BY ROBERTA LENGER KANG

As educators, we often see the main priority of in-person schooling as the development of academic knowledge and skills, and that priority has carried over to the online learning space. Students, however, typically view school as a way to be a part of their social community. Seeing and being seen by friends is a huge factor for student attendance, and even in-class engagement. The social-emotional component of school is identity forming; it's where students develop a sense of self beyond their families, and the close quarters of the in-person classroom organically enhance this experience. But when we’re not together in the same place (or we’re together, but we’re socially distanced or wearing masks), authentic opportunities for students to connect with one another disappear.

In addition to finding a peer group, establishing relationships, and making connections with other students, school is the place where students can make a healthy connection with a caring adult who isn't a member of their family. Many students, especially those who are young, feel a close connection to their teachers. They give gifts, share hugs and high fives — in their little lives, teachers may be some of the only non-family adults they know, and some of the only adults they can develop a relationship with independent of a parent or a sibling. In the transition to remote learning, the opportunities for this type of social-emotional support and connection have almost fully evaporated, even as schools have figured out ways to provide academic opportunities.

Activating social-emotional engagement

The three pillars of student engagement — academic, intellectual, and social-emotional — are about maximizing any opportunity that can help bring kids to class. Academic engagement, or even just showing up, can lead to meaningful intellectual engagement, and that, in turn, can lead to organic social and emotional community experiences that meet students’ needs. Even students who are struggling to sign in to class or struggling to find meaning in instructional activities can still be motivated to connect on a personal level.

What kind of social-emotional interactions do kids have? Think about the different types of organic connection points we find when school is in session, and then consider ways to match them with our online experiences. 

• School-based after school clubs, contests, and projects: How can we shift from organizing in-person community-building events after school hours to supporting community online? Are there opportunities to institute a dance challenge, an online read-a-thon, trivia nights, or a stay-at-home fashion show? 
• Classroom collaborations: It's likely that students are working almost exclusively individually at home — how can we build more collaborative experiences? This could look like setting up reading partners who email each other, or creating book club groups that meet once per week to read a short passage together and then talk about it. In math classes, this could look like pairing up students so that they can check each other’s work. And for older students, we can consider increasing the use of shared Google docs that they use for collaboration or online discussions. 
• Teacher connections: Teacher-student relationships are extremely valuable. How can we create structures for teachers to offer meaningful outreach to their students on a personal level? Depending on the age range we’re working with, we can look to 1:1 or even 1:3 video calls, personalizing PowerPoint slides to recognize students, writing and mailing physical letters, providing office hours, and even differentiated live support for students across classes. We can also consider non-teaching staff, and how their time is being spent. Are there school secretaries, community assistants, or other support staff who can provide extra outreach to students who've been struggling? Can guidance counselors provide open sessions where kids can virtually drop by and talk about their feelings and fears? These options can be facilitated by school staff members who don't have their typical tasks to complete.

Our hope is that students who haven't been "showing up" to school might show up to opportunities like these. If they do, it will refuel their energy and strengthen their social-emotional engagement with school, helping them to deepen personal connections that re-energize their sense of self. We can then leverage these connections to increase academic and intellectual engagement. 

If we see student success in school as tied to anything — especially now — it is student engagement. Engagement is a highway towards students achieving their goals, and it is our job to build as many on-ramps as we can to capture all kinds of kids in all kinds of ways.

​TAGS: REMOTE LEARNING, ROBERTA LENGER KANG, SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING, STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

By JULIA BROACH

​Across the globe, many students are attending school through their computers, tablets, and phones. Educators have the demanding task of designing lessons on unfamiliar platforms, learning new remote assessment methods, and adjusting to a new style of teaching through a screen — all while not seeing or talking with students as often as before. 
 
Balancing teaching your curriculum with finding time to discuss with students what they are experiencing and how they are feeling can be challenging. Yet staying connected with them and what they are going through is essential in order to continue supporting them. Students are dealing with many significant life changes and a range of emotions brought on by these shifts — worrying about their own health and that of their family members and friends, feelings of loss about missed experiences, navigating a new form of learning, and being confined to their homes with their family members.      

