1. Date and Reflection

The book "Talking Together" includes 6 lessons teaching behavioral strategies to support students working in a learning community.  This program uses research based concepts and strategies to help educators incorporate and embed the lessons on discussion and partner skills.  

To feel emotionally safe students must....
*Feel a sense of belonging
*Have freedom to not be good at a particular skill
*Receive encouragement
*Experience success
*Have unique talents recognized and valued
*Understand expectations and experience predictability and consistency 

See and Tell

Keep sounds and expression pleasant
Learning to share information with each other to formulate a collaborative answer for the group

Use an I do, We do, You do method to help students grow their partnering skills. 

We learned about the community building program Talking Together.
This program uses researched concepts and strategies to help educators
build learning communities in classrooms. Talking Together consists of six 
lessons which focus on Participation and discussion skills, partnering skills,
respect, tolerance, support skills and helping students describe the type 
of learning environment they wish to create.

Sue Vernon set the stage for Talking Together by beginning with a collaborative activity which required participants to incorporate strategies that were highlighted during the session. Although 'we' are proficient with the "must do's" for communicating successfully, it was helpful to think through the implications for teaching these strategies to students. 

Please see notes. 

I completed this session on 4/24/2018 at PaTTAN Harrisburg and received the Talking Together manual.

Partner Skill: Sound is pleasant; expression is pleasant; eye contact Think, Explain your Idea, Link ideas, Let the class Know (TELL)
Characteristics of effective collaborators and a great school environment: ·        
Collaboration ·         Team mentality ·         Welcoming ·         Self reflective
Negative Behaviors ·         Fixed mindset vs. growth mindset ·         Sarcasm ·         Focusing energy on things you can’t change.

Survey done in 1993: ·         48% of students felt that their school wasn’t safe In a 2015 supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey of 12 -18 year old students, approximately 21% reported they were bullied. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control reported an additional 15.5% reported being bullied electronically during the previous 12 months. Harassment and bulling linked to 75% of school shootings.

Reflection and Practice: The Partner Skills - SEE (body language) / TELL (discussion)

• Sound is pleasant
• Expression is pleasant
• Eye contact

• Think
Explain your idea
• Link your ideas
• Let the class know

Summary of Discussions: "Yellow Group" 
Topic: Students with exceptionalities are often excluded from discussions in class, in school, and out of school activities. 

In School and Out of School Activities
-Students with exceptionalities often are excluded from in school and out of school activities because of their lack of parental and teacher support. For some students with exceptionalities, their parents are not very involved in the school community. When after-school activities require additional support outside of the regular school day, students miss out on opportunities because of the lack of support at home. Activities and practices could require parents to provide transportation for their child, monetary commitments, and nightly duties. Also, some students require additional scaffolds from teachers in order to succeed in after-school activities. Students need some in their "back corner" helping them through the process of auditioning for a school play, trying out for a school sport, and meeting deadlines for the yearbook committee. If our students do not have a support system in school, it makes it very difficult for them to actively participate in these activities. 

Today we explored the Talking Together which is part of the Community Building Series.  Our group discussed the concept of developing a positive learning community and how to participate respectfully in class discussions. The book includes 6 lessons to teach students behavior strategies when in class. This includes:

• Participation and discussion skills
  
• The partner skill
  
• Respect and kindness
  
• Tolerance
  
• The support skill
• Describing our learning community

As a whole group, we participated in 'The Partner Skill' where we learned the See Steps: Sound (pleasant), Expression (pleasant), Eye Contact. We also learned the Partner Skills: TELL: Think, Explain, Link ideas, Let the class know. This activity could be embedded into many classes.

The Partner Skill - SEE (body language) and TELL (Discussion)   Sound is Pleasant Expression is pleasant Eye contact   Think Explain your idea Link ideas Let the class know   The Partner Skill is aimed at teaching students to see themselves as partners in learning

• Can use colored sticks for talking within a group or a talking piece (help facilitate with a group of ES kids)

  Bullying - 1/5 report of being bullied (see notes on Google Drive - Day 1)   The Community Building Series

1. Talking Together
2. Following Instructions Together
3. Taking Notes Together
4. Organizing Together

  Activity to learn lessons in Talking Together

• Reviewed all lessons, overview of each
• Can be completed in a week, front load in school year
• Idea of recorder log
• Lessons made need adaptations - specific to the population you are dealing with (ex- elementary vs. secondary)

Worked with others to go through each of the lessons, with examples and opportunities for discussion and practice.  I liked that it was straight forward and well organized; while still allowing for flexibility in implementation.