The Connecting With Others curriculum for grades 6 through 8 will help students learn to be sensitive to differences, resolve conflicts without resorting to violence, and learn tolerance and acceptance of others.
Includes 40 lessons divided into eight skill areas: Awareness of Self and Others, Responsibility, Communication, Cooperation and Collaboration, Conflict Resolution, Self-Advocacy and Assertiveness, Love and Caring, Time Management and Organization. Instructional strategies include relaxation, modeling, coaching, behavioral rehearsal, reinforcement, creative expression, self-instruction and more.
Review
“Perhaps one of the best books of its kind ever written, the publisher integrates quality text with graphics and artwork which facilitates easy use and is attractive for students.”
— Professional School Counseling
LESSONS
Skill Area 1: Awareness of Self and Others
- Who Am I?
- I Feel, Therefore I Am
- Friendship Is Golden
- Many Thanks
- Mutual Admiration Society
Role-Play: Awareness of Self and Others
Skill Area 2: Communication
- I Hear You
- Let’s Talk
- Communicating without Talking
- Social Needs, Social Deeds
- Unpolluted Language
Role-Play: Communication
Skill Area 3: Responsibility
- Where Am I Going?
- I Did It Myself
- Understanding Directions
- Let Me Check
- Taking Responsibility
Role-Play: Responsibility
Skill Area 4: Self-Advocacy and Assertiveness
- Help! I Need Somebody
- Take the First Step
- Why Should I?
- Yes Sir, Yes Ma’am, but…
- I Can Say No to You
Role Play: Self-Advocacy and Assertiveness
Skill Area 5: Conflict Resolution
- I Can Say No to Me
- Try and Try Again
- Give and Take and Mediate
- Words Can Sometimes Hurt
- Room for Improvement
Role-Play: Conflict Resolution
Skill Area 6: Cooperation and Collaboration
- Together We Will Overcome
- Patience Is a Virtue
- We’re in This Together
- A Balancing Act
- What’s Your Type?
Role-Play: Cooperation and Collaboration
Skill Area 7: Love and Caring
- Understanding Our Differences
- A Walk in Your Shoes
- Many Faces of Love
- Love and Responsibility
- With or without Conditions
Role-Play: Love and Caring
Skill Area 8: Time Management and Organization
- What Time Is It?
- Time Flies
- Time to Relax
- At Your Best
- Time for Fun
Role-Play: Time Management and Organization
Appendices
A: Parent Newsletters
B: Bibliography
FIGURES
Preliminary Lesson
- Self-Management
- Sample Duration and Frequency Graphs
- The Thinking Steps
- Who, Me?
- Direct versus Empathetic Assertion
- Role-Play Review
- General Review
Skill Area 1: Awareness of Self and Others
- Multiple Intelligences Worksheet
- Feelings and Behaviors
- What Else Could I Do?
- Thank-You Questions
- Compliment, Flattery, or Back-Handed Compliment?
Skill Area 2: Communication
- Rules for Listening
- Conversation Review
- Roadblocks and Door Openers
- Conversation Topics
- Dialogue Topics
- Nonverbal Messages
- Get the Message?
- Communication Matching
- Responsible Answers
- What Would You Do?
- A Kinder Way
Skill Area 3: Responsibility
- Goal-Setting Worksheet
- Your Emotional Quotient
- Self-Direction Review
- Understanding Directions
- Self-Management Review
- Scott’s New Me
- Taking Responsibility
Skill Area 4: Self-Advocacy and Assertiveness
- Who Can Help?
- Helping Review
- What Kind of Helping?
- Let Me Help You
- Responsibility and Empathy
- Fair or Unfair?
- Understanding Empathetic Assertion
- Help Harry
- Peer Pressure Situations
- What Would You Say?
- Say No?
Skill Area 5: Conflict Resolution
- Self-Control Assessment
- Self-Check Chart
- What Else Could I Do?
- Real-Life Alternatives
- Check Your Teasing
- Hurtful or Friendly Teasing?
- Johari Window
- East’s Dilemma
- Negative Criticism or Positive Criticism?
Skill Area 6: Cooperation and Collaboration
- Cooperative Group Rules
- Patience Dilemmas
- Will This Group Succeed?
- Different Abilities, Equal Values
- What’s Your Type?
- Identifying Personality Types
Sill Area 7: Love and Caring
- Different but the Same
- Three Dilemmas
- What Should I Do?
- Conditional or Unconditional?
- What’s Wrong Here?
- I’ll Love You If . . .
Skill Area 8: Time Management and Organization
- Looking at Consequences
- Tardy Tarfin
- Taminika’s Time Management
- Relaxation Exercise
- Stress Awareness
- Personal Stress Inventory
- Energy Interview
- Learning Style Inventory
- Energy Journal
- Interest Inventory
- Leisure Time Review
The Connecting with Others program is an evidence-based curricular approach for developing children’s self-awareness and awareness of others. Each lesson in the four volume series follows a specific lesson cycle and includes instructional materials for each activity. The theoretical underpinnings of the program include Transactional Analysis, Positive Assertion Training, and Cognitive Behavior Modification.
A study utilizing the Connecting with Others Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5 was implemented in five Louisiana public elementary classrooms containing general education and special education students. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether this social skills program would enable students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms to develop skills that would facilitate socialization with peers with and without disabilities. The research question addressed the students’ acquisition of social skills as a result of the training. The results of the study indicated with reasonable assurance that the students did grow in the skill areas identified in the program (Coombs-Richardson et al 2009).
In another study, the program was implemented in two early childhood classrooms located on the campus of a state university in Virginia. This study evaluated the impact of the social skills training on the social behaviors of the children. Participating were 30 students with an average age of four-years ten-months. The income levels of the families varied from low social economic status to high middle economic status. To assess the socio emotional skills level of each child, two examiners independently completed the Social Skills and Attitude Scale (SSAS) which is a component of the Connecting with Others program. The examiners observed the children and recorded children’s pre and post intervention behaviors on a checklist. The study yielded positive evidence that the social skills instruction and activities did make a meaningful difference in increasing targeted social skills of the children (Coombs-Richardson, Myran, and Tonelson 2009).
Two master’s thesis studies were conducted at Wayne State College in Nebraska to study the impact of social skills instruction using the Connecting with Others: Lessons for Teaching Social and Emotional Competence (Richardson 1996a). Hurner (2006) implemented the training in an after school program to determine if it would impact students’ behaviors on their return to their early childhood formal school setting. The general educators filled out rating scales on each of the students before and after the social skills instruction. Twelve of the 18 participating students showed improvement in all five categories. This study provided support for the use of a school-based social skills program to increase the social skills of students with behavior problems and/or difficulties with social interactions. Based on the results of the teachers’ responses, the researchers concluded that the social skills learned in the after-school program were generalized in the school environment.
Social skills training in early childhood sets the stage for students’ future behaviors in schools. Larson (2008) examined the effects of the Connecting with Others curriculum on the behavior of students in an early childhood program. The children received instruction taught by the researcher. Pre and post scales of the BASC-2 Rating Scale (Reynolds and Kamphaus 2005) and the Connecting with Others Rating Scale were used to determine if each child demonstrated progress in their behaviors and/or in their social-emotional skills as a result of the intervention. The instruction had a positive impact on the behaviors of the early childhood students who participated in this study. All 18 participants showed improvement in at least two categories derived from Connecting with Others (Richardson 1996) and improvement in at least one category from the BASC-2. Twelve of the 18 participating students showed improvement in all six of the Connecting with Others (Richardson 1996) categories. Additionally, 13 out of 18 students demonstrated improvement in at least seven of the 13 BASC-2 categories.