# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
9th grade on-track rates are more predictive of graduation than all background factors combined.

1. Ninth graders do better with fewer classes, new research shows | The Hechinger Report

2. Black girls graduate at highest rates after school created 'No Failure Option' | KRIS 6 News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
9th grade on-track rates are more predictive of graduation than all background factors combined. Ninth graders do better with fewer classes, new research shows | The Hechinger Report Black girls graduate at highest rates after school created 'No Failure Option' | KRIS 6 News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In this Intervention Brief, we explore 2x10 Relationship Building, an intervention that empowers educators to build authentic relationships with students and increase their sense of belonging. You can find the 2x10 Relationship Building strategy in the intervention library of Student Success, Panorama's MTSS intervention management platform for school districts.
***********************
Quick Summary
Intervention Name: 2x10 Relationship Building (or Two-by-Ten Relationship Building)

Tier(s): 2

Grade Levels: K-12

Description: Support students by spending two minutes per day (for 10 consecutive school days in a row) connecting with a student individually and offering extra social-emotional support.

[Free Download] 15 SEL Intervention Ideas for School and District Teams

2x10 Relationship Building Intervention Overview

2x10 Relationship Building-originally coined the "two-minute intervention" by researcher Raymond Wlodkowski and popularized in Allen Mendler's Connecting with Students-is a Tier 2 intervention that helps build teacher-student relationships, reinforce positive behaviors, and convey genuine support to an individual who might be typecast as a "challenging student."

At its core, the 2x10 strategy is about consistently building relationships with students. Educators (or school leaders) select a particular student and set a goal to engage in a 2-minute conversation with that student for 10 consecutive school days. These conversations might happen at the beginning or end of a class period.

Research shows that implementing the 2x10 intervention can lead to significant improvements in individual student behavior and the broader classroom climate.

Not only can the 2x10 strategy create a positive connection between an adult and an individual student, but adults can also use it to model core SEL competencies such as social awareness, self-awareness, and relationship skills through empathy and active listening.

Who Does the 2x10 Strategy Work For?
The 2x10 Relationship Building intervention works best for students who are having a hard time maintaining positive relationships in the classroom, exhibiting disruptive behaviors, or are in need of extra emotional support. It provides students with a safe outlet to communicate their feelings, emotions, and needs to a trusted adult. This targeted intervention can be used as a behavior support for individual students in elementary school, middle school, or high school.

Consider the following criteria when identifying students who will benefit from the 2x10 strategy:

Students who respond positively to adult attention and connection

Students who are struggling to connect with peers (or adults) in the school community

Student who struggle with emotion regulation, social awareness, and disruptive behavior

How to Implement the 2x10 Strategy

1. Choose one student whom you would like to strengthen your relationship with.

2. Select when you are going to approach the student (e.g., at the beginning of a class period).

3. Find the student and start a conversation with them. To build a productive relationship with a student, adults will likely have to initiate the connection.

4. The focus of these conversations should be:

Brevity.These conversations should last two minutes or under.

Student Voice.Invite them to share something non-academic with you about their day or life. Here are some great get-to-know-you question prompts.

Honesty.Model transparency and authenticity by sharing something personal/non-academic with the student.

If you use Panorama: You can select the "2x10 relationship building" strategy when creating an intervention plan for a student. Monitor the student's progress over time by logging notes. Everything will be saved to the student's profile and visible to other educators with access to Panorama.

Example of a student intervention plan in Panorama (mock data pictured)

"After implementing 2x10 relationship building in response to Panorama survey data, we had an increase of over 6 percent of students who felt a favorable sense of belonging and connection to adults. That's about 75 to 80 kids. Those students also improved their attendance, academics, overall sense of well-being, and SEL strengths."
-Luke Rasmussen, Executive Director of Secondary Education (Read the full story)

Tips for Effective 2x10 Strategy Implementation

Keep the content of the conversation focused on the student's personal interests, not their schoolwork or behavior. Use an interest inventory to ask questions, or use context clues (e.g., what the student is wearing or likes to talk about in class) to help drive the conversations. Find out what their favorite food is or what their hobbies are. The goal is to get to know the child outside of school in an authentic manner.

Consistency is key. Even if the conversations are shorter than ten minutes, they can be beneficial if they occur every school day. Holding a 30-second conversation for 10 days in a row with a student conveys more care than having just one 30-minute conversation.

Ask open-ended questions, and don't be afraid to probe if students start to open up.

Be a persistent, positive role model.

Keep the momentum going after the 10 days and continue to engage the student on a regular basis.

