Martha: Alright, the next video is a demonstration with games at Special Olympics. Let’s take a look at that.

Martha: That was a lovely video. I’ve never seen that one, so thank you for showing that Joan. Does anyone have any comments?

The first thing I noticed is that all the kids were having a fabulous time, so that’s always worth a lot.

Joan Orr: Yes, that was the very first time ever; actually, I think it was the second time that we had been with that group. Not all of them were there the first time. You can see that they are having a ton of fun. It sounds like it was pretty chaotic, but you can see that they were each working with their partner, and understanding what they needed to do. They were focusing and not worried about all the noise in the room. I like the one part when the one girl, as she goes around the other one, so that she can see properly what the tag point is. It shows you that there is a lot of focus there.

Joan Orr:  And Theresa Lewin says, “Oh well, I’m smiling but I can’t see the video. Love the laughter. Something that isn’t always present in a learning situation. TAGteach is fun.” It’s fun and students are learning.

Joan Orr: And Cathy says, “Very helpful for us, the TAGteachers, to see modeling of TAGteach.” We try to practice what we preach, but we don’t always succeed. (laughs)

Martha: I think this video was a great example of doing a demonstration with all of the points that are listed on the slide, where you do a demonstration and the teacher would tag herself first for her own action. And then we saw where the students, in this case the whole group was tagging Theresa for Hand Open. Then the students were tagging Theresa when she was standing against the wall and took her hands off the wall.Finally, the students became teachers and tagged each other. They knew exactly what to tag. This is what Theresa Lewin mentioned about modeling. This is an excellent protocol for demonstrating and it’s used in another important area too: it’s in the Direct Instruction world. This is almost the exact same modeling protocol that is used with Direct Instruction. 

TAGteach tactics:

It is usually helpful to demonstrate to the learner before they actually try to do the skill or behavior. Here is a progression of steps:

Teacher tags teacher (herself/himself)

The teacher demonstrates and tags herself at the same time. For example, say you were trying to show a learner the thumb position when holding a pencil. You could demonstrate and tag yourself for the correct position.

Learner tags teacher

Have the learner tag you as you demonstrate. Make a few mistakes to see if the know not to tag. If they tag correctly, you will know that they understand what to do. If not, you can break it down further or find a clearer way to teach it before they try to take their turn and fail.

Teacher tags learner

You tag the learner.

Learner tags learner

This is called peer tagging. Learners take turns tagging each other. Usually they would get 5 tags and then switch so that they each get a chance to be both teacher and learner.