Are you teaching high school or adult-aged students in special education? As you know, there is a huge focus on functional academics, life skills, and vocational skills as students near exiting the public school system.  It is our jobs as secondary teachers to help prepare them to become as independent as possible before graduation.  Whether that means living on their own, or even if they continue to live with their parents or a group home, being able to function and pick up after themselves as independently as possible.

Here are some ways you can set up your classroom to promote age-appropriate behaviors, and independence, and prepare your students for the transition to life after school!  This is also a great read for parents.

Age-Respectful Resources & Materials

I am not the first to admit, there is a lack of resources and teaching materials out there for secondary special education, so as a new teacher, it can be tough starting your classroom planning from square one.  This is where a problem occurs, teachers will then resort to materials that may not necessarily be age-appropriate or respectful for their crowd.  I know it sounds redundant to say “use age-appropriate materials”, you’re probably thinking “well, duh”.  Sometimes it needs to be said because desperate times call for desperate measures.

Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of great life skills materials out there, but a majority of them are geared toward younger children with cute clip art characters, fonts, hearts, …and such.   I’m not knocking any products or teacher-authors out there, they really are great products, engaging, and have what you need to teach a subject.  If you’re teaching high school or adult-aged students, you need to stop using materials geared toward younger children.

Reading Materials & Books

This includes books in the classroom.  I admit it is really hard to find leveled books that are geared toward older students.  I have been able to find a handful of age-appropriate social stories and adapted books.  In the meantime, I provide my students with magazines.  Not only do we use the magazine for leisure, but also for many cut & paste activities.

Here is a website that has adapted literature and below are a few simplified & visual materials for students to read.

Treat them their age, not their functioning level

Let’s say your 18-year-old student functions at a 3rd-grade level.  This means your high school/transition curriculum is going to have to be modified to the student’s level.  Keyword, modified.  So you take what’s age-appropriate for an 18-year-old and then simplify it (with age-appropriate visuals if needed).  That’s it.  Your 18-year-old student probably also does not want to be treated like a 3rd grader.

What if your students like Barney or Blues Clues hypothetically?  Treating a student their age means providing them with age-appropriate experiences in a way that they understand.  But, this doesn’t mean you should take away the things that they enjoy that you may not consider age-appropriate.  Plenty of adults love Disney, video games,  cartoons…etc including myself.  Our job as educators is to prepare our students for the real world and there is definitely an appropriate balance to consider for each individual while also considering their dignity.

Ditch the Desks & Promote Appropriate Socialization

No matter what grade your student is in, you’ll want to promote socialization of course.  Once they hit hs/transition age, you’ll really want to make a push for it even more so.  Focus on appropriate greetings, topics, and body language.  Read social stories, often.  Make more opportunities for socialization in and out of the classroom.

One way to promote socialization is to ditch the desks and set up your classroom to have more of a home feel or hang-out area.  

Having students sit at group tables not only promotes socialization, but it also is more realistic to scenarios your students might find themselves in, out in the community.  

 This is similar to what people do when they are at an event, meeting…etc.  From my experience, I have noticed my students socializing more, and working on turn-taking, personal space, and sharing.  It has made my small group lessons 20x easier to execute, and it’s a form of flexible seating!

Visuals & Environmental Print

Incorporate as many real-life materials or environmental print into your lessons.  There are so many free materials you can easily use such as magazines, restaurant menus, newspapers, brochures…etc.  One example would be using weekly circulars for nutrition or money math lessons. 

Reinforcement

Like you would at any age, don’t forget to positively reinforce the desired (age-appropriate) behaviors.  For secondary-aged students, I try real hard to stay away from token boards if I can.  Fading the token board system equals more independence.  If you have a student on a token system, you’ll want to discuss with the IEP team whether it’s the right time to start working towards fading away from it (if you think it will be beneficial for the student).  If you are able to use real coins/money as a token system, you can at least incorporate money math.

Another alternative to token boards is using a portable whiteboard and making a checklist/task analysis, which is essentially a token board.  This looks a little more age-appropriate, it turns into functional reading, and it is easy to modify especially if your student likes having different choices (plus it saves you time and money from laminating and velcroing).

Fade Away One-on-one aide

This is another area that you’ll want to discuss with the IEP team on trying to fade if it’s appropriate.  It is definitely a big decision, but it is really going to make a huge difference on what happens next!  Simply put, the less a student has to depend on an aide, the more independence they will have.  From my experience, many parents have fought hard to get their child a one-on-one aide, and having that one-on-one attention really is beneficial.  But when it comes down to their last year in school before graduation, it is going to be really important to look at the big picture.  It will provide more opportunities for the student to find adult day programs after graduation.

Adult Day Programs

Many adult day programs have a 3-4 client to 1 staff ratio, on top of have waiting lists to get accepted into.  A majority of adult day programs do not offer one-on-one assistance.  When they are looking for clients to accept into a program, one of the key things they look for is if a prospective client will be able to be independent enough.  Many parents (with the help of their regional center), start to look for possible program placements at the beginning of the year (beginning of graduation year) because of the waitlists.  It is ideal to even try and fade the one-on-one towards the end of the year, the year before “senior year”.  Getting into an adult day program is very much like interviewing for a job.  The programs look at the student’s present levels, and they may even come observe at the school.