Additional Resources on the 2x10 Strategy and Other Behavior Interventions

Download this packet of 15 evidence-based SEL interventions [includes instructions and templates for use].

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
2x10 Relationship Building: How to Do It (and Why It Works!)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 2x10 Relationship Building strategy is a Tier 2 behavioral intervention that empowers educators to ritualize a classroom management technique to create a personal connection with students

# data[].attributes.headline
Overview Trainings with Individual Districts for MTSS - Southeast South Central

# data[].attributes.subject
Overview Trainings with Individual Districts for MTSS - Southeast South Central

# data[].attributes.headline
Collaborating within the Cooperative to help see how the different initiatives are connected. (OVEC)

# data[].attributes.subject
Collaborating within the Cooperative to help see how the different initiatives are connected. (OVEC)

# data[].attributes.headline
Learning Modules with an equity focus for new teachers (CKEC)

# data[].attributes.subject
Learning Modules with an equity focus for new teachers (CKEC)

# data[].attributes.headline
Offering trainings in smaller sections/pieces (Southeast South Central)

# data[].attributes.subject
Offering trainings in smaller sections/pieces (Southeast South Central)

# data[].attributes.body
The Equity Mindset Cards have some great coaching questions that we could ask as we explore MTSS with our districts.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Article by Chrissy Thuli; Foreword by Joseph Kanke

Coaching Components: 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 3b, 3c, 3d, 4a, 5a, 6a
Foreword
In the educational realm it has been commonplace to hear that COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the already inequitable systems and practices in place within the system. Coaches and educators alike are eager to engage in conversations connected to equity, but given what some would call our historical tendency towards silence on this topic, they are uncertain how to start.

Coaches who are looking for inroads to dig for details and depth, challenge assumptions and dismantle the status quo will appreciate this new tool. The Equity Mindset Cards are designed to keep equity at the center of every conversation. Set aside some time to review the cards and make a plan to infuse them into your coaching practice.
Equity Mindset Cards
Across the state of Wisconsin (and nationally), our educational system greatly disadvantages our students of color, students with IEPs, English language learners and students experiencing poverty. The Department of Public Instruction has made a commitment to address these unacceptable opportunity gaps at the systems level, knowing the inequities stem from the system, not from the students and families who have been historically marginalized. One tool that has been created by the Title I Team at DPI to address these inequities is the Mindset Cards. The Mindset Cards attempt to bridge the gap between understanding equity concepts and applying them to everyday tasks, in effort to transform how we do our work. Rather than providing a checklist, the Mindset Cards focus on a shift in mindset, knowing that we must change the way we think about what we do - personally, interpersonally, organizationally and structurally - in order to do things differently to create the change we need.

The Mindset Cards focus on nine key mindsets that distinguish real educational equity work from general continuous improvement. Alongside each mindset, there are identified resources, sample practices, and coaching questions intended to enable changes in day to day decisions and work, along with common pitfalls to be aware of that can unintentionally get in the way of each mindset. Mindset Cards are designed to be used on a daily basis, drawing from the guiding questions, sample practices and resources to create a different way of working and thinking that advances educational equity for all of our students and families. Currently there is no prescribed framework for using the cards; however below are a few examples of how coaches have used them so far:

Focusing on a "Mindset of the Month" - intentionally integrating the guiding questions, sample practices and resources from one selected Mindset Card each month in to a coach's practice, and providing spaces to reflect on this mindset both personally and professionally - this allows grounding more deeply in one mindset at a time, rather than introducing them all at once

Facilitating the creation of team norms from the Mindset Cards to guide the work of the team

Coaching teams: Inviting each member of the team to select a different Mindset Card in a meeting where decisions are being made, and focusing on one or two guiding questions or sample practices from that card throughout the meeting

Using the Mindset Cards to aid in planning for coaching cycles and embedding questions as appropriate

The Wisconsin Coaching Practice Profile calls on coaches to, "support clients in a broad range of contexts to examine how their interactions and decisions perpetuate the status quo." Sometimes these conversations can be difficult but the Equity Mindset Cards offer suggestions of where to lean in and what kinds of questions to ask. When planning for a coaching conversation, scan over the mindset cards and see if there is one you anticipate coming up in the conversation as a starting point. As with all coaching, the more you engage in the practice, the more salient and comfortable it will become.
Explore the Equity Mindset Cards

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Article by Chrissy Thuli; Foreword by Joseph Kanke Coaching Components: 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 3b, 3c, 3d, 4a, 5a, 6a Foreword In the educational realm it has been commonplace to hear that COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the already inequitable systems and practices in place within the system.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Much of our knowledge of the components of MTSS and their successful implementation is based on experiences in elementary schools. However, given the structural and organizational differences between elementary schools and secondary schools, this evidence has its limitations when implementing MTSS at higher grade levels. The essential components of MTSS may be the same, regardless of grade level or context, but how they are translated into effective practice and integrated into a middle or high school's processes may differ from elementary school models.

