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Edutopia has provided great resources for understanding the basic 5 competencies for SEL. This resource has a video and text.

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5 Keys to Successful Social and Emotional Learning

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Studies show that sustained and well-integrated social and emotional learning (SEL) engages students and improves achievement. Explore classroom practices that make up the most effective SEL programs.

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The benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) are well-researched, with evidence demonstrating that an education that promotes SEL yields positive results for students, adults, and school communities.

SEL has a powerful combination of evidence and support. The findings below come from multiple fields and sources and include analyses of hundreds of studies that show SEL leads to beneficial outcomes related to: social and emotional skills; attitudes about self, school, and civic engagement; social behaviors; conduct problems; emotional distress; and academic performance.

In addition, the surveys published below by CASEL and partners show teachers, principals, parents, and students agree: SEL is essential.

Download this customizable presentation to make a compelling case for SEL.

The Benefits of SEL
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SEL leads to improved academic outcomes and behaviors

When students have supportive relationships and opportunities to develop and practice social, emotional, and cognitive skills across many different contexts, academic learning accelerates. Hundreds of studies offer consistent evidence that SEL bolsters academic performance.

Results from a landmark meta-analysis that looked across 213 studies involving more than 270,000 students found that:

SEL interventions that address the five core competencies increased students' academic performance by 11 percentile points, compared to students who did not participate.

Students participating in SEL programs showed improved classroom behavior, an increased ability to manage stress and depression, and better attitudes about themselves, others, and school.

Additional meta-analyses echoed these findings. Consistency across independent research teams offers strong support that well-implemented SEL programs are beneficial.

What might this mean for the practical benefits of SEL? About 27% more students would improve their academic performance at the end of the program and 24% more would have improved social behaviors and lower levels of distress.

Read the 2011 meta-analysis. (Durlak et al., 2011)

Read a summary of the four major meta-analyses on SEL.

More recently, a 2021 systematic review found that universal SEL interventions enhance young people's social and emotional skills and reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in the short term. In comparison, other approaches have produced inconsistent results (mindfulness interventions) or limited evidence of impact (positive youth development interventions).

Read the 2021 report from the Early Intervention Foundation.

SEL benefits are long-term and global

Subsequent analyses spoke to the long-term effects of SEL implementation as well as SEL's effectiveness in diverse cultural contexts.

Long-term effects:

Measured a positive correlation between strong social emotional assets (measured at the end of intervention) and higher levels of well-being up to 18 years later. (Taylor et al., 2017)

Effectiveness across cultural contexts:

An SEL approach was consistently effective with all demographic groups both inside and outside the United States. This supports the idea that social and emotional assets promoted in SEL can support the positive development of students from diverse family backgrounds and geographic contexts. (Taylor et al., 2017)

SEL interventions show the largest effect size when the intervention is designed with a specific context or culture in mind. This supports the idea that SEL is not a 'one-size-fits-all' intervention. (Wiglesworth et al., 2016)

Read the 2017 meta-analysis of 82 research studies involving 100,000 students worldwide.

SEL is a wise financial investment

When it comes to school programming, education leaders are often weighing the benefits of investing in new efforts. Cost-benefit research demonstrates the value of SEL programs. The report found an average return on investment for six evidence-based programs of 11 to 1, meaning for every dollar invested there is an $11 return.

Read the 2015 review from Columbia University.

Social and emotional skills help improve lifetime outcomes

In addition to the long-term outcomes articulated above, there are statistically significant associations between social and emotional skills in kindergarten and key outcomes for young adults years later. Specifically, early social and emotional skills development helped to reduce societal costs required for public assistance, public housing, police involvement, and detention.

Read the 2015 national study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The Support for SEL
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What young people are saying...

High school students and recent high school graduates see the benefits of attending schools that emphasize SEL. But most current and recent high school students believe their schools could have done better.

Download the 2018 report from CASEL and Civic.

A qualitative study of young people who describe their experiences with the integration of social, emotional, and cognitive development in exemplary learning settings shows that supportive learning environments are nurturing young people's sense of themselves as valued, multi-dimensional community members.

View the 2020 report from America's Promise Alliance.

What school principals are saying...

School principals agree SEL is essential, with nearly all principals surveyed sharing that developing students' social and emotional skills is a critical aspect of students' in-school experience. They also want more guidance, more training for teachers, and greater access to research-based strategies for developing SEL in students.

Read the 2017 report from CASEL and Civic on the survey's findings (and the 2019 update).

What educators are saying...

Not only do 56% of educators believe resources to support SEL in the classroom will be most critical post-pandemic, but 82% agree that a well-crafted, fully integrated SEL approach makes an impact on outcomes.

Read the 2021 Educator Confidence Report.

Eighty percent of educators from across 15 countries believe positive emotions are critical for academic success, and emotional well-being is crucial for developing foundational literacies and communication skills.

Read the 2019 brief from The Economist Intelligence Unit on the survey's findings.

What teachers are saying...

Virtually all teachers report that it's critical to develop key SEL skills in the classroom. According to educators, key SEL skills include:

Self-awareness (with 99% of educators rating it as either somewhat or very important)

Relationship skills (98% of educators)

Self-management (97% of educators)

Responsible decision-making (97% of educators)

Social awareness (96% of educators)

View the 2021 report from McGraw Hill on the survey's findings.

Ninety-three percent of teachers want a greater focus on SEL in schools. They agree that social and emotional skills are teachable and are calling for schools to prioritize the integration of SEL practices and strategies.

Download the 2013 report from CASEL and Civic on the survey's findings.

About 90% of elementary and secondary teachers agreed that promoting SEL would improve students' academic achievement. It also found that teachers who reported higher levels of well-being reported engaging in SEL practices to a greater extent than those with lower reported well-being.

View the 2020 report from Rand Corporation on survey findings from the American Teacher Panel.

What policymakers are saying...

When we consider what it means for students to be prepared for college, career, and community life, social and emotional competencies are critically important for the long-term success of all students in today's economy. A bipartisan report addressed SEL as a core component of children's education, recommending several steps to scale up high-quality, evidence-based SEL programs.

Read the 2015 report from American Enterprise Institute and Brookings Institution.

What the broader public is saying...

Eighty-two percent said that it is highly important for schools to help students develop interpersonal skills, such as being cooperative, respectful of others, and persistent at solving problems.

Read the 2017 PDK poll results.

What parents are saying...

As of 2021, 62% of parents feel teaching SEL is very important, compared to 55% three years ago. Parents also believe that SEL is not emphasized as much as it should be (81%), that it has become even more important since the beginning of the pandemic (82%), and that it is helpful for children learning online (80%).

View the 2021 report from McGraw Hill on the survey's findings.

What employers are saying...

Six of the identified top ten skills for the future involve social and emotional competence, including complex problem solving, critical thinking, and creativity.

View the World Economic Forum report.

Thirty-one percent of employers worldwide struggle to find qualified employees. A major reason for the qualified labor shortage is that fewer students are graduating high school with the social and emotional skills required for today's workplace. In another survey, 92% of surveyed executives say skills such as problem-solving and communicating clearly are equal to or more important than technical skills, yet 89% said they have a very or somewhat difficult time finding employees with those skills.

View the report from Association for Career and Technical Education, National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium, and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

View the Wall Street Journal article on this data.

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The benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) are well-researched, with evidence demonstrating that an education that promotes SEL yields positive results for students, adults, and school communities. SEL has a powerful combination of evidence and support.

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Journal Article: Early Social-Emotional Functioning and Public Health: The Relationship Between Kindergarten Social Competence and Future Wellness

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Kids and young adults need social-emotional skills to be successful at school, home, and for the rest of their lives. These are the skills that help kids build confidence, understand their own strengths and weaknesses, collaborate with others, navigate social situations, develop strong relationships, and make better decisions. Without a doubt, these are critical skills for all learners.

In my years as a teacher, I know there is just not enough time for everything. So often, social and emotional learning gets put on the back burner to other important skills like reading, writing, math, history, and science. While these skills are certainly important, I would argue that it's even more important that kids develop their emotional intelligence through social emotional learning activities. Simply put, if kids are mentally and emotionally healthy, they are better equipped to face the challenges life brings. We just have to make the time to teach, discuss, and practice these skills! Best of all, there are many ways to integrate social-emotional learning into what you are already teaching.

Below I share 25 strategies for integrating SEL instruction and activities into the day. Of course, if you're looking for a solution that targets these skills more explicitly, I created a yearlong curriculum for elementary social emotional learning and middle school social emotional learning to help all kids learn these skills.

Just a note that these strategies were originally written for use in the classroom. While many of the techniques can be used during distance learning, I also recently wrote an article all about integrating social emotional learning during distance learning.
Here are 25 ways to integrate social emotional learning into your classroom:
1. Use Journal Writing. You can use daily journal prompts to help kids think about social-emotional skills in all areas. For example, you might ask kids, "When was a time you used self-control? What was outcome?" to focus on self-management skills. After writing, it's helpful to have students share their responses with a partner and with the class as a whole. Kids will be practicing writing, partner work, group discussion, and SEL skills all at the same time. I love this yearlong Social Emotional Learning Journal for just a few minutes of writing and discussion every day.

2. Use Read Alouds. This is one of my favorite strategies for integrating SEL into everyday learning because it is something educators do so often already. While reading, spend time talking about how some of the characters might think and feel. Use this time to highlight that this is perspective-taking, a skill we use to understand others' emotions and thoughts. Best of all, it can be done with any text you are already reading. Grab this free read aloud list for social emotional learning to get you started with some ideas.

3. Do Daily Greetings. Kids and young adults need connection! One positive and simple strategy is to start your morning with daily greetings. You can do this as kids walk through the door or during the first few minutes of class. If you are teaching online, greetings can even be virtual. Use this printable greetings poster to get started.

3. Hold Class Meetings. You can choose to hold a class meeting once a day as a "morning meeting" or just once a week. The purpose of a class meeting can be to boost each other up, to help solve problems, and plan class events together. Having this space for community can help promote a positive climate for all kids. Use this morning meeting set to get started.

4. Incorporate Art Activities. Art can be a powerful way to target social and emotional skills. Creating a self-collage can help kids develop better self-awareness about who they are. Painting and drawing can serve as positive coping strategies to manage stress. Having partners work together on a shared drawing can increase collaboration and relationship skills. There are lots of opportunities for learning with art!

6. Talk About Managing Emotions. No matter what age, all kids and young adults need practice managing their emotions. This is another skill that can be weaved into literature as you talk about character's feelings and needs. You might say, "How did Theresa feel when her mom left? How did she manage her emotions? Do you think it was a healthy way to manage them?" Additionally, be open with kids about how to manage their own emotions and give strategies for what kids can do in your classroom. For example, "If you are feeling nervous about the test today, remember to use positive self-talk. Tell yourself that you've got this!"

7. Give Responsibilities. Giving kids responsibilities and jobs helps build their sense of self-worth and gives the message that we are all part of a larger community. It's important that every student has some type of responsibility, whether it is a class librarian, lunch counter, or part of a "clean up crew".

8. Practice Problem-Solving Skills. If students have an issue or challenge to overcome, avoid solving it for them right away. Encourage kids to think about how they could solve their problem and have a 10 minute policy - students can get your help but they need to think about the problem for at least 10 minutes first. Often, kids will figure out a solution on their own or with a friend during that time. You can use these free social problem solving task cards or grab the full set to get started! Again, this is another skill that can be strengthened through literature by discussing characters, problems, and making predictions about solutions.

9. Build Community with Teamwork. For class projects and assignments, have students work in larger teams to complete a task. Teach students to assign different jobs when working in a team, so that all students have important responsibilities.

10. Encourage Positive Self-Talk. Self-talk is voice in our minds that reassures and encourages us. It also helps us control our emotions so we can deal with problems appropriately. Today, kids hear a lot of negative, so teaching positive self-talk explicitly is really important. Model this and encourage this every day. Use this free positive thoughts and affirmations list to get started.

11. Celebrate Diversity. Spend time discussing and learning about people from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and ability levels. Kids need to hear, see, discuss, and understand that we are part of a larger community within our countries and world. Early discussions about diversity can help promote tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion for everyone.

12. Incorporate Hands-on Crafts. If your students need a craft break or activity before a holiday, use that time to promote social and emotional skills. The craft below is a Positive Self-Talk Flower Craft. Kids can add their own positive self-talk statements, color the craft, cut it out, and then keep it to help remind them how to use this helpful strategy. This is just one small example that can help to maximize your learning time by incorporating SEL into activities like crafts.

13. Encourage Reflection. After students complete a task, assessment, project, or assignment, encourage them to reflect about their own progress. This is a critical SEL skill that can be used across all curriculum, such as math, reading, writing, science, history, and more.

14. Practice Mindfulness. Using mindfulness in the classroom can help teach kids how to calm down before a big test, manage their emotions when they are upset, and just feel happier in the moment. Sometimes, kids don't really know how to calm down on their own. Teaching mindfulness can help kids learn breathing strategies, how to focus on just one thing at a time, and relaxing our bodies. You can use these Mindfulness Activities to teach kids these strategies right away.

15. Create a Calm Down Area. Not all kids will use this area, but there are some students who truly need it. Set up a small area in your classroom with a bean bag, a few books, a calm down jar, a few fidgets, and anything else you have that is calming. Students who need this space can sit, use coping strategies, and return back to class when they are calm again.

16. Promote a Growth Mindset. Embracing a growth mindset helps kids and young adults learn that we can accomplish our goals with hard work, good strategies, and persistence over time. Sometimes kids feel they are just as smart as they'll ever be (i.e. "I'm just never good at math, so there's no use in trying). This mindset can be detrimental to student growth, so it is worth investing time into teaching kids to embrace a growth mindset and instead say, "Math is tough but I'm going to study, work hard, and ask for help so I can accomplish what I want to." Use these free Growth Mindset Task Cards to get yourself started!

17. Encourage Kindness. One of my favorite ways to promote kindness is encouraging random acts of kindness. Set up a bin where students can write and add a note when they notice someone else doing something kind or helpful. Once a month, draw from the bin to award a small reward. You can also post the random acts up on a bulletin board so that everyone can see.

18. Play Games. It's helpful to have an assortment of games that focus on social-emotional skills, such as communication, empathy, and problem-solving. Read up more on how you can integrate social emotional learning through games. You can also read my blog post about games you can use to strengthen executive functioning skills, such as self-control, planning, attention, and more.

19. Provide a Daily Check-in. You can do this either through a morning meeting, or just a quick check-in for specific students in need. Have students identify how they are feeling and consider what they might need to improve their emotions in the moment.

20. Discuss Empathy. To me, empathy is one of the most critical skills for kids to develop. It is the foundation for considering about how others think and feel so that we can respond in socially appropriate and compassionate ways. You can practice empathy on its own or through literature by discussing characters and how they might feel in a variety of situations. I also love these social skills task cards to practice the skills when time allows.

21. Create SMART Goals. SMART goals are another way to help kids have control over what they want to accomplish in life. You can have students write SMART goals for an academic area that they need to improve or a social area that needs work. Make sure to check-in on these goals periodically so that students can identify if their strategies are working or not, and make decisions about how to change their approaches to make their goals a success.

22. Teach Coping Skills to Manage Stress. All kids and young adults experience stress even when we don't see it. It is so important to teach them actual strategies they can use when they are feeling overwhelmed. It's critical that kids practice these strategies when they are actually calm and don't need them. That's so they can effectively use those skills in the moment when they are struggling with emotions. I love this Coping Strategies Wheel to teach and practice some of these skills in a hands-on way.

23. Highlight Skills Throughout the Day. Just teaching or addressing some of these social-emotional skills isn't enough. When you see them in action in the classroom, highlight and encourage the skill! For example, you might say privately to a student, "I noticed you were frustrated when you couldn't work with the group you wanted and you did a great job using your self-control and flexibility to go with the flow and choose another group. Thank you." You can highlight the skills to the whole class, too. You might say, "Before this test, I want everyone to just stop and use some positive self-talk. Give yourself a compliment."

24. Teach Active Listening Skills. All kids need to learn strong active listening skills for success at school, with friends, and at their future jobs. Kids will use them in your classroom when you are teaching, when they are working with a partner on an assignment, and when they are just chatting with a friend.

25. Teach Group Ground Rules. Group work is an important part of learning in the classroom, but it is not a strength for all learners. Have your kids develop "Group Ground Rules" for what is important when working in a group. Some examples might be: Do your fair share of the work, stay with the group, and give everyone a chance to speak up. Continually remind students of these rules when working in groups or partners.

26. Practice Respectfully Disagreeing. People are going to disagree sometimes, so learning how to disagree respectfully is a critical skill (especially in our digital world). Have students discuss and debate topics, making sure that they actively listen to the other person and respect that opinion even when they don't agree. You can use these Free Communication Skills Lessons to practice!

Remember that a social-emotional learning isn't just one thing. It's an approach that brings all of these aspects into your classroom and supporting your learners every day. I also have developed a yearlong curriculum for elementary social emotional learning and middle school social emotional learning to help all kids learn these skills. Kids deserve to have them!

These are just some ways you can incorporate social-emotional learning into your already-busy classroom. If you have more ideas about SEL, please share!

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25 Ways to Integrate Social Emotional Learning

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Kids and young adults need social-emotional skills to be successful at school, home, and for the rest of their lives. These are the skills that help kids build confidence, understand their own strengths and weaknesses, collaborate with others, navigate social situations, develop strong relationships

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Early Learning Archives - Committee for Children

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The first step to positively transforming 100 million children's lives by 2028 is staying informed. Sign up here to receive monthly advocacy updates, along with alerts on policies in motion in your state that affect children's well-being. If there's an opportunity for you to take action, we'll let you know.

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Social and emotional learning nurtures self-awareness: the ability to identify our own feelings, values, strengths, and limitations, as well as how our feelings and thoughts influence what we do.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances our ability to manage our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in a variety of contexts. In this part of the SEL Toolkit, we link to resources that help youth work professionals:

Promote a growth mindset

Promote perseverance

Nurture motivation to learn

Facilitate goal setting

Facilitate emotion regulation

Integrate mindfulness practices

Following these topics you will find resources designed especially for young people.
Promote a Growth Mindset

Carol Dweck and other researchers have observed that rewarding effort, grit, and perseverance helps children and adolescents develop a growth mindset -- the belief that you can learn and achieve by making persistent efforts. By contrast, those who have a "fixed" mindset believe that innate ability, rather than effort, determines success. A growth mindset increases learning and exploration as well as the ability to handle frustration and failure, while a fixed mindset can lead to a sense of inadequacy as well as failure to keep trying if success isn't achieved right away.

Strategies to promote a growth mindset include:

Educate youth about growth and fixed mindsets

Discourage labels -- such as "smart" or "dumb" -- that convey fixed ability

Praise effort, strategies, and progress, not intelligence or abilities

Provide challenging activities with the understanding that challenges are fun and mistakes help people learn and improve

Carol Dweck's website describes her research and findings. It also provides an online self-assessment and strategies to develop a growth mindset.

Website

Carol Dweck - A Study on Praise and Mindsets

This video describes Carol Dweck's research on the effects of praise on students. The study involved over 400 fifth-graders from all over the United States.

Video (5 minutes)

Mindset and Motivation in Adolescence

"Growth" and "fixed" mindsets have an impact on our levels of achievement and how we feel about failure and learning. In this article, Kristen Elmore introduces the research on mindsets.

Article

Encouraging Growth Mindsets

Growth mindsets support learning, while fixed mindsets can make us reluctant to challenge ourselves. How can people who work with adolescents encourage them to adopt growth mindsets?

Article

Mindset Kit

The Mindset Kit is a free set of online lessons and practices designed to help you teach and foster adaptive beliefs about learning. Resources for mentors, educators, and parents are included. Created by the Project for Education Research that Scales (PERTS).

Web Pages

Growth Mindset for 9th Graders

On this site, PERTS provides an evidence-based program designed to increase students' engagement, motivation, and success by laying the foundation for a growth mindset. Free to high schools.

Curriculum

Mindset Works: Motivate Students to Grow Their Minds!

These web pages contain videos about Carol Dweck's work and research, as well as interviews with teachers and students.

Web Pages

Step it Up 2 Thrive: Growth Mindset

These web pages from the Thrive Foundation for Youth include reading material, youth activities, lesson plans, and tips on how to develop growth mindsets.

Web Pages

WKCD: Growth Mindset and Why It Matters

What Kids Can Do (WKCD) has assembled five short videos that provide a lively introduction to the growth mindset for students as well as teachers.

Web Page

Promote Perseverance

Angela Lee Duckworth: The Key to Success? Grit

This TED Talk by psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth highlights her research on grit and perseverance as key factors for success.

TED Talk (6 minutes)

Insight Center: Perseverance

This site offers examples of programs that intentionally cultivate perseverance, as well as program strategies and relevant research. Resources are compiled by Boston After School & Beyond and their partners.

Strategies

Edutopia: Teaching Grit Cultivates Resilience and Perseverance

In rural New Hampshire, fifth-grade teacher Amy Lyon has created a curriculum based on researcher Angela Lee Duckworth's ideas about grit. Students set and work toward their own long-term goals, learning valuable lessons about dealing with frustration and distractions along the way.

Video (6 minutes)

Nurture Motivation to Learn

How Youth Learn: a Portfolio to Inform and Inspire Educators, Students, Parents & More

Part of the WKCD "How Youth Learn" Portfolio, The Motivation Equation is a free e-manual on inspiring young people to learn. The portfolio includes additional resources such as research highlights and student voices, as well as multimedia education tools such as the video Ned's Gr8 8: An Insider's Guide to the Teenage Brain.

E-manual

Fires in the Mind

Based on the book of the same title, this WKCD website provides resources and practical tips on how to engage young people in learning skills.

Website

Facilitate Goal Setting

To facilitate goal setting, invite reflection about life purpose and the future. Ask questions like:

What are your hopes and dreams?

Which one is most important to you just now?

What can you do now to bring that dream a little closer?

What do you love doing most?

What do you do that makes you feel really good about yourself?

Who do you really admire and why?

Edutopia: Setting S.M.A.R.T Goals

This page provides a video and lesson plan to help young people set goals using the SMART framework.

Web Page

Facilitate Emotion Regulation

General strategies for helping youth learn to manage their emotions include:

Encourage youth to name and express their emotions

Acknowledge their emotions (empathic listening)

Model emotion self-regulation and positive self-talk:

I am not going to let it get to me

I can handle this

I can calm down

I have other friends who like me

With more practice, I'll get it

Everyone makes mistakes. I'll do better next time

Role play situations using a problem-solving approach:

Define: What is the problem and how am I feeling about it?

Brainstorm: What can I do about it?

Evaluate possible solutions: What would happen if I did this?

Implement: Am I doing what I decided to do?

Evaluate: How did it turn out?

Strengthening Self-Regulation

In this webinar, Jutta Dotterweich discusses the importance of self-regulation and provides practical resources.

Webinar Recording (57 minutes)

Insight Center: Self-Regulation

This site offers examples of programs that intentionally cultivate self-regulation, as well as program strategies and relevant research. Resources are compiled by Boston After School & Beyond and their partners.

Strategies

Executive Function and Self-Regulation

The Center on the Developing Child provides this useful collection of brief articles and videos explaining executive function and describing how to build executive function skills in children and adolescents. Harvard University.

Guide

PBIS World: Teach Coping Skills

This web page offers general strategies and tips on how to teach coping skills. In addition, it addresses specific stressors, linking to techniques and resources.

Web Page

Emotional intelligence Curriculum

University of Illinois Extension provides activities to develop emotional intelligence for three different age groups.

