SUMMER 2016

 

Setting up a summer program for students is oftentimes a lot of work! Aside from the staffing issues that many school districts and agencies face, the learners qualifying for extended school year services not only need structure, but also fun and engaging activities to motivate them to participate.

School staff members frequently struggle with how to maintain skills of their summer program students without it being a ton of work. They need to plan and teach in the short period of time they have to deliver the services.

Numerous school districts and camps have found a simple solution that has reduced their prep time for summer services, improved their teaching, and highly engaged their students and staff in multisensory instruction.

The new director of the Hartford Autism Regional Program (HARP), Jessica Poludin, planned out her 4-week summer program (Mondays through Thursdays) in a very creative way using the methodology of T.H.E. P.A.C.T.

The first step was identifying the instructional topics for each week of the summer program:

Week 1: The Great Outdoors
Field Trip: Silver Lake

Week 2: Underwater Adventure
Field Trip: Echo Center

Week 3: Animal Oasis
Field Trip: Retreat Farm

Week 4: Things That Grow
Field Trip: Wellwood Orchards

The next step was identifying the consistent activities and lessons to be used to Learn About, Read About, Write About, and Talk About ANY of the weekly topics – regardless of the week. Here is what was planned:

MONDAYS

Build a Collage
Listen to a Dictionary
Vocabulary BINGO

TUESDAYS

Listen to a Book

WEDNESDAYS

Take Field Trip Photos (related to the topic)
Write Sentences in Journal Notebook (about the field trip)

THURSDAYS

Give an Opinion
Answer Questions

 

Simple Program Planning Using T.H.E. P.A.C.T.

 
The staff then identified the content for each of the four topics and created the lessons for each of the topics using the same module activity sets.

Here are photo examples for each of T.H.E. P.A.C.T. modules:

Consistent Vocabulary-Building Activities – Regardless of Topic

 

Consistent Literacy Activities – Regardless of Topic

 

Consistent Writing Activities – Regardless of Topic

 

Consistent Sharing Activities – Regardless of Topic

 
Each week of the summer program, the staff knew WHAT they were doing EACH day, HOW they were doing it, and WHAT materials they were using – regardless of the weekly topic!

It left no questions.

The summer program was extremely organized, yet also very creative and fun.

Week after week, these learners were anchored in their instruction and were successful when focusing on WHAT they were learning, reading, writing, and talking about – not on HOW they were doing it.

You, too, can implement these principles with this easy formula to teach anything!

Hoping you are having a wonderful summer,
Phyl