As learners build the "girders" of conversation by staying consistent on a particular topic, they avoid the "wrecking ball" of an off-topic comment. To help students develop this important conversation skill, this resource provides them with printable graphics to be used as visual cues during casual and academic conversations.

Concepts

conversation skills, discussion skills, group discussions, social skills, listening, autism

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Additional Tags

programs

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Instructional Ideas

• Use printables as part of a game in which learners must work to get a certain number of girders in a row by talking about the same subject with you. Then, have students place wrecking balls down each time the conversation goes off point or one person is not interested in the topic being discussed

Classroom Considerations

• Originally designed for learners on the autism spectrum, but a great activity for general classroom learning environments

Pros

• Great activity of visual cues and prompts
• Suggestions and activity context is provided by the author

Cons

• None

Common Core

SL.K.1.a SL.1.1.a SL.2.1.a SL.3.1.a SL.4.1.a SL.5.1.a SL.6.1.a SL.7.1.a SL.8.1.a