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34: Session Ideas for Middle School
526 Plays1 year ago
Let’s chat about some of the common goals and activities I’ve used for middle school students!
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Transcript
Digital Self-Advocacy Journal Template
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Supporting Deaf Educators
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the top pod, a podcast to support itinerant teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing, SLPs and other deaf education professionals. I'm Deanna Barlow from Listening Fund and today we're talking through some activities for middle school students.
Goals for Middle School: Advocacy & Language
00:00:20
Speaker
I was looking through old session notes and I feel like there's two main goal areas that I was seeing a lot. The first is self advocacy in middle school. A lot of times they're changing classes. There's a lot more independence and a lot more chances for self advocacy.
00:00:34
Speaker
So I'll talk through a bunch of self advocacy activities. The other thing I noticed is a lot of the middle schoolers who are still getting weekly or more services are getting those services because their skills are below grade level. A lot of them have either other disabilities or learning disabilities, ADHD, syndromes, or something that has impacted their learning in addition to the hearing loss. So I've had a lot of remedial language and listening goals. Usually if a student is in sixth, seventh, eighth grade,
00:01:02
Speaker
and is on grade level, I don't have a ton of listening and language practice outside of vocabulary. But the reality is that I do often work on those skills with middle school students who need that extra practice for one reason or another. So I'll talk through the vocabulary activities, but also some language activities for students who do need that support.
Activities for Self Advocacy in Middle School
00:01:20
Speaker
All right, so let's start off with some self advocacy activities that I like to do with middle schoolers.
00:01:24
Speaker
Like I mentioned, a lot of times middle schools where they first start moving around to different classes and they might be able to pick their own seat for the first time if they had assigned seats in elementary school. So I think seating is probably one of the first things I like to focus on with middle schoolers because they're picking their own seat and I want them to make good choice for their hearing loss and for the room they're in, what's going on.
00:01:44
Speaker
And it's dynamic, right? Like there's not only one right seat, it's not always front and center. So they need to learn about why it's a good seat, not just which seat is best in any particular classroom. So I do have a resource in my store where it's like a bunch of different sample classrooms with various sources of background noise like a fan or a pencil sharpener.
00:02:04
Speaker
or if it's like next door to the music room, things like that that are external sources of background noise. And then the student has to factor that in with their own hearing loss to circle the best seat with a dry erase marker. I've also had the student draw a picture of each classroom and together we label all the different sources of background noise for each specific classroom that they go to. And these can be simple sketches, like they don't have to be super detailed, just some
00:02:26
Speaker
squares for the desks, rectangles for tables, and I show them an example of one that I do that's pretty simple sketch. And it's really helpful for them to think about the sources of background noise and put it in themselves. And like I said, I could go in there and together we can find their best seat, but really the point is to get them to think critically about why it's a good seat. So that's why I think it's worth spending time actually go through and label the diagrams because it teaches them to really think about it. And then they can apply that to
00:02:53
Speaker
whatever situation they're in. I can't predict if they move to a different room for an activity or if they sit in a different location or something like that. You can always go into the classroom and take pictures of it if that's available to you and then you can label the pictures. So those are all different versions of the activity that I've done with different
Using Games to Enhance Learning
00:03:09
Speaker
students.
00:03:09
Speaker
Another thing I tend to do with middle schoolers is games. Like I have a collection in my store of self advocacy games that are meant to be played on the computer, like in PowerPoint or Google Slides. And I feel like middle schoolers are not so big that they don't want to play games, but they're not so young that they don't want to play babyish games, if that makes sense.
00:03:30
Speaker
So I feel like games on the computer are a good in-between where it's interesting for them but not too babyish. And the reason I like to do games is because sometimes middle schoolers can be a little difficult to talk to, like they don't necessarily have great conversation skills yet.
00:03:45
Speaker
And we can certainly work on that, but if I want them to talk about different self-advocacy topics, sometimes it's just easier to do that within the frame of a game because it gives us some structure, it gives us something to do instead of just sitting across from the table from each other, talking, staring at each other. So I think you could really do this with any online game, and you could download free versions of Connect 4 on the iPad, or Battleship is a really good one that the kids tend to really like.
00:04:10
Speaker
and they don't get bored of. It's a little more strategy-based, so it feels more appropriate for middle school. Some old ones like Checkers is fun because, like I said, you can really play against them to win. Also games that are actual computer games like Breakout, which is that one where the ball bounces around and it hits the bricks and makes them disappear. Those can be fine. You can take turns doing them while you're discussing self-advocacy topics. The games that I've made, they have the game and then they also have the conversation starters and questions.