Implementing an early warning system to identify students who may be at risk for poor educational outcomes and providing targeted supports is one way that secondary schools may consider implementing MTSS. AIR's Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring System (EWIMS) is an evidence-based process for identifying and monitoring students who are likely to miss key education milestones and provide supports to help get them back on track (Faria et al., 2017). It is important to emphasize that students are not identified based on their demographics (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, status as an English learner) or other unchangeable factors (e.g., students with disability, socioeconomic status, member of a single-parent household). Rather, students are identified for demonstrating one or more mutable early warning indicators (e.g., attendance rate, inappropriate behaviors, or poor course performance).

EWIMS is a systematic approach used by dedicated teams of school staff to identify students displaying symptoms of at risk of not graduating on time, assign students to interventions, and monitor their progress. Schools use data every day-the challenge is to turn the data into meaningful actions and positive student outcomes. By following the 7 steps of the EWIMS process, educators can turn their data into action. The EWIMS process helps educators in early identification of students who are not on track for on-time high school graduation, postsecondary readiness, or other milestones, and then guides educators through evidence-based steps to get those students back on track. By acting early, and then continuously gauging and fine-tuning support, educators following the EWIMS process can efficiently help more students succeed.

Step 1-Establish roles and responsibilities. Schools establish a team to lead and carry out the EWIMS process, determine the frequency and duration of meetings, and develop a shared vision for the team's work.

Step 2-Use the tool. The EWIMS team uses the tool to update lists of available interventions and strategies to support students and run automated or customized reports.

Step 3-Review the early warning data. The EWIMS team focuses their attention on student- and school-level data, using a combination of research-based and locally validated indicators available in the tool. This data review process is intended to identify areas of focus and further investigation and this step is revisited any time new data become available.

Step 4-Interpret the early warning data. The EWIMS team seeks out additional data (besides the indicators) to better understand the needs of individual students or groups of students. This step focuses on the underlying causes that might lead students to be identified as at risk on one or more indicators, using additional formal data (administrative records) and informal input (from teachers, family, and students).

Step 5-Assign and provide interventions. The EWIMS team members make decisions about assigning individual students to specific interventions in the school, district, and community. The EWIMS model does not prescribe specific interventions for schools to implement. Rather, the model provides schools flexibility to decide which interventions are best suited to their students' needs.

Step 6-Monitor student progress. The EWIMS team examines the student risk indicators on an ongoing basis to monitor the progress of students who have already been assigned to interventions. If students continue to be identified as off track, the team may consider assigning them to different interventions; if some students are no longer at risk, the team may consider ramping down services. Over time, schools may refine their catalog of interventions based on their effectiveness, adding new interventions and dropping those that do not help students get back on track.

Step 7-Evaluate and refine the EWIMS process. Through active and structured reflection, EWIMS team members revise specific strategies or their general approach as needed and determine how best to allocate resources to support at-risk students. This step encourages EWIMS teams to make course corrections to any aspect of implementation.

To learn more about our early warning intervention and monitoring system (EWIMS) process and MTSS, please visit: https://www.air.org/resource/early-warning-systems-education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Much of our knowledge of the components of MTSS and their successful implementation is based on experiences in elementary schools. However, given the structural and organizational differences between elementary schools and secondary schools, this evidence has its limitations when implementing MTSS at higher grade levels.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We all enjoy the collegial swapping of stories from our early days of teaching and chatting about the teaching memories we have collected over the years. This dialogue of shared experiences is extremely valuable as it can provide some laughs, illustrate how far we have come, and remind us that we are not alone, especially as we continue to learn new skills or take on new initiatives.

As an adjunct university supervisor, I recently found myself reminiscing and "story-swapping" with one of my graduate students and her mentor teacher about the "nuts and bolts" of teaching in secondary settings. My student was assigned to teach algebra for the quarter in an amazing classroom at a Chicago Public High School. Similarly, I had also taught the same age at a transition high school in the city. We discussed the differences in the types of support and intervention we provided to our students before the "gold standard" of MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) protocols were systemically used as they are in Chicago today.

