At-a-Glance

Planning Your Program

At-a-Glance

To ensure that students get the most out of AIM, the sessions have been designed so that buddies first become familiar with the program and begin to feel comfortable talking together during three buddy prep sessions. The first two prep sessions take place separately in the buddies’ home classrooms.

Prep Session 1: Getting Ready to Meet Your Buddy (45 minutes) This session is led by teachers in separate classrooms. Buddies are introduced to the program, discuss different emotions in order to develop a vocabulary of feelings, and create a “Who Am I?” project that will help their buddies get to know them.

Prep Session 2: Training the Buddies (30–45 minutes for Little Buddies, 20–45 minutes for Big Buddies) This session is led by teachers in separate classrooms. Students prepare for their buddy roles as they discuss what to expect and what it means to be a Little Buddy or Big Buddy, and explore being a buddy as they practice with a classmate.

Prep Session 3: Meet and Greet (20–30 minutes) This session is led by both teachers in a combined classroom. The buddies meet and share their “Who Am I?” projects.

After the prep sessions, each of the topics is explored in three topic-related sessions that focus on the interactive feature.

Topic Buddy Session I: Introduction (30–45 minutes for Little Buddies, 20–45 minutes for Big Buddies) The first session takes place in separate classrooms. Little Buddies are introduced to and discuss the topic, preview the story or game, and learn key vocabulary. Big Buddies discuss the topic in more depth in order to prepare them to lead the discussion with their Little Buddies. Big Buddies are also introduced to the interactive feature and practice playing the game or listening to the story with a classmate. (Note: Big Buddy sessions may take longer in the beginning, but become shorter as students become more familiar with the technology and their Little Buddies.)

Topic Buddy Session 2: Read and Talk Together (45–60 minutes) The second session takes place in a combined classroom. The buddies meet and read along as they listen to the story or play the game together and then talk about the topic. Buddies who finish early choose an activity that will help them continue the discussion or reflect on their learning. If time allows, a brief whole-group wrap-up discussion is led by one of the teachers.

Topic Buddy Session 3: Reflections (15–30 minutes) The third session, led by the teachers in separate classrooms, is designed to help buddies further explore their understanding of the story or topic and reflect on their experiences with their buddies.

Conclusion & Celebration The Conclusion & Celebration section (see page 88) provides culminating activities to help you complete the AIM Buddy Project.

Tip

Teaching the topics covered in the AIM program can be difficult for you and grasping the concepts can be difficult for your students. As you plan your program, create tools that will make teaching the program easier and be sure to allow for flexibility to fit your needs, for example: • Many teachers have found it helpful to download the full Educator's Guide and create a hard-copy binder with tabbed sections for quick referencing and note taking while planning and implementing their program. This is especially useful if you plan to continue the program with different groups of students.

• Rearrange the topic sequence you had planned if a real-life situation arises in the classroom and your students would benefit more from being introduced to a different AIM topic at that time. • Extend the time you planned on spending on a topic if students are not grasping the concept in the time span you allotted.