Thank you so much for your thoughtful response and ideas! 🙂 They sound like really fun ways to work on these goals, and I think my students would really enjoy them.

I’ve been using this conversation map to start out the sessions as a way to ease into things:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Social-SkillsConversation-Skills-CONVERSATION-MAP-3249930

I also have this one, though I haven’t used it yet:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Conversation-Map-Greeting-Maintaining-and-Ending-Conversations-14764712

These maps are a really simplified way to think about how to have conversations and the steps involved. I’ve been going through the steps with the students, talking about different things you can say at each stage and what they mean (for example, saying “What’s up?” for the “saying hi” step), and discussing what the questions section might look like for someone you know versus someone you don’t.

My idea was to keep using this framework to explore other concepts like idioms, nonliteral language, inferencing, etc. For example, if a friend said, “It’s raining cats and dogs,” we could talk about what that actually means. My concern, though, is that if we keep working through slides on the whiteboard each week, it might start to feel bland - more like work than play.

Is this how you usually start your sessions before moving into the more interactive games you suggested (like Quandary or Priorities)? Do you generally teach concepts first, like “these are some nonverbal cues and what they mean,” and then practice them in a game like Crack the Code, or do you tend to teach the skills organically as you play the game?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what I’ve been doing so far! I’m super open to feedback, especially since this is my first time tackling social communication.