Supporting self-reflection

Bringing low-tech self-reflection practices into online classrooms can be a helpful way to address the social-emotional needs of our students at this time. Developing social-emotional skills can help students better care for and advocate for themselves and others.

One way of incorporating at least a few minutes of self-reflection into lessons is by using social-emotional prompts (download a full set of our SEL prompts here). Our prompts are organized into several categories, drawn from the core social-emotional competencies identified by the educational research organization the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Prompts fall into the following categories:

• Decision-making: Making choices by reflecting on how they will impact you and those around you; thinking about the realistic outcome of actions when making choices.

 

• Empathy (social awareness): Imagining perspectives outside of your own; recognizing the support and resources that exist in your community (family, school, neighborhood, etc.).

 

• Relationships: Building and maintaining supportive and fulfilling relationships; being reflective of your relationships.

 

• Self-awareness: Noticing and reflecting on your emotions and thoughts and what causes them to change; identifying how your emotions and thoughts affect how you act.

 

• Self-care: Taking time to reflect on how you are feeling and taking actions to support your overall well-being.

Using these prompts with your students

These prompts can be sent out over email, posted on a class’s online feed, or shared aloud during a real-time class. Students can respond to them in a variety of ways — using no-tech (drawing or writing in a journal), low-tech (typing in a document, making a video recording, making an audio recording, taking photos), or high-tech options (posting responses to a shared classroom file, such as on Google Drive). 

Before using these in your classroom, give yourself time to engage in your own self-reflection practices (through these prompts or other means) — this will support you in more thoughtfully facilitating social-emotional learning exercises for others.

Take the time to  introduce the idea of the prompts to your students. You may contextualize the prompts by sharing that they’ll help with self-reflection during this strange period of self-isolation and remote learning. For students to fully express their answers, they may not be comfortable sharing any or all of their responses — determine what you think would be best for your students. There is still significant value in students responding to each prompt, even if they choose not to share with others. 

Below are a few ways that you can use these with your students in your online classes:

LOW-TECH

• Daily/weekly reflections: Email or text your students a prompt every morning or once a week. Students can answer the prompts at home on their own time. If they would like to share them, they can respond to the email or text message with their responses in document or photo form. 

 
HIGH-TECH

• Synchronous class: At the start of your video classes, read one of the prompts to students and post it on the class chat/feed. Give students 3-5 minutes to respond on their own at home. After the students finish, you can ask for volunteers to share their responses, or use the breakout room feature for students to share in small groups.   

 

• Google Drive: For remote, asynchronous learning, post one prompt in the learning module for that day. Create a folder on Google Drive visible to only you and the student or visible to everyone in the class. Ask for students to respond to the prompt by the end of the day/week. In the folder, they can share some or all of their responses, such as a photo of a drawing or written response, videos, or audio recordings.

 

• Flipgrid: Post one prompt to the learning module, and ask the students to record video responses and post them on your class Flipgrid page. With this platform, all of the students can see and respond to each other’s responses.   

TAGS: REMOTE LEARNING, RESOURCES, SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING

By G. FAITH LITTLE

Teacher training and education often does not shine a light on the importance of social-emotional growth for student academic achievement. We know our content. We have solid classroom management. Isn’t that enough? How do you find time for more? What if you feel nervous about connecting to students on a level outside of your field of study?
In their recent publication, the Utah Department of Health issued a status update on the impact of social-emotional development on health:

“Historically, building success in children has meant an emphasis on academia; good math and reading skills yields good grades, which increases the likelihood of obtaining a college degree and securing more earning power. It goes without saying that core reading and math skills are important, but research shows it’s time to focus on another set of skills to build lifelong success—those within the social and emotional realm.”

Zero to Three, an organization dedicated to the well-being of infants and toddlers, further emphasizes the importance of social-emotional connections:

“Infant-early childhood mental health, sometimes referred to as social and emotional health, is the developing capacity of the child from birth to 5 years of age to form close and secure adult and peer relationships; experience, manage, and express a full range of emotions; and explore the environment and learn—all in the context of family, community, and culture.”

We probably don’t need much convincing that children need connections with each other and with caring adults. It seems clear that the earlier their connections begin, the better the opportunity for a strong foundation upon which they can develop the necessary social-emotional skills needed to thrive.