MTSS wraps around an entire school community and provides academic, behavioral, social-emotional, and attendance support for all students. We recalled that before MTSS, secondary schools were often left "in the dark" regarding supporting their student body. Interventions in the marketplace were often geared towards an elementary audience, and screeners/progress monitors for high schoolers were few and far between. There was minimal support for social-emotional learning (SEL), and attendance was handled separately and not integrated into the "big picture" of students' overall needs.

Today, we have MTSS, which provides processes for all students' needs to be met. Data are gathered regularly, and collaboration occurs to address academic and non-academic needs, ensuring a holistic approach to support. The marketplace has a plethora of screeners and interventions for secondary use, as well as platforms to collect data and create a full picture of students' areas of strength and need.

Like all initiatives, there are rewards and challenges when implementing MTSS. Throughout Branching Mind's work partnering with schools and districts to implement MTSS, we know that mitigating the challenges requires that all schools, regardless of grade levels, engage in thoughtful planning, collaboration, consistency, and resources to ensure a successful implementation. In addition, patience and grace with oneself and colleagues are always needed when acquiring new skills.

Branching Minds collects a running log of questions asked at the beginning stage of our partnership "launching" MTSS in schools. Secondary teachers most often asked the following questions:

"We are high school teachers! Why do we need to implement MTSS? Is this an elementary school initiative?"

"How will I get up to speed on learning to specifically support my student's identified needs?"

"Whoa! I see over 150 students a day! I could really use help understanding how I will create the time to provide more specific support I know my students need, and when am I supposed to collaborate with my colleagues?"

"I teach six periods in a row, and I barely have time to eat a sandwich every single day! How is my schedule going to allow for intervention or support time?"

Why MTSS in Secondary Schools?

Regardless of grade level, MTSS is essential, full stop. So, when the question, "Why do we need MTSS at the secondary level?" is asked, I feel perplexed because ALL students, regardless of age or grade level, are entitled to the wrap-around support MTSS provides. I usually answer this question with the question, " Why are you using MTSS?"

Now more than ever, after two long years impacted by a worldwide pandemic, wemust shift to embrace MTSS in order to meet the academic, social-emotional, attendance, and behavior needs of every single student in our student body. Our students deserve nothing less than this holistic approach.

With So Many Students, How Do We Know Who or Specifically What Needs Support?

By definition, MTSS relies upon a data-driven approach to determine students' areas of strength and need. As mentioned earlier, many universal screeners are available today to secondary schools for screening and progress monitoring. Even with large student populations, universal screeners can provide an easy-to-use platform to quickly identify areas of progress and specifics to target for needed support. Screeners are routinely used for academics (recommended three times a year), attendance, SEL, and behavior.

Once areas of strength and need are identified through universal screeners, intervention support can be provided. Student progress is monitored by the data collected and discussed during collaborative meetings. Support should be research-based to ensure efficiency and a proven track record for progress (when matched to the appropriate need). Learn more about the MTSS intervention process with this flowchart.

Resources such as the What Works Clearinghouse provide research-based information to help make the best decisions for which research-based universal screeners, progress monitors, and intervention supports fit the school's individual needs and budget.

MTSS in Secondary Schools: Major Challenges, and How to Overcome Them

How Do We Schedule MTSS Collaboration in High Schools?

It is well known that high school teachers teach about 150 (or more) students a day. This factor alone can challenge scheduling any initiative, specifically with planning and executing the intervention and collaboration MTSS requires. As a result, one of the early steps Branching Minds undertakes with secondary schools (and all partners) when implementing MTSS is to complete a deep dive into calendaring. We work to slash all unnecessary meetings and stick to a consistent schedule for collaboration. Once we have revised the meeting lineup, a typical schedule for MTSS collaboration and meetings looks like this:

All-school meeting: Quarterly meetings to discuss screening data and trends.

Departmental meetings: Monthly meetings to discuss departmental trends, problem-solve for students not making sufficient progress, and check in on students receiving support at Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels.

Individual student support meeting: Meetings as needed, providing an individualized deep dive problem-solving for students not making sufficient progress while receiving support at the Tier 3 level.

Check out: 5 Questions to Ensure Efficiency with MTSS Teams & MTSS Meetings

As our partners redistribute their old required meetings into one of the three new meeting types above, teachers have reported a "lightening" of their meeting load and a new sense of confidence (and gratitude) that collaboration will occur efficiently.

In addition, Branching Minds works with schools to ensure that MTSS resources, such as intervention support, are distributed equitably. Staff must be provided with time devoted to supporting students receiving support at Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels. Support at each tier looks like this in secondary schools:

Tier 1: Differentiated general education content.