Ages 8-10

Ages 11-12

Ages 13-18

Assessing Stress in Children and Youth: A Guide for Out-of-School Time Program Practitioners

This Child Trends research brief is designed to help out-of-school program practitioners recognize and reduce the consequences of stress.

Research Brief

Integrate Mindfulness Practices

Helpguide's Benefits of Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of purposely focusing your attention on the present moment -- and accepting it without judgment. This web page provides guidance and simple mindfulness practices, with links to resources.

Web Page

Mindfulness Activities for Children and Teens

This Positive Psychology Program article includes activities as well as tips for teaching mindfulness to children and teenagers.

Article

Greater Good: Mindfulness

Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, University of California, provides mindfulness guidance and resources, including a series of videos.

Web Page

Edutopia: How to Start a Meditation Program in Your School

This page provides guidance and successful strategies on establishing meditation practices in classroom settings.

Web Page

Edutopia: Quiet Time Primer

This brief primer gives concrete instruction and process descriptions on how to set up meditation and quiet practices with youth.

Handout

Resources for Young People

ACT Youth Network: Lead the Way!

This section of ACT for Youth's website for young people helps youth identify their leadership style and set goals.

Youth Web Pages

ACT Youth Network: Got Stress?

This section of ACT for Youth's website for young people helps youth explore the purpose of stress, stress signals, coping strategies, and ways to reduce stress.

Youth Web Pages

TeensHealth: Stress and Coping Center

This youth site from Nemours Foundation includes articles on stress, mental health conditions, and getting and giving help.

Youth Web Pages

Center for Young Women's Health: Emotional Health

Developed by Boston Children's Hospital, this Center offers young women many resources on emotional health, stress management, and coping.

Youth Web Pages

Young Men's Health: Emotional Health

Boston Children's Hospital offers young men resources for dealing with stress, depression, and anger, as well as friendships, among other topics.

Youth Web Pages

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances our ability to manage our feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in a variety of contexts. In this part of the SEL Toolkit, we link to resources that help youth work professionals: Promote a growth mindset Promote perseverance Nurture motivation to learn Facilitate goal setting Facilitate emotion regulation Integrate mindfulness practices Following these topics you will find resources designed especially for young people.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) nurtures social awareness, the ability to understand and empathize with others' points of view. This part of the SEL Toolkit contains strategies and resources for increasing young people's social awareness.

Teaching Empathy

Active Listening and Open-Ended Questions

One way youth work professionals can teach empathy is by modelling active, empathic listening skills.

Handout: Active Listening

Handout: Open-Ended Questions

Teaching Tolerance: Developing Empathy

By explicitly teaching students to be more conscious of other people's feelings, we can create a more accepting and respectful school or community setting. Activities and lesson plans are available for elementary, middle, and high school ages.

Lesson Plans

Lesson Planet: Empathy Resources

A range of teacher-reviewed classroom resources are linked on this web page, including worksheets, activities, and handouts for various ages. Many are transferable to, or can be adapted for, settings outside the classroom.

Lessons, Tools

Greater Good Science Center: Empathy

This website features research reports, interviews, self-assessment, and other resources on empathy.

Web Pages

Edutopia: Five Minute Film Festival

This series of short videos focuses on kindness, empathy, and connection.

Videos

Creating Inclusive and Safe Environments

Identity Safe Classrooms: Resources

In the book Identity Safe Classrooms, authors Steele and Cohn-Vargas promote efforts to ensure that students' social identities are an asset rather than a barrier to success in the classroom. The publisher made the resources and worksheets available as free downloads.

Worksheets

Diversity Activities for Youth and Adults

Cooperative Extension of the State University of Pennsylvania has compiled diversity activities in two free PDFs.

Activities

More Activities

SALTO-YOUTH: Intercultural Communication Resource Pack

SALTO-YOUTH is a European network of eight resource centers advocating for advanced learning and professional training within the youth work field. This manual focuses on intercultural communication skills.

Training Manual

SALTO-YOUTH: Peer Education Approach in Cultural Diversity

This training manual focuses on peer education in cultural diversity projects.

Training Manual

Enhancing Cultural Competence in OST Programs

This Child Trends research brief discusses the elements of cultural competence and its significance for out-of-school time programs. In addition, it provides suggestions to practitioners for developing cultural competence and incorporating activities into their programs in order to benefit youth from a wide range of backgrounds.

Research Brief

Illuminating Differently Abled Awareness

Developed by Cornell University researchers, this curriculum sparks conversations about disability and inclusion among students with their peers, teachers, and parents. Its target age group is middle school. All curriculum materials are available online.

Curriculum

Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN): Educator Resources

GLSEN provides many resources on respect and inclusion, including lesson plans on how to create an inclusive and safe environment.

Web Pages

Nurturing Civic Engagement

Learning to Give: Youth Activities

Learning to Give provides meaningful, fun, and ready-to-use materials that will engage youth in giving to benefit the common good.

Web Pages

National Youth Leadership Council

This website serves as a clearinghouse for national service-learning efforts and materials.

Website

LIFT: Raising the Bar for Service-Learning Practice

Supported by the National Youth Leadership Council, this multimedia, interactive website provides many resources to support service-learning efforts.

Website

Exploring Community Resources

MAPPED: A Youth Community Mapping Toolkit

The MAPPED Toolkit, written specifically for the city of Vancouver, is a resource for adults hoping to engage youth in community planning.

Publication

Building Community: A Tool Kit for Youth and Adults in Charting Assets and Creating Change

This facilitator's handbook from the Innovation Center makes it possible for individuals and groups everywhere to bring an asset-based approach to creating positive change in their communities.

Handbook

Photovoice Manual and Resource Kit

Produced by the Hamilton Community Foundation, this manual provides practical guidelines for those wishing to start a new Photovoice program.

Manual

Facilitator's Guide to Youth Community Safety Photovoice

Produced by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in greater Boston, this manual provides implementation guidelines on how to conduct a photovoice project with young people around the issue of community safety.

Manual

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) nurtures social awareness, the ability to understand and empathize with others' points of view. This part of the SEL Toolkit contains strategies and resources for increasing young people's social awareness. Active Listening and Open-Ended Questions One way youth work professionals can teach empathy is by modelling active, empathic listening skills.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances the ability to communicate and connect with a range of people in healthy ways. In this section of the SEL Toolkit, we link to strategies and resources that will help youth work professionals teach relationship skills.

Model and Promote Positive Communication Skills

Active Listening and Feedback

These handouts were designed to help youth work professionals model and explain positive communication skills.

Active Listening

Positive and Constructive Feedback

The U.S. Department of State "Diplomacy in Action" site includes a helpful page describing the positive use of "I" messages.

Web Page

Teaching Resources for Youth Educators - A Source Book

Created by Wisconsin 4-H Youth Development, this collection of teaching materials includes activities, games, exercises, handouts, and worksheets that deal with interpersonal communication skills, relationships, conflict resolution, and public speaking.

Manual

Communications Toolkit

Created by Michigan 4-H Youth Development, this toolkit provides activities to engage young people in creative expression and communication activities using different media.

Manual

Communication Skills

This Advocates for Youth lesson plan uses role plays to teach communication skills.

Lesson Plan

Youth Engaged in Leadership and Learning

This manual from the John W. Gardner Center includes many exercises aimed at building communication and social skills.

Manual

Teach Social Skills

101 Ways to Teach Children Social Skills

This free book by Lawrence E. Shapiro includes strategies for teaching social skills to children, particularly those with social problems.

Activities

Use Group Learning Strategies

Collaborative Learning

This handout includes collaborative learning activities and tips.

Activities and Tips

Jim Cain's Raccoon Circles

This collection of team-building activities is for both small and large groups. Many of the activities are intended to be done outdoors.

Activities

Group-Games.com

This is a database of free group games, icebreakers, and team-building activities.

Activities

Youth Adult Partnership Manual

This Innovation Center manual offers activities for youth and adults, both separately and jointly, in preparation for working together.

Manual

Teach Conflict Resolution Skills

Six Steps to Solving Problems

The Raising Children Network describes six steps for working with a young person in order to reach a solution together.

Web Page

Consensus - Action Planning

This handout describes an inclusive process for group planning.

Planning Process

Out on a Limb: A Guide to Getting Along

Developed by University of Illinois Extension, this interactive site teaches children conflict resolution skills. A teachers' guide is included.

Website

Research

Assessing Peer Conflict and Aggressive Behavior

This Child Trends brief discusses peer conflict and aggressive behaviors, ways to reduce these behaviors, and assessment.

Research Brief

What Works for Promoting and Enhancing Positive Social Skills

This Child Trends literature review of 38 programs identifies practices that work, or do not work, to promote positive social skills.

Research Brief

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) enhances the ability to communicate and connect with a range of people in healthy ways. In this section of the SEL Toolkit, we link to strategies and resources that will help youth work professionals teach relationship skills.

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) fosters the ability to make positive choices about how we behave. On this page of the SEL Toolkit, we link to tools and resources for professionals who seek to strengthen young people's decision-making skills.

Promote Problem-Solving Thinking

There are many simple ways to infuse problem-solving thinking and reflection into program activities:

Articulate differences and connections

Identify emotions behind actions

Brainstorm different approaches or solutions to a task

Explore possible consequences

Model and articulate decision-making process

Reflect on past experiences

Evaluate actions - did they meet the goal?

Simulate or role play a task

Thinking Child

Cognitive psychologist Myrna B. Shure describes her approach to teaching children how to think about solving problems.

Web Page

Teach Critical Thinking Skills

Reflective Group Conversation

This worksheet can be used to guide critical thinking within a group.

Worksheet

SWOT Analysis

This worksheet can be used in a discussion of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Worksheet

Edutopia: Resources and Downloads for Teaching Critical Thinking

On this page, educators from the Bay Area's KIPP King Collegiate High School and the KIPP network share critical thinking lesson plans and tools.

Web Page

Advocates for Youth: Values and Behavior

The purpose of this Life Planning Education activity is to examine the relationship between values and behavior.

Activity

Use Media Literacy as a Teaching Strategy for Critical Thinking

Media Smart Youth: 6 Media Questions

This poster poses six questions that promote critical thinking about media.

Poster

Media Education Foundation

The Media Education Foundation offers educational videos on gender, health, race, and commercialism, as well as discussion guides promoting media literacy and critical thinking skills for all ages.

Website

Discussion Guides

ACT for Youth: Media Literacy

In this article, Andrew Smiler explores the importance of media literacy and offers key questions to guide youth.

Article

Involve Young People in Service-Learning

National Youth Leadership Council

This website serves as a clearinghouse for national service-learning efforts and materials.

Website

LIFT: Raising the Bar for Service-Learning Practice

Supported by the National Youth Leadership Council, this multimedia, interactive website provides many resources to support service-learning efforts.

Website

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) fosters the ability to make positive choices about how we behave. On this page of the SEL Toolkit, we link to tools and resources for professionals who seek to strengthen young people's decision-making skills.

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Responsive Classroom

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Morning Meeting is an engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set children up for social and academic success.

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The Power of the Morning Meeting: 5 Steps Toward Changing Your Classroom and School Culture

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Edutopia blogger Lisa Dabbs shares her own transformative experience with the Morning Meeting model and suggests five steps for integrating this practice into the classroom.

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Teaching Restorative Practices in the Classroom 7 lesson Curriculum

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by Mark Boynton and Christine Boynton

We all want to feel cared for and valued by the significant people in our world. Students are no different. This knowledge is a powerful tool in the arsenal available to you as you form your classroom discipline plan. As a classroom teacher, you wield a great deal of power over your students simply due to the fact that you control their destiny for up to six and a half hours each day, five days a week. When students feel that you value and care for them as individuals, they are more willing to comply with your wishes.

Think about it for just a minute. Aren't you more apt to go out of your way to please a boss who you feel values you as an individual and treats you with dignity and respect, rather than a boss who communicates a lack of respect for you? When your boss asks about your family, gives you "slack" when there is a personal emergency, or praises you for work well done, don't you develop feelings of regard for this boss and want to do your best to please him or her? Students have the same feelings. So it makes sense that developing positive teacher-student relations is one of the most effective steps you can take to establish a positive discipline climate in the classroom. It's critical to remember that when you treat students with respect, they tend to appreciate and like you. When they appreciate and like you, they are more willing to want to please you-which causes them to be more likely to behave appropriately. This is why it is so important to remember that, when it comes to student behavior, it's far more often the relationship students have with you than it is the rules themselves that encourages students to follow those rules.

A review of the research shows that authors have a lot to say about positive relationships with students. Thompson (1998) says, "The most powerful weapon available to secondary teachers who want to foster a favorable learning climate is a positive relationship with our students" (p. 6). Canter and Canter (1997) make the statement that we all can recall classes in which we did not try very hard because we didn't like our teachers. This should remind us how important it is to have strong, positive relationships with our students. Kohn (1996) goes a step further, saying, "Children are more likely to be respectful when important adults in their lives respect them. They are more likely to care about others if they know they are cared about" (p. 111). Marzano (2003) states that students will resist rules and procedures along with the consequent disciplinary actions if the foundation of a good relationship is lacking. He goes on to assert that relationships are perhaps more important at the elementary and junior high levels than at the high school level. And according to Zehm and Kottler (1993), students will never trust us or open themselves up to hear what we have to say unless they sense that we value and respect them.

As we showed in Figure S1, strategies to develop positive teacher-student relations should be the largest portion of your discipline plan. What are some strategies that you can implement to develop strong and powerful relationships with your students? Let's look at some techniques that are easy to integrate into your everyday interactions with students: communicating positive expectations, correcting students in a constructive way, developing positive classroom pride, demonstrating caring, and preventing and reducing your own frustration and stress.

Communicating Positive Expectations

Research on teacher expectations and student achievement has shown that expectations have a dramatic impact on student academic performance (Kerman, Kimball, & Martin, 1980). Student behavioral performance is also dependent to a large degree on the expectations of significant adults in students' lives. Numerous studies indicate that the expectations teachers have for students tend to become self-fulfilling prophesies. It is therefore critically important for educators to monitor their interactions with the goal of communicating appropriately high behavioral and academic expectations to all students, not just to high achievers.

There are several techniques that can be used to achieve this goal. Monitor the way you call on students. Make sure that you give all students chances to participate in class. Try to increase the amount of time you wait between asking a student a question and moving on by either answering the question yourself or calling on another student. Give students hints and clues to help them succeed in class. Tell students directly that you believe that they have the ability to do well. Your belief in them will inspire their success.

Let's look at some of these techniques for communicating high expectations in more detail and discuss ways to implement these techniques in your classroom.

Call on All Students Equitably

When you call on students, there are several things to keep in mind. First of all, you must monitor the equitability of response opportunities. Often, teachers who keep track discover that they call on a small number of students frequently and allow few, if any, chances for students for whom they have low expectations to answer. When you fail to recognize particular students, you can communicate a low level of confidence in their abilities. Individual students may "tune out" and believe that you don't expect they will be able to answer your questions. This message is compounded when these students see others being called on regularly.

Think about what it would communicate to you if your boss always asked other teachers to participate in committee work or special projects instead of you. And how would you feel if the boss continually came to you for help on curriculum projects or input on difficult students? Just as we do, students develop feelings of self-confidence in their abilities when their teacher goes to them for the right answer. In addition, calling on all the students in your class-rather than a select few-will help keep students on task and decrease the number of behavior problems.

It is important that you monitor yourself to be certain that you are providing all of your students with response opportunities. Putting a check by the name of each student you call on during class discussions is an excellent way to quickly determine whether you are being equitable. Also, you should monitor yourself to make certain you are not calling exclusively on your high-achieving students but also on students who have a pattern of not performing well.

Keeping a simple checklist on a clipboard during classroom discussions is a great strategy you can easily implement. Figure 1.1 is an example of such a checklist. In this example, you can see that Donna and Sam are getting the majority of the response opportunities. This could be because the teacher has confidence in these students, knows that calling on them will keep the discussion moving, and wants the other students to hear the correct answers. However, it also could lead the other students to think that the teacher doesn't have confidence in them and doesn't expect them to participate, and it increases the likelihood that they will get off task. If you were the teacher, you would want to be sure that before the end of the discussion you called on all your students so as to make the discussion more equitable.

Try to make an effort to call on students who have typically been off task or who have been achieving at a low level, allowing them to respond and participate in class, and watch what happens. Over time, you will notice that these students will remain on task more often and improve academically! This change does not occur immediately, but it definitely does occur and is extremely gratifying to see.

Increase Latency Periods When Questioning Students

Increasing latency (Kerman et al., 1980) is another technique you can use to communicate that you have positive expectations for a student. Latency is the amount of time that elapses between the moment you give a student a response opportunity and the moment you terminate the response opportunity. Kerman and colleagues (1980) explain that the amount of time we give to students to answer questions is directly related to the level of expectation we have for them. We give more time to students when we have confidence in their ability to answer a question. Conversely, we give less time to students in whom we have little confidence. When you quickly give up on a student who is struggling with a response, it is clear to everyone in the classroom that you don't expect him or her to come up with the right answer. In addition, when you give up on a student who initially struggles with a response, the student realizes that all he or she needs to do to "get off the hook" is respond to your question with a confused expression or blank stare. What you will find when you make a conscious effort to extend the length of latency you allow for low-achieving students is that these students will begin to pay more attention, become more actively involved in discussions, and minimize their behavior issues. One thing you can do is ask a teaching peer to observe your instruction and chart the length of the latency periods you are giving each student from the time you ask the question until you move on to another student. It is especially interesting to find out which students get longer latency periods from you. Figure 1.2 shows an example of a latency chart.

In analyzing the chart, it is easy to see that Donna and Mary are consistently given more latency and, therefore, more chances to give a correct response than are the other students. If this were your classroom, you could try to make sure that in future discussions and question-and-answer periods you give longer latency periods to other students as well before moving on.

Give Hints and Clues to Help Students Answer Questions

You also communicate positive expectations by giving hints and clues to your students. In their work on teacher expectations, Kerman and colleagues (1980) point out that teachers usually do more "delving and rephrasing" for students for whom they have high expectations and less for students for whom they have low expectations. It is important that we communicate to all our students that we have high expectations for their success, and one way to do this is by giving more hints and clues to all students, especially the low-performing students.

Think about a reading lesson in which a student struggles to sound out a word. After waiting for an appropriate latency period, the teacher might prompt, "It sounds like 'cat.'" In a secondary classroom, a teacher could ask, "What were the three causes of the War of 1812?" After the latency period, the teacher might say, "Think about what we learned regarding the British treatment of U.S. sailors."

There are things to be cautious about when using this technique. If you provide too many hints and clues, you may actually give the student the answer. Also, after a number of hints, it may be that the only student who doesn't know the answer is the one being called on, which ends up being an embarrassing experience. The important point, however, is to use hints and clues with all students to communicate that you have high expectations for the entire class. This helps build positive teacher-student relations.

Tell Students They Have the Ability to Do Well

Another way to communicate positive expectations to students is by directly telling them they have the ability to do well. When you tell your students you have confidence that they can handle a difficult assignment or improve their behavior, you impart a very powerful message. Students often will work hard and behave appropriately to prove that your confidence in them is justified. Every child needs to have at least one significant adult in his or her life who believes that he or she can do well. Ideally, children would hear this from their parents, but the sad truth is that is not always the case. Teachers have the unique opportunity and privilege to communicate daily to a number of students that they believe in them. What a gift to be able to be that significant adult in even one student's life.

Using this strategy might lead a teacher to say this to a student: "Emma, I know you'll do your best on this math test. You've been working very hard on remembering to write down your thinking as you solve math problems, and I know you can transfer that skill to this test. I'll check back with you later." This approach can be modified for any grade level or subject area. Once again, this is a positive relations strategy as well as an instructional strategy.

You can also let students know that you have positive expectations for them by referring to past successes (Kerman et al., 1980). When you tell a student that you know he will behave appropriately at recess because he was successful yesterday, you help build confidence in the student and increase his chance for success. And after a student demonstrates good behavior or academic achievement in a specific situation, telling her you knew she would be successful (Kerman et al., 1980) also instills confidence and a culture of positive expectations. Students need to know that their teachers respect them and have confidence in them. Using these different strategies to consistently communicate your positive expectations will work wonders. We challenge you to begin using one or two of these strategies today to build high expectations and positive teacher-student relations.

Correcting Students in a Constructive Way

Correcting and disciplining students for inappropriate behaviors is a necessary and important part of every teacher's job. However, it doesn't have to be a negative part of your job. In fact, you can actually build positive relationships when you correct students. If you don't believe this, think for just a minute about students you have had in the past who came back to school to visit you. Often it is the students who were the most challenging and with whom you had to spend the most time who continue to visit you over the years. This is due to the positive relationships you developed with them.

The goal in correcting students should be to have them reflect on what they did, be sorry that they disappointed you, and make a better choice in the future. It should not be that they go away thinking, "I hate my teacher. I'm going to be sure I don't get caught next time." The difference in students' reactions to being disciplined is often related to the manner in which you correct them. If you allow students to keep their dignity, you increase the chance that they will reflect on their behavior and choose their behaviors more wisely in the future. The correction process will be counterproductive if students are corrected in a manner that communicates bitterness, sarcasm, low expectations, or disgust. The goal is to provide a quick, fair, and meaningful consequence while at the same time communicating that you care for and respect the student.

Figure 1.3 outlines steps to be taken when correcting or disciplining a student.

Figure 1.3. Steps to Use When Correcting Students

1. Review what happened

2. Identify and accept the student's feelings

3. Review alternative actions

4. Explain the building policy as it applies to the situation

5. Let the student know that all students are treated the same

6. Invoke an immediate and meaningful consequence

7. Let the student know you are disappointed that you have to invoke a consequence to his or her action

8. Communicate an expectation that the student will do better in the future

Imagine that Johnny hit Sam because Sam called his mother a name. This is how you could put these disciplinary steps in place:

1. Review what happened. Discuss the incident with Johnny. Begin with fact finding to be sure that you are appropriately correcting the student. The worst way to affect teacher-student relationships is to unfairly discipline a student.

2. Identify and accept the student's feelings. Tell Johnny that you understand why it upset him to hear somebody call his mother a name and that you, too, would be upset if someone maligned your mother. It's important to understand that this step communicates that you respect and understand his feelings but that you are not accepting his actions.

3. Review alternative actions. Go over with Johnny the different actions he could have taken, such as ignoring the remark or reporting it to a teacher.

4. Explain the building policy as it applies to the situation. Remind Johnny of the building policy of not fighting and that the rule is if anyone hits another student, he or she will be sent to the office and possibly be suspended from school.

5. Let the student know that all students are treated the same. Make sure that Johnny understands that all students must adhere to the policy and that any student who disregards the rule will suffer the consequences.

6. Invoke an immediate and meaningful consequence. Communicate with the office about what happened and send Johnny to the office.

7. Let the student know you are disappointed that you have to invoke a consequence to his or her action. Tell Johnny that you are disappointed that his actions have led to this situation.

8. Communicate an expectation that the student will do better in the future. Remind Johnny that, although you do not approve of his actions and do not like to send him or any student to the office, you like him and know that he will make a better choice next time. Also tell him that you are there to support him and work through these issues with him in the future.

In addition to your following these steps when correcting a student, it is important to keep some key philosophical precepts in mind. First of all, remember to correct the student in a private location. Although it is not always possible to remove a student from the classroom, do your best to prevent visual access by other students as you discipline. Public correction can foster feelings of anger, embarrassment, and bitterness; it can also become a sideshow for the other students. Also, when invoking a consequence, you should ask yourself, "How would I want my own children disciplined in a similar situation?" Answering this question will help you treat the student with care and respect. Finally, remember to stay calm and avoid frustration. The worst thing you can do is to invoke a consequence when you are angry or upset, as this can lead to regrettable actions on your part. If necessary, give yourself a "cooling-off period" before intervening with the student. Figure 1.4 reviews the key philosophical considerations for correcting students.