What we do need are practical ways to connect with our students within a limited amount of time. From grade school to middle school to high school, there are effective and efficient ways to integrate these connections into our practice.

Engage authentically
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Each of your students is an original, and so are you. Express yourself in the style and manner that feels most real to you. You may connect with your students in quiet ways while your colleague across the hall conducts spotlight celebrations to connect with theirs. There is not only room for different styles, but there’s a need for them.

When students are able to experience a variety of relationships and ways of connecting with adults, it gives them more opportunities to feel seen and find a sense of belonging. That quiet student in the back may connect best with a teacher who encourages in quiet ways. The student seeking attention may feel their needs being addressed when the teacher calls out their encouragement more publicly. And, let’s face it, students are pros at recognizing when an adult is faking interest, so choose something you’re genuinely interested in as a means of connecting.

What are some interests of your own that you can share as a way of opening up a conversation? What would happen if everyone wrote down one thing they do or are curious to learn about (inside or outside of school)? These could be shared or kept between you and each student. The class could create a found poem or an original periodic table to represent the elements in your classroom community. What else comes to mind?

Grow your practice
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Whether you’re simply starting out or are already a social-emotional skill-growing pro, reach for your next steps in connecting with your students. Read an article about prioritizing social-emotional competencies on your way home on the train. Or watch a TED Talk on the role of vulnerability in human connection, especially if you’re nervous about stepping outside of the comfort zone of your content area. Find a PD focused on social-emotional growth and sign yourself up!

While you’re growing your knowledge, keep pushing your experience. Write down all the ways you already connect — which would you like to see more of in your own practice? Which need to be revived, like something you did when you first began teaching but has been on the back burner for the past few years? Find new ways to connect! Here are few suggestions that may spark new ideas:

• Emails: write an encouraging sentence to a student and/or their parent noting something you appreciate about their presence in your classroom. What do they contribute to the community that you could highlight?
• Sticky notes: while you roam the room during group work or while students are engaged in writing or problem-solving, carry a packet of sticky notes and write down a noticing focused on what a student is doing well.
• Entrances & exits: Simply welcome each student by name as they enter the classroom. As they leave, make eye contact and give them an encouraging send-off.
• Celebrations: At the end of each week/month, share aloud a way in which each student has contributed to the class. Make eye contact with each student as you share, and encourage snaps or claps as you go.

Share the intention of your plan with your students as it makes sense to you, and ask them to hold you accountable by saying something like, “If I haven’t given you a sticky note by the end of the week, remind me that I owe you one, because I intend to notice contributions each of you are making to our classroom community.”

Enjoy the experience
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As you’re making connections with your students, you are nurturing the growth of a child’s sense of well-being and belonging. Take a few moments from time to time and recognize the ways this is transforming you and your students. You’re creating community, together. You’re modeling and taking the lead in finding ways to connect.
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As you model ways of connecting, your students are watching. They are learning from you, and you will likely not know which acknowledgement, email, phone call, sticky note, or shout out they hold onto as they move through their days and weeks, in class and out. Connection shows them that someone cares. That someone is you. What an opportunity! What hard work and how valuable! Enjoy this process of planting seeds, trusting they will grow and bloom in gardens beyond your own.

The importance of social-emotional connections
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The light is shining brighter, spotlighting the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) for students. In The Importance of Social Emotional Learning for All Students Across All Grades, the National Education Association says:

Research shows that SEL can have a positive impact on school climate and promote a host of academic, social, and emotional benefits for students. Durlak, Weissberg et al.’s recent meta-analysis of 213 rigorous studies of SEL in schools indicates that students receiving quality SEL instruction demonstrated:

• better academic performance: achievement scores an average of 11 percentile points higher than students who did not receive SEL instruction;
• improved attitudes and behaviors: greater motivation to learn, deeper commitment to school, increased time devoted to schoolwork, and better classroom behavior;
• fewer negative behaviors: decreased disruptive class behavior, noncompliance, aggression, delinquent acts, and disciplinary referrals; and
• reduced emotional distress: fewer reports of student depression, anxiety, stress, and social withdrawal.

Whether you’re nervous to step into the SEL world or already comfortable, continue to develop promising practices that support students as whole human beings and look for the positive results in yourself and in your students!


TAGS: G. FAITH LITTLE, SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING