Do you use Instagram or other social media to teach inference skills? It is engaging for our middle and high school students! The format of social media gives our students the visual supports and cues they need to make an inference. Social media can be a great way to teach students how to draw conclusions using materials that they are relevant to their lives. Bonus: it gets points with our older students for authenticity!
Do you know what else gets points for authenticity? Youtube! Looking for ideas on incorporating youtube into your therapy session? You might find this post helpful.
Inferencing with Instagram!
Think about how we teach the skill of making an inference. It’s like the format of Instagram was made for teaching inference skills. We typically start with pictures, and social media centers around the visual image. We might provide some verbal or written clues as needed. That’s where the instagram caption comes in-it is essentially a verbal cue to enhance understanding of the picture! Let’s not forget about hashtags. I liken them to categories when I explain them to students. For instance, if you post a ladybug, your hashtag might be #bugslife and your hash tag for a beach image might be #summerfun. Hashtags require prior knowledge making them a perfect inference activity.
Your student may already be making inferences from social media but don’t realize they are doing so! Draw their attention to how they arrived at an answer to a question about social media using inference.
- What evidence drew them to their conclusions?
- What background knowledge did they use?
- How can they support their inference?
Consider the risks!
There is a risk involved in using social media in therapy sessions. First, parents may not WANT their children exposed to social media. If you are going to take a student to an actual social media site, run it by a parent first. (It might even be blocked by your school).
Second, similar to youtube, there is a risk that our students will see inappropriate ads or content and there is no “viewpure” like there is for youtube to remove inappropriate content. Even if you preview an account or post prior to presenting it to your student, that won’t stop someone from adding an inappropriate comment between the time you preview it and the time you show it to your student. That’s why I decided to make a product that uses the helpful parts of social media (relevance, visuals, short captions) without the risk. Then, we can safely use the format of social media to teach inference skills.
BOOM Cards: Social Media Inferences!
This set of BOOM cards uses the structure of social media, the image, caption and hashtags without the risk of viewing inappropriate content! Plus, like so many of my BOOM cards, it is tiered. The first tier (shown below) presents the image and caption. Students then choose the hashtag(s) that make the most sense from three choices. This tier works on receptive language and making inferences. I find it important to include multiple choice tasks in my products. It helps students understand task expectations and this type of response is less “risky” for some students!
In the second tier, (shown below) students are given only the image and they type their own caption and hashtags in the boxes.
BOOM Fall Social Media Inferences
BOOM Winter Social Media Inferences
Conclusion?
Using actual Instagram or social media accounts during your therapy sessions is risky and something that should start with parent/guardian permission. It’s safer to take screenshots of previewed posts/accounts or use materials that utilize the helpful format of social media such as the freebie below!
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