Figure 1.4. Key Philosophical Precepts When Correcting Students

Correct in a private location

Treat students as you want your own children treated

Stay calm

Avoid frustration

It is also important to follow certain steps after disciplining a student. These steps are shown in Figure 1.5.

Figure 1.5. Steps to Follow After Disciplining a Student

1. Touch base with the student

2. Acknowledge postdisciplinary successes

3. Don't give up too quickly

Let's go back to the example of Johnny, in which he earned an office referral because he hit Sam. Here are some actions you could take:

1. Touch base with the student. Follow up with Johnny after the consequence, checking to see how he's doing and simply making contact with him.

2. Acknowledge postdisciplinary successes. The next time Johnny has difficulty with a student and handles the situation more appropriately, such as by verbalizing his displeasure rather than using his fists, be sure to acknowledge his behavior and praise him for making the right choice.

3. Don't give up too quickly. Finally, don't forget that some students respond negatively to positive attention. In such cases, it may appear that the student doesn't want the positive attention. What may actually be happening is a gradual change in the student's self-concept. When students are used to getting into trouble and having negative attention, it takes a while to break this cycle. Often it is just a matter of time before the student starts to show the positive effects of this attention, so don't give up!

Developing Positive Classroom Pride

If applied effectively, pride can be an extremely powerful force in developing positive teacher-student relationships (Kerman et al., 1980). In many classrooms, students are proud of the fact that they are behaving and achieving at a high level. In other classrooms, a different type of pride develops when students see themselves as being the worst they can be. The pride students develop helps shape identities that in turn drive their behaviors. When you recognize student successes, there is a decreased likelihood of fostering negative pride and an increased likelihood of developing positive pride. As a classroom teacher, your goal should be to help students take pride in their accomplishments and positive behaviors rather than in their negative behaviors. Figure 1.6 lists some strategies that will help you attain this important goal.

Figure 1.6. Strategies to Develop Positive Classroom Pride

Display student work

Positively reinforce students verbally

Show off the class's achievements

Speak to the accomplishments of all your students

Be sincere in your pride in your students

Look for opportunities for students to be proud in all areas

Develop parental pride in student accomplishments

Develop pride in improvement in addition to pride in excellence

Displaying student work is a good way to let students know that you value the work they do and that you take pride in their work products. The displayed work does not have to be perfect and should show a significant cross section of the students you have in your class. Putting the work of students who have a history of low achievement up on a bulletin board often helps to build their self-esteem and pride and encourages them to do better work in the future. Exhibiting the work throughout the building in hallways, in the office, and in other public areas can do a great deal to develop positive levels of student pride. The impact becomes even more powerful when you let the class know that you want others to see the great work they are doing. An example of this would be to display all your students' science projects in the library and telling your class, "You all did a great job on your science projects, including stating your problem and hypothesis, clearly writing out the steps you took, and then drawing conclusions. I am so proud of all of you that I wanted the whole school to see your exemplary work. That's why I put all the projects on display in the library."

Positively reinforce students verbally on a regular basis. Tell your students when you are pleased by their behavior. Let them know that you're not surprised when they grasp a difficult concept. This is a powerful way of developing positive pride.

Publicly asking other staff members to enter the classroom so that they can see a specific accomplishment of your class, such as the way they respond to your instructions, is an example of showing off the class's achievements. However, be careful to speak to the accomplishments of all the students when you use this strategy rather than to the accomplishments of just the top students, or the strategy could backfire on you.

There are numerous opportunities to develop pride in all areas, such as by publicly recognizing high test scores, acts of kindness, positive citizenship, and athletic accomplishments. You can also extend the pride taken in the class by developing parental pride in student accomplishments. Provide opportunities for parents to review student work in newsletters, during back-to-school events, and at parent conferences. Let parents know about high attendance rates, high test scores, and the percentage of homework or assignments completed. In this way, you are enlisting parents to be your partners in fostering this powerful positive relationship tool.

Remember that pride does not always have to involve only excellence. Pride in improvement is an important type of pride to nurture. Test scores and daily assignments that go from a D to a C and homework that starts coming in on time are examples of great opportunities for you to recognize student success and build pride.

When Kelley, a new teacher, took over a 6th grade class at a large elementary school in January, he used a combination of these approaches to build pride in the students. The class had already "gotten rid of" two other teachers, and they were proud of being the "baddest" class in the school. Besides teaching clearly defined parameters for appropriate behaviors and strong consequences for negative behaviors, Kelley gradually worked at building positive pride with the class. While practicing walking in the hallways and transitioning between activities appropriately with the class, he would invite the principal or other teachers in and say, "I just wanted you to see what a great job my class is doing and how proud I am of the respectful and quiet way they are walking in the halls." After working with the students on how he wanted them to respond when he gave his signal, he would again invite other staff into the room and say, "Look at how quickly and quietly my class responds to my signal. They have really improved. Aren't they great?" In addition, he would tell the students on a regular basis that he couldn't wait to get to school each day because it was so much fun working with them and because he was so proud of their improved behaviors and academics. This continued focus on building positive classroom pride gradually changed the pride the class had in their negative behaviors to pride in their new culture of positive behaviors.

These are just some of the ways you can work to develop student pride individually and collectively. This in turn will help you build positive relationships with your students. A key element of Kelley's success was that he was sincere in his proclamations of pride in his students. Children are intuitive regarding sincerity, and insincere comments will quickly backfire.

One caution for secondary teachers concerning pride involves a distinction between the manner in which you foster pride for different grade levels of students. What works for elementary and middle school students is not necessarily appropriate at the high school level. Sprick (1985) points out that it's more effective to use calm, quiet statements with secondary students than emotional praise, as they get embarrassed and don't like to be singled out from their peers. We believe you can and should instill positive pride with secondary students, but a more private method may be more effective.

Demonstrating Caring

Demonstrating caring is one of the most powerful ways to build positive relationships with your students (Kerman et al., 1980). When your actions and words communicate that you sincerely care for your students, they are more likely to want to perform well for you and enjoy coming to school. Caring also fosters a preventive approach to discipline, as students who feel cared for are more likely to want to please you by complying with your wishes and policies. It is a tragedy when a student mistakenly believes that his teacher does not care for or like him. In most cases, teachers do care but fail to do the things that directly communicate this valuable message. Figure 1.7 lists some strategies to communicate to your students that you care about them.

Figure 1.7. Strategies to Show You Care

Show an interest in your students' personal lives

Greet the students by the front door as they enter the classroom

Watch for and touch base with students who display strong emotion

Sincerely listen to students

Empathize with students

Inquiring about aspects of students' personal lives is a powerful way to communicate that the students are important and cared for. You can do this by asking about a recent trip, a hobby, or a sports activity. Some teachers make it a point to watch sporting events that their students are involved in, which is a wonderful way to show students you care about them beyond the classroom walls. The caution with this approach is to be as equitable as possible so that there is not a perception that you have "favorites." A proactive way to do this is to have students write a journal at the beginning of the year in which they list what they did during their vacation, what pets they have, what sports they enjoy, and what hobbies they have. With this information, you can look for opportunities to ask questions or make comments to individual students using these facts. You might say to one student, "Susie, I read that you have a cocker spaniel. I have one, too. Does your dog know any tricks?"

Standing by the door and welcoming students as they enter the classroom is a quick and easy way to show students they are important and that you are glad to see them. This procedure also helps you start the day with personal contact with each and every student. This is a procedure Wong and Wong (1998) advocate as a way to begin the day and the school year on a positive note.

When you see students display strong emotions (e.g., when they are happy, excited, or angry), you have an opportunity to build positive relationships by asking how they are doing and what is going on with them. Statements such as, "Are you all right?" and "Can I help with anything?" let students know they are cared for, valued, and noticed.

Listening intently and sincerely to students is a powerful way to communicate how much you care. Maintaining eye contact and paraphrasing helps students realize that you have heard them.

In addition, when you empathize with students, they understand that they are recognized and valued. This does not mean that you have to agree with all their actions, but that you let them know that you recognize the emotions behind their actions. You can communicate empathy by telling students that even though it's wrong to hit someone, for instance, you understand the emotions behind an incident.

These are just a few ways that you can demonstrate to your students that you care about them. As indicated earlier, you must never forget the power of caring. The bottom line is that caring helps build strong positive relationships that in turn help prevent discipline problems in the future.

Preventing and Reducing Frustration and Stress

Frustration and stress, which are inevitable in the teaching profession, are the great enemies of our best intentions. Zehm and Kottler (1993) list some external causes of stress for teachers as difficult students, irate parents, and collegial backbiting. Frustration can have a devastating effect on teacher-student relationships, as it tends to cause educators to make irrational decisions. Usually you know when you are becoming frustrated and can quickly identify the signs and symptoms. As an educator, the question is not if you will become frustrated or stressed but when you will and how you will deal with it.

Signs of frustration or stress can include nervousness, anxiety, shortness of breath, and a tendency to make irrational decisions. First, you should be able to recognize your own personal signs that frustration or stress is building so that you can de-escalate them. You should then have a plan that will help you prevent or reduce frustration when it occurs. Your frustration prevention or reduction techniques will be unique and personal to you; what works for one teacher might not necessarily be effective for you. Figure 1.8 shows some typical frustration and stress prevention or reduction techniques that you can implement.

Figure 1.8. Frustration and Stress Prevention/Reduction Techniques

Play soft, relaxing music

Display posters of peaceful destinations

Modify your lesson plans

Take your students for a walk

Ask a neighboring teacher to take a difficult student for a period of time

Assign your students independent reading time

Clear off your desk

Find a validating colleague

Share staff duties

Share frustration strategies

Playing soft, relaxing music when feelings of frustration are approaching can have a beneficial effect for both you and your students. Some teachers proactively play soft music during independent study time.

Displaying posters throughout the classroom of attractive destinations can help keep you calm. You might put up pictures of beautiful beaches, snowy mountains, green valleys, ski resorts, or tropical islands to give yourself-and your students-opportunities for mini mental vacations.

Most teachers have certain lessons they truly enjoy teaching. When feelings of frustration or stress are approaching, try modifying your lesson plans and teaching a lesson that not only meets the student learning goals but also brings you pleasure.

Sometimes just taking a short walk around the school can be relaxing and can head off feelings of stress or frustration. This can also help students relieve pent-up energy. For instance, there may even be a way to integrate the walk into your current curriculum by turning it into a nature walk or a service project (e.g., picking up litter).

Difficult students can be a major cause of frustration. Allow yourself to ask for help by asking a neighboring teacher to take a difficult student for a short time. This strategy is one that you should set up ahead of time, making certain that your colleague is agreeable to this arrangement. Offering to do the same for the other teacher is a good way to begin using this strategy.

Strategically assigning independent reading time to students is another way to calm the classroom down and provide you with a break when frustration raises its ugly head.

For some teachers, one source of stress or frustration is a messy desk, submerged in various unfinished tasks. If you are one of these teachers, an easy way to decrease frustration is to clear off your desk and take time to organize your work area.

Frustration and stress often disappear when a supervisor or peer lets you know they value and appreciate your work. Knowing which colleagues you should visit to help validate your work is another technique to use in lowering levels of frustration and stress. Sharing staff duties can help too, as frustration and stress often occur when a teacher feels overwhelmed and behind. You should let your colleagues know you are willing to cover some of their duties and also let them do the same for you. Also, sharing other ideas with teachers on frustration- and stress-reducing techniques is a way to increase your repertoire of strategies.

Zehm and Kottler (1993) mention additional stress- and frustration-reduction strategies, such as maintaining a healthy lifestyle with good sleeping patterns, free of alcohol and drugs. They also advocate continued training and professional growth tasks, such as varying teaching assignments, taking a sabbatical, having a faculty exchange, engaging in team teaching, supervising a student teacher, going back to school, conducting field trips, leading research projects, writing grants, and instigating technology projects. In addition, they suggest keeping a journal as a reflective strategy to help deal with stress and frustration.

In summary, there are many ways you can develop positive relationships with students in your daily interactions with them. Not only does this contribute to a positive classroom environment, but it also improves the quality of school life for both you and your students.

While building positive relationships is the foundation to a strong discipline system, relationships alone are not enough. It is also critical to clearly define parameters of expected behaviors, to monitor those behaviors, and to implement consequences when necessary.

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by Mark Boynton and Christine Boynton We all want to feel cared for and valued by the significant people in our world. Students are no different. This knowledge is a powerful tool in the arsenal available to you as you form your classroom discipline plan.

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Strategies for Building Positive Relationships

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Strategies for Building Positive Relationships

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The best teachers are capable of maximizing the learning potential of each student in their class. They understand that the key to unlocking student potential is by developing positive, respectful relationships with their students beginning on the first day of the school year. Building a trusting relationship with your students can be both challenging and time-consuming. Great teachers become masters at it in time. They will tell you that developing solid relationships with your students is paramount in fostering academic success.

It is essential that you earn your students' trust early on in the year. A trusting classroom with mutual respect is a thriving classroom complete with active, engaging learning opportunities. Some teachers are more natural at building and sustaining positive relationships with their students than others. However, most teachers can overcome a deficiency in this area by implementing a few simple strategies into their classroom on a daily basis. Here are some strategies to try.

Provide Structure

Most kids respond positively to having structure in their classroom. It makes them feel safe and leads to increased learning. Teachers who lack structure not only lose valuable instructional time but often never gain the respect of their students. It is essential that teachers set the tone early by establishing clear expectations and practicing class procedures. It is equally critical that students see that you follow through when boundaries are overstepped. Finally, a structured classroom is one with minimal downtime. Each day should be loaded with engaging learning activities with little to no downtime.

Teach With Enthusiasm and Passion

Students will respond positively when a teacher is enthusiastic and passionate about the content she is teaching. Excitement is contagious. When a teacher introduces new content enthusiastically, students will buy in. They will get just as excited as the teacher, thus translating to increased learning. Exuberance will rub off on the students in your classroom when you are passionate about the content you teach. If you are not excited, why should your students be excited?

Have a Positive Attitude

Everyone has terrible days including teachers. Everyone goes through personal trials that can be difficult to handle. It is essential that your personal issues do not interfere with your ability to teach. Teachers should approach their class each day with a positive attitude. Positivity is transcending.

If the teacher is positive, the students will generally be positive. No one likes to be around someone who is always negative. Students will in time resent a teacher who is always negative. However, they will run through a wall for a teacher is positive and continuously offering praise.

Incorporate Humor into Lessons

Teaching and learning should not be boring. Most people love to laugh. Teachers should incorporate humor into their daily lessons. This may involve sharing an appropriate joke related to the content you will be teaching that day. It may be getting into character and donning a silly costume for a lesson. It may be laughing at yourself when you make a silly mistake. Humor comes in several forms and students will respond to it. They will enjoy coming to your class because they love to laugh and learn.

Make Learning Fun

Learning should be fun and exciting. Nobody wants to spend time in a classroom where lecturing and note-taking are the norms. Students love creative, engaging lessons that grab their attention and allow them to take ownership of the learning process. Students enjoy hands-on, kinesthetic learning activities where they can learn by doing. They are enthusiastic about technology-based lessons that are both active and visual.

Use Student Interests to Your Advantage

Every student has a passion for something. Teachers should use these interests and passions to their advantage by incorporating them into their lessons. Student surveys are a fantastic way to measure these interests. Once you know what your class is interested in, you have to find creative ways to integrate it into your lessons. Teachers who take the time to do this will see increased participation, higher involvement and an overall increase in learning. Students will appreciate the extra effort you have made to include their interest in the learning process.

Incorporate Story Telling into Lessons

Everyone loves a compelling story. Stories allow students to make real-life connections to the concepts that they are learning. Telling stories to introduce or reinforce concepts bring those concepts to life. It takes the monotony out of learning rote facts. It keeps students interested in learning. It is especially powerful when you can tell a personal story related to a concept being taught. A good story will allow students to make connections that they may not have made otherwise.

Show an Interest in Their Lives Outside of School

Your students have lives away from your classroom. Talk to them about their interests and extracurricular activities that they participate in. Take an interest in their interests even if you do not share the same passion. Attend a few ball games or extracurricular activities to show your support. Encourage your students to take their passions and interests and turn them into a career. Finally, be considerate when assigning homework. Think about the extracurricular activities occurring on that particular day and try not to overburden your students.

Treat Them With Respect

Your students will never respect you if you do not respect them. You should never yell, use sarcasm, single a student out, or attempt to embarrass them. Those things will lead to a loss of respect from the entire class. Teachers should handle situations professionally. You should deal with problems individually, in a respectful, yet direct and authoritative manner. Teachers must treat each student the same. You cannot play favorites. The same set of rules must apply to all students. It is also vital that a teacher is fair and consistent when dealing with students.

Go the Extra Mile

Some students need teachers who will go that extra mile to ensure that they are successful. Some teachers provide extra tutoring on their own time before and/or after school for struggling students. They put together extra work packets, communicate with parents more frequently and take a genuine interest in the well-being of the student. Going the extra mile may mean donating clothing, shoes, food or other household goods that a family needs to survive. It may be continuing to work with a student even after he is no longer in your classroom. It is about recognizing and assisting in meeting student needs inside and outside of the classroom.

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10 Ways for Teachers to Build Positive Relationships With Students

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The best teachers are capable of maximizing the learning potential of each student in their class. They understand that the key to unlocking student potential is by developing positive, respectful relationships with their students beginning on the first day of the school year. Building a trusting relationship with your students can be both challenging and time-consuming.

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How to Take SEL to the Next Level in Your School

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How to Take SEL to the Next Level in Your School

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Last month, the Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social Emotional, and Academic Development released a long-awaited report titled " From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope," offering recommendations for further integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) into schools to support the whole student. Written by key educational leaders, researchers, and policymakers, it represents a major milestone in the SEL movement.

"The promotion of social, emotional, and academic learning is not a shifting educational fad; it is the substance of education itself," the report says.

The report was catalyzed by the ongoing work of organizations like CASEL (The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning).

"The Commission's report is a must-read and, most importantly, a must-do for all educators and policymakers," said Karen Niemi, president of CASEL. "Students are begging for the kinds of social and emotional efforts the Commission recommends. We are more optimistic than ever about the potential for SEL to reach more youth, schools, and communities."

Here are four key insights from the report-along with some of our own recommendations for transforming these insights into specific practices at your school.

"Build adult expertise" (through learning experiences)

Research tells us that the adult is the key ingredient to successfully implementing social, emotional, and academic development in schools. The Commission's report emphasizes building adult expertise through "educator preparation in child development and the science of learning." However, it also highlights the value of "ongoing support for the social-emotional learning of teachers," which is central to teachers' personal and professional development.

But how do you light a fire under your colleagues if they aren't sure they have the time or energy or interest in incorporating SEL into their classrooms in the first place?

Professional development trainings are important, but teacher "buy-in" only happens in a relational space where you can experience social-emotional learning together. If you want to transform your school, devote time to fostering trust and psychological safety among your colleagues.

Here are four research-based activities to try in pairs or small groups:

Mindful Breathing: Slowing down to breathe gives everyone permission to stop and connect with that part of themselves that makes them human-a good reminder given that schools are in the business of developing human beings!

Active Listening: Creating the time and space to actively listen to a colleague can build empathy and a sense of connection-and it can help fill a teacher's emotional tank, which so often gets depleted from the demands of teaching.

Feeling Supported: Starting the year with a list of up to six people we can turn to for support will help remind teachers and principals that they're not alone in what can be a very isolating profession.

Best Possible Self: Introducing the Best Possible Self practice to teachers at the beginning of the year-and allowing them to focus on things other than increasing test scores-is a wonderful way to communicate to teachers that who they are matters.

You can also incorporate opening and closing rituals into your staff meetings to create a sense of belonging, connection, and mutual support. The Oakland School District recommends using questions like these to start your meeting:

"A success I recently had..."

"One thing that's new about..."

"One norm I will hold today is..."

Or you can end meetings with an optimistic closure and/or a reflective component:

"A word or phrase that reflects how I feel about moving forward with this..."

"I'd like to offer appreciation for ____________ because..."

"I'm eager to learn more about..."

Once you have established a greater sense of trust, you can begin to really dig in together to explore and experience social-emotional learning.

For example, consider examining your beliefs, values and purpose as educators by discussing how and why you entered the profession. Talk honestly about the triggers you experience at work and how you navigate your own emotions. Then, examine how your culture and upbringing influence the way you express your emotions.

You might also introduce a few mindfulness and self-compassion practices by informally sharing them with colleagues or incorporating them into staff meetings. Finally, consider creating individual resilience plans and sharing them.

These are the types of activities we feature at our annual Summer Institute for Educators at UC Berkeley. We prioritize the well-being and personal development of educators, share and experience the science of human development, and then reflect on the ways we can apply this work to our classrooms. As the report's authors remind us, "When adults model these skills for young people, their own well-being improves."

"Transform learning settings so they are safe and supportive for all young people"

With this recommendation, the Aspen Institute's report acknowledges the research indicating that students of color and low-income students are less likely than their peers to feel a sense of trust, safety, and support at school. The authors advise us to create "settings that are physically and emotionally safe and foster strong bonds among children and adults." This only begins to happen when the teacher-student relationship becomes central. So how do you build a strong, authentic bond?

Professor Shawn Ginwright draws a distinction between "transactional" relationships" that are simply a function of our titles-like teacher and student-and "transformational" relationships that are more about sharing our humanity by really learning about each other.

"Our relationships with students are not a one-way system; we don't simply support young people," he says. "We need to have both a lens and a mirror as we work with students." In other words, it's not just about seeing them; it's about seeing ourselves as we interact with them.

That means, in part, unearthing and examining our own implicit biases and assumptions about the kids in our schools and classrooms. Self-awareness is a foundational component of social and emotional learning-one that begins with the questions you ask yourself. What are the stories you tell yourself (or others) about your students-and how do you tell them? Do you help your students feel powerful at school and celebrate their strengths?

In light of our biases (we all have them!), consider how comfortable you are talking about race, racism, or other "isms" in the classroom. Whatever your level of comfort, these simple sentence stems from Teaching Tolerance may prompt you to reflect: "The hard part of talking about race/racism is..." and "The beneficial part of talking about race/racism is..."

In addition, this self-assessment tool from Teaching Tolerance may help you to identify your vulnerabilities, strengths, and needs in order to more thoughtfully prepare yourself for facilitating discussions about race with your students.

Organizations like Teaching Tolerance, the National Equity Project, and Facing History and Ourselves provide additional tools for adult development as well as classroom-based projects, units, and lessons.

Looking inside of ourselves is important-but so is looking at schoolwide policies that enhance or undermine the student's relationship to teachers and other students. In fact, the Aspen Institute report focuses on building "structures and practices that foster long-term relationships" at school. Examples include class meetings, advisory groups, and team teaching of cohorts. "Every school should make sure each student has at least one adult to go to and trust," said a Commission member.

In addition, the authors emphasize the importance of "ending punitive and counterproductive disciplinary strategies." Research suggests that exclusionary discipline (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) can be alienating and counterproductive, and restorative practices (strategies that focus on learning from mistakes and repairing relationships rather than punishing students) may offer a more humanizing, equitable, and respectful alternative. In restorative justice processes, students come together to learn to navigate conflicts, process their feelings, and collaboratively problem-solve a way forward.

When reviewing disciplinary practices at your school, also consider the following: Who is being disciplined? How often, and why? If your school is like many others in the U.S., your students of color are disproportionately disciplined for the same or similar infractions when compared to white students. How is your school addressing that difference? Are preventive strategies your number-one priority (e.g., relationship and community building)? How do you model and practice communication strategies for resolving conflicts?