00:04:38
Speaker
So one of them is like battleship that goes over accommodations. I feel it's good to start that at middle school because even if they might not know all of the vocabulary around an IEP yet, I do want them to know that they have certain rights and accommodations that are protected. There's one about using the remote mic system that's basically a checkers game. And in middle school, that's when sometimes we start having issues with the remote mic, like some resistance to that.
00:05:03
Speaker
So if I can get ahead of that, sometimes that's really helpful. And I'll talk more about that in a sec. But sometimes talking about it in the context of a game shows it's a little bit easier than randomly trying to talk to them about it.
00:05:17
Speaker
There's also a parts of the ear game that's in the style of the game. Sorry, which is fun because you like bump each other's pieces off the board. There's a communication breakdown game that's similar to Candyland. Like I said, they're all on the computer, so it doesn't seem as babyish as playing an actual game. At least in my experience, they've been more interested in things on the computer.
00:05:36
Speaker
Oh, and there's actually one more that's a connect four type game that's just about their own hearing loss. Sometimes I notice that if a student, like if they haven't been my student or if they didn't have a TOD before and I get them in middle school, sometimes there's some gaps in their knowledge. Like I would have expected them to know more about their own hearing loss, but for whatever reason they don't. So it's always nice to like touch base with that kind of self advocacy stuff, even if I assumed they had learned it prior, sometimes they don't.
00:06:05
Speaker
Some of the things that I think are good to talk about with middle schoolers are identifying their personal strengths and interests and talking about ways they can use their strengths to help them.
Building Self-Esteem & Personal Strengths
00:06:15
Speaker
Just related to that, like trying to build their self-esteem in middle school years I think can be really valuable. It's when they maybe start to question being different or experience different social situations they might not have experienced in elementary school and bolstering that self-confidence and self-esteem in any way I think is a good thing to do in middle school.
00:06:34
Speaker
So you could talk about identifying personal strengths and interests and I do this like if we're playing a game and they're particularly good at that game or even if they're very patient or they're very good at figuring things out like I point out those soft skills to them and make sure they can identify
00:06:52
Speaker
what strengths they have, and sometimes it's things like that. I've had a lot of kids whose strengths is being creative and drawing, so that kind of goes into the second idea, which is I do a lot of drawing activities with middle schoolers. Not necessarily coloring, it can be coloring if they find that relaxing because you can get those coloring books that are really intricate.
00:07:13
Speaker
You can have some of these like self advocacy conversations with some conversation starters, or you could just think of them depending on what the students like going on with them. But you can do it while they're coloring and I feel like I feel like I've read somewhere but it's like easier for people to have like important conversations when they're sitting side by side like not looking at each other.
00:07:32
Speaker
And that definitely feels true for me because this happens a lot when people are driving. It's easy to have deep conversations with people in the car because you're not looking at each other. And I feel like you can apply that here because if you're both independently coloring your own paper, you don't have to look at each other. It's just easier to talk about meaningful things. Some of the other topics I found helpful for middle schoolers are going over some of the vocabulary related to their hearing loss and getting more detailed than maybe you did in elementary school.
00:07:57
Speaker
So making sure they know words like decibel, frequency, things like that. Just a little more detailed, a little higher level. I like talking about challenging listening situations and identifying them and then also what you do in those situations and how to ask for help from your teachers so that you have different teachers in middle school and there might be different ways to ask different teachers for help. Maybe some of them you raise your hand right away, some you feel more comfortable talking to after class.
00:08:21
Speaker
I like to just pull up their schedule and literally go through it class by class and talk about the different issues in those classes and how you can fix them. And I'll pull it up while we're coloring. So we're just chatting and coloring, but it's helpful to have the schedule in front of you and you just go through class by class to check in.
00:08:39
Speaker
The other thing too is that at least where I live, they teach about sound waves in sixth grade science. And that's something that we can talk about how it relates to like their hearing aids or their devices. And they can kind of be like an expert on that topic because they already know things like decibel and frequency and they know a little bit about sound.
Linking Devices to Science for Empowerment
00:08:56
Speaker
and they can be the expert and it's an opportunity for their hearing loss to be something for them to teach others about in a positive way. I happened to be pushing into a class where they were working on a sound unit and it was very exciting for my student because they recognized a lot of the vocabulary and they got to tell their class about how their hearing aids work and how sound waves work.
00:09:15
Speaker
And just like a very basic way, but it was very empowering for the students. So just want to watch out for if you're in sixth grade or around that age group and you want to check in to see if the science covers that topic and prepare your student to talk about it because that was like a good, that was a good moment for my student, especially if they are struggling with self-esteem in any way, like that can be something positive for them.