Tier 2: Differentiated general education content + small group targeted instruction.

Tier 3: Differentiated general education content + small group targeted instruction + intensive support.

What Does Class Scheduling Have To Do With MTSS in Secondary Schools?

Throughout Branching Minds' partnerships with schools and districts, we have found that restructuring schedules to allow staff to provide MTSS support equitably is a critical component of the transition process. During the schedule restructuring process, we analyze and reconfigure all current courses to allow intervention or support during the day. We consider if classes can be explicitly designed and extended to include time for intervention support. We include utilizing whatever classes are at our disposal, such as homeroom, What-I-Need (WIN) Time, or we create fluid intervention blocks.

Before you stop reading this blog because just the thought of creating a new schedule to accommodate MTSS is overwhelming, let me first say that, yes, this can be a big undertaking. In addition, at first, our school partners may be wary of "rocking the scheduling boat" as they implement new initiatives. However, the undertaking is always worth it if we have schedules to support every student. The article " The Power of Innovative Scheduling " provides exemplar schedules to share with the staff and can be used as a reminder that "innovative scheduling" will:

Result in the more effective use of time, space, and resources (human as well as material);

Improve instructional climate;

Help solve problems related to the delivery of instruction [and intervention and support]; and

Assist in establishing desired programs and instructional practices (Canaday & Rettig, 1995).

Ensuring all stakeholders have a deep understanding of the reasons for the shift to MTSS to ensure ALL student's needs are met, there is a more significant opportunity to rally around schedule changes. Providing exemplars of secondary schools that have successfully transitioned to MTSS can also reassure stakeholders that teachers will not be working additional hours but instead targeting instruction and working more efficiently. And, of course, we can return to the powerful question, "Why are we using creative scheduling for MTSS to meet all student's needs?"

Getting Used to the "New" Can Be Rewarding

As my student teacher, her mentor, and I discussed a few weeks ago, some of the "nuts and bolts" of teaching at the high school level is getting used to the "new," as challenging as that can sometimes be. So, we agreed to continue our "story-swapping" sessions to bring some levity to lessons we have learned and honor the paths we have traveled. The rewards of getting used to the "new" can be immense, such as targeted student support, taking advantage of the resources that were much harder to come by in the past, and tracking the progress we have achieved.

Key takeaways from this article:

MTSS is for ALL students, regardless of age or grade level.

Universal screeners and progress monitors provide data for academic, SEL, behavior, and attendance areas of support and need. This data is used to guide instructional and support planning.

Analyzing current meetings and resources and streamlining is critical to transitioning to MTSS, especially in secondary schools. Reducing unnecessary meetings and providing scheduling efficiencies to support all students is vital for obtaining staff buy-in and meeting the needs of all students.

Branching Minds Strengthens MTSS in Secondary Schools

A strong MTSS at the secondary level develops a positive school culture, strengthens data-driven instruction, achieves equity of student support, and ensures a pathway to graduation and greater success in life.

Branching Minds helps by addressing the specific needs of the secondary educator to:

See the whole student picture (academics, behavior, SEL, and more) with one click

Ensure the use of accurate and reliable sources of data to make meaningful changes to instruction at every tier

Reliably identify students in need of academic, attendance, and engagement support, including those at risk of dropping out

Save time accessing curated research-based secondary resources to support differentiation

Save effort finding students with shared needs, designing group and individual support plans, and making decisions about student progress

Seamlessly collaborate and share data across teams, across years

Easily log interventions, supports, student progress, meetings, and plans

Citations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Implementing MTSS at the Secondary Level: Answering 4 Common Questions

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MTSS is important at all levels. This blog answers common questions from secondary teachers about using MTSS at the secondary level. Learn more.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Most of the next class of ninth graders spent half of their middle school lives in an altered educational environment. And, as a result of the pandemic, many tenth and eleventh graders will need extra support to graduate on time.

That's why the time is now to adjust practices that work better for students and for teachers - beginning in ninth grade. Recent data from the Center for High School Success makes it clear that ninth grade students with fewer courses to manage during each term stay on track at significantly higher rates.

The "9th Grade On Track" rate captures and reflects this phenomenon. A ninth grader is considered to be on track for high school graduation after completing one quarter of the credits needed and not failing more than one class. Students are four times more likely to graduate from high school if they are on track in their freshman year. But ninth graders are also three to five times more likely to fail a course than students at any other grade level, and students across all achievement levels experience a decline in their grade point average from eighth to ninth grade.