"Embed these skills in academics and schoolwide practices"

The Commission's report reminds us, "If learning is social, emotional, and cognitive, then teachers should routinely build such connections into academic content to increase student learning and engagement." As we acknowledge that our students' needs and backgrounds range widely, we are also learning that a one-size-fits-all curricular approach to social-emotional learning isn't effective in many classrooms and schools. Further, some teachers find that standalone social-emotional learning lessons aren't appealing to their older students, nor do they have time to incorporate them as add-ons.

Our own focus group research with teachers confirms the report's findings. Many educators would prefer to have the option to flexibly infuse culturally relevant social-emotional learning experiences within their academic content and daily schoolwide practices. But what can this look like?

Authentic learning opportunities present themselves in literature classes where students can peek into the emotional lives of people different from themselves, or in social studies classrooms when they literally take on the perspectives of historical figures, or in math classrooms when students engage in well-structured cooperative learning projects to practice building interpersonal skills. They can also learn SEL skills during recess and in community circles held during classroom meetings and advisory periods.

Of course, many teachers may already be embedding social, emotional, and academic skills into classroom activities. For example, many topics, books, and concepts in the curricula already involve:

a person's emotional life

an ethical dilemma

a situation calling for compassion

a societal challenge

the ethical use of knowledge

cross-group interactions

an implicit relational concept, such as ecosystems or the Declaration of Independence.

You might also keep the following questions in mind as you consider planning and creating learning experiences for your students:

Does the lesson involve challenging conversations that might surface a clash in values?

Are students required to work with a partner or in groups?

Is the assignment so demanding that students might need to attend to their emotions or demonstrate attention and perseverance?

Do they need to exhibit self-confidence-for example, during an oral presentation-or set long-term goals, or make ethical choices?

By integrating SEL into curricular content, you are not only giving students opportunities to practice their social-emotional skills, but also showing them how integral these skills are in our daily lives. The report's authors emphasize that "students' understanding of subjects of history, literature, and science is deepened when they can reflect on the ethical and moral choices that people made, think critically about big ideas, and understand how what they are learning might help them achieve a desired goal."

"Forge closer connections between research and practice"

The Commission's report makes a powerful argument for moving forward with "actionable solutions" for teachers based on the rich research base we have already established in the field, and they recommend that we commit to translating this research into "evidence-based tools and practices." This is the primary work of the GGSC's education team this year.

We are preparing to launch a free online resource for educators this fall called "Greater Good in Education" (GGIE). In many ways, it complements and builds on the current Greater Good in Action (GGIA) site that provides science-based practices for daily well-being. However, GGIA is geared primarily for adults.

GGIE will distill strategies and practices for the social, emotional, and ethical development of both students and the adults who work with them, synthesizing the top insights and best practices from science, programs, and practitioners. We hope to launch our site with over 100 practices and lessons, representing research in SEL, mindfulness, and character education.

You will be able to search for practices for adults and students at all developmental levels (including college) with topics ranging from school relationships to self-awareness to social responsibility. This " People Who Made A Difference" lesson is a sample of what you might see when you search for gratitude practices to incorporate into your upper elementary or middle school curriculum. And here is a " Dialogue Journal " practice for the high school classroom to foster both self-awareness and relationship skills in you and your students.

We look forward to sharing many more practical instructional strategies with you in the coming months as we work together on behalf of our children, teens, and young adults. "This embrace of social, emotional, and academic learning is a moment of opportunity. Done wisely and well, it's an opportunity to translate growing knowledge about how people learn into real-world practices that benefit students," say educators Frederick M. Hess and Tim Shriver.

As we hold up our mission of building a kinder, more compassionate, and more equitable society, we are committed to providing more research-based tools to support teachers and children across the globe.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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How to Take SEL to the Next Level at Your School

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Last month, the Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social Emotional, and Academic Development released a long-awaited report titled " From a Nation at Risk to a Nation at Hope," offering recommendations for further integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) into schools to support the whole student.

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Cami Anderson is a lifelong educator and advocate for the nation's most vulnerable students. After 20 years as a chief executive in government and nonprofits focused on equity for the most underserved populations in our country, Cami now leads ThirdWay Solutions, an organization dedicated to finding innovative, 21st century solutions to the most intractable challenges leaders face in pursuit of ambitious goals. Full profile →

It's back-to-school season and, this year more than ever, it is time to rethink how we approach student discipline.

Dramatic current events, a steady drumbeat of data and research and vocal activists have created an urgent case for change. For this reason, the families and educators I've had the pleasure of working with across the country are declaring this the year of the discipline revolution.

This school year, more and more families and educators know that suspending students doesn't actually help change their behavior. In many cases, it can actually cause more problems.

This school year, more and more families and educators are walking through their school doors knowing that building healthy relationships is key to getting better outcomes for their students, in school and in life. Research shows that students who have experienced childhood trauma are far more likely to excel when they develop trusting relationships with adults.

This school year, more and more teachers, students and families are embracing new strategies to hold students accountable while building trust and relationships. Shaming and excluding students-even when they are making mistakes-doesn't build trust.

It's time for a discipline revolution.

School Safety

Just about every teacher and administrator is walking into school this year with safety on their minds (think about it, both the Parkland students and Betsy DeVos have separately been on tour talking about it). More and more educators, students and policymakers are realizing that they can't punish and suspend their way to an inclusive, positive school climate.

Here's the thing about school safety. The schools where students feel emotionally and physically safe have clear community-wide expectations that are crafted and enforced by adults and students.

In these schools, students are treated as unique individuals with different needs and motivations, just like adults. Missteps, conflict and bullying-explicit and subtle-are handled skillfully so harm-doers and harm-experiencers can hear, be heard and grow. As a result, students feel more, not less accountable to change.

In these schools, lessons are hard, fun, expertly crafted and action-packed so there is limited time for off-task behavior. The adults believe young people can learn things like self-regulation and cooperation just like they can learn algebra. Moreover, they feel accountable for teaching these skills.

Schools see families as true partners in helping their students grow and change. Educators ask families, well before something serious happens, what works-and they genuinely want to know. Students are clear about their interpersonal goals and feel like adults at home and at school are working together to help them realize them. Parents are not just called and informed of an incident and the child's punishment, but rather engaged in the underlying cause and a plan to move forward for everyone involved.

It's time for a discipline revolution.

Race Matters

We also have to acknowledge that race is a factor. Thanks to viral cell phone videos and the efforts of Black Lives Matters activists, the public is finally waking up to the fact that our society routinely and unjustly criminalizes Black skin. And schools are certainly not immune.

Black students, for example, are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their White peers-very often for the same behavior. In kindergarten, Black boys are more likely to receive negative attention for simply acting like little kids and Black girls are labeled "less innocent" by adults. Black students and long-term English learners are more likely to be labeled "emotionally disturbed" and placed in segregated classrooms where their school and life outcomes are far worse than their White peers.

Suspension Is No Longer the Only Tool Educators Have to Address Discipline Problems

More and more educators are waking up to their own biases, and more districts and charter management organizations are taking a hard look at school cultures that perpetuate White dominance.

This year, more and more schools of all types are shifting policies and incentives to pursue more humane, effective and purposeful paths to ensuring school safety and a culture of learning and achievement for students of color. Educators, students and families thrive when students experience high expectations for academics and behavior and when students' racial and cultural identities are affirmed.

It's time for a discipline revolution.

We're Ready to Do the Work

This transformative change in our schools and society is challenging, and there will be bumps along the way. Fortunately, we have some momentum. Federal guidance-which is currently under threat -lights the way, gives urgency to the work to support the our most marginalized students and could propel greater equity.

This year, more and more districts, schools and teachers are innovating with new approaches that keep kids safe, learning and valued. Families and students are stepping up to do their part. We know what works-and what doesn't work-to help schools create the conditions for students to grow academically, socially and emotionally.

Moreover, the consequences of inaction are dire not just for students who already face the longest odds, but for our nation, as we seek to create a safe and equitable society. As educators, families and policymakers, we need to come together to radically rethink how we help students become their best selves.

It's time for a discipline revolution.

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It's Time for a Discipline Revolution in Our Schools

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Cami Anderson is a lifelong educator and advocate for the nation's most vulnerable students. After 20 years as a chief executive in government and nonprofits focused on equity for the most underserved populations in our country, Cami now leads ThirdWay Solutions, an organization dedicated to finding innovative, 21st century solutions to the most intractable challenges leaders face in pursuit of ambitious goals.

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But after sharing rules and expectations, how about transitioning into sharing a few slides and artifacts that tell students about you? There's general information you can share (details about your family, where you went to school, jobs you had before teaching, etc.), but you can add a few more vulnerable glances into your life:

What struggles did you have growing up? As a student?

What do you value?

What do you love to do?

What would you change about the world if you were able?

If you knew it would work out, what are some risks you would take in life?

How about sharing some artifacts? A few of your all-time favorite books? What was your favorite at 12 years old? At 16? At 20? Bring copies of those books to show your students. Bringing in photos from your life is always a hit as well.

Why share yourself in this way? Showing our humanity to students allows us to be people and not just The Teacher. And in my observations and experience, to be loved by those whom you teach, you have to show vulnerability, at times reveal who you are, your feelings, challenges, hopes, cares, and dreams. We ask students to write essays and poems and speeches in which they share vulnerable aspects of themselves. As teachers, as members of a classroom community, shouldn't we do the same?

Students Learning About Each Other

Once you've presented aspects of who you are, invite students to do the same. You've set the stage, showing some vulnerability and openness with them, so they see that this matters to you and that as a group you're a class not simply of teacher and students, but of people.

Here are a few worthwhile activities for students to get to know each other and begin building relationships:

Good Things: Ask students to pair and share a good thing that happened for them or something that they're looking forward to. It doesn't have to be anything major-it can be something as simple as, "It's taco night at my house tonight." Perhaps someone's sister just got married or someone's birthday is in a week. Start each day or class period with Good Things, and as students get more comfortable with it, expand the groups to four or five students to help forge more community connections. You share too.

Create an "All About Me" Bag: Provide each student with a paper lunch bag. Ask them to decorate the outside with words or images of things they like or what others can easily see about them. Have them place several objects in the bag that represent or symbolize things not easily known about them (e.g., a pet toy that belongs to their cat, a photo of them playing soccer, etc.). If you make one yourself, you can share it in your introduction-it can serve as a model. Give class time for them to share with a partner and in small groups.

Just Like Me: An oldie but goodie, this community-building strategy allows students to see those students they have things in common with, or with whom they share similar traits. The teacher makes a statement, and those students it relates to stand up. For example, "Pizza is my favorite food," "I'm glad to be back in school," or "I am the youngest in my family." After making a statement, ask students to look around to note those they have this in common with before sitting down. (You can do this activity over several days or sporadically, with new statements and ones that may go a little deeper.)

Artifact Sharing: Just as you might bring in some of your favorite childhood and teen books, invite students to bring in artifacts from their lives-photos, books, and awards-and share one-on-one, in small groups, or with the whole group.

Student Information Survey: Create a survey with age-appropriate and subject-appropriate questions. Have students complete it. Share with them that this is for you, the teacher, to get to know them. Before collecting it, however, ask students to choose two or three responses they'd like to share with others. Provide time for them to pair up or get in groups of three and share, for example, their favorite music, food, and subject in school.

Meaningful relationships matter for learning. The rules and policies you enforce are important for keeping a well-managed class. But rather than emphasizing control over your students, developing community and connection is a surefire ingredient for a good school year for all.

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But after sharing rules and expectations, how about transitioning into sharing a few slides and artifacts that tell students about you? There's general information you can share (details about your family, where you went to school, jobs you had before teaching, etc.), but you can add a few more vulnerable glances into your life: What struggles did you have growing up?

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32 Strategies for Building a Positive Learning Environment

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These tips were contributed by the educators and parents of Edutopia's community in response to our Start the Year Strong Sweepstakes. There were many amazing ...

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Naming Students in Positive Ways | Responsive Classroom

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From your "Good morning" greeting to your "Good-bye" at the last bell, every school day gives you many opportunities to address students with words that give them an image of themselves as engaged and capable learners.

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Teacher Language: Reinforcing, Reminding, Redirecting, and Envisioning

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Strategies for reinforcing good behavior, effectively reminding students, and redirecting when needed in educational settings.

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Children build on their strengths, and to do that building-to grow academically and socially-they need us to recognize and encourage their positive efforts. But what's the best way to offer that recognition and encouragement?

For some time, I used rewards-tickets that I gave out when students met expectations. But something felt wrong: Although students would often change their behavior, at least temporarily, they seemed more focused on the tickets than on learning and building a classroom community.

After a lot of reading and reflection, I put the tickets away and settled on a new strategy for motivating students: language, specifically Responsive Classroom reinforcing language. Rather than giving students tickets, I'd give them words that told them exactly what behavior was working well, and why. After teaching and modeling classroom expectations, I might say to the whole class, "I see many people walking in line with hands by their sides and voices quiet. That helps students in the other classes keep learning." Or to an individual student I'd say, "Taylor, you waited until Axel finished speaking. That showed him respect and let him share his whole thought so we could all learn from it."

When I taught expectations and then used words in this way, students knew I believed they wanted to and could learn. The difference in their learning-and their behavior, motivation, independence, and stamina-was amazing. Still, it took me a while to complete the transition from rewards to words. Here's my story.

Poor Long-Term Results With Tickets

My ticket system was a way to reward students when they chose positive behaviors. Sometimes, when the entire class walked safely and respectfully in the hallway, I'd put a ticket in a jar. Other times, I would notice individual students completing work efficiently or working cooperatively and give them a ticket to place in the jar. Once the tickets in the jar reached a number I'd pre-designated, the whole class earned a prize, such as extra recess.

The system seemed to be working alright. But then I noticed that as students became more proficient in routines, procedures, and skills, they were still expecting tickets. A typical scenario: One day when the class was walking safely and calmly in the hall, a colleague passed by and commented how quiet the children were. When we reached our destination, Luna asked me if I was going to put a ticket in the jar because not only were they quiet in the hallway, but another teacher had noticed.

This sort of thing happened frequently, with children asking if they would receive a ticket for meeting expectations such as sharing materials, picking up trash, and completing tasks on time. Students had become more focused on receiving tickets-on being rewarded for their actions-than on understanding how and why to choose actions that would help them learn, stay safe, and respect others. They weren't developing their motivation or their learning muscles.

That's when I realized that although the ticket system did seem to work in the short run, in the long run it was working against my ultimate goal-developing intrinsically motivated students. I needed to reconsider how to recognize positive behavior. I'd heard about reinforcing language and decided to look into it.

Moving to Words

At first, ending my reward system seemed like a daunting task, and I had many questions and concerns. Could students really be kind to each other or complete their classwork without receiving tickets? Could I manage the classroom and nurture positive behavior without a quick, convenient system that required me to think and say very little? How could I teach efficiently while also carefully choosing words that would help students develop into strong, independent members of our learning community?

But then I remembered my own learning experiences, the ones that had the greatest impact on me. What made certain teachers of mine so powerfully motivating? One characteristic that stood out was the specific feedback they gave to let me know exactly what I was doing well. Because my teachers' reinforcing language had helped me develop my academic skills-and become a responsible community member-I was confident that using reinforcing language with my own students would have a similar impact. And I decided that if I allowed myself to learn this language slowly and steadily, I could eventually master it.

I began this learning at a Responsive Classroom summer workshop. We studied the characteristics of reinforcing language-clear and direct, genuine and respectful, and specific-and practiced using it. Afterward, I read The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language That Helps Children Learn. I then felt much more prepared to replace my ticket system when school started that fall.

Scaffolding My Learning

Here are some of the things I did that helped me leave rewards behind in favor of reinforcing language:

Posted this quote from Responsive Classroom on my computer screen: "Children, like all of us, need to feel recognized for their positive contributions and accomplishments. And they need ongoing information from the teacher about how they're doing." Each time I saw this quote (many times a day), it reminded me that students needed me to support their learning and positive behavior with reinforcing language.

Created multiple cue cards-sheets of construction paper on which I wrote reinforcing language sentence starters for myself, such as "I see you followed our rule on _____" and "You did _____. That helps us all be better learners." I hung these cards so that I could see one from anywhere in the classroom.

Practiced observing all my students carefully, looking not just for spectacular successes but also for the small yet important steps children take as they learn skills and behaviors. "Alva," I might say to a struggling writer, "I see that you ended three of your five sentences with a period or question mark. These punctuation marks will help your audience read your story more fluently."

Made sure to use reinforcing language with every child. Even when a student's behavior or work isn't where we want it to be, we can see positive efforts and growth if we observe carefully. To keep track of whom I've used reinforcing language with, I checked names off a list, keeping the list private to avoid provoking competition or anxiety among students.

Focused on giving specific information about behaviors that were helping students learn. This helped students become more aware of what they knew, what they could do, and how they'd progressed. With those ideas and images in their minds, they could pull up their positive behaviors to repeat and build on. Some examples of how I changed my language:

Good job on
your math!

You tried several different ways to solve that problem. That kind of persistence really helps you learn!

I love how you worked in the library.

You used your very quiet voices in the library. That helped the other students keep their learning going.

You're doing better with your writing.

I see that you included vivid adjectives. That helps readers really "see" what you're describing.

Gave myself permission to make mistakes-and I made plenty! For example, I'd say, "Good job!" or "That's awesome!" When that happened, I would follow up with specific feedback. For example, as I was conferring with James about his reading, I said, "Great, James!" because I was ecstatic that he was independently book shopping. As he gave me a blank look, I remembered to follow up with, "When you book shopped alone today, you chose books that are just right for you."

Staying Flexible

Gradually, reinforcing language has become my main tool for recognizing and encouraging students' positive behaviors. But that doesn't mean never using rewards. Some students with an entrenched negative behavior, such as habitually calling out during group discussions or speaking sarcastically to classmates, need that extrinsic support for a short time while I help them recognize and grow their capabilities and build their intrinsic motivation.

Before moving right to an external reward, though, I first try a tangible tracking system. A small chart taped unobtrusively on a child's desk enables us to check off how many times she remembers to raise her hand before speaking, use kind words, or walk quietly in the hall. Having a tangible tracking system to prompt self-noticing-and to show that I am also noticing-is often enough to motivate children to engage in positive behavior.

Fewer Misbehaviors, Less Stress, More Learning

That first year I used reinforcing language, students misbehaved less frequently, so I was less stressed and more able to interact positively with the class. And with their attention drawn to specific things they could do to meet expectations, students learned more, both academically and socially. Reinforcing language was a win-win for all of us.
Tracy Mercier taught grades three, four, and five for twelve years in diverse classrooms.
Tags: Challenging Behaviors, Classroom Rules, Misbehavior, Redirecting Language, Reinforcing Language, Reminding Language, Responsibility, Revisiting Rules, Rewards

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Children build on their strengths, and to do that building-to grow academically and socially-they need us to recognize and encourage their positive efforts. But what's the best way to offer that recognition and encouragement? For some time, I used rewards-tickets that I gave out when students met expectations.

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As your SEL team works with teachers to align SEL and academic objectives, it's also important to consider how the content is delivered so that it supports the practice of social and emotional competencies. The guidance in this section should be considered alongside the Interactive Pedagogy section as part of the full integration of SEL into instruction.

How Do SEL and Academic Goals Align?

Each academic discipline has its own questions, processes, and proficiencies. Teachers consider what students should know and be able to do when planning their lessons. This emphasis- not merely on acquiring content knowledge, but on being able to do something with it- is reflected in academic standards for each content area and connects closely to SEL.
Common Core and SEL Alignment
As an example of Common Core and SEL alignment, within the Common Core math process standards, students are asked to "construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others." Social and emotional learning is naturally embedded as students:

Anticipate how their own arguments may be interpreted and received by taking on the perspectives of others. (Social awareness)

Think metacognitively and organize their own thoughts with given information. (Self-management)

Understand others' perspectives to effectively interpret their arguments. (Social awareness)

Listen actively to further explore the arguments of others. (Relationship skills)Adapted From: The Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin

Supporting Teachers in Aligning SEL with Academic Goals

After developing an understanding of how SEL standards support and sustain deep learning, the SEL team can collaborate with teachers to determine where SEL can be embedded in academic content standards. Pay special attention to:

Challenging or conceptually large ideas- Challenging concepts require a strategy, such as empowering students to cope with frustration or to collaborate effectively with a partner to achieve an objective.

Tasks or process goals- What are students going to need to be able to do? Social and emotional competencies can often support these objectives. For example, in science students may be tasked with planning and carrying out an investigation, which will require self-management skills such as planning and breaking large tasks down into manageable steps.

Goals that specifically involve interpreting decisions and relationships, either fictional or historical- Social studies and language arts goals often lend themselves to connections with SEL. For example, for the ELA goal that students "analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision," teachers could consider an SEL goal that deals with perspective-taking (such as "I can understand the perspective of another by what they say or do") or responsible decision-making.

Many schools and districts have found it helpful to create crosswalks between their academic content standards and SEL standards or goals to illuminate their interconnection.

Once teachers have determined places of alignment between SEL and academic standards, a Frame, Coach, Reflect model can help make these connections clear to students.

Frame: Learning requires thoughtful scaffolding (Darling-Hammond et al, 2017, and Hammond & Jackson, 2015). Teachers can provide this scaffolding for social and emotional competencies by framing the competencies students will use to reach their content learning goals.
Try it:
Coach: Teachers can help students develop social and emotional competencies by providing them opportunities to perform them in new and increasingly complex situations and providing specific feedback in the context of authentic application (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). In this context, the teacher acts as a coach.
Try it:
Reflect: Reflection is a crucial part of learning because it helps to build meta-cognition (Donovan & Bransford, 2005) and activate neural pathways (Darling-Hammond, 2018 in press). Reflection is critical in building students' self-awareness.
Try it:
Examples of Aligned SEL and Academic Objectives
Math Math

Academic Standard: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1)

Connections to SEL: In order to persevere in solving a problem, students will need self-management to work through frustration.

Example of Aligned SEL Standard: Individual demonstrates a resilient attitude and growth mindset, even in the face of adversity and challenges. (Rhode Island Social Emotional Learning Standard 2D)

Potential SEL Objective: "I can appropriately handle my feelings" (Self-management)

Frame: Teacher says something like, "Some of the problems we will be working on today are very challenging. We need challenges to grow, but they can definitely be frustrating! Can anyone remind me what strategies we can use if we are feeling frustrated?" Wait for student responses (take a deep breath, check our self talk, remember our math strategies).

Coach: As students work, circulate and notice when students seem to be stuck. Ask them what strategy they will try to get unstuck.

Reflect: Ask students, "What was one strategy you used that helped you to persevere today?" Give students a few moments to respond in their journals or share with a partner.

English Language Arts

Academic Standard: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.5)

Connections to SEL: Students will need responsible decision-making strategies to monitor their own engagement in brainstorming, writing, requesting feedback from a peer, revising, and editing. They will also need relationship skills to give and receive feedback with peers.

Example of Aligned SEL Standards: Monitor progress on achieving a short-term personal goal; Evaluate the application of communication and social skills in daily interactions with peers, teachers, and families. (Illinois State Social Emotional Learning Standards 1C.2b and 2C.5a)

Potential SEL Objective: "I can set goals and create a plan related to them" or " I can effectively give and receive feedback"

Frame: Teacher says something like, "Writers! Today you will be moving independently through your writing process. Many of you are ready for an exciting step: getting feedback from a colleague in the class. Think about a time that someone gave you feedback that was really helpful. What did they do?" (Allow for some discussion about what makes feedback effective and palatable). Ask, "What are some things you think will be important to do when giving feedback?" (e.g., "be specific," "say what worked for you and where you had challenges"). Consider role-playing a quick feedback with a student to model and/or using sentence frames.