Creating Personal Books for Self Acceptance
00:09:34
Speaker
Another self-advocacy activity I've done, I've talked about this I think in my Instagram stories before but not on the podcast, was to use this book, now hear this Harper source with her magic ears, which is a book written by a deaf hard of hearing teenager Harper Gideon and her mom Valley Gideon's and the mom will actually be in on the podcast in a couple of months but the book is autobiographical.
00:09:56
Speaker
just about her life and when she got her cochlear implants and things like that and all the things outside of hearing loss that she enjoys like skateboarding and everything. So what I've done is I've read that book with my students and then together they create their own book about themselves. So they talk about their hearing history like what type of hearing loss they have and also when they got their devices. They also just talk about their life in general what interests they have what they're good at kind of in the same style as the book so we use the book as like a model and then we make a very similar book like
00:10:26
Speaker
Oh, she talks about this on this page. What can we make in your book on that page? And then after they write it, we type it up. And then I print it out. And then they draw pictures to go with it. And we bound it together. And it was a good culminating project, especially for students who are working on that self-esteem, self-advocacy goal of accepting their hearing loss. And seeing this book as an example and then making their own book was a good long-range activity that took a couple months to do, honestly, because we didn't do it every single second of every session.
00:10:55
Speaker
We worked on it a little bit at a time and it was a great way to build up their self-esteem. If you have like older middle school students, like an eighth grader who maybe doesn't want to draw, they could probably like find pictures online if they wanted to. Like use those for pictures in the book, like it doesn't have to be drawing. My student just happened to really be into drawing. But you could definitely age it up a little bit to make it more like what the actual book is.
00:11:19
Speaker
Another activity I do with middle schoolers, if you go back and listen to episode 29 about digital self-advocacy journals, that's one of my favorite things to do.
Digital Journals & Repetition in Learning
00:11:28
Speaker
I have a free template of it. I'll link it in the show notes. Or if you're on my email list, I sent it out a while ago if you want to just search your email for it. But basically, it's just a Google Slides presentation, but I don't use it as a presentation. I use it as like a digital journal, where every session we update it with what we talked about that day. And sometimes we do the whole activity inside of the Google Slides. And sometimes we just like
00:11:48
Speaker
summarize the activity. So if we take a picture of it, or it kind of depends on what the activity was, but it just kind of keeps track of all the different self advocacy things we've done. And then when we open it up every session, we read through it before we get to the next blank page. And that repetition is what really solidifies some of these concepts for my kids, because it's not like a one and done lesson, it's practicing something they can learn. And then they get to see it every week for the rest of the year, basically, at least for a little bit until we go through the journal every time.
00:12:18
Speaker
And then we add a new entry and I feel like no matter what activity you do, you can always screenshot or take a picture or summarize the main takeaways into the self advocacy journal. And it really helps everything come together for them to actually learn the topics because of that repetition. I go into more detail in the episode if you want to go back and listen to episode 29.
Teaching Idioms Creatively
00:12:35
Speaker
Alright, so we're going to move on to some vocabulary activities because that's probably my next most common thing I work on with middle schoolers. Most commonly, I'm doing either idioms or multiple meaning words. And like I said, sometimes it's in a more remedial way. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's just academic vocabulary they need help with. So starting with idioms, I feel like there's a few different activities I like to do.
00:12:57
Speaker
I like to do it in a progressive manner, meaning when I first start with some idioms, I like to have a group of idioms that I teach that are new to the student. And I first present them in context with heavy context clues. I want the student to be able to understand this idiom really easily based on the context in which it's
00:13:17
Speaker
presented, I want them to be able to figure it out on their own basically without me just telling them what it means. The reason I want to do this is because like me just telling them what it means, it won't stick in their brain usually. But them thinking about it and figuring it out actually will stick in their brains a little bit better.
00:13:34
Speaker
I have a resource in my store, it's called Idioms and Context Units, and it has all the activities I'm about to talk about, but you can come up with your own if you have specific idioms that you want to target. But like I said, usually I start with heavy context clues because I want them to use their brains to figure out what it means using the context clues. I also try to stay away from really obvious idioms and pick ones that are more likely to be spoken aloud, like in spoken language.
