for my classroom because of the real-life applications and easy-to-integrate, consistent language. Although the stories were set in outer space, deep under the ocean, and with dinosaurs in schools, the problems that the characters faced were situations that could clearly be translated into problems that my students would experience in their daily life. While my students would never have to try to interpret the social cues of a little green alien, they very consistently need to decipher the intentions, desires, and actions of their peers. My students also benefited from the consistent intentionality of the language and phrasing that was used. Concepts were scaffolded using previously-introduced language as the foundation for the explanation of each new concept. Each new concept was rooted in the previous story, creating building blocks for social understanding.
The challenges that I experienced with study were in no way related to the curriculum materials, guidelines, activities, or expectations. The main challenge that I experienced with implementing my study was conflicts with scheduling. The fifteen kindergarten students participating in my study were from two different general education classrooms. These students also work with our speech-language pathologist and his student teacher, the Title I reading teacher, the English Language teacher, and myself as their special education teacher. The intervention was implemented at the end of the day to avoid disrupting core content instruction, but other events and activities (like kindergarten-sixth grade buddies, all-school assemblies, and incentivized rewards) were also scheduled during this time for the same reason.
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Students were selected to participate in my study because of their social and behavioral deficiencies, so naturally, our group was intermittently disrupted by behavioral outbursts. On several occasions, I was able to assist the student in regaining his or her composure and finish the lesson in its entirety. Most behavioral instances, however, resulted in our social group time being cut short and the remainder of the group being sent back to class while I worked to deescalate the upset student. The students were very intentionally divided into their three groups in an effort to separate the most significant behavioral needs from one another, but there were still instances where the negative behaviors of one student resulted in major disruptive behaviors from all five members of the group.
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Learning and Teaching
This research has had an immensely positive impact on my teaching, as well as my perspective on explicitly teaching executive functioning and self-regulation skills. Prior to implementing this intervention, teaching these foundational life skills felt daunting and overwhelming. I was not confident in my ability to create, find, or execute meaningful and scaffolded behavioral and social instruction. Completing this study has bolstered my confidence as a deliberate, purposeful special education teacher and has reinforced that students with even the most intensive behavioral needs can be highly successful in the right environment with the appropriate guidance.
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This study will have a long-term impact on my future planning and instruction. I have learned how to group students based on their behavioral needs, how and when to re-organize students to continue to facilitate skill acquisition, and how to monitor progress to determine if we need to move forward or revisit a previously taught skill. I have gained a more thorough understanding of what it means to be patient and flexible with my students as each and every one of them enters my classroom with different needs, different strengths, and different desires for themselves. I have learned that it is not my job to “bring them up to speed;" it is my job to meet each student where they are at and guide them forward in whichever direction they are ready for.
One thing that I would like to be very conscientious of next year is intentionally and specifically working to build students' self-esteem as they progress through this curriculum. It can be incredibly humbling to participate in a group where the entire purpose is to identify, analyze, and mend errors that one makes on a regular basis. Learning to become more self-aware and accepting responsibility for one's actions is an unbelievably complex emotional process that five and six-year-olds may not be prepared for, which may result in feelings of shame, frustration, or anxiety.
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One of the goals for this study was for students to feel more empowered and in control of their bodies and emotional responses. In the future, I will be more deliberate in helping students make the transition from ashamed to empowered by using child-specific positive praise, affirmations, and triaging. During this study, my focus on children's self-esteem was either impulsive or reactive. My hope is that by being proactive and deliberate with my specific praise, students may be able to avoid feelings of shame and embarrassment entirely. Before teaching a concept that a particular student truly struggles with, I may pull that child aside and pre-teach an introduction while allowing that child to ask questions in a one-on-one setting so that they can feel prepared to discuss the concept in our small group. I hope to create an environment of safety and security by being honest and vulnerable with my students. I believe that it is important to make sure that children understand that teachers and adults make mistakes too, so its okay for children to make mistakes and that we do not expect them to be perfect. By sharing the things that are difficult and frustrating for me, I hope that students will also feel comfortable in sharing their difficulties and learn to ask for help.
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When students say negative things about themselves, I will ask them to re-frame their situation positively or identify alternative positive phrases about themselves. I will also begin my small groups by emphatically reminding students how valuable and capable they are, then continue to reinforce and remind them of their growth and strengths throughout the lesson before ending with a summary of all their positive and important work. Some praise and affirmations that I have found to be effective include:
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"I know that this seems tricky, but I will never give you anything that I don't truly believe you can do."
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"You are a hard worker and a good friend and you are capable of doing difficult things."
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"It is so brave to try something new and I am so proud of you for trying something that was scary for you."
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"Everyone is allowed to have bad days. Tomorrow will be better."
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"Making big changes takes lots of practice and you get better and better each time. You are making such great progress!"
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