Coach: Check in with students who are giving one another feedback to see if they are communicating effectively. Notice some positive "feedback moves" students are making that you can share with the class. If students are struggling to give effective feedback, remind them of their strategies.

Reflect: Ask students, "What was it like to give feedback? To receive it?" Allow students to share with a partner or journal independently.

Download Tool

Aligned SEL sample lesson plan

This tool helps teachers identify where within lesson plans SEL practices are already present, or where they might be included.

Download Tool

SEL Reflection Prompts

Sample reflection questions, aligned with the five core competencies of SEL, that support students' self-awareness and prioritizes their insights into their own strengths and challenges.

Diversity and Inclusion in Content Materials

Aligning SEL and academic goals includes a thoughtful consideration of the materials and texts we share. To develop self and social awareness, students from all backgrounds and walks of life need exposure to a variety of voices, cultures, and perspectives, and to understand their own personal contexts, including ethnic, family, community, and classroom cultures (Hammond and Jackson, 2015). Students also need to see themselves reflected in the scientists, mathematicians, musicians, and writers they study.

When choosing content materials, consider diversity within cultural or socio-economic groups as well. Avoid promoting what Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes as " single stories." According to Adiche, we promote single stories when we "show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become." By providing a variety of experiences within a variety of cultures, we equip students to respect the richness and diversity of the human experience.

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As your SEL team works with teachers to align SEL and academic objectives, it's also important to consider how the content is delivered so that it supports the practice of social and emotional competencies. The guidance in this section should be considered alongside the Interactive Pedagogy section as part of the full integration of SEL into instruction.

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We know that social-emotional learning (SEL) works best when it's happening across the school day and encouraged in every setting. New work is showing the effectiveness of one pathway for that schoolwide learning: the common games, songs, and transition activities that are likely already part of an elementary school teacher's repertoire. With the right kind of framing, these simple games can become powerful tools for teaching core social-emotional skills that improve children's academic performance and behavior and lead to success throughout the school day. And they don't require a formal (or costly) curriculum.

Introducing Brain Games

Developmental psychologist Stephanie Jones and her team at the Harvard Graduate School of Education are building a new approach to SEL that focuses specifically on simple strategies that can be adapted to many settings.

One example is Brain Games - a set of quick, fun activities that build core executive function and self regulation skills. These games, developed with collaborators at HopeLab, can be played at any time during the school day: transitions, downtime, or as a reward for good behavior.

Brain Games build three main competencies, which the team calls "brain powers": focus, remember, and stop and think. To maximize learning during play, teachers can be intentional and explicit about the SEL skills students are building. They can talk to students about the brain power needed to play each game, and about strategies for using that power. After the game, they can talk about what happened, "building metacognition and a shared vocabulary around the skills they are learning," Jones says. And through a set of debrief questions, "teachers and students can think together about how to use these skills at other times of day, connecting 'brain powers' to work ethic in the classroom, teamwork and relationships, and successful behavior in school and beyond."

Jones and her team have conducted a pilot study of Brain Games in three low-income elementary schools in South Carolina. The findings revealed improvements in teacher reports of children's self-regulation and executive function, as well as improved observer ratings of classroom regulation and teacher practices. Additional study is ongoing; to learn more about the games, contact Jones's research lab, and read on.

Game Time, Learning Time

Here are three examples of how common games and activities can become learning opportunities.
I Spy The teacher says, "I spy with my little eyes something that is ____" (choose a color or shape to describe an object in the room). Students look and point at what they think the object is. This process - deliberately orienting and shifting attention - is known as focus power.

Before playing, ask students to put on their "focus binoculars" to help them see clearly. You can ask this figuratively, or ask students literally to bring their hands up like binoculars around their eyes.

Explain that using your "focus power" means using not just your eyes to see clearly, but also your ears to hear clearly and your brain to tune out distractions.

After playing, talk to students about times when they felt distracted or frustrated during the game. Ask for suggestions on how they re-centered their attention.

Discuss with students when else it's important during school to use their focus power.

The Name Game
Students stand in a circle. One by one, each student says his or her name and does a motion along with it. The rest of the class then repeats the name with the motion as a group, ultimately trying to remember and repeat all names and motions. The researchers refer to these skills - mentally keeping track and updating information - as remember power.

Before playing, talk about why it's so important to remember things during the school day.

Explain that you need to use your "remember power" for everything: tying your shoes, working on a math problem, or knowing how to get to your friend's house.

After playing, ask students what made the game hard or easy for them.

Discuss tips and tricks to remember important information and routines, and talk about times during the day when it's especially important to use your remember power.

Simon Says Students follow the teacher's directions and movements, but only when the teacher says "Simon says" first. The skills involved here - inhibiting an automatic impulse, or replacing the impulse with some other action - are called stop and think power.

Before playing, explain to students how our brains tell our bodies when and how to move.

Talk about "stop and think power," and all the times during the day - playing basketball, waiting in line, or writing a story - when students need to stop and think before acting.

After playing, ask students what they did to keep themselves from moving during the game. Ask what it felt like when they were trying not to move.

Offer suggestions for ways to stop and think throughout the school day, such as taking deep breaths or counting quietly.

Additional Resources

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We know that social-emotional learning (SEL) works best when it's happening across the school day and encouraged in every setting. New work is showing the effectiveness of one pathway for that schoolwide learning: the common games, songs, and transition activities that are likely already part of an elementary school teacher's repertoire.

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National Center on Universal Design for Learning

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Too many educators feel that their autonomy has been taken away by standards, scripted curriculum, and ultimately, standardized testing. It doesn't have to be this way. We need our systems designed to meet the needs of our students, not a test, and give our teachers back the independence to proactively design lessons that engage and support all students.
When we teach students to become expert learners who are purposeful and motivated, resourceful and knowledgable, and strategic and goal-directed - the goals of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) - improved test results will come. Rigorous state-standards will be met. Students will be engaged, self-regulated, and more successful. Teachers will be more engaged and effective. Everyone wins.

UDL is an educational framework based on decades of neuroscience research and is endorsed by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This framework is being adopted by teachers, schools, and districts around the globe and is considered best practice for teaching ALL students in an inclusive learning environment. UDL empowers both teachers and students by putting students in charge of their own learning.

Yet, there continues to be many misunderstandings about what UDL is and is not. I've put together this infographic to help spread the word about UDL and provide some practical tips for implementing UDL. I'll be the first to say that UDL can't be learned by just looking at an infographic, but with your help, we can spread the word about this education framework that has the ability to shape the future success of all of our students.

What is UDL?

UDL is Universal Design for Learning, an education framework based on decades of research in neuroscience and endorsed by the Every Student Succeeds Act. UDL is considered best practice for teaching all students in an inclusive learning environment.

The goal of UDL is to create learners who are purposeful & motivated, resourceful & knowledgable, and strategic & goal oriented, in other words, expert learners.

Start by embracing learner variability. There is no such thing as an "average" student. Every student has different strengths and weaknesses.

With UDL, teachers transition their role to facilitator, removing barriers to learning by giving students options and choices that empower them to take control of their own learning and reach rigorous state-standards. To universally design lessons, teachers must provide multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression.

Are you ready to start learning more about UDL and integrating it into your daily practice? Enroll in one of our online courses.

Not sure where to start?
Editor's Note: This blog has been updated from its previous version first published in Dec. 2018.

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What is UDL? Infographic - Novak Educational Consulting

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Too many educators feel that their autonomy has been taken away by standards, scripted curriculum, and ultimately, standardized testing. It doesn't have to be this way. We need our systems designed to meet the needs of our students, not a test, and give our teachers back the independence to proactively design lessons that engage and support all students.

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Teacher Tips- let’s talk behavior management   (Vlog 284)

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5 Ways to Handle Defiant Students in the Classroom

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Rarely, if ever, has a generation of children been raised in such an atmosphere of uncertainty. Constant change and myriad messages-from the media, parents, teachers, and peers - can make it difficult for children to find stable, consistent moral and ethical standards that can guide their development.

Who today is teaching children how to use good judgment? Where are our children learning the character attributes necessary to become responsible, caring adults? Who are our children's heroes? Positive role models? How can we offer guidance during these confusing times?

Everyone needs to play a part in passing ideas and traditions to the young, giving them feelings of cohesiveness and community. You, as educators, bear a special responsibility because of the many hours children spend in your program. By this point in the year, you've probably spent a good deal of time working to create a classroom environment that promotes values that help children work together as a group. Of course, this is an ongoing effort, with a reasonable number of expected pitfalls along the way. Let's take a look at some other ways you can reinforce character development in your room.
WHERE TO BEGIN
In order to have a cooperative, caring classroom, we need to help children cultivate friendship, sharing, respectfulness, truthfulness, and caring. Part of this teaching is helping children, over time, apply these attributes, establishing models who reflect them and supporting families as the primary moral educators. In this article, you will find developmental definitions of these attributes, activities to integrate into your curriculum that help build children's understanding and practice, and suggested books to inspire thinking and discussion.
FRIENDSHIP
Belonging and being part of a group is important to young children. After they develop a sense of who they are, they struggle to understand who others are, first as family members, and then as members of friendship groups. As children change focus from self-centeredness to other-centeredness, they often take comfort from possessions. As you know, many preschoolers have a favorite toy or object that reminds them of home and family, and gives them a sense of belonging even when they are far away.
ACTIVITIES:
1. Share examples. Ask children to share examples of what it means to be a friend and to have someone be a friend to them. For example, being a friend means wanting to be close to someone and enjoying that person's company. Friends like each other and enjoy spending time together. Friends usually get to know each other very well. They learn each other's likes and dislikes, and so on.

2. Make friendship bracelets. Supply yarn or string and beads and encourage children to make a friendship bracelet to give to anyone they would like. As children work, talk about what their definitions of friendship are and how we show people that they are our friends.

3. Get to know each other. Bring in magnifying glasses, mirrors, and tape measures. Let children spend time looking at themselves and finding out about their faces and hair, even the lengths of their arms. Encourage children to discuss how they are alike and how they are different, both physically and in the things they like to do. Talk about ways people can be different and still be friends.
Suggested stories:
Jessica by Kevin Henkes (Scholastic Inc.)

Lucy's Picture by Nicola Moon (Puffin Books, 1997)
SHARING
Young children often have a difficult time seeing another's point of view, including who has rights to materials. Sharing is difficult because they are not yet able to see the relationship between giving up something immediately and getting something later on in return. At the same time, they are learning to take responsibility and like to show how grown up they are by helping with chores in their environments. They are also interested in helping each other.
ACTIVITIES:
1. Ask children what they think. Talk about what it means to be unfair and to be fair. You might help children by adding that being fair means taking your turn, following rules, and treating everyone, including yourself, equally. Being fair means keeping your promises.

2. Share snack. Bring in a snack that children will need to divide so everyone gets an equal amount. Ask them what they would do if another child joins the group or some parents or teachers decide to join them.

3. Play cooperatively. Help children sit at tables in groups of four. Have plenty of paper available as well as four different color markers on each table. Ask children to draw anything they'd like - the only rule is that they must use all four colors. As children work, involve them in a discussion of sharing materials. After everyone is finished, ask children to share their thoughts about accomplishing their drawings.
Suggested stories:
The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins (Scholastic Inc.)

On Mother's Lap by Ann Herbert Scott (Clarion, 1992)
RESPECTFULNESS
During the preschool years, children gain a sense of who they are in relation to others. They become intensely aware of similarities and differences, often excluding those who are different in a variety of ways. Seeing themselves as different sometimes makes children feel less valued. But children are also intensely curious during these years, and the growing competence that comes with learning helps them to be more inclusive of others.
ACTIVITIES:
1. Share your thoughts. Explain that respecting someone means taking care to not harm someone's feelings or possessions, such as respecting someone's block tower by not knocking it down or respecting a bird's nest by not disturbing it. Ask children to share other examples of ways people show respect.

2. Take a nature hunt. Make a list of things children might use their senses to notice outdoors, such as seeing a feather, a hole in a tree, a particular color of leaf; hearing a bird, a bee, trees blowing in the wind; feeling wet mud, a prickly plant, tree bark; smelling pine or spruce needles, a flower, the grass; watching an ant move, a spider on a web, a leaf falling. Talk about ways we can show respect for all of these things in nature. Then take a walk to find them. Ask children for other suggestions as to how they can show respect for the environment, such as an outdoor clean-up walk.

3. Make a mural. Ask children to go through old magazines and cut out pictures of people's faces. Use mural paper to create a collage, adding photographs of children, staff, and families. Talk about ways people are alike and ways they are different.
Suggested stories:
Miss Tizzy by Libba Moore Gray (Simon and Schuster, 1993)

Two Eyes A Nose and a Mouth by Roberta Grobel Intrater (Scholastic Inc.)
TRUTHFULNESS
Preschoolers' tendency toward magical thinking often interferes with their ability to get facts straight. The line between fantasy and reality is often fuzzy, so children may think that if they want something badly enough, it will happen. This isn't being dishonest. Children may just bend reality to fit the way they think events should be or the way they wish things were. However, preschoolers are also beginning to develop a conscience and identify with the standards adults set for them. When their behavior varies from these expectations, children can begin to feel a little uncomfortable.
ACTIVITIES:
1. Talk about truthfulness. Share this definition with children: When you tell the truth, you do not hide anything. You tell all the facts. Ask children to share what it means to them to tell the truth. Do they like this definition? Would anyone like to change it?

2. Make a list. Using chart paper, ask children to help you list situations where it was difficult to tell the truth. Start the discussion by sharing a few situations of your own.

3. Use Illustration. Invite children to draw a picture of someone telling the truth about something. Add their dictation to the drawings. Later, ask children to share their drawings.
Sugested Stories:
The Empty Pot by Demi (Henry Hot, 1990)

Jamaica's Find by Juani Havill (Scholastic Inc.)
CARING
Although preschoolers are struggling to become more independent, they are still dependent in many ways. Relationships with adults, especiallly family members, are important. However, earlier needs for adults are called to mind when children are confronted with new and unfamiliar events, especially the arrival of a new baby. Seeing parents with younger siblings evokes pleasant memories of earlier experiences, and children struggle to realize that a special place for them continues to exist regardless of the changing environmental events.
ACTIVITIES:
1. Have a "Care Share." Ask children what they think it means to care about someone or something. Then share this definition: If you are caring, you show this by being helpful and kind. When you care about another person, you are not rough, but gentle. If you care about someone, you are very interested in how that person feels because it's important to you.

2. Show you care. Invite children to make a Caring Card for anyone they care about. Provide paper, magazines, collage materials, tape, and glue. Be available to take dictation so those children who choose to can express their feelings in words as well as pictures.

3. Take action. Talk about ways people show they care every day. Then make a list together of things your group can do, such as watering plants, feeding a bird or fish, taking time to listen to a friend, and so on. Throughout the week, help children put these thoughts into action.
Suggested stories:
Mom and Me by John Kaplan (Cartwheel, 1996)

The Leaving Morning by Angela Johnson (Orchard Books, 1996)
VALUE-BUILDING ACTIVITIES
1. Use puppets. Ask children, or groups of children, to pick one particular story from the resource list that you've enjoyed together. Then invite everyone to make puppets (stick puppets, paper bag or sock puppets) to represent the story characters. Tape record the stories or create your own group-story synopsis that includes the main events. Encourage children to dramatize the story.

2. Make a mural. Hang a long section of mural paper well within children's reach. Write down the titles of books you read together that exemplify any or all of the attributes you are trying to cultivate (friendship, sharing, respectfulness, truthfulness, and caring). Leave space to record children's feelings and thoughts about the story and add illustrations of parts of the book that were important to them.

3. Videotape! Make an ongoing tape that includes children's discussions about each attribute. When it's completed, share it with children and also invite parents and other family members to come in and watch and talk.

4. Photograph children Take photos or slides of children engaging in pro-social behaviors all through the day, arriving in the morning, during snack time, at group time, and so on. Display these where children can see them and make labels together

5. Design your own activity. Ask children how they would like to celebrate and demonstrate all they've learned about friendship, sharing, respectfulness, truthfulness, and caring.

As children define and clarify their own values, they need to learn about the values of other cultures to see that all cultures share basic moral concepts. Through that process, children will begin to develop global awareness and responsibility ... and from that seed of understanding, they can work toward a peace that will protect and rebuild the earth we all share.
Click here to view and download the Developmental Chart The Stages of Moral Reasoning (PDF)
Permission to reprint excerpts from the Hearwood Ethics Curriculum for Children was granted by the Heartwood Institute, 425 N. Craig St., Pittsburg, PA 15213. The Institute may be reached by calling 1-800-HEART-10, e-mail: hrtwood@aol.com, or visiting http://www.heartwoodethics.org/.

This article originally appeared in the April, 2000 issue of Early Childhood Today.

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How to Create a Caring Classroom Community | Scholastic

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Rarely, if ever, has a generation of children been raised in such an atmosphere of uncertainty. Constant change and myriad messages-from the media, parents, teachers, and peers - can make it difficult for children to find stable, consistent moral and ethical standards that can guide their development.

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Several weeks ago, I posted an article on my Facebook page about student fidgeting and the advantages of flexible seating. One teacher who commented was high school teacher Rebecca Malmquist, who described her own flexible classroom: "I have taken all the conventional desks out and replaced them with mostly tables and a number of different kinds of chairs; I've used garage sales and the generosity of friends to furnish my room this way. My classroom looks like a college apartment. But I also build in transitions every 15 minutes or so that require movement (to get into groups, turn something in, write on a paper-covered wall, etc). I have little to no fidgeting problems or issues with attention loss."

Intrigued, I asked to see a picture. Rebecca obliged, and then I lost my mind: "YOU HAVE THE PRETTIEST CLASSROOM E-VER," I shouted at her. "I WANT TO BE IN YOUR ROOM!!! I CAN'T STOP YELLING! OKAY, I'M OFFICIALLY STARTING A GALLERY OF BEAUTIFUL CLASSROOM PHOTOS AND YOURS IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST ONE."

And so Classroom Eye Candy was born.

Classroom Eye Candy will be a feature where I invite you to join me in ogling creative classroom design in any form. We will learn about the teacher behind the classroom and the process he or she used to put it all together. I have no idea when the next one will be or how often I will post these features. All I know for sure is the criteria: I'll know I've found the next classroom when I start writing in all caps.

Classroom Tour

Name: Mrs. Rebecca Malmquist (Twitter @beckymalmquist )

Job Title: High school English teacher - currently English 9 and 10, Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing

School Location: Hastings, Michigan

Q: What inspired you to arrange your classroom this way?

A: After my stay-at-home-mom years, as I explored the options of becoming a teacher or a school psychologist, I became an overly qualified paraprofessional for a few years at a school. While there, I noticed a need for teachers who were comfortable teaching all kinds of students. I also noticed that when a student had an accommodation for special seating, or some other really cool environmental thing prescribed by the OT or SLP (etc), they would stick out like a sore thumb. I mean, having a bean bag in your lap to help you feel grounded is awesome, but not if you're the only one with a bean bag. A chair on wheels that spins? Cool, but not if you're the only one. You get the idea. So, believing wholeheartedly that people gravitate towards what they need without even having to really think about it, I started noticing (in meetings, at my home, out in public) that most people, if given a choice, choose their spots based on some known or unknown instinct.

I vowed that my future classroom would be a place where those types of sensory needs were normal choices for anyone.

The Details

Seating:
So as long as a student's postures and movements do not disrupt others' learning and comfort, they are literally allowed to choose any number of places to land in our classroom. They can be:

on the floor, carpeted or tile

over/under a blanket, pillow, or lap-sized bean bags

on a couch, an easy chair, a Papasan chair, a traditional chair (wood), stools that don't move (with or without back support), stools that move up and down, "spinny" chairs on wheels, chairs that feel like they may tip (but don't), chairs that are plush on the seat and/or the back, or a high-backed easy chair

I did get rid of my exercise balls, because they just never held their air ... I have a dream for a balloon chair or an inflatable office chair or two ( dar Living Balloon Seat), but haven't acquired any yet.

Tables/Writing Surfaces:
Students can choose from end tables, clipboards, hard place mats, long conference tables, circular tables, rectangular tables, single tables near the teacher's desk, coffee tables, or the floor.

Manipulatives:
These are kept on my shelves for students to pick up and hold/play with: stress balls, tennis balls, plush animals, noiseless things, hard balls, plastic Slinkies.

Lighting:
No fluorescents-ever. I had a student with autism that could hear them and they would irritate him, which made me notice that I sometimes could get agitated when they are on too long, too. I have natural light in my classroom and a number of different light sources so they can always see well, no matter the time of year or day. Last year I had a student whose mom asked me to place a S.A.D. light in my room for her child, because she figured it would be the best place for the child to get a daily dose (30 min/day) and s/he fit right in when s/he sat in front of it in our classroom.

Music:
I play music every day when they come in for class; the genre changes, to accommodate all the different interests in the room. I think that adds to the environment as well.

Q: Where did you get the materials/furniture?

A: Mostly I find these things at garage sales; I buy them with my own money. I DO work at a school with a basement full of furniture odds and ends that no one wants; if I ask for a piece down there, I get to use it until someone else wants or needs it for something (that is where the cool street lamp comes from: an old prop for some play or dance some years ago). Now that people notice my classroom, I get offers for cool things to add to our classroom, and I take them.

Q: What's the deal with that rainbow wall in the back?

A: That is my affirmation wall. The colors correspond to class hours; the library card holders have numbers. Each color has 30 library card holders that are numbered. Each student has an address that reads something like this: Red 30; Blue 28. Here's a link to explain that a little bit more:

https://sites.google.com/site/mrsmalmquist/about-me/affirmation-station
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YAblJkJsW8I

If you're interested in hearing how I actually execute this efficiently for 150+ students after checking out that page, let me know. I'd LOVE it if people tried this with more high school settings; it makes a huge difference in the classroom.

I also have papered walls on which kids can and do write questions or good news (they sign and date these entries). Those are near the rainbow wall in the back.

Q: So how does it work? Do students choose where they want to sit all the time? Is there competition for the "best" seats?

A: I knew I didn't want to tie it to rewards, but I was afraid everyone would rush to all the sweet spots if I didn't assign it or have some kind of a procedure for it when I first started teaching, so I used to assign it randomly. I found it wasn't really necessary, and it didn't fit with my philosophy for making the environment in the first place. I mean, what if a kid NEEDED an accommodation in seating/lighting, and they always happened to get the couch, or whatever? I also found some people becoming proprietary, even when only assigned a spot every once in awhile, because it became the ever-elusive spot? I'm not sure. So I changed it up.

Now, I start every semester by greeting kids at the door and asking them to find a place in which they feel:
1: Comfortable
2: Capable of doing their best work

And then each day after that, for at least a solid 7-10 school days, I greet them with the same words, but I add this:
3: And it must be new to you. (Right...you cannot have chosen that place yet...yes, I'm serious...no, you can't pick a place you picked two days ago...)

After that time, it becomes natural for them to pick a handful of different places throughout the room. Every once in awhile, I go through this again if I notice that they are gravitating toward the same spots over and over again. I tell the kids I'm trying to get them to relax enough to learn and to figure out what works best for them; I remind them that what works one day may not work the next day.

Also, if a student chooses a place where s/he is not oriented to the front naturally, it is likely her/his chair is one which has been carefully placed so s/he can spin towards a speaker at any time, and I teach this as expected behavior at the beginning of the term.

People always assume that kids will fall asleep in such a relaxed environment. That's just not the case. Students tell me that the room is not only relaxing, but also makes them feel cared about and understood.

