Teaching a Group:  Creating an Effective Morning Circle/Meeting in School Programs

The daily Morning Circle, a.k.a. Morning Meeting, is a staple lesson in general education and special education classrooms throughout the world.  Standard activities usually include greeting or signing in, updating the calendar, reviewing concepts, and other routine activities that can differ from teacher to teacher.  In classrooms that utilize the verbal operants as a basis for language assessment and intervention, the Morning Circle can also be a time for practicing functional language skills that have been taught during structured teaching sessions (e.g., discrete trial training) and conducting generalization probes.  Additionally, essential group skills can be targeted that include the ability to sit in a group session without disruptive behavior, respond to teacher demands while in a group session, and acquire new behaviors during a group session. 

After completing this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Create materials and activities that will allow for more active engagement and responding.
• Provide staff members with guidelines for monitoring group activities that foster   independence and not prompt-dependency.
• Collect data on the frequency (and types) of language opportunities provided to students during Morning Circle.