00:13:58
Speaker
I feel like there are idioms and sayings that are like cliches and then there's some that come up in conversation all the time and I'm one of those people like I use idioms all the time when I talk I didn't quite realize it until I started teaching idioms that I just tend to speak with idioms a lot so I'm unlikely to teach one like oh it's raining cats and dogs because like I don't think people say that at all
00:14:20
Speaker
often. I mean, they say it sometimes, but it's so silly and it's so obviously not literal that I don't think it would trip up a lot of students. Like even if they didn't know what it meant, they would know it's not about cats and dogs, right? Maybe not everyone, but there's some that are a lot more subtle and I think it's helpful to work on the more subtle ones in middle school.
00:14:39
Speaker
versus something like, I'm on the fence, or she got a second wind. These are idioms I feel like people are more likely to say in conversation and not even realize they're using an idiom and things like that could trip up a student. So those are kind of the ones I like to pick. So after we practice them with a lot of context, then I like to do some games just to give them like more exposures.
00:15:02
Speaker
So you could do like matching games like either like memory matching or just like the simple like you have the sentence on one side and the idiom on the other side and you literally match them. I also like to do pictures where they draw pictures of the idioms but I specifically focus on them drawing the meaning of the sentence and then if they also want to draw like the literal meaning just to compare them but I don't want them to just draw the literal meaning because it's not really what I want them to
00:15:30
Speaker
think about I want them to think about what it really means so this works best if you give it to them in a sentence so if they're the sentence with the idiom like Kelly was on the fence about playing softball or lacrosse in the spring the picture might be like a girl with a thought bubble and like a softball and a
00:15:45
Speaker
across deck and she's thinking about it. Versus like the literal picture would be her sitting on a fence and we can look at the pictures and be like, which one of these makes sense, right? And that'll help them remember that it's not the literal one. Like I actually have them put like a big X over that one. So they like remember that that's not it. It's this actual meaning. And then after we've done the heavy context clues and the matching and the pictures, I really want to make sure they can do it through listening alone.
00:16:08
Speaker
So this is where I might read them a little paragraph that contains an idiom and ask them some questions about it afterward, like details and sentences questions about the meaning of the idiom. It also works on like auditory comprehension level because realistically, the place that kids misunderstand idioms is in conversation. So if you're reading and there's an idiom, you can go back and reread it and understand the context of the idiom. But idioms don't show up that much in written text, like especially as you get older.
00:16:36
Speaker
but people use them in spoken language all the time. So I always like to circle back and make sure that they can understand them when they're spoken in like a little paragraph. And then after all that, I have them produce their own sentences using the idioms, because I mean, at this point, they've heard lots of examples, because I'm using the same set of idioms with all these activities, like I'm giving them a lot of repetition. And if I give them an idiom and ask them to produce their own sentence, that means they can demonstrate a deep enough understanding of the true meaning of that idiom.
00:17:02
Speaker
So that's how I approach idioms for older kids because it can show me progress over time of them really mastering those specific idioms. And like I said, this is how my idioms unit is set up. I have two of them. They each have 16 idioms that they focus on.
Exploring Word Meanings in Context
00:17:15
Speaker
So I find it really helpful to just do it in a structured way because with middle schoolers, I think they appreciate seeing their progress over time.
00:17:21
Speaker
The other vocabulary topic that comes up frequently is multiple meaning words. Once again, I always try to present these in sentences like with context because it's really using context clues as a skill to identify the meaning of the word if they don't already know it and not just assuming that their first understanding of the word is the right word. So first, they have to be able to pick up that the meaning is different than what they thought.
00:17:44
Speaker
and then they have to be able to use context clues to identify the meaning so I have a resource in my store for multiple meaning words basically like I give two examples of a word that has two different meanings and then there's a picture and they have to write a sentence about that picture using the word but they have to use the correct meaning you know
00:18:00
Speaker
I really try to focus on the meanings of words that are less common. Like a lot of words actually have more than two meanings, but I always try to present them the ones that I think they don't know. Like I want it to be a little more challenging in middle school. This resource has it broken down into three levels. So the second two would be appropriate for middle school students and the first one would be more like remedial level. So basically the way that I do it is the first sentence. Let's just use rate as an example as our multiple meaning word.
00:18:28
Speaker
The first sentence is, at this rate, we will never finish painting the house. So they have to identify the part of speech and the meaning in the sentence. And then the second sentence could be, this movie is rated PG-13 because it's not appropriate for young children. So they have to identify the part of speech and the meaning in that sentence. So that's a little more advanced than just like,
00:18:48
Speaker
bat, like baseball bat and animal bat, right? And then I would have them write a sentence using the word rate. And I like to give them a picture so that way they have something to write about. And let's just say the picture is of a man who looks frustrated and he's holding a remote control. So you can kind of go either way with that one. You could say like, at this rate, we'll never watch the movie because it's taking forever to load. Or you could just say, I wanted to watch this movie, but it was rated R so I couldn't.
