Building Students’ Confidence Through Community-Based Instruction

For self-contained high school classes, community-based instruction (CBI) helps students gain confidence in public spaces, while also aiding their academic progress, transition plans, and social and emotional learning objectives. Most important, CBI provides opportunities for students to practice life skills and communication skills in places they might one day be responsible for navigating on their own.

Although CBI takes place outside the classroom, it isn’t a field trip. CBI is part of regular teaching—it’s embedded in the curriculum with specific goals tied to real-world learning. In the long term, CBI prepares students for postsecondary success, whether that means getting a job, going to college, or living independently.

As a special education teacher and CBI lead coordinator, I oversee CBI events on a regular basis. I’ve seen the positive effects of CBI firsthand. Below, I’ve summarized how and why CBI works, as well as some of the tools and strategies that educators can use to enhance their own CBI activities.

How CBI Works

Students with disabilities often face additional challenges in the adult world. Budgeting for lunch, asking for help, and figuring out how to advocate for yourself are skills that take honing. That’s where CBI comes in handy. Our program gives students weekly opportunities (sometimes multiple times per week, depending on transportation options and district approvals) to practice in community settings like Walmart, Goodwill, local garden centers, and Dollar Store.

Each CBI session is supervised by the special education teacher, special program teacher assistants, and extra staff as needed. We’re there not as chaperones, but as teachers, aiding students who rely on step-by-step instruction that others may take for granted. Buses are scheduled through our district’s shuttle request system, which makes sure we stay within set times (typically leaving after 9:15 a.m. and returning by 12:30 p.m.).

Before each CBI, we make sure students set clear, manageable goals. For example: Go to a clothing store, find your shirt or shoe size, and ask an employee for help if you need it. Students rehearse the interactions they’ll likely encounter, so that they go into the store prepared and confident.

I also supply students with tools to keep them focused. The first is our trip planner, which lays out the main tasks for the day, like finding items in the store or asking an employee for help. It doubles as a visual checklist, so that students can follow along and mark off completed steps. The trip planner supports the pre-activity stage, giving students a clear picture of what they’ll be doing before we leave school.

During CBI, we use task lists that break activities into smaller steps. Instead of saying “Buy a snack,” the list might guide students with greater specificity: “Find the snack aisle,” “Choose your snack,” and “Go to the cashier.” This keeps the learning manageable.

Lastly, goal sheets are used before, during, and after each session to highlight the skills that students are practicing, such as introducing themselves to the cashier. Goal sheets especially come in handy during the post-activity stage, where we discuss as a class what worked, what was difficult, and how their skills are growing.

Why CBI Works

Public spaces are filled with unwritten rules. CBI allows students with disabilities to practice how to act in public and how to better understand social cues/situations. When we take students into the community, they’re getting better at navigation, budgeting, and all of the following:

• Tone of voice: Students practice using an appropriate tone when speaking to strangers. They learn how to speak clearly and at the right volume for the setting.
• Body language: Students get to work on understanding facial expressions, posture, and gestures, while recognizing when someone else is signaling that they are available to help or are busy.
• Personal space: Students must respect others’ personal space and the norms around proximity when interacting with store employees and other customers.
• Eye contact and politeness: Students are reminded to make eye contact and say basic pleasantries like “please” and “thank you.”
• Dealing with uncertainty: It isn’t easy to handle unexpected situations, such as not being able to find an item or staying focused despite loud background noise. Students work on their composure and asking for help when needed.

Enhance CBI With a Scavenger Hunt and Peer Buddies

One of the most effective CBI strategies my school uses is the “grocery store scavenger hunt,” a fun, practical activity with a variety of applications for students.

The first step of the scavenger hunt is what I call “pre-hunt preparation.” Before we head out, students are given a list of items to find at the store: apples, bread, cereal, or perhaps their favorite snack. They are also given a budget. Sometimes, students practice by actually purchasing items, and other times they participate in a budgeting exercise where the goal is simply to find the item in the aisle and record the price.

At the grocery store, for instance, students are instructed to locate the aisle or section for each item, which reinforces their spatial awareness and autonomy. They write down prices as they go along. Using their task lists, they track what they’ve completed and compare prices of different products. I often have students work in pairs, so that both students can learn from each other. More experienced students take on leadership roles, guiding their peers through the hunt.

After the hunt, students reflect on whether they budgeted properly. Sometimes they don’t realize until they get to the register that they don’t have enough money, which becomes a real-world lesson in problem-solving. They have to decide what to keep and what to put back. While there aren’t prizes like in a traditional scavenger hunt, many students say the activity is their favorite part of CBI because it’s fun and simultaneously teaches real-life skills.