How can you connect this new skill to the student’s priorities? How can you assure ownership by making the development of this skill the student’s goal rather than just your goal for the student?
Your list of strengths vs. teachable jobs may prove helpful in priming the student. Create a visual support (graphic organizer, list, etc.) that shows what the student will do in the job or project. You may want to provide a social narrative that ties these skills and the larger job to his motivation: money, job experience that helps him get a better job, external reinforcers that you set up as a result of completing the shift, etc. He may resist initially the simple clerical duties so placing those duties in a framework with the more enticing IT responsibilities can be helpful. The graphic organizer may help the student see that he gets needed or desired experience as a result of completing less interesting tasks well.
Operating a fax machine in an office or shelving books in a library may not be enticing to the student. You can provide a graphic organizer that illustrates multiple job responsibilities so that the student sees this as an important skill that is related to duties that are more motivating. He may need a social narrative to connect skills in operating a copy machine or scanning shelves to more preferred aspects of the work, such as periodic security scans, file sharing, conducting internet searches, installing software, web site adjustments, etc.
As you introduce this skill, how will you incorporate (visually, thematically) the student’s unique interests?
How can you pull out key elements of the various assessments and graphically organize these elements to support the student’s self-evaluation of job skills?
As noted earlier, you may need to select questions for presentation to the student from information technology, clerical, and retail self-assessments. Modify and reorganize assessments to limit the number of questions and to assure relevance to the student. Do not overburden the student with too much to self-assess.. If the student answers a selected set of questions, how will you take the answers and present them to the student? Do you create a list of preferred and non-preferred activities? Does the student get involved in developing this list? From the list, can you help the student assess and organize what he might do in a project or volunteer position? This use of self-assessment may support the priming process and set up student motivation to perform the project or job.
Priming is a form of negotiation that can reframe and sharpen a student’s assessment of self. Below are the self-assessment tools that align with this intervention topic.
Computer and Information Technology Skills Assessments:
Information Technology Interests – Computer Programming, Repair, Support
Office, library or business positions that involve the use of computers in some form are entry level positions for the individual. Within the Clerical Duties topics you have options of 1) Clerical Administrative Support Skills, 2) Library Skills, or 3) Editing and Research Skills:
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Within Retail Operations, you have potentially relevant questions within 1) Retail Operations and Marketing Interests: Accounting, Business Management/Entrepreneurship, and Marketing:
Interspersal is a proven technique involving the presentation of familiar, higher success tasks with the new, more challenging task. When it is appropriate, are you varying the activities to maintain the student’s confidence and focus?
You may have noticed that interspersal is a central focus in successful job matching. We intentionally encourage you to find a job with about 80% of job tasks within the ability of the student so that you are teaching only a small percentage. This is natural interspersal.
Before the student encounters a situation where he will need to perform this skill, how do you help the student prepare? How do you orient the student to the upcoming situation? How do you orient him to the materials he will use on the job?
The use of self-assessments, as noted above, in combination with your knowledge of the project or job description is a means of orienting the student to the tasks and the job setting.
With regard to a volunteer project, priming the student by familiarizing him with the steps of the project (instructions), with the to-do list, with the materials and equipment needed can reduce prompting and confusion while in the job. For example, if the goal is to design the layout and logo of a club’s website, the student will need to become familiar with what the club membership wants and any restrictions such as avoiding copyright infringements, and color schemes that meet their requests. A checklist of expected features, a schedule with marked due dates, and an organization system can all promote a successful experience by providing a clear plan of approach before the student ever gets started.
Ensure that the student has time to review the schedule, as well as any task list (to-do list) that he will use at work. Prior to working in the office, just seeing the location of all computers, the operating system, the software, the hardware specifications, etc. can reduce the anxiety that stems from unfamiliarity.
From a soft skills perspective (see Job Keeping for specific topics), does he need to go to the site prior to working to get familiar with where his belongings will go, where he will take a break, when he will take a break, and where all the work materials are stored? Giving the student a chance to orient to the site and identify where everything goes can reduce anxiety and can prepare the student to more comfortably ‘jump into’ job responsibilities on his first day.