Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs - Softcover

Mannix, Darlene

3.92

53 ratings by Goodreads

9780787966201: Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0787966207 ISBN 13: 9780787966201

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1995

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

For educators, parents, and others involved in teaching adolescents with special needs, here is a unique collection of 190 illustrated activity sheets with related exercises, discussion questions, and evaluation suggestions to help students acquire the basic skills necessary to achieve independence and success in everyday living.

Each activity sheet focuses on a specific skill within the context of real-life situations and includes complete teacher directions for its effective use, from objective and introduction through optional extension activities and ways to assess students’ learning.

For quick access, all of these ready-to-use materials are printed in a big spiral-bound format for easy photocopying and organized into seven sections. Here’s an overview of the major topics (and sample activity titles) covered in each section:

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS—30 activities focusing on Uniqueness of Myself and Others (Spotlight on Me)...Friendship Skills (qualities of a Good Friend)...Being Part of a Family (Members of a Family)

COMMUNICATION SKILLS—15 lessons that teach Understanding Others (Being a Careful Listener)...Expressing Yourself (Be Convincing)...Conflict Resolution (Compromising)

ACADEMIC & SCHOOL SKILLS—32 activities related to Reading (Reading on the Job)...Writing (Proofreading)...math (Improving Math Skills)...Study Skills (Taking Notes)

PRACTICAL LIVING SKILLS—39 activities focusing of Getting Information (What Do You Need to Know?)...Money Management (Making a Budget)...Travel (Using a Timetable)...Driving (Car Insurance)...Home Management (Home Repairs, Preparing a Meal)

VOCATIONAL SKILLS—22 lessons featuring Present Skills and Interests (What Are You Good At?)...School Record and Planning (Finishing High School)...Working (Interviewing)

LIFESTYLE CHOICES—27 activities covering Values (What Are Values?)...Personal Habits and Choices (Teens and Drinking)...Sexual Issues (Teenage Pregnancy, HIV and AIDS)...Reputation (How You Appear to Others)...Stress (Stressful Events and Situations)

PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS—25 lessons on Handling Problem Situations (Adjusting to Change)...Making Decisions (Needs vs. Wants)...Resource Management (Staying on Task)...Goal-Setting (Realistic Goals)...Risk-Taking (Learning from Mistakes)

Also included is a list of parent activities which can be reproduced and given to parents to use in conjunction with the activities being worked on in class. You may supplement thus list with your own activities and/or worksheets to provide extra reinforcement of new skills.

You’ll find these activities are completely flexible. You can use them in any order for a variety of purposes—to introduced, teach and/or reinforce specific life skills. Moreover, the activities can easily be modified to meet individual or group needs.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Darlene Mannix has been both a special and regular education teacher for the past 15 years. Her teaching assignments have included multicategorical resource rooms, a pilot program for language disordered children, emotionally handicapped classes for elementary and secondary students, and inclusion teacher for middle school learning disabled students.
Ms. Mannix earned her B.S. in Secondary Education at Taylor University and her M.S. in Learning Disabilities at Indiana University. She has written many practical resources for teachers, including Social Skills Activities for Special Children (C.A.R.E., 1993).

ABOUT THIS BOOK Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs is a resource for teachers, counselors, parents, and others involved with instructing adolescents with special needs. You will find a unique collection of illustrated activity sheets, discussion questions, applied exercises, and evaluation suggestions for focusing on a particular life-skill objective. The book is divided into seven sections with a total of 190 specific activities, each of which can be taught to a group of students or modified to meet individual needs. Extension activities are presented as optional lessons for class use, depending on time, needs, interests, and students' abilities.

Why Teach Life Skills? As children mature, their life needs change. Adolescents need to develop a variety of skills as they prepare to complete their formal education and look forward to entering life beyond school. They must be prepared to possibly face the world of work, take on responsibility for a family, and make decisions ranging from what to wear that day to solving problems on the job. At the same time, they must come to terms with living with themselves - figuring out who they are, what they are capable of achieving, devising their own value system, and enjoying their uniqueness as a person.

Schools have become so much more than institutions for learning to read, write, and do calculations. It is at school that many children learn to operate in a cooperative group, bargain collectively, struggle with peer pressure, ask questions, solve problems, and think about life beyond the next ten minutes. While the primary objective of schools is to educate children, the concept of "education" has broadened to include social skills, vocational skills, and other skills formerly outside the realm of traditional education.

Who Will Benefit from This Book? The activities in this resource are directed towards students with special needs in grades 7 to 12. Some activities may be too juvenile or not applicable to any given grade; however, there are alternative activities and ideas suggested for you to consider for use with your students. Modifications can easily be made on the activities for adapting them for individual/classroom use, emphasizing oral discussion rather than requiring written responses, allowing the student to use his or her creative abilities to demonstrate mastery of the objective, and involving all students in some aspect of experiencing the life skill.

What Will You Find in This Book? Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs is divided into the following seven sections:

Interpersonal Skills -30 lessons covering the areas of considering one's uniqueness and the uniqueness of others, friendship skills, and being part of a family

Communication Skills - 15 lessons to teach understanding others, expressing oneself, and resolving conflicts

Academic and School Skills -32 activities in the subjects of reading, writing, math, and study skills

Practical Living Skills - 39 activities for getting information, managing money, traveling, driving, and managing a home

Vocational Skills -22 lessons that introduce students to recognizing present skills and interests, using school records to plan, and entering the world of work

Lifestyle Choices -27 activities for forming values, inventorying one's personal habits, considering sexual issues, having a good reputation, and recognizing and dealing with stress

Problem Solving Skills - 25 lessons that involve handling problem situations, making decisions, using resources, setting goals, and taking risks

Each activity contains the following components: (1) an objective that specifies the focus of the lesson; (2) brief comments about the importance of the objective; (3) one or two introductory activities that can "ready" the class to pay attention to the primary activity; (4) a ready-to-use worksheet (with accompanying answers, materials list, and discussion questions); (5) several extension activities that can be assigned on an "as needed" basis and may require additional class time; and (6) evaluation activities that can be assigned as a quiz, objective check-up, or simply for a quick review of the material.

A list of parent activities and suggestions is included in this introduction. These activities can be reproduced and given to parents to use in conjunction with the activities being worked on in class. You may also wish to add activities of your own to the list as well as include some of the reproducible activity sheets to provide extra reinforcement of newly learned skills.

Summing Up Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs is a resource for educators, counselors, parents, and others who are interested and involved in helping adolescents with special needs. Life skills for this age group include not only school skills, but vocational skills, problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, and communication skills. All of the lessons you find in this book can be tailored for many age and interest groups, and include several types of activities. Good luck to you and your students! Darlene Mannix

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.