Mentor Preparation

Mentors:

• review mentee’s goal plan and who they contact for support
• prepare questions to help guide mentee in writing their email (e.g., How do you want to begin your email?; What’s a good question to ask, since you want information?, etc.)

Activity

Part 1: Planning a Keynote Presentation

Mentees work with their mentors to plan a Keynote presentation, which they will share with team members, friends and family at an end-of-the-year party.

Self-Determination Program staff create a Keynote template in advance to guide the group as they plan their presentation. There are 5 planning steps within the template.

Mentors introduce the activity. To help students decide what they would like to say for each part of their planning step of the presentation, mentors ask questions and provide partner-assisted scanning options as choices to mentees. For example:

“How would you like to introduce me? Are there any words in your talker that you could use to describe me?” – Mentor gives student time to respond using their speech-generating device.

“What do you want to say about the work you’ve done so far towards your goal?”

Partner-assisted options:

• I chose Miss Holly as the person who could help me think of some ideas for working towards my goal.
• I worked with my mentor, Tyson to plan things I needed to do to get started on my goal of making plans.
•  I brainstormed words related to my goal that I could put in my device.
• I’m working hard on my goal of making plans. For example, Job and I are planning graduation and we helped plan this party.
• Something else in my device.

Once all of the information the group would like to share is in the presentation, students and mentors work with Self-Determination Program staff to:

• Choose and insert images to represent information on each slide
• Place a small personal photograph so each individual knows when it is their turn to present
• Color code pages to match communication device buttons
• Edit and finalize content within the presentation
• Program communication devices with the text (insert image of slide/buttons on device)
• Rehearse the presentation in front of a live audience

Planning Step 1

Mentees decide:

• who will welcome everyone to the party
• who will present their information first
• how they will introduce their mentor, including words to describe them

Planning Step 2

Mentors:

• determine how they will expand on their mentee introduction
• decide on a few words to share about their mentee
• introduce the activities students completed within the Self-Determination Program

Planning Step 3

Mentees decide:

• how they will introduce their personal goal
• how they will share what they have done to work towards their goal
• how they will share their next steps towards their goal
• what they would like to share about things they learned in SDP class

Planning Step 4

Mentors decide:

• what information they would like to share about things they learned in Self-Determination Program class

Planning Step 5

Mentees decide:

• who will thank everyone and how the presentation will end

Part 2: Plan the Party

Students work with their mentors to plan the end-of-the-year party and review the pieces that they need to plan. Students decide:

• Who they will invite to attend the party
• What the party invitation will look like and what information it will have on it
• Type of decorations
• What kind of food/drink they would like to offer

Part 3: End-of-the-Year Self-Determination Party

Mentees and mentors share their Keynote presentation in front of their friends, family, etc.

Once the presentation is over, students open their Time Capsule and share the information with their family and friends to see if anything has changed.

The end-of-the-year party gives the group a chance to share and talk about the Self-Determination Program activities and personal experiences. It also gives the audience an opportunity to pose questions to the individuals.

Adaptations:

• Students can generate their responses using their speech-generating devices, or they can use partner-assisted strategies with communication boards
• Provide student with a talking word processing program and/or word prediction for spelling support
• Provide alternate input methods (e.g., speech-generating devices, AccessIt, etc.) – so students can type responses directly into an email
• Use partner-assisted strategies with communication boards so students can dictate their responses
• Students access the internet with their speech-generating devices and/or using computer interface hardware to input email web page, email login and password
• Break down activity into multiple sessions (if necessary)
• Offer dictated writing strategy for students who do not have access to independent writing tools, where the student communicates a response to someone, who then writes it down for them