When dropping the one-on-one isn’t an option…

If you’re not able to drop the one-on-one aide, it’s not the end of the world; there are still ways to build towards greater independence.  One thing you can work on is fading prompting or taking the next step on the prompting hierarchy.  Prompting hierarchies vary from place to place, but generally speaking, you’ll want prompting to go down to gestural and natural cues.  Another thing to think about is the proximity of the aide.  Have the one-on-one start taking a step back when direct assistance isn’t needed, that way the student will start to get used to not having someone hover over them at all times.

Discussions and Social Narratives

It is extremely important to start the discussion of graduation and life after graduation well ahead of time.  You don’t want to just drop the ball and let your students know a few months before graduation.  The sooner you start the discussion, the more likely you are to ease anxiety.  From my experience, during the student’s last year, especially during the last few months before graduation, you’ll notice they may start to act differently – possibly even exhibiting aggressive behaviors when they normally don’t.  Behavior is communication.  That is their way of communicating their unease and anxiety for what’s to come.

A great way to help ease tensions is to have discussions or read visual social stories.  Check out this narrative:

Functional Classroom Decorations

Keep the classroom “decorations” minimal, rather, make anything you hang on the wall functional.  You can actually pull some inspiration into decorating your classroom similar to a home, work break room, or bring the community (grocery store and such) into the classroom.  Put things on the wall you would see out in the community.  Steer away from the classroom look and incorporate more environmental print.  Rather than posting classroom rules/expectations, use something fun like framed quotes for instance.

Concentrate on functional academics and hands-on activities like cooking, cleaning, and vocational tasks.  My classroom is filled with cooking and cleaning supplies, as well as vocational work task boxes.  With only a few years left of school, it’s time to put their knowledge to the test and start simulating real-life scenarios in a controlled environment.

Hands-On Activities

Practice vocational skills whenever possible!  I have a variety of tools in my classroom that help practice work skills.  Many of these skills that we practice also double as independent living skills for cleaning or fixing your home.  The great thing about adult transition is that literally, every moment is a teaching moment.  If we need to shop for something, it’s an opportunity for community-based instruction.  If something needs to be cleaned or fixed, it’s an opportunity for life skills instruction.

Cooking

If your school doesn’t have access to a kitchen area, fill your room with portable cooking items such as a hot plate, convection oven, microwave…etc.  Cooking is a great hands-on activity for the secondary special education classroom!  I try and have my students cook at least once a week with a recipe we either find on Pinterest or one that is incorporated into a current lesson such as in N2Y.  If your school has a kitchen to utilize, that is awesome!

The kitchen at my school gets crowded easily so we decided to purchase the tools we need to get basic cooking done in the classroom.  Some ideas of appliances include a hot plate, convection oven, blender, griddle, and microwave.  We also have all of the kitchen tools (like pots & pans), as well as dishes to serve our meals on.  Practice life skills by washing the dishes as well!

Independent Skills

Use a clothing rack to practice hanging jackets while providing extra clothing in case of accidents, nice shirts and pants for off-campus jobs, and job coaching shirts.  The students can also take these clothes (along with laundry from other classrooms) to the coin laundry each week to practice cleaning life skills.

Community-Based Instruction

Go off-campus and into the community as much as possible!!  If it’s appropriate for the student, get public bus passes and/or train passes.  Take a lot of walks so students become familiar with their community, even it’s just taking a walk in the surrounding neighborhood.  This also promotes an active and healthy lifestyle.  Ideas for community-based instruction include grocery shopping, ordering at a restaurant, navigating a map or bus schedule, job search observations, and scavenger hunts.

What better way to teach real-life skills than to go out into the community!  Community-based instruction can be a huge relief to many parents as well.  With the support and structure, a teacher and aides are able to provide, it makes it a bit easier to go out into the community more often, rather than a parent by themselves.  Teaching students the skills they need to be successful in the community equals more success for the student when they go into the community with their parents…and that equals happy parents!

Learn about all of the different opportunities to go off campus to incorporate community-based instruction here.

Vocational Skills

Whether its a work task box, task cards, or on/off-campus job, vocational skills practice is a MUST in any life skills classroom.  There are so many opportunities to create on-campus jobs or even classroom jobs to practice vocational skills.

One of the walls in my classroom is filled with job timesheets.  It’s a vocational goal they work on several times a week and it makes it easier for students to remember to fill out their timesheets, plus, it doubles as work samples!  Students fill in the time they “clock in” and “clock out” for their on and off-campus jobs.  Through the workability program, students are able to receive a paycheck, or you can create your own reward system for student’s hard work.

Download the timesheets and banner here.

Another fun vocational activity to implement is Vocational Question Of The Day or Independent Living Question Of The Day. Comes with an interest answer sheet so you can keep track of students’ vocational preferences!

Have your students work on their personal information (name, address, phone number…etc).  Once they have mastered memorizing their personal information, students can practice filling out job applications and creating a resume.  There are many differentiated and simplified ways to practice filling out job applications depending on your student’s level.    Also, before your student graduates, help them create an official resume listing the skills they learned at school, their preferences, and their work history, and put yourself (the teacher) and/or related service providers that know the student, down as a reference.  The student can take this to their next program or job interview, or they can build upon it in the future as they gain more experience and skills.

Another great way to practice vocational skills is to start a student business! Check out this blog post for ideas and information on getting one started!

Disclaimer: The content provided in this blog is circumstantial to different variables such as student learning styles or accommodations… etc.  Strategies provided should always be discussed with the parents and IEP team before implementation.

Thanks for reading!