Session 5
An Overview of the Stop & Think Social Skills Program and Its Primary Components
[Total Session Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes]
- The History of the Stop & Think Social Skills Program
- The Stop & Think Social Skills Materials
- Professional Development and Reading the Stop & Think Manual
- The Two Primary Components of Stop & Think Instruction
- The Stop & Think Social Skills and their Developmental Contexts
- The Two-Week Teach-Apply-Infuse Instructional Cycle
- Stop & Think Instruction by the Month and Year
After a chronological history of the development, field-testing, validation, evidence-based designations (e.g., SAMHSA, CASEL, NREPP), and comprehensive implementation of the Stop & Think Social Skills Program, the materials that come in the Stop & Think Program’s Classroom Kit and other available Stop & Think resources are briefly described [Go to: www.projectachieve.info/store/stop-think-books].
This session then describes the Professional Development (PD) chronology for school implementation that extends from a Grade-level Book Study of the Stop & Think manual prior to a formal professional development in-service that includes opportunities for grade-level teams of teachers to develop and act out Stop & Think lessons in front of their peers and Master Trainer. The PD continues with live demonstrations by the Master Trainer in select teachers’ classrooms, and includes monthly Grade-level Planning Meetings and ongoing virtual and live support and coaching from the Master Trainer.
This session next provides a detailed discussion of the Stop & Think’s five-step Universal Language and how specific Social Skill’s step-by-step skill scripts are embedded in the third universal step. The importance of aligning the social skills instruction with students’ cognitive-developmental stages of development is emphasized here, and the social learning theory-based instructional steps of (a) Teaching each social skill’s specific scripts and behaviors; (b) Modeling the skill; (c) having students Role Play the skills with teacher and peer Performance Feedback; and (d) providing Transfer of Training opportunities are outlined.
The session ends as the Teach-Apply-and-Infuse two-week social skill instructional cycle is addressed (accompanied by two-week and one-month templates), and the teaching and reinforcement elements of the full-year Stop & Think calendar and instructional process are delineated.
Feature Presentation
Handout
2 5 Session 5 Primary Components Stop & Think Program Handout 3 2022.pdf
Presentation Audio Only
Quiz
Quiz Answers
Resources
A Stop & Think Full-Year Sample Instructional Calendar
4 5 0 Stop & Think SS Sample Full Year Calendar.pdf
Knoff, H.M. (2018). The Stop & Think Social Skills Program: Exploring its research base and rationale. Little Rock, AR: Project ACHIEVE Press.
4 5 1 Stop & Think Research Base TA Paper.pdf
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Homework
August 22, 2020 Blog (Knoff, H.M.): “How Would Covey Organize an SEL School Initiative: Strategically Planning for the Usual and the Unusual”
4 5 2 How Would Covey Organize an SEL School Initiative.pdf
March 5, 2022 Blog (Knoff, H.M.): “Fitting Social Skills Instruction into the School Day: Necessity, Priority, Fidelity, and the Secondary School Advisory Period”
4 5 3 Fitting Social Skills Instruction into the School Day.pdf