home

Emotional Literacy - The Interactive Way! Sally Hoskin Beafield Education Centre, South Australia.

Welcome to my Wiki!

Please leave feedback about your experiences with the Zones program - eg. ideas for further development, what works/doesn't work in your setting, new ways of using the existing resources.

I have set this site up in the spirit of sharing and collaboration. Wikispaces is a place where members can add their own editorial comments to the work of others. Feel free to do this! My understanding of the history of The Zones is limited by information gathered by word of mouth and remnant resources.

Please also suggest links to other web sites that have resources for teaching emotional literacy. I will be adding extra videos and web links as I come across them.

Thanks!

Sally

Please visit my other wiki:

Social Skills Resources
for websites, online games and videos related to the teaching of social skills.

toc

=Seventh National Interactive Teaching and Learning Conference (formerly IWB Conference) 2010=



Presentation abstract:

Emotional Literacy, The Interactive Way! Friday 13 August, 2010. Saint Stephen's College, Upper Coomera, Gold Coast, Queensland.

This session will present an interactive Social Skills program using Easiteach that supports effective communication about whole class and individual emotional zones. 'The Zones' program is used to support improvements in emotional literacy through the development of an emotional vocabulary and a framework for communicating feelings. The use of interactive technology provides a highly visual and engaging medium to support the achievement of learning outcomes.


 * An Easiteach file containing my presentation is found at the bottom of this page, titled "Zones Presentation Ning.et"**

=Introduction to 'The Zones' program=

'The Zones' program is a method for teaching emotional literacy that has been developed and adapted by educators in behavioural learning centres across South Australia since the mid 1990s. 'The Zones' program was initially created by staff from Behaviour Support Service - Adelaide South. It is commonly used to assist students who have been excluded from mainstream schooling to gain greater control over their challenging and extreme behaviours. It can be of particular benefit to students who have experienced trauma, students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, or those who need to develop an understanding of their emotions and anger triggers. 'The Zones' program adapted for use with interactive whiteboards in 2008.

'The Zones' originally consisted of 3 zones; comfort zone, learning zone and danger zone.



Posters were displayed around the classroom and reminders were stuck to student desks. Students were given a set of 3 cards so that they could communicate their current zone to others through class discussion and by non-verbal communication.

As 'The Zones' was used more extensively, a fourth zone was added. A blue 'cool off' card was introduced to empower students to take responsibility for identifying the need to calm down or cool off and to teach the skills needed to do this. The use of zones cards gave students a simple method of communicating emotions without the need for complex language.

The numbers 1 to 5 have been added since 2009 in order to better accommodate students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. This has been inspired by the following book which has a similar purpose and function to 'The Zones' program: Buron, Kari Dunn and Curtis, Mitzi (2003). //The Incredible 5-Point Scale//, Autism Asperger Publishing Company. @http://www.5pointscale.com/stuff_kari_mitzi.htm



=Downloadable Zones Resources=

You may need to Download Easiteach Reader if you do not have Easiteach installed: Easiteach reader