The reasons? Students in ninth grade are less well known and supported by adults, they feel overwhelmed by the number of transitions they must make daily, and they are unable to effectively manage the increase in their course schedules once they get to high school - partly because of their underdeveloped executive functioning capacities.

At the Center for High School Success, a program of Stand for Children, we work with 155 high schools in six states. An analysis of the performance of ninth graders in our partner schools this pandemic year, when many schools adjusted their schedules, surfaced this striking but not surprising result: Schools that have changed their schedules from eight 45-minute classes per day over two semesters to four 90-minute courses per day over four quarters saw significant differences in their 9th Grade On Track rates.

Switching to a so-called 4×4 schedule allows students to earn a semester's worth of credits per course each quarter. By reducing the number of courses per day and increasing the length of each class, students and teachers have more manageable schedules, fewer transitions, more opportunities to build authentic relationships and the ability to cover course content in greater depth.
Related: Does lunch have to be 45 minutes? Rethinking school schedules to support innovation
One school in our network, Poudre High School in Fort Collins, Colorado, decided to make the switch to a 4×4 schedule this year because they were looking for ways to make remote learning more successful for students, especially the incoming ninth graders. The staff wanted to find a way to help kids focus and reduce the number of transitions. They implemented the new schedule, and they're not going back to the old ways this fall. Kathy Mackay, the principal of Poudre High School, said this about the response she got after adopting the 4×4 schedule: "In our surveys of teachers, students and families, there were themes that came up. Like, most of our teachers really liked the block [the 90-minute classes]. I think it felt like a more manageable workload in terms of grading and things like that. The bulk of our students liked it because it was a more manageable caseload, and teachers were able to develop relationships with kids a lot quicker, so they loved it."

The time is now to adjust practices that work better for students and for teachers - beginning in ninth grade.

We analyzed ninth grade performance data from 76 partner schools across Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington, and our data showed that students in 4×4 schools had 9th Grade On Track rates 11 points higher than their counterparts at non-4×4 schools. This trend was observed in both high-poverty and low-poverty schools.

It was also noteworthy that the substantial 9th Grade On Track performance difference between 4×4 and non-4×4 schools and students applied for all racial groups as well as for English language learners (66 percent to 45 percent), special education students (70 percent to 55 percent) and students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (75 percent to 55 percent).

Finally, we found that the performance difference applied to other indicators of success. Schools that followed a 4×4 schedule on average had a higher proportion of students with above 91 percent attendance and a higher proportion of students with a 3.0 or better grade-point average.

These outcomes are consistent with research that points to the positive impact of block scheduling on grades, improved student-teacher interactions, reduced disciplinary issues and positive teacher perceptions.

Creating a 4×4 schedule is more than a technical change. Ongoing professional development is essential, especially in how to use the longer periods effectively. In addition, modifications have to be made to accommodate students taking dual-credit courses.
Kaaren Andrews and This story about 4×4 scheduling was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. Habib Bangura are leaders at Stand for Children's Center for High School Success.
Overall, the substantial benefits we saw from 4×4 scheduling across a large number of high schools, coupled with previous block scheduling research and adolescent brain development, strongly argue for more widespread 4×4 scheduling. This form of scheduling stands out as one of the most effective pandemic adaptations, and it should become part of the post-pandemic new normal. It's an important, doable way for schools to reduce students' cognitive loads, support their emotional well-being, give them more individualized attention and help them stay on track. We hope our recent results will guide the scheduling decisions of every school administrator across the country as they prepare for a strong return from the pandemic.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
OPINION: Students with fewer courses - as with 4x4 scheduling - stay on track more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Most of the next class of ninth graders spent half of their middle school lives in an altered educational environment. And, as a result of the pandemic, many tenth and eleventh graders will need extra support to graduate on time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sponsored by Teaching Channel and UL Xplorlabs

While hexagonal thinking is not new in the world of business and innovation, it's just making its way into the classroom. It's a method for considering the connections between ideas and finding the nuances in those connections. If you're looking for a fresh framework for discussion and critical thinking, this may be just the thing.

How it Works

When you place an idea on a hexagon, it has six sides where connections could be made to other ideas. When you place many ideas on many hexagons, the discussion about where to connect what will be different every time.

Hexagons for the Vietnam-War era
(click all images for a close-up view)

If you gave the same seven idea cards to seven people, do you think you'd get the same seven webs of interconnected hexagons? Would the people explain the connections in the same way?

Nope.

