This week’s social skills lesson (game): E2E Awk-Words

Let’s face it. In the real world, people don’t always say the right thing…but we still have to interact with them!

Students know how to respond as long as others interact with them in normative and predictable ways. It’s when people don’t follow the rules that things get awkward and teens don’t know how to respond. Getting adolescents to role play social situations a challenge, but it’s the best way to practice social interactions–especially uncomfortable ones.

This easy-to-prep card game will provide a structured, challenging, game-style format for encouraging social role play of difficult social interactions. Aligned to Kansas SECD standards (included).

Includes ready-to-print cards, detailed instructions for play, guided discussion questions, and extension ideas.

My social skills class had a great time playing this, and the kids engaged in some very meaningful discussions.

Between game play and discussion, this is a 50-minute lesson that can be repeated multiple times.

This week’s adapted literature selection: E2E The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This retelling of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Birthmark reads at an automated readability index of grade 4/5.  

Classic literature doesn’t have to be scary, boring, or too hard.

Summary sites online and those little yellow and black notebooks are no longer your only choices for students who are struggling. Universally designed texts preserve the storytelling…while taking away the confusing word choices and hard-to-navigate formatting.

Universally Designed texts take classic literature common to secondary ELA classrooms and rewrite them with words and style that are easier for ALL students to read. Fewer frustrated kids. Fewer heads down on the desk. Less refusal. Less acting out. More engagement. More confidence. Better understanding.

Your purchase includes three variations on this easier-to-read text that you may print for students or share digitally on the non-public platform of your choice. Variations include:

• A text-only copy
  
• A text copy with a blank, lined column on each page for teacher-customized or open-ended note-taking
  
• A text copy with a lined column and inference-based questions on each page for guided note-taking
  
• PLEASE NOTE! These are secondary level texts. Although the Lexile difficulty has been reduced, adult themes and adult language (in some texts) have been preserved. Texts may not be appropriate for younger learners.