Q: Have you noticed a difference in how your classroom feels and operates compared to earlier arrangements?

A: No...because I never was a rows and desks person. Maybe that's not true...I didn't get the tables until the middle of my first year, so I had desks. Most of the kids hated the desks because they didn't fit well and felt constrained. No one ever chose them first, that's for sure. I slowly phased them out. This year, I have no conventional desks at all and I've never been asked for them.

Students tend to ask their parents to come visit during high school open houses (this is usually not a hot event for high school age students); I think that says a lot.

I'd like to thank Rebecca for sharing her space with me. I hope it inspires others to find ways to offer students choices for getting comfortable in the classroom. If you know of a classroom that deserves to be featured in Classroom Eye Candy, contact me here.

Want to see more flexible classrooms? Watch this Edutopia video that shows several other flexible classrooms in action: Flexible Classrooms: Providing the Learning Environment that Kids Need

There's more where this came from.
Join my mailing list and get weekly tips, tools, and inspiration - in quick, bite-sized packages - all geared toward making your teaching more effective and fun. To thank you, I'll send you a free copy of my e-booklet, 20 Ways to Cut Your Grading Time in Half. I look forward to getting to know you better!

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Classroom Eye Candy 1: A Flexible-Seating Paradise

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Join me in marveling over the warm, cozy wonder that is the flexible classroom of Rebecca Malmquist.

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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What prompts even the youngest infants, their heads wobbling almost imperceptibly on weak neck muscles, to stare so intently at faces both familiar and unfamiliar? What causes them to reach out without warning and latch on to a nose or an ear with tiny, prehensile fingers? And why, at even a few months old, do they track the eye movements of their parents, and engage in endearing games of facial and verbal mimicry?

"We know we start this way," said Dr. Patricia Kuhl, the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair at the Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, in a series of interviews on the science of human learning. "When you look at the studies on very young human babies, even newborns, they are captivated by the human face. And newborns have the ability to imitate the facial expressions of another person, so they open their mouths when you open your mouth, and they stick out their tongue when you stick out your tongue."

This preoccupation with the face has its origins in human evolution, according to Kuhl, and is explained by a complex neural network designed to interpret social cues-what neuroscientists call the social brain. Operating throughout our lifetimes, the social brain is responsible for making sense of a bewildering, often ambiguous range of human gestures that are crucial for survival. How we respond to an ominous glint in the eye or a fleeting grimace may seem like child's play. But differentiating between violent intent and mere irritation is sometimes the difference between life and death-and the games we play when we're young are critical practice for the more serious business of getting along later in life.

"We're always trying to understand what the other person's doing," explained Kuhl, reflecting on our fundamentally inquisitive, social nature. "In order to survive as a species, we had to learn to 'read' the people around us so that we could collaborate, fight enemies, and find food. So the social brain is [always] there, and it appears to be active very early in our development."

For educators, an awareness of the social brain presents an opportunity to tap into some of our most durable, deeply seated abilities. If the species is hardwired to work together, then our classrooms should continue to feature a healthy dose of activities that emphasize cooperation, teamwork, and peer-to-peer teaching.

Even the simplest tactics should reap dividends, according to Kuhl, who suggests using "circles or U-shaped arrangements"-or anything that gets kids interacting with one another. "The social context is extremely important to learning," she noted, "not only in infancy, but in school-aged children, who use the social brain when they're collaborating with one another, when they're studying how another person goes at it, when they're watching the eyes, even unconsciously, of their study partner as they work towards a solution together."

New research indicates that there are some limits to these findings. For autistic children, there is evidence, confirms Kuhl, that "human faces are less interesting and less motivating," so social learning may be less beneficial-or simply different-for students on the spectrum. And recent scholarship on introversion in the classroom suggests that the disposition is as much an asset as a liability: Introverted children excel in attention to detail, problem solving, and creativity. Children are not one-size-fits-all, and classrooms must adapt to meet the needs of all learners.

But for most children, the implications of the research on the social brain are clear. "There's something about being in the the presence of another human being" that drives human learning, says Kuhl. "Without the motivation and information provided by the social brain, learning just doesn't take off in the same way that it does when the social brain is engaged."

In this four-part video series, we take a closer look at Kuhl's fascinating insights on the science of human learning, with a focus on the positive-and cautionary-aspects of our social brain.

-Stephen Merrill

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What prompts even the youngest infants, their heads wobbling almost imperceptibly on weak neck muscles, to stare so intently at faces both familiar and unfamiliar? What causes them to reach out without warning and latch on to a nose or an ear with tiny, prehensile fingers?

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Sometimes our powerful urge to belong can hurt us. We look at how stereotypes undermine learning.

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Social and emotional learning: Trish Shaffer at TEDxUniversityofNevada

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Why social-emotional intelligence matters in school | Kate Karafotas | TEDxYouth@ISPrague

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How to Support the Emotional Link to Learning

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How to Support the Emotional Link to Learning

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How to Support the Emotional Link to Learning

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Watch the on demand archive presentation and download handouts by clicking the link below and entering the requested registration information. If you had previously registered for the webinar, select "Already Registered?" above the First Name field and enter your e-mail address.

Summary

Emotions are essential for learning. They drive our attention, enrich our memories, and underlie our executive functions. If we are not addressing emotions in our classrooms, then we are not addressing how students learn. However, there is incredible variability among students in our classrooms-each brings a unique background, emotion, and readiness to learn every day. In all these ways, our brains are as unique as our fingerprints. This variability may feel overwhelming for teaching: How can we possibly design learning experiences that support all the content we need to cover for the full range of our learners? The good news is that we already have many of the necessary tools and strategies we need in order to support emotional design for learning in our classrooms.

In this webinar with curriculum and design specialist Allison Posey, author of Engage the Brain: How to Design for Learning That Taps into the Power of Emotion, learn six steps educators can use to shift their perspective of how and why we use these strategies to align with what we know about emotions and the learning brain.
Recorded November 29, 2018
Topics: brain and learning | student engagement and motivation

About the Presenter

Allison Posey is a curriculum and design specialist at CAST, the Center for Applied Special Technology. There, she engages in curricular design, leads professional development trainings for the Universal Design for Learning framework, and supports online course instruction.

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Engage the Brain: How to Design for Learning That Taps into the Power of Emotion

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Watch the on demand archive presentation and download handouts by clicking the link below and entering the requested registration information. If you had previously registered for the webinar, select "Already Registered?" above the First Name field and enter your e-mail address. Emotions are essential for learning.

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Consciously or not, students come to school with beliefs about who they are as learners. These beliefs are influenced by parents, peers, past classroom experiences, and the wider culture, and can either support or undermine school success (Farrington, C.A. et al, 2012).

Academic mindsets are beliefs or ways of perceiving oneself in relation to learning, and they lay the groundwork for deep academic, social and emotional learning.
These four academic mindsets have a positive impact on persistence and school performance (Farrington et al, 2012):

I belong in this academic community. Students who feel a sense of belonging in their schools and classrooms demonstrate higher levels of competencies such as self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation.

My ability and competence grow with my effort. As explained in Carol Dweck's groundbreaking work on the subject, a "growth mindset" leads to the belief that we can improve with effort and new strategies, and that struggle is part of the process. These beliefs encourage students to practice and develop the social and emotional skills to stay motivated, set goals, and reflect on progress. By contrast, students (and adults) who see intelligence as "fixed" view struggle as a sign of inferiority and something to be avoided or disguised. For more on the work of Carol Dweck, follow this link to Mindset Works.

I can succeed at this. Believing that one can be successful leads to increased effort and engagement, creating a positive feedback loop between hard work, mastery, and increased self-efficacy beliefs.

This work has value for me. Learners are naturally motivated when they find a task compelling or see connections between the learning and their personal aspirations.

(Farrington et al., 2012)

How Teachers Shape Academic Mindsets

Teachers have strong influence over academic mindsets through instructional practices and creating environments that shape students' motivation, engagement, and persistence (Allensworth et al., 2018)

Some of the ways that teachers can positively influence academic mindsets are addressed in the Supportive Classroom Environment activity, including creating a sense of belonging and emotional safety. In addition, teachers can:

Set high expectations - Teachers can help students construct narratives of success by nurturing a positive developmental relationship in which they support and challenge students (Cohen and Steele, 2002 et al in Farrington et al, 2012). A central way to do this is by setting high expectations.
Strategies that communicate high expectations for students:

Ask students to explain their thinking and provide evidence to engage students' meta-cognition and communication skills.

Allow for productive struggle; provide guidance and support for students when they engage with challenging material without jumping in with the answers. This builds self-efficacy, an important social and emotional competency.

Check for understanding regularly and adjust instruction so that all students are engaged.

Provide clear examples of high-quality work and express confidence that students can perform to that standard (Osher & Kendziora, 2010).

Use specific feedback to drive improvement (Hattie & Gan, 2011).

Express genuine interest in student thinking, and set and model clear norms for how the class will respond to mistakes.

Frame mistakes and struggle as an important part of learning - While we all struggle or fail sometimes, it is what we take these experiences to mean that determines how we feel about ourselves as learners (Kolb and Kolb, 2009). Do we view struggle as a sign of inadequacy, or an intrinsic part of the learning process? How teachers communicate the meaning of setbacks, struggle, and failure is critical to students' mindsets.
Strategies that frame mistakes and struggles as part of the learning process:

Provide opportunities for students to correct errors and revise work.

Talk to students about mistakes or struggles you've made, and provide opportunities for them to reflect on their own mistakes or struggles.

Prioritize learning that refrains from one right answer, and look for multiple ways to get to a solution or answer.

Use parent-teacher conferences as an opportunity to frame growth mindset and mistakes as part of the learning process.

Use culturally responsive teaching practices and challenge stereotype threat - Stereotype threat refers to "being at risk of confirming...a negative stereotype about one's social group" (Steele & Aronson, 1995 in Farrington et al., 2012). This can increase anxiety and make it more difficult to focus, leading to underperformance even when a student is prepared, especially for students who are from marginalized and/or stigmatized groups.
Strategies that support culturally responsive practices:

Have students complete brief writing exercises about what values are important to them and connect this to the learning (Cohen, Garcia, Purdue-Vaughns, Apfel, Brzustoski, 2009).

Make connections between instructional content and community and real-world issues.

Where developmentally appropriate, teach students directly about stereotype threat and discuss if/ how it has affected them. Ask students for thoughts on challenging stereotype threat in the classroom. Listen in a way that demonstrates curiosity and interest in the experiences of your students. This helps students develop the social and emotional skills to deal with acculturative stress (Aronson & Williams 2004; Johns & Schmader 2004).

Help students to reflect on their experiences with stereotype threat in a way that promotes agency while acknowledging the reality of their challenges.

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Consciously or not, students come to school with beliefs about who they are as learners. These beliefs are influenced by parents, peers, past classroom experiences, and the wider culture, and can either support or undermine school success (Farrington, C.A. et al, 2012).

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What follows is my abbreviated summary of the central structure of Camille Farrington et al.'s Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners. The report is over 80 pages long, so really, this is super abbreviated, probably past what is prudent. My hope with this post is to give you enough of a look at the Consortium Framework to realize the report is worth some professional study.[hr]

Intelligence, knowledge, and literacy (cognitive factors) affect Academic Performance through Academic Behaviors (see Figure 1): attending class, organizing materials, studying, doing homework, and participating. However, not all Academic Behaviors are created equal, as some students do these things with exceptional effort and resilience. The more effort and resilience kids put into their work, the more Academically Perseverant they are.

As tempting as it is to try to build Academic Perseverance (grit, self-control, delayed gratification) in kids, it's actually more effective to aim for their beliefs (Academic Mindsets). Specifically, we want kids to believe, at a level that affects how they operate:

1. I belong in this academic community. (Belonging)

2. My ability and competence can grow with my effort. (Growth Mindset)

3. I can succeed at this. (Self-efficacy)

4. This work has value for me. (Relevance)

Plenty of evidence suggests that these beliefs can be affected through both specific interventions and broader school/classroom contextual factors. (This is in contrast to the evidence around Academic Perseverance.) However, there is still much to be discovered about how to best affect the mindsets, meaning there is plenty of room for teachers and school leaders to work on the frontiers of this exciting research.

Importantly, Academic Mindsets seem to affect everything else in the Farrington Framework: the degree to which one completes the Academic Behaviors, the degree to which those behaviors are completed with effort (Perseverance), the degree to which one uses Learning Strategies, and the degree to which one effectively uses Social Skills. As the mindsets do their work, Academic Performance tends to increase, thus reinforcing the Mindsets and creating a flywheel effect.

If Academic Behaviors are the car, Academic Mindsets the fuel, and Academic Perseverance the horsepower, then Learning Strategies are the handling; they affect how well the Academic Behaviors work. Learning Strategies include study skills, goal-setting, self-regulation, and metacognitive strategies. Like Academic Mindsets, these seem able to be heavily influenced by both interventions (e.g., lessons in which they are explicitly taught) and contexts (e.g., classrooms and schools that do a particularly good job of making the use of learning techniques a normal, logical thing).

[box type="tick" size="large"]In short: we're wisest to aim our noncognitive teaching efforts at what Farrington calls Academic Mindsets and Learning Strategies. We aim at these things using a two-pronged attack: specific lessons or interventions aimed at improving these factors, and general context/culture pieces aimed at making them stick. In doing these things, we coherently address some of our perennial challenges as teachers: student motivation, student ownership, and the gap between motivation and execution.[/box]

P.S. I didn't mention Social Skills in this summary because, while Social Skills certainly seem likely to influence Long-Term Flourishing, there isn't a ton of research closely linking them to Academic Performance.

[hr] Thank you to Camille Farrington, Melissa Roderick, Elaine Allensworth, Jenny Nagaoka, Tasha Seneca Keyes, David W. Johnson, and Nicole O. Beechum of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research. Their report has clarified a great deal for me. Also, thank you to Paul Tough, whose Helping Children Succeed was the first to point me toward the Consortium's work.

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The Consortium Framework in 400 Words - Dave Stuart Jr.

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What follows is my abbreviated summary of the central structure of Camille Farrington et al.'s Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners. The report is over 80 pages long, so really, this is super abbreviated, probably past what is prudent. My hope with this post is to give you enough of a look at the Consortium Framework to realize the ...

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A confident classroom is a successful classroom. How do you build a culture of academic excellence in classrooms that promote student accountability, confidence, and success? By encouraging a growth mindset for all learners, finding ways to boost their confidence and their sense of academic potential. Here's a look at a few ways to cultivate student self-efficacy.

What is self-efficacy?

According to Transforming Education , "Self-efficacy is the belief in one's ability to succeed in achieving an outcome or reaching a goal. This belief, specific to a task or an area of knowledge or performance, shapes the behaviors and strategies that help one pursue their goal." When a student has high self-efficacy, they have confidence in their ability, a sense of control over their motivation, and they can self-advocate for their needs.

"Research suggests that self-efficacy can boost student achievement, foster emotional health and well-being, and serve as a valid predictor of motivation and learning," says Transforming Education, which offers a Self-Efficacy Toolkit to use with students. "Studies also have shown that students with high levels of self-efficacy participate more in class, work harder, persist longer, and have fewer adverse emotional reactions when encountering difficulties than students with lower self-efficacy." Sounds like a recipe for academic success. Let's look at how to plant these seeds with your students.

Celebrate successes big and small

When we do well, we want to keep doing well. That's the philosophy behind building upon student successes. "You know the old adage: 'Nothing breeds success like success.' That one is certainly true when it comes to helping your students improve their self-efficacy," psychologist Dennis Relojo to the American Psychological Association Education . "If a student has been successful (and has been rewarded) for a particular skill in the past, they will begin to believe in themselves that they have the ability to execute the same skill in the future and be excellent at it. Acknowledge those brilliant performances. The power of praise in changing student behavior is that it both indicates teacher approval and informs the student about how the praised academic performance or behavior conforms to teacher expectations." Celebrate student successes, whether big or small, and you will help develop a student's desire to push themselves toward success again.

Use peer modeling

In addition to celebrating successes in order to encourage future success, peer modeling also helps build self-efficacy. "Peer modeling is more effective than teacher modeling, especially as some students may doubt whether they can ever attain the teacher's level of competence," The Education Hub , an organization that helps connect research to educators in the field. "The best peer models are those that make errors at first and express doubt about their self-efficacy ('I'm not sure I can do this')."

Teachers can support peer models by giving them prompts. Then those peer models can successfully complete a specific task. After they've finished, it's important to ask them questions about how they overcame failure and developed mastery. When students can see their peers muddling through a task, overcoming hurdles, and doing well, they're more likely to believe they're able to achieve success themselves.

Set goals and monitor them

Using a regular practice of goal-setting and goal-monitoring lets students see the larger process of learning, rather than merely the obstacles and outcomes. "Teaching children how to set realistic goals and strategies for persisting in achieving those goals when they encounter obstacles helps them experience greater mastery in life," the National Association of School Psychologists . "Helping children to increase their pathways thinking (thinking that helps identify or create many paths to a goal and agency thinking that helps keep motivation up while pursuing a goal) helps them experience greater hope and more success in achieving the goal." As students become more aware of their pathways, they will also build their academic self-efficacy.

The power of yet

Every teacher has heard a student - or even themselves - say "I can't." And that may be true - at that moment. A student may not be able to demonstrate a skill - In classrooms where potential is promoted, "the teacher makes it a habit to answer every student's 'I can't' statement with the word ," says Debbie Thompson Silver , Dedra A. Stafford , in their book Teaching Kids to Thrive, Essential Skills for Success . "For example, a student says he can't do a math problem. The teacher responds, 'You can't do the math . You've got lots of time to figure this out." Responses like that send a powerful message and help guide students toward self-efficacy.
Jennifer L.M. Gunn spent 10 years in newspaper and magazine publishing before moving to public education. She is a curriculum designer, teaching coach, and high school educator in New York City. She is also co-founder of the annual EDxEDNYC Education Conference for teacher-led innovation and regularly presents at conferences on the topics of adolescent literacy, leadership, and education innovation.
Tags: Assessment Tools, Curriculum and Instruction, Mid-Career Teacher, Teacher Leadership, Teaching Impact, Veteran Teacher

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A confident classroom is a successful classroom. How do you build a culture of academic excellence in classrooms that promote student accountability, confidence, and success? By encouraging a growth mindset for all learners, finding ways to boost their confidence and their sense of academic potential.

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A growth mindset - the knowledge that one becomes more intelligent with effort - is being recognized more and more as something that we can cultivate in our students. If you would like some help getting started with cultivating growth mindsets by helping students learn about effective effort, this post is for you.
What Is Effort?
At the most basic level, effort means you are trying. In my experience though, students claim that they are trying, and may believe that they're trying, but they do not know what trying effectively actually looks like. To many students, trying is merely thinking about doing the work, or finding a friend (or the Internet) to get answers from. For example, there are many students who have a hard time seeing the difference between doing math and copying someone else's math, or between helping someone with a task and just giving him the answer. They think they did their homework even though they may have copied most of it from the board or from a friend. One thing I tell students is "That is like tracing a picture - you traced your homework, you didn't "do" it."

Sometimes the issue with students not really trying is a fixed mindset, and as a result when the student hits an obstacle or setback, s/he gives up easily and avoids a challenge. But sometimes the issue is that they don't know how to try effectively, and they know that when they do try, they don't improve. They don't know how.

Effective Effort is purposeful and targetted. It's focused, and the best kind is also metacognitive. When I am really trying effectively, I am doing a LOT! I pause and quietly think. I problem-solve. I research. I tinker. I figure out what isn't working and change my strategy. I furrow my brow, and I don't stop until I figure it out. Then I feel amazing!

In this article by Annie Murphy Paul, she explains how research shows that just practicing is not enough. Deliberate practice, a purposeful kind of practice that examines and corrects errors, is needed to become great at something.
Who Needs Effort Instruction?
We can teach people how to be effectively effortful. More and more, schools are coming to understand that there is a place in our classrooms for this direct instruction and structures to support students' adoptions of effective strategies and habits. Many teachers already have found ways to provide guidance and instruction in effective effort, but oftentimes, the standards and testing are competing for that time and attention. However, if we don't support these academic mindsets and learning strategies, many students will not learn to be effective learners and will become adults who continue to struggle with difficult tasks.

Mindset Works ® consultant, Jennifer Maichin, an educator in Mineola, NY says this, "We tell students to study, but do we teach them how?" She says that students tend to think of studying as "I am staring at my book. Now I am staring at it hard. Now I am staring at my homework paper." They spend much of their homework time thinking about how frustrated they are, and doing more of what's not working, instead of engaging actively with the task. Part of this cycle is because so many of them know that one task completion option is to copy the answers (from a board, from a friend, from the pages of their books). So, they usually do not have effective effort strategies for those times when copying is not readily available.

Maichin says, to find out if kids have learning strategies, watch to see what they do when they don't know what to do. If students are giving up, choosing easy or superficial responses, or resorting to copying, then you know that they simply don't have the strategies and the drive to achieve on their own. They might not realize how great it feels to discover answers and learn through effort.
Getting Started: Strategies to Teach Effective Effort
First, we have to define what effective effort is and suggest to learners how amazing it feels to use it to achieve something for yourself. Second, we have to be persistent and effortful ourselves in cultivating these learning strategies in our students. What follows are two strategies you can use this Fall to get started!
-Mindset Works® Effective Effort Rubric
The Mindset Works Effective Effort Rubric is a terrific place to begin the conversation with students. The rubric places effort in the context of a growth mindset. Presenting it to a learner, a teacher can ask, "When you are trying, which of these things are you doing? Highlight in each box what trying "looks like" for you."

One can also use the rubric with families who are struggling to help their children finish homework and work on long-term tasks. Parents can see how to communicate the message that challenges are exciting, mistakes tell us what to improve in, and set backs are all a normal part of learning anything new.

The rubric is also a tool for setting growth goals. Students can revisit the rubric to identify a row in which they would like to improve and use the rubric over time to revisit and reflect on their progress (and what the results of their progress has been). This video of a middle schooler, "Andy" reflecting on his effort shows us what a student reflection can sound like!

As you get further into using the rubric, the class can begin to discuss the "Strategies" row to share and acquire new strategies that work for them. Asking, "what do you do when you get stuck?" and get students sharing is one way to shed light on the difference between sharing strategies and sharing answers. The first is a recipe for success, the latter is, well, tracing!
-Growth Mindset Language and Messages
Educators can have an enormous influence on students' motivation just by the messages we send. The best place to begin your growth mindset classroom transformation is in the language you use with students to communicate about taking on challenges and working persistently to learn new concepts and skills.

These growth minded feedback and framing tools are here to help educators see examples of how we can adjust our messages so that we are cultivating growth mindsets. When students are not being "effectively effortful," these are the responses that can coach them back on the right track. At the same time, posting growth minded posters and messages like these provides a constant reminder of what effective learners do. Other messages about paying attention to and learning from errors, about learning from and being inspired by successful peers, and about setting stretch goals can also be very effective in helping young people see how great it feels to accomplish something difficult.

Here is one example of a short commercial with Michael Jordan called, " Maybe It's My Fault." This video is a terrific springboard for beginning a conversation about how much effort and time go into becoming great at something!

What do you do to encourage students to take on challenges and use effective effort? Comment below or enter our next Growth Minded Educator contest for a chance to win some posters for your classroom!

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Getting Started: Growth Mindsets and Effective Effort in Your Classroom

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A growth mindset - the knowledge that one becomes more intelligent with effort - is being recognized more and more as something that we can cultivate in our students. If you would like some help getting started with cultivating growth mindsets by helping students learn about effective effort, this post is for you.

