About this activity
Eight phrases for the part of secondary school where an AAC user most often ends up as a spectator: I'll do the slides. Can I go next? I have an idea. Who's writing this down? When are we meeting? I already finished my part. Group work moves fast and assigns roles in the first ninety seconds, and a student who cannot claim a task in that window gets handed one.
How to use it in a session
Practise the opening, not the whole meeting. The first two minutes decide what the student ends up doing, so drill I'll do the slides and Let's split it up until they are fast. Then run a real group with peers and a task, and stay out of it — the failure mode here is the adult brokering the student's participation, which produces a smooth group and no skill. Twelve minutes of rehearsal buys a class period of actual membership.
What to listen for
Watch whether the student claims or accepts. Claiming a task with I'll do the slides is a different behaviour from agreeing to the task the group offers, and the second is what most students default to. Notice whether peers wait — if they do not, the phrase needs to be faster or pre-stored, not better formed.
Carrying it home
Family projects work for this: planning a meal, packing for a trip, dividing chores. Ask that the student be given the chance to claim a job rather than be assigned one, even when assigning would be quicker.
Questions
- How does this fit an IEP goal?
- It sits naturally under classroom participation or self-advocacy rather than expressive language. Count self-initiated contributions to the group, not utterances.
- Do I need to log in?
- No. It plays free in the browser. An account adds assignment, scoring and progress data.
- What if peers ignore the student's contribution?
- That is worth addressing directly with the peers, and it is the reason Can I go next? is on the board — it gives the student a way to reclaim the floor rather than an adult doing it for them.