And really, that's the beauty of hexagonal thinking. It provides a springboard for a totally creative discussion. When you give a small group of students a deck of hexagons and ask them to connect them however they choose, every group will come up with a different web for different reasons. Along the way they'll hopefully question each other and dig deep into the concepts on the cards, arguing about which idea connects more to an important concept and which example deserves one of those precious six sides.

The Step-by-Step

Let's imagine you've got your students in small groups, and each group is staring at a beautiful deck of hexagons.

Now what?

I recommend you kick off this activity for the first time by giving directions something like this:
Once you have your set of hexagons, it's time for your group to begin making connections between them. Your conversations now will be about showing how and why you think the different ideas and options connect. Everyone will see things differently, and that's OK. Just keep talking until you find the connections that stick. As you discuss your ideas, use the text to find supporting evidence for why you think your connections are strong ones. Each hexagon can connect to up to six others. Arrange and rearrange until you feel you have the strongest hexagon web in place that you can. Then begin explaining your connections with connection arrows, writing in why you have created intersections between key hexagons. Everyone in the group will contribute differently, and that's OK. You need to have people listening and moving pieces to create the web, people debating, people asking questions. By the end of your discussion, you should have an interconnected web of concepts along with clearly explained connections. If you're working with paper hexagons, tape or glue them down to another sheet of paper to secure them, or take a photo of your finished web. If you're working digitally, submit your two slides: the finished hexagon web, followed by the slide with your explanations.
There's a lot of room here for students to participate in their own unique ways. For me, part of the point of the activity is for students to see that everyone can take on different roles that matter.

Two Examples

Let's take a look at what this might look like in your classroom. In this case, I'll share digital examples created in Google Slides, since you may well be leading your discussions and small group activities via online channels this year. But paper hexagons are equally wonderful when you can use them.

Example 1: English Language Arts

First let's take a look at a hexagonal thinking discussion for an English class, wrapping up a unit on 1984.

Here's the set-up, with the terms listed in individual (moveable) text boxes.

Now students can discuss the placement of their terms/hexagons. In this case, rather than shifting paper hexagons around, they will go into the Google Slide, then drag and drop their terms across the slide and into the web of hexagons as they decide where to place them.

Now that the students have made their connections as they wish, they need to explain their choices. This can take place in many ways:

Students could record arguments for one or two connections on a tool like Flipgrid,

Students could write down their analysis.

Groups could collaborate to write explanations for several of their connections or present them back to the class.

Take a peek at what the written explanations look like for the web pictured above. In this case, students are sharing five explanations, but you could adjust that to suit your needs. Some connections are always going to be more interesting than others - the ones that generate the most debate, the surprising ones, the ones where three key sections link in one place. Have students write or present about the key connections, rather than about every single one.

Example 2: Science

Now let's take a look at how this might look in a science class. Imagine you're looking back over a unit on global warming, and helping students review the big ideas.

Here's the set-up: For this version, students can move the hexagons as well as the terms, creating any number of different webs. Then they use the connection arrows to point to the intersections they are going to explain in detail.

Student groups discuss the possibilities, dragging the hexagons and terms into place as they go. The final product could look one hundred different ways.

Once they have their web created, they make their explanations.

Creating Your Hexagonal Thinking Decks

You can create decks of hexagons with the terms already inside (let your students help you cut them out!) or print blank hexagon sheets and invite student groups to brainstorm the concepts to put inside before their discussion.

No matter how you create them, you want the hexagon decks to be filled with the key ideas of your recent class work, as well as interesting ties across disciplines and to the modern world. Hexagonal thinking makes it easy to cross disciplines and bring relevant modern connections into the discussion.

Let's say you're creating a hexagon deck for Jason Reynolds' book, Long Way Down. You'll fill it with characters, themes and style elements, but also with figures from the news, current political movements, similar books, and background information about the author.

Now imagine you're creating a deck for a unit covering an artistic period. You can put in key terms and artists, but also important authors and political figures of the period, and artists and movements of today that connect back.

As for making the shapes themselves, there are lots of time-saving options, whether you want to use digital hexagons or paper ones.

Digital Hexagons

Get access to your free copy of the digital hexagonal thinking toolkit featured above right here.

Create your own digital hexagons with PowerPoint or Google Slides by following these instructions:

Paper Hexagons

Use this online hexagon generator, created by Pam Hook.

Print and laminate these free rainbow hexagons, then add concepts with dry erase markers for quick discussions.

Print blank sheets of hexagons (you can easily create these in any size using the shapes tool in PowerPoint) to give out to small groups of students, then ask them to generate key terms, ideas, connections to other disciplines, connections to the modern world, etc. on their hexagons and cut them out. Then have groups switch decks so they are discussing a fresh list of ideas.