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Why fostering a growth mindset can give your children the drive to succeed. Part of a discussion series between Christine Carter and Kelly Corrigan.

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As your SEL team works with teachers to align SEL and academic objectives, it's also important to consider how the content is delivered so that it supports the practice of social and emotional competencies. The guidance in this section should be considered alongside the Interactive Pedagogy section as part of the full integration of SEL into instruction.

How Do SEL and Academic Goals Align?

Each academic discipline has its own questions, processes, and proficiencies. Teachers consider what students should know and be able to do when planning their lessons. This emphasis- not merely on acquiring content knowledge, but on being able to do something with it- is reflected in academic standards for each content area and connects closely to SEL.
Common Core and SEL Alignment
As an example of Common Core and SEL alignment, within the Common Core math process standards, students are asked to "construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others." Social and emotional learning is naturally embedded as students:

Anticipate how their own arguments may be interpreted and received by taking on the perspectives of others. (Social awareness)

Think metacognitively and organize their own thoughts with given information. (Self-management)

Understand others' perspectives to effectively interpret their arguments. (Social awareness)

Listen actively to further explore the arguments of others. (Relationship skills)Adapted From: The Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin

Supporting Teachers in Aligning SEL with Academic Goals

After developing an understanding of how SEL standards support and sustain deep learning, the SEL team can collaborate with teachers to determine where SEL can be embedded in academic content standards. Pay special attention to:

Challenging or conceptually large ideas- Challenging concepts require a strategy, such as empowering students to cope with frustration or to collaborate effectively with a partner to achieve an objective.

Tasks or process goals- What are students going to need to be able to do? Social and emotional competencies can often support these objectives. For example, in science students may be tasked with planning and carrying out an investigation, which will require self-management skills such as planning and breaking large tasks down into manageable steps.

Goals that specifically involve interpreting decisions and relationships, either fictional or historical- Social studies and language arts goals often lend themselves to connections with SEL. For example, for the ELA goal that students "analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision," teachers could consider an SEL goal that deals with perspective-taking (such as "I can understand the perspective of another by what they say or do") or responsible decision-making.

Many schools and districts have found it helpful to create crosswalks between their academic content standards and SEL standards or goals to illuminate their interconnection.

Once teachers have determined places of alignment between SEL and academic standards, a Frame, Coach, Reflect model can help make these connections clear to students.

Frame: Learning requires thoughtful scaffolding (Darling-Hammond et al, 2017, and Hammond & Jackson, 2015). Teachers can provide this scaffolding for social and emotional competencies by framing the competencies students will use to reach their content learning goals.
Try it:
Coach: Teachers can help students develop social and emotional competencies by providing them opportunities to perform them in new and increasingly complex situations and providing specific feedback in the context of authentic application (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). In this context, the teacher acts as a coach.
Try it:
Reflect: Reflection is a crucial part of learning because it helps to build meta-cognition (Donovan & Bransford, 2005) and activate neural pathways (Darling-Hammond, 2018 in press). Reflection is critical in building students' self-awareness.
Try it:
Examples of Aligned SEL and Academic Objectives
Math Math

Academic Standard: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1)

Connections to SEL: In order to persevere in solving a problem, students will need self-management to work through frustration.

Example of Aligned SEL Standard: Individual demonstrates a resilient attitude and growth mindset, even in the face of adversity and challenges. (Rhode Island Social Emotional Learning Standard 2D)

Potential SEL Objective: "I can appropriately handle my feelings" (Self-management)

Frame: Teacher says something like, "Some of the problems we will be working on today are very challenging. We need challenges to grow, but they can definitely be frustrating! Can anyone remind me what strategies we can use if we are feeling frustrated?" Wait for student responses (take a deep breath, check our self talk, remember our math strategies).

Coach: As students work, circulate and notice when students seem to be stuck. Ask them what strategy they will try to get unstuck.

Reflect: Ask students, "What was one strategy you used that helped you to persevere today?" Give students a few moments to respond in their journals or share with a partner.

English Language Arts

Academic Standard: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.5)

Connections to SEL: Students will need responsible decision-making strategies to monitor their own engagement in brainstorming, writing, requesting feedback from a peer, revising, and editing. They will also need relationship skills to give and receive feedback with peers.

Example of Aligned SEL Standards: Monitor progress on achieving a short-term personal goal; Evaluate the application of communication and social skills in daily interactions with peers, teachers, and families. (Illinois State Social Emotional Learning Standards 1C.2b and 2C.5a)

Potential SEL Objective: "I can set goals and create a plan related to them" or " I can effectively give and receive feedback"

Frame: Teacher says something like, "Writers! Today you will be moving independently through your writing process. Many of you are ready for an exciting step: getting feedback from a colleague in the class. Think about a time that someone gave you feedback that was really helpful. What did they do?" (Allow for some discussion about what makes feedback effective and palatable). Ask, "What are some things you think will be important to do when giving feedback?" (e.g., "be specific," "say what worked for you and where you had challenges"). Consider role-playing a quick feedback with a student to model and/or using sentence frames.

Coach: Check in with students who are giving one another feedback to see if they are communicating effectively. Notice some positive "feedback moves" students are making that you can share with the class. If students are struggling to give effective feedback, remind them of their strategies.

Reflect: Ask students, "What was it like to give feedback? To receive it?" Allow students to share with a partner or journal independently.

Download Tool

Aligned SEL sample lesson plan

This tool helps teachers identify where within lesson plans SEL practices are already present, or where they might be included.

Download Tool

SEL Reflection Prompts

Sample reflection questions, aligned with the five core competencies of SEL, that support students' self-awareness and prioritizes their insights into their own strengths and challenges.

Diversity and Inclusion in Content Materials

Aligning SEL and academic goals includes a thoughtful consideration of the materials and texts we share. To develop self and social awareness, students from all backgrounds and walks of life need exposure to a variety of voices, cultures, and perspectives, and to understand their own personal contexts, including ethnic, family, community, and classroom cultures (Hammond and Jackson, 2015). Students also need to see themselves reflected in the scientists, mathematicians, musicians, and writers they study.

When choosing content materials, consider diversity within cultural or socio-economic groups as well. Avoid promoting what Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes as " single stories." According to Adiche, we promote single stories when we "show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become." By providing a variety of experiences within a variety of cultures, we equip students to respect the richness and diversity of the human experience.

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As your SEL team works with teachers to align SEL and academic objectives, it's also important to consider how the content is delivered so that it supports the practice of social and emotional competencies. The guidance in this section should be considered alongside the Interactive Pedagogy section as part of the full integration of SEL into instruction.

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Education Week - Learning Is Social & Emotional

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As the head of research for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), I was encouraged to see a recent brief from the Aspen Institute Education and Society Program that articulates the ways in which social, emotional, and academic development can (and must) address racial inequities in education. Racial/ethnic, class, and gender inequities are vexing problems that hamper individual student learning as well as our collective efforts to achieve the democratic ideals of U.S. society.

While CASEL has a long-standing commitment to issues of equity, we recognize that there is significant work to be done if social and emotional learning is going to realize its potential to promote the optimal development of all students, including diverse groups of students.

Like other big and amorphous terms that become popular--such as social and emotional learning--"equity" can take on multiple meanings. I look at it mainly as a fundamental concern with fairness and justice. What is right and appropriate in any context for any particular group of people? How are valued goods and resources distributed and utilized? In the context of education, how are high-quality educational experiences provided to all students as they need it and when they need it, regardless of demographics, location, or circumstance?

Social and emotional learning and equity both address how to provide high-quality instruction for all students, regardless of background. Through the CASEL Equity Work Group--which brings together equity and social and emotional learning experts within our 25-state Collaborating States Initiative and the 20-district Collaborating Districts Initiative--we're looking at what I call "equity elaborations."

Among our priorities, we are examining CASEL's five core SEL competencies and highlighting where and how issues of and implications for equity could be made more evident. For example, self-awareness, one of the five competencies, applies to all students regardless of racial, ethnic, class, regional, or gender differences. It includes finding and affirming one's identity, helping students answer the question "Who am I?"

Equity elaborations help make the conversations more nuanced, so that teachers base their instruction on who's standing in front of them. For example, it may be meaningful for rural students and their families to have a social studies unit that explores alternative industries that can replace disappearing farm or manufacturing jobs. Urban students and families might benefit from and be more interested in instruction that examines how to develop urban farming projects.

On social awareness, another core competency, an equity focus means being more aware of cultural demands in particular settings. Superficially, it could be teaching multicultural education through fun, festivals, and food. But on a deeper structural level, it is understanding that American culture tends to put a premium on independence and acquiring things. "The more I have--whether it's grades, knowledge, or money--the more worthy I am." It's a zero-sum game.

But Native American, African-American, and Latino cultures tend to place value on being more communal, where social interdependence is more important. Teachers can build that understanding into their teaching. Cooperative learning and restorative justice approaches are possible ways to leverage this cultural orientation into an asset.

We are especially encouraged by the promise of project-based learning, which provides fertile ground for further developing social and emotional competencies with an equity frame. Projects are guided by youth, based on their own experiences, with the teacher as a facilitator and co-learner. As a result, students are more engaged and collaborative. And issues of identity, justice, and fairness inevitably come up.

To further explore educational opportunities such as these, the Equity Work Group is conducting a landscape scan that will allow us to critically examine and leverage advances in SEL research and practice to revise our framework and various tools to ensure that equity is central to everything we do. We will work with interested partners to examine the influences and impacts of our revisions on learning contexts and outcomes for all students and the adults who support them.

We look forward to continued work with current partners and forging new collaborations in support of social, emotional and academic development of all children, youth, and adults, especially those from historically under-served groups and communities.
Robert Jagers is Vice President of Research at CASEL and a member of the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development's Council of Distinguished Scientists.

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Learning Is Social & Emotional Contributor

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Why We Can't Have Social and Emotional Learning Without Equity

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As the head of research for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), I was encouraged to see a recent brief from the Aspen Institute Education and Society Program that articulates the ways in which social, emotional, and academic development can (and must) address racial inequities in education.

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In the November 2014 issue of Phi Delta Kappan, I wrote an article on how social-emotional skills can boost implementation of the Common Core.

I want to share two key points from that article in this blog post and also in my next one. In this post, I focus on how the Common Core has an implicit dependence on SEL-related pedagogy. In the next blog post, I will focus on the key area of emotion vocabulary and its role in academic and interpersonal success.

College, Career, and Contribution Ready

What does it mean to be "college, career, and contribution ready"? It takes more than success in Common Core State Standards (CCSS) content areas. Ultimately, we are preparing our students for more than college and careers; we are preparing them to be productive members of society and valued members of their families and workplaces.

We want our students to adopt a collaborative stance, embrace diversity, and be ready for the globalized and interconnected world they -- and we -- increasingly inhabit. I call this college, career, and contribution ready.

More and more, college is considered the starting point for life success. But college poses many interpersonal and logistical challenges, particularly to students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and whose dropout rates have been estimated as high as 80 to 90 percent. College is not simply an extension of high school; for many young people, it represents a significant crossroads in their lives.

Therefore, it's no surprise that college life arouses many strong emotions. These emotions include: 1) anxiety about establishing a new identity, 2) dealing with acceptance by one's family, 3) loss of old peer groups and finding new ones, 4) managing a new and different kind of workload, 5) making choices of courses and majors, 6) establishing a range of new relationships with peers and adults, and, 7) lifestyle choices about use of leisure time, studying, eating, and sleeping.

Many of these concerns have direct parallels when one enters a new career path, particularly if it involves relocation. We know from analyses of college dropout and job failures that such outcomes are less the result of intellectual shortcomings than they are due to deficiencies in the social-emotional and character competencies (or moral and performance character, if you prefer that terminology).

What is Necessary?

The CCSS does not adequately acknowledge either the interpersonal context in which learning takes place, or the overall climate of caring and supportive relationships needed for content knowledge to be acquired, internalized, and put to flexible use.

Pragmatically, the CCSS asks student to learn in ways they typically have not done before, and without explicitly and continuously preparing them to do so. The CCSS implicitly requires that students:

1. Elaborate their reasoning clearly, support their own arguments, and challenge their classmates, respectfully.

2. Exhibit strategic thinking, including analyzing their own strategies, and develop meta-cognitive skills.

3. Believe in the value of hard work and resilience and possess a mindset supportive of perseverance in the face of difficulty.

4. Be oriented toward independence and responsibility for learning and believe that they ultimately are responsible for what they do with their learning, which requires integrity. (And this transfer needs to be encouraged through distinguished teaching.)

5. Possess social and emotional competencies.

Rationale for SEL in Schools

It's important that schools focus on children's well-being, emotions, happiness, self-esteem, and potential contributions to society, as well as having a vested interest in systematically teaching the skills required for CCSS success and high test scores.

Educational administrators interested in improving teaching at their school sites must know that teachers cannot become proficient, let alone distinguished, if their students lack abilities in communication, meta-cognition, resilient mindset, responsible character, and social-emotional learning.

Those who are charged with the responsibility for helping our children become college, career, and contribution ready need to emphasize both the academic and SEL skills necessary for success.

The data are so compelling, and business leaders, parents, those in higher education, and those concerned with civic engagement all realize that we cannot afford to educate anything less than the whole child.

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Connecting SEL and the Common Core, Part One

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In the November 2014 issue of Phi Delta Kappan, I wrote an article on how social-emotional skills can boost implementation of the Common Core. I want to share two key points from that article in this blog post and also in my next one.

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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CCSD Wiki-Teacher - Unwrapped Standards Search

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Reading (K-2) Reading (3-5) Reading (6-8) Reading Anita Archer Writing (K-5) Mathematics (K-5) Science (K-5) Science (6-12) Physical Education Classroom Management & Transparent Tracking Professional Development

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Self-awareness doesn't develop all at once. The process begins in childhood, as kids start being able to recognize and name their emotions, strengths and challenges, and likes and dislikes. And it keeps developing over time.

There are two types of self-awareness: private and public. Private self-awareness is when people are aware of something about themselves that others might not be - like being anxious about reading out loud.

Public self-awareness is when people are aware of how others see them. That doesn't start happening until the age of 5. Before then, most kids don't realize that other people aren't always thinking and feeling the same way they are.

Having self-awareness makes it easier to build self-esteem. Learn about ways to develop self-esteem .

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Self-awareness doesn't develop all at once. The process begins in childhood, as kids start being able to recognize and name their emotions, strengths and challenges, and likes and dislikes. And it keeps developing over time. There are two types of self-awareness: private and public.

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Self-monitoring is a fancy name for a skill you use all the time to keep track what you're doing. It's a series of assessments you make along the way: How is the activity going? What's working and what's not? Should I make adjustments?

For example, when you make breakfast, you check to see if the butter has melted in the pan before adding the eggs. If the eggs were runny last time, you might think, What do I need to do differently this time?

That same skill applies to learning, too. Here are four ways kids use self-monitoring to help with learning.

1. Self-Monitoring and Basic Learning

Kids use self-monitoring to help them learn skills like math and reading. They also use it for more basic things, like understanding directions, keeping track of due dates and checking work.

If your child has weak self-monitoring skills, she may not recognize mistakes when proofreading a writing assignment or checking math for errors. She may also have a hard time determining whether she's following directions correctly. This can make it difficult to know when she needs to ask for help.

2. Self-Monitoring and Math

When it comes to math, kids use self-monitoring to figure out the best way to tackle a problem and determine whether their answer seems reasonable. Younger kids use it to decide which operation (or operations) to use for a word problem. If your child struggles with this skill, you might notice she has a hard time understanding clue words (such as in addition to or how much less than) or knowing whether to use the + or - sign when she writes the problem.

Self-monitoring helps older kids check answers by using the reverse operation, such as using multiplication to check a division problem. Self-monitoring is also the skill kids use to make sure they've gone through all the steps of a problem and that each piece was done correctly.

If your child struggles with self-monitoring, she might get one or all of the steps wrong and not be able to see it. She may not realize the answer doesn't make sense.

3. Self-Monitoring and Learning to Read

A beginning reader uses self-monitoring to determine whether the sounds she's using for the letters make sense together to create a word she recognizes-a skill known as decoding. Self-checking is what helps kids go back and rethink the word when it doesn't sound right.

If your child struggles with self-monitoring and decodes the word boat as bow-AT, she may not realize it doesn't make sense. As she moves on and begins to read sentences, she may have a similar problem recognizing that a word in that context doesn't make sense and figuring out which one would.

Kids use self-monitoring to become better, more effective readers. When kids first start to read for meaning, parents and teachers help them get information from what they're reading and understand what it means. As they become better readers, kids replace those outside monitors with self-monitoring. They can ask themselves questions like:

Why am I reading this and what will I learn from it?

Do I understand the way information is presented? (Such as a list, an alphabet book or a chapter book.)

Can I connect this to anything I already know?

Do I understand the ideas and words or do I need to stop to look them up or ask for help?

The Good News: There Are Ways to Help

If your child has trouble with self-monitoring, it doesn't mean she won't be able to learn. But she might need some extra support. There are accommodations your child's teacher can make to help her in the classroom, as well as strategies and technology you can use at home to make things easier.

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4 Ways Kids Use Self-Monitoring to Learn

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Self-monitoring is a fancy name for a skill you use all the time to keep track what you're doing. It's a series of assessments you make along the way: How is the activity going? What's working and what's not? Should I make adjustments?

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How RULER Works

RULER starts with staff personal and professional learning and continues with classroom instruction and family engagement and education.

Staff Personal and Professional Learning: RULER adoption begins when a small team from a school (one leader and two educators or mental health professionals) attends a training institute on the principles and tools of emotional intelligence. Over time, with coaching support and online resources, all school staff participate in RULER skill-building activities so they can be role models and knowledgeable implementers of RULER for students and families.

Classroom Instruction: Student learning content follows the Understanding by Design framework and aligns with both social and emotional learning and academic standards. In early childhood and elementary school, RULER embeds into existing academic curricula. Middle and high school courses focus on the intersection of social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of early and late adolescence.

Family Engagement and Education: Content for families supports what students learn in school, using everyday and culturally responsive language for accessibility. School leaders, parent leaders, teachers, and students work to engage and educate families.

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RULER starts with staff personal and professional learning and continues with classroom instruction and family engagement and education. Staff Personal and Professional Learning: RULER adoption begins when a small team from a school (one leader and two educators or mental health professionals) attends a training institute on the principles and tools of emotional intelligence.

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Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)

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5 Examples of Universal Design for Learning in the Classroom

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching aimed at meeting the needs of every student in a classroom. It can be helpful for all kids, including kids with learning and attention issues. But UDL takes careful planning by teachers. Here are just a few examples of how UDL can work in a classroom.

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At a glance

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) gives all students an equal opportunity to succeed.

This approach to teaching and learning offers flexibility in the ways students access material and show what they know.

UDL also looks for different ways to keep students motivated.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching and learning that gives all students equal opportunity to succeed.

To understand what UDL is, it helps to understand what it's not. The word universal may throw you off. It may sound like UDL is about finding one way to teach all students. But UDL actually takes the opposite approach.

The goal of UDL is to use a variety of teaching methods to remove any barriers to learning. It's about building in flexibility that can be adjusted for every person's strengths and needs. That's why UDL benefits all learners.

This approach to teaching or to workplace training doesn't specifically target people who learn and think differently. But it can be especially helpful for kids with these challenges - including those who have not been formally diagnosed. It can also be very helpful for English language learners.

Watch this video to see what UDL looks like in a fifth-grade classroom.

Dive deeper

Bringing universal design to the classroom

How UDL helps students who learn and think differently

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education" and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Ace Parsi, MPP served as the personalized learning partnership manager at NCLD.

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching approach to help all learners be successful. Read about UDL principals and the benefits of UDL for students.

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Implementing UDL 5 Steps You Need to Know

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Implementing UDL 5 Steps You Need to Know

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At a glance

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) gives all students an equal opportunity to succeed.

This approach to teaching and learning offers flexibility in the ways students access material and show what they know.

UDL also looks for different ways to keep students motivated.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to teaching and learning that gives all students equal opportunity to succeed.

To understand what UDL is, it helps to understand what it's not. The word universal may throw you off. It may sound like UDL is about finding one way to teach all students. But UDL actually takes the opposite approach.

The goal of UDL is to use a variety of teaching methods to remove any barriers to learning. It's about building in flexibility that can be adjusted for every person's strengths and needs. That's why UDL benefits all learners.

This approach to teaching or to workplace training doesn't specifically target people who learn and think differently. But it can be especially helpful for kids with these challenges - including those who have not been formally diagnosed. It can also be very helpful for English language learners.

Watch this video to see what UDL looks like in a fifth-grade classroom.

Dive deeper

Bringing universal design to the classroom

How UDL helps students who learn and think differently

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education" and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Ace Parsi, MPP served as the personalized learning partnership manager at NCLD.

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching approach to help all learners be successful. Read about UDL principals and the benefits of UDL for students.

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Learners differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend information that is presented to them. For example, those with sensory disabilities (e.g., blindness or deafness); learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia); language or cultural differences, and so forth may all require different ways of approaching content. Others may simply grasp information quicker or more efficiently through visual or auditory means rather than printed text. Also learning, and transfer of learning, occurs when multiple representations are used, because they allow students to make connections within, as well as between, concepts. In short, there is not one means of representation that will be optimal for all learners; providing options for representation is essential.

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Learners differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend information that is presented to them. For example, those with sensory disabilities (e.g., blindness or deafness); learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia); language or cultural differences, and so forth may all require different ways of approaching content.

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Multiple Means of Representation (Week 3)

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Learners differ in the ways that they can navigate a learning environment and express what they know. For example, individuals with significant movement impairments (e.g., cerebral palsy), those who struggle with strategic and organizational abilities (executive function disorders), those who have language barriers, and so forth approach learning tasks very differently. Some may be able to express themselves well in written text but not speech, and vice versa. It should also be recognized that action and expression require a great deal of strategy, practice, and organization, and this is another area in which learners can differ. In reality, there is not one means of action and expression that will be optimal for all learners; providing options for action and expression is essential.

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Learners differ in the ways that they can navigate a learning environment and express what they know. For example, individuals with significant movement impairments (e.g., cerebral palsy), those who struggle with strategic and organizational abilities (executive function disorders), those who have language barriers, and so forth approach learning tasks very differently.

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Multiple Means of Action & Expression (Week 4)

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Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to be notified when upcoming Free Webinars are open for registration!

Check back often for information on our next Free Webinar.
In the meantime, scroll down to view previous CAST Free Webinar recordings!

UDL & Cultural Variability, Part 2

Thursday, April 5, 2018 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.ET

Each of us has a story - a narrative written by our experiences and our environments. We also have implicit biases - subtle or subconscious beliefs that influence our actions and decisions, whether we recognize them or not. As educators working with an incredible diversity of learners every day, how can we be more aware of our own stories and design learning environments that embrace our learners' stories, empowering all learners to reach high expectations? Join Joni Degner, James-Etta Goodloe, Loui Lord Nelson, and Kavita Rao to experience their powerful stories, discuss how Universal Design for Learning aligns with Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, and collect resources to use in your learning environment for building cultural awareness and meaningful self-reflection.

Webinar recording available soon!

Unleash the Positive Energy

There are an estimated 4.9 million young adults ages 16-24 in America who are neither in work nor school. Of these, there are estimated to be as many as 3 million youth living in poverty who are not in education, employment or training. These are the opportunity youth with whom YouthBuild programs around the country work. YouthBuild leaders Jason Marshall, Michael Anderson, Isa Galvez Lara, and Shawn Nicholson led a conversation that left webinar participants inspired to become part of the movement to build a more just society where there are sufficient opportunities for all people in all communities to fulfill their own potential and contribute to the well-being of others. Download the webinar captioning transcript (rtf).

