CAPES day 2

Communication was a challenge within our group although not with my participant specifically. BE is by far the best at sitting still and listening to instructions while BR and L have a very difficult time stilling still and listening to directions. And it was tough because we would have BR paying attention and L gone off somewhere and then when we finally got L back ready to listen we had lost the attention of BR. So communication as far as getting instructions through to our group was a challenge. 

One of the goals we had was communication and we tried to play Telephone. That was not so successful. I can't really decide if the concept of the game was too confusing for them or the understanding of the "message" but when I said my declarative sentence as "I like chocolate ice-cream" BR took it as "I like everything" then BE passed it along as "What do you like" and L then just tried to answer it. That activity was way over their heads, and again, I can't decide if that is a game we keep trying to play until the concept is understood or if that was just way over their heads. 

Those were the two biggest challenges I would say with our group. 

On a 1 on 1 level BE is pretty good at communicating all around. He pretty much understands what I say and he is able to communicate what he wants pretty easily. I would say that he is above average in his social development. However he is with 2 other boys who are below average in their social development, so the 3 of them were really not able to communicate well as a group. That is something I am going to have to think about... How do we get BE to understand the level of communication both L and BR are capable of and then have the 3 of them communicate well together???

Experiences, trials, and breakthroughs in communication??? At this point I would say we have not had any great breakthrough moments, but we have only had 2 hours with the kiddos. And we have only spend 30  minutes as a group. 

At this point I have far less solutions than I have conundrums but it gives me things to think about. How do we improve the communication within the group? 3 boys on 3 very different levels understanding and being understood? And how do we improve the comprehension of our instructions? 

An obvious answer in how to improve our communication would be to demonstrate more, but again, that only takes us so far when L is paying attention but BR is not or when BR is paying attention and L is not... 

KISS...(Keep It Simple Stupid) Maybe we need to simplify the instructions. Only give one at a time. 

Here are some new ideas: 

SIMPLER instructions. 1-2 words/phrases

Demonstrate more (Maybe have each group leader demonstrate to each kid individually so we don't have to try to get the group to cohesively watch the demonstration) 

Create a reward system for positive behaviors (Staying on the polyspot, INTERACTIONS with each other in general etc) 

Keep working on ways to get them to COMPREHEND our instructions (I think that is the biggest barrier we are facing currently) 

What do  ya'll think???