Did you know that I build sabotage into my day to help build communication skills in my classroom? Using sabotage is a great way to contrive situations where students need to ask for help and use communication skills. If I didn’t use sabotage for communication, my students would not always have a reason to use their communication skills.
Want to provide sabotage opportunities in your classroom? In this post I’m going to tell you all about sabotage and share 20+ ways you can use sabotage in your classroom tomorrow.
What is Sabotage?
Sabotage is the art of contriving situations so our students use their communication skills. When I think about sabotage, there are 4 ways that come to mind:
- Withholding items
This is when I’m in control of items in my classroom. This may be when our toys are in a cabinet or when I have all of the art supplies during an art project. Withholding items provides opportunities for students to request what they need. - Giving too little
Have you ever had a student request a snack item and you give them a big handful? What if you just gave them one? They would have to use their communication skills to request more. I’ve even used this so much that students will tell me “I want 10 goldfish.” - Give incorrect items
Just like this says, when a student requests an item, give them the incorrect item. This works really well when students make general requests. Ever had a student who only likes a certain color of fruit snack? Make sure you give them the wrong color next time! This will help them build problem solving and communication skills. They’ll start moving from “I want fruit snacks” to “I want a red fruit snack”. - Take it literally
Ok, this one is my favorite! When students make a request (especially one that doesn’t make sense), take it literally! In my classroom, students will often bring me a jacket and say “put it on”. That’s when I take their little jackets and try to put them on myself. They’ll often look at me confused and we’ll work on requesting “put it on me” or “help me”.
How to use Sabotage effectively
Using sabotage effectively is important. You want your students to request things often so if you use sabotage every time they make a request, you’re likely to extinguish their desire to make requests. I don’t use sabotage at EVERY opportunity, but I aim to use it a few times a day with each student.
Another important part of using sabotage effectively is to provide students with models and tools to make appropriate requests. This may be like when I put on a jacket and help students verbalize that they need help. I may provide help icons during an art lesson where I know I’m going to use sabotage. Always pair your sabotage with support.
Lastly, it’s important to make sabotage fun! If your students think it’s fun, they’re less likely to get frustrated. I often follow up with an acknowledgement of the request they intended to make and then use the support tools to help them access what they intended to request.
20+ Ways to Sabotage your Students (and increase communication)
Are you ready to put sabotage into practice? Here are 20+ quick and easy tips you can use to sabotage your students and build their communication skills.
- Give a pencil with no eraser
- Give a dried up dry erase marker
- Give a glue stick with the lid stuck on
- Give an empty glue bottle
- Give a box that is difficult to open
- Give a broken pencil
- Don’t provide a chair at their desk/work station
- Leave activities off of the daily schedule
- Place items out of reach
- Give food items without necessary cutlery
- Give toys with missing pieces
- Remove the straw from the juice box
- Remove batteries from a toy
- Misname objects
- Read a book upside down
- Turn jackets inside out
- Do the “literal”
- Don’t provide enough chairs at the table
- Password protect computers and tablets
- Give some materials, but not all
- Give too little of materials
- Give lesser preferred items
Want to print this out so you can post it in your classroom? You can grab the printable here!
Are you ready to use sabotage in your classroom? If you have a tried and true way you use sabotage, drop it in the comments to share!
