Snow day social story experiment

I have been wanting to create Social Stories for some of my students for some time now. I have students in Kindergarten and second grade who I believe would benefit from these stories. Social stories were created by Carol Gray and are used most often with students with autism. From her website: "A Social Story describes a situation, skill, or concept in terms of relevant social cues, perspectives, and common responses in a specifically defined style and format." Carol Gray basically created a formula for creating individualized social stories to aid in teaching social skills. 

With what seems like our never-ending snow days, I have been able to work on some materials that I normally would not have time to create. So here is my first draft at a social story:

Let's Have  A Conversation!

-People like to talk to other people. When two or more people talk together, they are having a conversation. Friends like to have conversations so that they can learn about each other.

-When I want to talk to my friend, I make sure to get his attention first. I can do this by saying my friend’s name in an inside voice. When I say my friend’s name, I should look at him so that he knows I am talking to him.

-In a conversation, it is important to ASK QUESTIONS, LISTEN, COMMENT and RESPOND. 

-When I want to ASK A QUESTION, I should first look at my friend. Then, I can ask a question. There are many types of questions I can ask my friend.

-I can ask a question to learn about what my friend likes, such as, “What is your favorite color?” or “What do you like to do at home?”

-I can ask a question to see if my friend will play with me, like, “Do you want to play Go Fish?”or “Do you want to play hide and seek?”

-I can ask a question to get some help, like, “Can you help me read this book?”or “Can you help me tie my shoe?”

-After I ask a question, I should be sure to LISTEN to what my friend says. I can show I am listening by looking at my friend. It is important to listen so that I know what my friend wants to tell me. Everyone likes to be listened to when they are talking.

-When my friend responds to my question, I can respond with a COMMENT about the topic to let my friend know I was listening. I can make a comment like, “Blue is my favorite color too!”, or “I don’t play video games after school, I like to read.”

-In a conversation, my friend might ask me a question. When my friend asks me a question I should RESPOND by answering the question politely. When I respond, my friend learns more about me.

-In a conversation, friends take turns talking to keep the conversation going. Friends take turns ASKING QUESTIONS, LISTENING, COMMENTING, and RESPONDING. When friends take turns talking, they are having a good conversation. In a good conversation, everyone gets the chance to talk and listen.

-It is fun to have a conversation with my friends. When I have a conversation, I can learn about my friend and he can learn about me!

This took me a little more than an hour to create (which is why it has not been feasible for me to do this up to this point, there are some "premade" stories that you can purchase, but the point is for them to be specific to the students you are targeting, and most of the "premade" ones just aren't going to fit your specific need). My initial reaction is that I have far to many directive sentences and not enough descriptive or perspective sentences. You are technically supposed to have 2-5 descriptive or perspective sentences for every directive sentence. My second reaction is that it is entirely too long and comprehensive. I may need to break down these skills a little more. Maybe one story should cover asking questions, while another story should cover commenting. However, the nature of the conversation is that it is comprised of all of these components seamlessly....but I do think the one I have written could be trying to cover too much.

I think I will just try the one I have written and see how it goes before I make changes. Unfortunately, my next step is to add graphics, and without Boardmaker this step could break me.