Create your own hexagon templates with terms you can change up whenever you want to do a hexagonal thinking discussion. Cut them out while watching New Girl on Netflix, or make the first step of the discussion in class to cut out the hexagons while beginning to discuss how they will connect.

A fun addition to any paper deck is a set of connection arrows. Print a few bubble arrows (again, the PowerPoint shapes tool makes it easy) on paper for students to put in at key intersections. Have students fill them in with their explanation of the connection. Sticky notes will also work well.

Wondering how to grade this?

There are a few ways you could grade hexagonal thinking. You could have everyone write a short reflection at the end about their contributions, and grade that. You could use it as a springboard into a writing assignment, asking students to explain and argue for key connections from the discussion, then grade that. You could have students present about a key connection on Flipgrid. Easy.

But I want to suggest a slightly more complex option too. Recently I interviewed Sarah Fine, co-author of In Search of Deeper Learning. One of her findings, after years of study across American high schools, was that we rarely ask students to truly collaborate in our core subjects, so we don't really create a culture of interdependence among them. They don't get to use their individual gifts to contribute to a final product created by the team, although that is often what real-world projects look like. Instead, we favor what she calls "lockstep learning." Everyone must do the same thing, separately.

So maybe for hexagonal thinking, you grade the final group web. And you ask the kids to share about how their different strengths allowed them to contribute to the final product.

Maybe some kids are super brainstormers, coming up with lots of great terms and ideas for what to put on the hexagons. Maybe one or two students in the group are great at lettering and drawing. They could create beautiful visual representations of the terms and ideas. Maybe some students shine at leading discussion. Maybe some are natural at making spatial and visual connections, and can help move the hexagons around as they listen to the group. Maybe some are excellent listeners, and can be taking notes about the connections based on what they hear from others. Maybe some are good mediators, who can help find common ground and calm down heated debates when discussion gets intense.

If you go this route, I really think it's worth discussing in advance what project teams are like in the workplace, and how people contribute in different ways. Then, at the end, you might let kids write a short paragraph about how they contributed based on their own strengths and skills, and whether they were happy with the way the group dynamics turned out.

Variations and Additions

Individuals or Partners

This would certainly work as an individual assignment or a prompt for partners as well. But with a small group, you'll get more perspectives on where to place what, which can be nice. You might consider giving students the option to work alone, with a partner, or in a group.

Adding Visuals

If you and your students are fans of sketchnotes or one-pagers, you can always add a visual layer to your hexagons. Invite students to illustrate their concepts with representative imagery and add quotations from their texts to bring more meaning for each idea into the conversation.

This is certainly not necessary, but adds dimension to the discussion and the eventual display of the concept web.

Hexagonal One-Pagers for Long Way Down

Gallery Walking

Once your students have completed their webs, you can do a gallery walk to see each other's concept webs and check out the connections their peers have made (this can be done online through a collaborative Google slides presentation), or have each group in turn present briefly back to the class about some of their most interesting connection points. The hexagons that caused the most debate will probably be the most fun to share back, and everyone will get to see how others mixed and matched the same hexagons in unique ways.

When you bring hexagonal thinking into your classroom -whether that's online or in person-you bring a fresh spark of energy to discussion. Your students will see things in new ways as they seek to connect wide-ranging ideas. If you're finding it difficult to get kids talking this year as they transition into new scenarios, you're definitely not alone. Hexagonal thinking just might be the tool you're looking for to help your classes over this transition and back into their critical thinking zones.

Come back for more.
Join our mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration that will make your teaching more effective and fun. You'll get access to our members-only library of free downloads, including 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half, the e-booklet that has helped thousands of teachers save time on grading. Over 50,000 teachers have already joined-come on in.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hexagonal Thinking: A Colorful Tool for Discussion

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you've been looking for a fresh way to get students thinking outside the box, this may be just what you need.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using Hexagons to Build Critical Thinking Skills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Scheduling Consideration: Master Schedule Timers Scheduling: Intervention and Enrichment School‐wide, grade level, team activities, assemblies, pep rallies, school pictures, guidance meetings, course registration, seminars, may use some of this period. However... The primary

# data[].attributes.body
https://kapsonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/KAPS-School-Mental-Health-Toolkit-web.pdf

# data[].attributes.headline
Cascading System of Support/Capacity Building

# data[].attributes.subject
Cascading System of Support/Capacity Building

# data[].attributes.body
School within a school - middle school
On-site, intensive support