00:19:17
Speaker
Like either way could have been right. Like there's not one right one to pick, but it's always interesting to see what they come up with when having to actually produce a sentence about a picture. So if you have a list of words, you could just Google image some pictures and see what they come up with.
00:19:35
Speaker
Alright, I also do a lot of vocabulary just in conversation, meaning we talk about different words.
Relatable and Memorable Vocabulary Learning
00:19:41
Speaker
So sometimes kids in middle school will have ELA vocabulary that they have to work on. And you know, just learning some vocabulary words from vocabulary lists is not my favorite thing to do. However, you can challenge yourself to pick a topic that they are interested in. So maybe they're interested in Marvel Super Heroes, which is a real example.
00:19:59
Speaker
And we have to make a sentence about Marvel superheroes using every word on the list, just verbally, not in writing. So if one of their words is superfluous, maybe you could challenge them to use superfluous in a sentence describing a power. Like what power do you feel is superfluous in the Marvel universe or something like that?
00:20:19
Speaker
You have to be creative with it, but sometimes limiting the topics can make it more interesting and challenging. And then when they have to go back to that word, they have a common thing to latch on to in their memory. So it's like, oh, yeah, we talked about Marvel superheroes, which I love.
00:20:32
Speaker
I have a lot of knowledge and information about Marvel superheroes and when I see the word superfluous I remember which power I thought was superfluous because I know a lot about superheroes and that will help them going forward as opposed to just writing random sentences for every word. So I found that to be helpful and then like I said I mostly do this all verbally but if there's a word they really struggle with maybe we write that one down so we can look back on it later. If you have a vocabulary list I've also played a version of Pictionary where
00:20:58
Speaker
I like to draw one of the words on the list and it could be really abstract because a lot of them are not nouns so you have to draw like a little scene basically and they have to try to guess what word you're drawing and why they think it's that word and in doing so you're talking about the meaning of the word and you could take turns doing this that's always a fun activity. I like to do that on a whiteboard easier just you know do it a bunch of times.
Overcoming Challenges with Self Advocacy
00:21:19
Speaker
When it comes to supporting academics, I find something I do a lot in the middle school age bracket is helping with things like algebra or science or all these things that are academic subjects. And I feel like it's totally fine to spend time previewing and reviewing that vocabulary by talking about it, front loading it, the information, making sure they have like a good basic understanding of it before they have to apply it in the classroom. But if a student is struggling in a specific subject like math, for example,
00:21:46
Speaker
I find it to be a really good opportunity to dig in to what supports they could use to be doing better in math. So if they're struggling to do their homework and they say they don't know the steps, we can look at how is the teacher giving notes? Is she expecting the student to listen? And right at the same time, is the teacher facing the board while they're explaining the math problems? Because they're writing on the board and it's making it harder for them to hear.
00:22:10
Speaker
Is the pace of the class too fast and it's just too hard to comprehend what she's saying because your brain is working so hard to understand the math, that listening is difficult and you're experiencing a lot of listening fatigue? Is it because the class is at the end of the day and the listening fatigue is really impacting the student? It really depends on the student and sometimes it might just be that it's not their best subject, but even if that's the case, what support would help them? Can you help the student identify what supports would help them?
00:22:37
Speaker
like you can brainstorm it together and this is the activity like brainstorming what is stopping you from learning this material and what can we do so that you can be more successful in the class and like it's brainstorming together and then you can brainstorm how to tell the teacher the things that you came up with so
00:22:57
Speaker
Sometimes I'll just tell the teacher, but I'll also have the student tell the teacher in some way, maybe an email, talking to them after class, we'll do it together, really whatever works depends on the student. But this in itself is a really good self advocacy experience. Or if they're having trouble with something, you don't have to just sit there and like it's good to teach them that they don't have to just sit there and struggle.
00:23:17
Speaker
that they can identify a problem and come up with solutions and apply those solutions. That in itself is an activity that I think is a good thing to start with middle schoolers, that if you notice there's a problem, if you're having trouble, it's important to be proactive in your own learning.
Conclusion & Community Sharing
00:23:34
Speaker
So that's a lot of the activities that I have done with middle school students. I hope that some of these ideas are helpful for you as you plan some of your sessions.
00:23:44
Speaker
I'll make a post in the TOD Community Facebook group and if you have any fun ideas for middle schoolers that you'd like to share, feel free to comment it there. I always like to hear what other people have done too. As always, links and transcript are in the show notes and at listen to taapaw.com. I'll see you next week. Have a fantastic day. Bye!