Fast Llama's Running with SEL part 2

Fast Llamas,

Last week we started talking about SEL and Academic Rigor.  We will continue our discussion with that in mind today.  Remember, when students build their social-emotional competencies, they are better able to participate in learning experiences, they are more motivated to learn, more committed to school and less likely to act out in negative ways.  So it makes sense that when students feel competent in how to interact with others in the classroom, they are more likely to be highly engaged.  Which then increases their capacity to learn and retain information.  

So, when you want to try out a learning strategy, be purposeful about the planning.  We want to set students up for success and save them from themselves.  They are teenagers and they are very good at it.  In the absence of expectations, students will create their own and not always the best ones.  

Ask yourself:

1. What are the rules/boundaries? - set aside time to explain the strategy to the students, practice

2. What will it look like, sound like, feel like? - will students move?  and if so, how? how will students get my attention, how will I get theirs?

3.  What are my expectations for the students? be clear

4.  What are the expectations of me for my students?

5.  What roles can I give to students? time keeper, materials manager, table leader?

In the planning, set up the strategy and work your way through it.  This is called Micro-teaching and it is well worth the time.  

Let's look at cooperative learning.  This strategy has been around for as long as I have been in teaching. But, it took me years before I realized my supervising teacher was right, for anything students do in the classroom, they have to know the "rules of the game".  So, you can use cooperative learning successfully when you instill:

1. positive interdependence - build trust with students that you expect them to complete the work

2. individual accountability - include both group accountability and individual contributions

3. promoting other's success - we celebrate the learning, teach kids how to celebrate their peers

4. applying interpersonal and social skills 

5.  group goals - allow for students to have time to think about the work they did and monitor their progress to reach the goal individually and as a group

Take time to teach the process before you begin, setting students up for success!  This "Competence Building" is modeled and coached by you for students.  Competence building occurs when teachers help develop "social and emotional competencies systematically through the instructional cycle".  Each part of the lesson cycle gives opportunity for reinforcement of social skills.  

1.  goals of the lesson

2.  mini-lesson

3. independent/group practice

4. conclusion and reflection of learning

The teacher models and coaches positive relationship and social skills throughout the lesson,  encourages prosocial skills, and provides feedback to on how they are interacting with one another as well as the content.  Teachers do this with content naturally, adding the prosocial feedback integrated within the lesson is the added bonus.  Adding this feedback gets you to where you want to be with your classroom.  Where students have social and self-awareness of their behaviors, demonstrate responsible decision making and self management and develop relationship skills.  

Stay tuned for more next week!

Resources:

Yoder, N. (2014). Self-Assessing Social and Emotional Instruction and Competencies. Center on Great Teachers & Leaders Report partially funded by the United States Department of Education.