Design So All Succeed

Goalbook's mission is to empower educators to transform instruction so that all students succeed. Together with CAST, Goalbook explored the following essential question: How can we design instruction so that all students succeed? They engaged in a hands-on, user-centered design thinking process and worked to put the "design" in Universal Design for Learning, grounded in the belief that purposeful design has the power to transform our classrooms and our schools. Shara Watkins, Partnership Success Manager at Goalbook and Kim Ducharme, Director of Educational User Experience Design from CAST, presented an interactive session that left participants feeling empowered to tackle challenges in their classrooms and at their schools using the design thinking process. Download the webinar captioning transcript (rtf).

Celebrating a Career of Innovation: A Retirement Farewell Conversation
with David Rose

UDL Stories from the Field

We know learners vary in how they build background, demonstrate understanding, and engage in learning experiences. Similarly, schools and systems are variable, including how they integrate Universal Design for Learning. CAST led a conversation with three K-12 districts from different parts of the United States as they shared their UDL implementation stories. What was a driving need for their school? How has UDL had an impact, especially for underserved learners? What systems and structures supported their work? How does the research behind the UDL guidelines come to life beyond a single classroom to become part of the culture of a school and a district? Districts included Sanger, CA, Columbus, IN, and Revere, MA. Download the webinar presentation (pdf). Download the webinar captioning transcript (rtf).

Learn more!

Meet the UDL-IRN

The Implementation Research Network (IRN) is a global community that works to "change the game" of teaching and learning. Using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, IRN educators and researchers inspire practice, share resources, and gather evidence on the impact on learning. In this free webinar, participants joined the UDL-IRN Board of Directors in a discussion to learn about the organization, the 2017 UDL-IRN Summit, and upcoming UDL credentialing opportunities. What does this mean for educators? What are the challenges and opportunities to UDL credentialing? Resources were shared with the goal of engaging discourse and practice. Download the webinar presentation (pdf). Download the webinar captioning transcript (rtf).

UDL and Cultural Variability

How does Universal Design for Learning (UDL) help educators address the challenges of cultural diversity in the classroom? How can learners' cultural differences be leveraged to inspire more innovation, creativity, and expert learning? Loui Lord Nelson, UDL author and consultant, and Joni Degner, UDL specialist and educator, led a discussion about using the UDL framework to improve teaching and learning in culturally rich classrooms. Download the webinar presentation (pdf). Click here to access the captioning transcript.

UDL Planning for the Fall: Courses & Syllabi for Postsecondary

UDL Planning for the Fall: Lessons & Collaboration for PreK-12

Authors and practitioners Patti Ralabate and Elizabeth Stein lead a discussion about six steps for Universal Design for Learning lesson planning and collaborative classroom teaching practices that address learner variability. Participants learned practical steps and collected resources that they can incorporate into their instructional design before their learners arrive this next school year. Download the Prek12 Webinar Resources pdf. Click here to access the captioning transcript.

UDL in the Cloud

In this webinar, Katie Novak and Tom Thibodeau shared how to design and deliver engaging, accessible, and effective online learning experiences based on their book UDL in the Cloud . Whether you are developing e-courses, virtual snow days, flipped classes, or blended learning experiences in K-12 or postsecondary settings, Novak and Thibodeau offered a highly practical approach that draws on years of experience. Click here to access the captioning transcript.

UDL in ESSA

With the new Every Student Succeeds Act, federal K-12 education law now defines and endorses Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a scientifically-based approach for personalizing learning. What does ESSA say about UDL? What are the implications for education practitioners and researchers? This webinar included a presentation and discussion with Lindsay Jones from the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) and Laura A. Schifter, former senior education and disability advisor for Rep. George Miller (D-CA) on the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Click here to access the captioning transcript.

Understanding the Effects of Stigmas and Stereotypes, a UDL Perspective

Stereotype threat is a subtle, but pervasive, influence on student achievement, effort, and motivation. Under stereotype threat, an individual feels at risk to confirm a negative perception that may exist of a group to which he or she belongs. There are simple strategies educators can employ to mitigate the effects of stereotype threat. In this webinar, CAST's Director of Research, Sami Daley, discussed CAST's current research on stereotype threat, how it can influence classroom dynamics, and what strategies can be integrated. Click here to download the webinar presentation, here to download some great stigmas and stereotypes resources, and here to download the Mastery Oriented Feedback card. Click here to access the captioning transcript.

Universal Design for Learning: From Theory to Practice

In this webinar, expert classroom educators Jon Mundorf (Naples, FL) and Alexis Reid (Boston, MA) discussed the ways in which UDL helps them teach more effectively and reach more students. They talked about some of the challenges of applying UDL principles and shared proven strategies for success. David Gordon, co-author of the 2014 book Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice, which features both Jon and Alexis, joined them to talk about how the growing community of UDL practitioners is informing and shaping the theory. CAST Professional Learning's Allison Posey moderated. Click here to access the captioning transcript.

Design and Deliver: Planning and Teaching Using Universal Design for Learning

Loui Lord Nelson's book, Design and Deliver: Planning and Teaching Using Universal Design for Learning, breaks down the principles, guidelines, and checkpoints into easily understood language using classroom strategies and design techniques proven to be successful in a wide variety of classrooms. During this webinar, Loui discussed highlights from the book including goal and assessment design, classroom design, and the use of UDL as a design tool. Click here to to access the captioning transcript.

CAST and Project OPEN Present UDL On Campus

This webinar showcased UDL On Campus, a new web resource from CAST. UDL On Campus is a collection of resources that help postsecondary educators and administrators improve instruction through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The online resource is provided at no charge to users at http://udloncampus.cast.org . UDL On Campus offers educators tutorials and practical resources in UDL theory and practice across five categories: (1) Assessment, (2) Selecting Media and Technology, (3) Improving Institutional Policies and Practices, (4) Planning Your Course, and (5) Teaching Approaches. Within each category, users can find resources that demonstrate specific ways to address learner variability at the postsecondary level in an effort to improve learning opportunities, retention, and outcomes. Click here to access the captioning transcript.

UDL Now!

In her book, UDL Now! Katie Novak offers practical insights and savvy strategies for helping all learners meet high standards using the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a framework for inclusive education that aims to lower barriers to learning and optimize each individual's opportunity to learn. In this webinar, Katie discussed her book and answered questions from the audience. Click here to access the captioning transcript.

Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice, A Book Discussion

In this CAST Professional Learning webinar Anne Meyer, David Rose, and David Gordon discussed their new book: Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice.

UDL Implementation: Are You Ready?

In this CAST Professional Learning webinar held on December 13, 2013, Director of Implementation Dr. Patti Ralabate discussed the five phases of CAST's UDL Implementation Process, described what UDL implementation looks like, and shared CAST's services and tools that support integrating UDL implementation with other initiatives, such as the Common Core State Standards.

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Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to be notified when upcoming Free Webinars are open for registration! Check back often for information on our next Free Webinar. In the meantime, scroll down to view previous CAST Free Webinar recordings!

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Watch the Universal Dancers for Learning as they sing and dance their way to showing how UDL can work in your classroom.

Universal Design for Learning is all about flexibility and giving teachers and students lots of options. The more on ramps there are to a highway, the more likely everyone will be able to use it. The same is true with UDL - more options for teaching and learning makes your curriculum accessible to all of your students.

The three key principles of UDL are to provide:

Multiple means of representation (ways for students to take in learning)

Multiple means of expression (ways for students to express what they learned)

Multiple means of engagement (ways for students to be motivated to learn)

As always, the first step in making any kind of change is to see where you are right now. How is your school already doing in terms of these UDL principles? Are you already offering students multiple means of representation, expression and engagement?

If you like this, you may also like Universal Design for Learning, UDL Links, Theory behind UDL, or UDL in Your Classroom.
Media queries and other questions about this material can be directed to ShannonEnsor@jhu.edu.

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The "You" in UDL - Maryland Learning Links

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Watch the Universal Dancers for Learning as they sing and dance their way to showing how UDL can work in your classroom. Universal Design for Learning is all about flexibility and giving teachers and students lots of options. The more on ramps there are to a highway, the more likely everyone will be able to use it.

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The National Center on Universal Design for Learning at CAST.

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Personalized Learning: What Is It?

In personalized learning settings, teachers assess students' strengths and needs to create learning plans that are aligned with student interests and strong academic standards. This summary provides a brief introduction to the three core elements of personalized learning, along with a snapshot of the key roles that teachers, school systems and leaders, and technology play.

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Personalized Learning: What Is It? - K-12 Education

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In personalized learning settings, teachers assess students' strengths and needs to create learning plans that are aligned with student interests and strong academic standards. This summary provides a brief introduction to the three core elements of personalized learning, along with a snapshot of the key roles that teachers, school systems and leaders, and technology play.

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How to SUPERCHARGE 5 Traditional Teaching Strategies with UDL

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How to SUPERCHARGE 5 Traditional Teaching Strategies with UDL

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If you're an educator who swears by traditional, tried-and-true teaching strategies, the idea of embracing universal design for learning (UDL) might be a little overwhelming. But UDL doesn't have to equal a top-to-bottom overhaul of everything you're doing now. With a little planning, it can also fit right in with traditional teaching strategies-and infuse your lesson plans with new life and energy.

Today's post shows how five teachers weave UDL into commonly used teaching methods: lectures, Q&As, drill and practice, class discussions, and problem solving. You'll learn about practical ways to:

foster collaboration and community

recruit learners' interest

optimize choice and autonomy

display information in multiple ways

help students monitor their own progress

guide students' information processing

and more

(These examples were adapted from by Patti Kelly Ralabate, a guidebook that walks K-12 educators through the entire UDL lesson planning process, from developing learning goals to monitoring student progress.)

Lectures are a great way to share a large amount of information with a big group in a short amount of time. But they can also be unengaging for learners and are less likely to lead to deep understanding of the material. Here's how Kelly punches up her lectures with UDL strategies (she's a college professor, but middle and high school teachers can try these approaches, too):

Kelly starts her lectures with a provocative question or quote to recruit her learners' interest.

She begins with a KWL exercise (what do you know, want to know, what did you learn?) to activate background knowledge.

She keeps her lectures to 15 to 20 minutes and builds in opportunities for short peer-to-peer discussions or pause-and-reflect events every 5 to 10 minutes. This gives learners a chance to act on the new information and move it from short-term memory to working memory and to long-term memory.

During pauses, she asks learners to respond to questions by a show of hands or another classroom assessment technique.

Kelly provides a lecture guide that organizes content into chunks to guide information processing.

To clarify novel vocabulary, an important strategy for English language learners, Kelly includes a glossary.

Slides help Kelly display information in an alternative way. She uses bullets, graphics, and bold font on slides to highlight critical features and big ideas. Her slides are uncluttered and contain no more than four to six lines of text. That way, she can set the text in 24-point font, large enough to be visible from the back row.

Kelly makes her slides available before or during her lectures so students can follow along and individuals with visual impairments can use a screen reader to translate the information.

Kelly is careful not to use color (particularly red and orange) to convey information, because this makes it less accessible to learners who are colorblind.

Q&As are an ancient and effective teaching technique. They help teachers assess student comprehension and help students with information processing and the transfer and generalization of content. Here's how Luis, a high school social studies teacher, infuses UDL into his Q&A sessions with students.

Luis uses multiple ways to display models of the types of questions that students can ask him or each other. He communicates these models on the whiteboard, an easy-to-read wall chart, and placards at each group's table.

After he provides students with content in a variety of ways (e.g., text, readings, video, narrated slides, topical blogs), Luis holds an "interrogation" session, when students can ask him questions on the topic.

To foster collaboration and community, groups of students develop the interrogation questions.

To optimize challenge, Luis uses "call sticks"-which he refers to as the Question Lottery-to determine when each group will ask questions. Students enjoy the unpredictable aspect of the Question Lottery.

Luis promotes high expectations to optimize motivation by assigning a question type to a group. Sometimes he optimizes choice and autonomy by letting students choose their own question types.

Learner groups are encouraged to use multiple tools to display their questions-prompt cards, slides, or online tools.

To build comprehension and maximize transfer, each student in Luis's class takes a turn at notetaking for the rest of the class. The notes are shared via a class wiki or through printed copies.

Drill and practice may not be every student's favorite way to learn, but it's still used widely to help students move novel content from working memory into long-term memory. Here's how Kathleen, a speech-language pathologist, works UDL strategies into her drill-and-practice methods to reinforce what general education teachers have taught.

To develop self-assessment and reflection, each learner has a speech-language binder for his or her work products. In the front of the binder is a chart with each student's personal learning goals (written in student-friendly language).

To enhance their capacity to monitor their own progress, Kathleen has learners routinely check their progress charts and report the goals they're working on as their session begins.

Kathleen carefully sets up the learning environment to minimize distractions so students can be successful.

Kathleen offers timely, meaningful, mastery-oriented feedback to guide students in charting their own progress.

To reinforce lesson content and optimize relevance, Kathleen uses multiple materials, including authentic demonstrations, short videos, digital tools, and apps designed to reinforce new information.

Kathleen plans sessions that gradually decrease the scaffolds and supports necessary for learners to communicate effectively.

Discussions are a time-honored learning technique; they help build comprehension of the material as they foster collaboration and community. Here's how James, a career-technology educator specializing in automobile technology, infuses UDL strategies into class discussions:

First, the students divide into pairs with one student (who plays the role of the technician) explaining the problem to the other (who plays the role of the uninformed client).

Learners share their experiences and observations with the entire class, highlighting patterns, critical features, and big ideas of their paired discussions.

James draws this information out with discussion probes that he posts for all the students to view.

As the students share with the class, James provides an alternative for the auditory information, guides information processing, and promotes understanding across languages by using a whiteboard to display specific points.

Problem solving and mental modeling-teaching learners how to visualize and solve puzzles you pose for them-helps learners move information from working memory to long-term memory. Here's how Nick, a middle school science teacher, pairs problem-solving with UDL strategies in his lesson on kinetic and potential energy:

Nick offers a variety of media resources to illustrate energy transformation and build or activate background knowledge. Students can choose to view a video about the transfer of energy, operate an interactive app demonstrating how energy transforms during a roller coaster ride, or read a short article about the kinetic and potential energy of a golf ball.

To guide information processing, Nick distributes a detailed guide and discusses the steps in developing a mental model using multiple media, including the whiteboard and passages from the science text.

Nick asks students to construct and illustrate mental models of the energy transformation involved as objects of various sizes are dropped onto a chute. He encourages students to use multiple tools to draw their mental models.

To foster collaboration and optimize challenge, students share their ideas in small, diverse groups.

On their way out, Nick's students complete exit tickets to monitor their learning

Do you have your own experience with weaving UDL into traditional teaching strategies? Tell us your best tips in the comments below!

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How to Supercharge 5 Traditional Teaching Strategies with UDL - Brookes Blog

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If you're an educator who swears by traditional, tried-and-true teaching strategies, the idea of embracing universal design for learning (UDL) might be a little overwhelming. But UDL doesn't have to equal a top-to-bottom overhaul of everything you're doing now. With a little planning, it can also fit right in with traditional teaching strategies-and infuse your [...]

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Robert J. Marzano, PhD, is the co-founder and Chief Academic Officer of Marzano Research in Colorado. A leading researcher in education, he is a speaker, trainer, and author of more than 40 books and 300 articles on topics such as instruction, assessment, writing and implementing standards, cognition, effective leadership, and school intervention. His books include The Art and Science of Teaching and Effective Supervision. His practical translations of the most current research and theory into classroom strategies are internationally known and widely practiced by both teachers and administrators.

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Robert J. Marzano, PhD, is the co-founder and Chief Academic Officer of Marzano Research in Colorado. A leading researcher in education, he is a speaker, trainer, and author of more than 40 books and...

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
You've reached the end of a unit or year, and you want students to demonstrate their learning in a way that requires them to synthesize information, apply it in new ways, and reflect on how they have grown. To achieve any of these goals, an end-of-unit exam doesn't quite cut it. You could have students do presentations...that's always an option. But here's one more: Have students create their own PDF e-books, packaging up some aspect of their learning into a finished digital product they can enjoy and share for years.

What Kind of E-Book Are We Talking About?

When you hear the term "e-book," you might be thinking about the kind of thing you can read on a Kindle or Nook, and yes, those are e-books. But a broader definition includes PDF files, which don't require any kind of special device to read. They also don't require any high-tech software to create; I'll show you how that works in a minute.

To get these templates, see the link at the end of this post.

Because this kind of e-book is ridiculously easy to create, having students make them is an excellent option for all kinds of final projects. And because lots of businesses now use e-books like these in their own work, assigning them to students gives them an extra skill they can take into their adult lives.

The Power of Visual Packaging

For some students, having an opportunity to put their words together with images and arrange it all into one tidy package creates a different kind of work ethic than you'd find if you just assigned a paper. Because the finished looks and feels a lot more like a "real" product of some kind, and has the potential to be a visually appealing one at that, you may find that students put a bit more effort into it.

Paintings in these images were created by Gwenn Seemel. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

So Many Possibilities

Once your students have learned how to create e-books (and there's a video below that shows them how), you can use this medium to have them create a massive array of projects. E-books could be assigned to a whole class or as a way to offer additional challenge to advanced students. Here's just a beginning list of ideas for student-created e-books:

Mini-Textbooks that teach a single concept or group of ideas from your course material.

Book Reports or analyses that take the reader through the most significant moments of a book, compare several books to one another, introduce a selection of works from one author, or look at a central theme (e.g., "Images of Fatherhood") as it is depicted in a collection of books.

Portfolios of a student's art, photography, writing, or poetry.

To get these templates, see the link at the end of this post.

Year-in-Review Books that explore concepts from the school year like lessons learned, best moments, special people, turning points, or important challenges throughout the year.

Children's Books that explore a concept learned in class or simply tell a good story.

Guidebooks offering advice and instructions for next year's students.

How-To Books that teach the reader something about which a student has some level of expertise (think informational writing!)

Collections where students curate their favorite books, movies, quotes, video games, apps, memories, or even photos of meaningful places, objects, or people.

Reflective Journals students keep and build throughout the year to document their growth or thinking on a particular topic.

Memoir-Style Books that document a student's journey through a Genius Hour or 20% Time project.

Club or Activity Books that chronicle the accomplishments of members of a sports team or club.

Professional Portfolios that could eventually be used as part of a job search. Teachers could also build their own professional portfolios in this same way.

How to Make an E-Book

If you have PowerPoint, which many, many people do, you already have all the tools you need to create an e-book. This video shows you how it works:

Get the Templates

The designs used to create the e-books in this post are available as individual PowerPoint templates or all together in a bundle. Each template also includes a link to the same template set up in Google Slides!! Click the image below to learn more:

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Student-Made E-Books: A Beautiful Way to Demonstrate Learning

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Need a fresh idea for the end of a unit? Instead of writing a paper or doing presentations, have students create PDF e-books they can enjoy and share for years.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
Sponsored by Screencast-O-Matic and Microsoft Inclusive Classroom

My daughter was recently given an assignment to create a model of a volcano. It was a group project, meant to be done entirely at home, and the only clear requirement was that it had to look like a volcano, with extra points if it could actually erupt.

And so it began: My daughter and I planned when her two friends would come over to work on it. I texted their moms and we set a date. We also figured out what supplies she'd need from the craft store and when I would drive her there to get it all. We ended up spending about $40 on modeling clay, spray paint, fake palm trees, and tiny dinosaurs. And that's after I said no to about $40 worth of other stuff she wanted to get.

The three girls met at our house one afternoon. One of the other parents brought over the materials they used to make the volcano erupt. I insisted that they do the project in the dining room, where we could make sure they stayed on task, instead of my daughter's bedroom, where I knew they wouldn't. My husband helped them hunt through the basement for an old lampshade to give the model some height, helped them figure out how to make the clay stick to the lampshade, then did a few trial runs of the "eruption" with them, so they knew it would work in class. A few days later, I drove my daughter to school and helped her walk the model safely into class.

So much had to happen to get this assignment done, and very little of that was actually done by the three students whose names went on the project. I'm not saying my daughter and her friends didn't build the volcano, but they got a lot of support along the way, and if any of that support had been missing-time, transportation, money, space, suggestions, supervision-the project would have been less successful.

When I ask my daughter about the other student projects that were turned in that day, she confirms my suspicions that they ranged in quality: Some, she says, were "huge and detailed," while others consisted of little more than a painted water bottle.

Though I never confirmed it, I suspect that each of those projects got vastly different grades.

What Are We Measuring?

Although a movement is growing to eliminate grades, they are still a reality for most of us, and they impact everything from college admissions to whether students get to go on certain field trips. So it's important that we do whatever we can to make sure they measure what matters.

And in too many cases, that's not happening. Take the volcano project: The grade students received on that ultimately reflected the resources each group happened to have at home-not what they learned or even the effort each student personally put into the task. Those with the "huge and detailed" ones probably got the best grades, and those with the painted water bottles probably got the lowest.

Or consider these other scenarios:

The student whose essay gets a D, because even though he organized it pretty well, made some strong, well-supported arguments, and used rich vocabulary, his teacher's rubric allotted 40 percent of the grade to neatness and correctness, and he had a lot of mistakes. The teacher lets him revise for a higher score, but only gives half credit for the points earned the second time around.

The student who raises his grade by earning extra credit for donating tissues and hand sanitizer to the class.

The student who gets a C on an assignment that requires her to compose an original song to explain a constitutional amendment. Despite her solid understanding of the constitution, she doesn't happen to have a knack for writing lyrics and music.

The student whose project is turned in a day late and gets only half credit according to her teacher's "no excuses" late policy.

In all of these cases, the grade is not an accurate representation of what a student has learned. This is a problem of design: When constructing assignments, assessments, and grading policies, every teacher makes dozens of small decisions that determine how much a grade reflects a student's academic work and how much it reflects a mishmash of other factors. Those quantities are different for every teacher and every assignment. Despite that, we tend to treat grades as if they mean the same thing all the time.

Some Questions to Ask While Planning

So what's to be done about this? If you or your colleagues aren't ready to completely overhaul your grading system (again, see how others are doing that here), or you haven't moved to standards-based grading, you can still improve the integrity of traditional grades by considering some important questions while planning for instruction.

1. What learning does this task measure?

The grade on an assignment should match the learning students are supposed to be doing in your class. This sounds simple, but it amazes me how often I see assignments that seem to have no real connection to what the curriculum says students are learning.

If your standards require students to "be able to explain how geography impacts culture," then assignments should ask them to do some variation of that: explain how geography impacts culture. If, instead, they are making a relief map that shows geographic features, and their grade is based largely on how accurately they represent those features, then they are being graded on map-making skills, not on the standard.

This is especially problematic when qualities like "creativity" are part of your criteria. For one thing, this term means completely different things to different people, so students will have to guess how to perform well on this metric. More importantly, grading for "creativity" on an assignment that is supposed to measure something else will distort the results, making it much harder to tell who actually mastered the skill.

2. Are you going to teach everything you will measure?

We often assign points for skills and qualities that students happen to bring with them, but are never taught in our class.

Suppose you assign a group project, and part of each student's grade will be based on how well he or she worked with the group. Collaborative skills are important, absolutely, but if you're grading for them, shouldn't you also be teaching them?

Similarly, if you're going to ask students to do an essay-type question to demonstrate their learning, and part of their grade will be based on how effectively they write, then ideally, some of your teaching prior to that assessment should give students practice in the kinds of writing skills you want to see on that task.

If our lessons don't prepare students to do well on graded assignments and assessments, then those grades aren't a fair measurement of learning in our class.

3. What will quality work look like on this task?

When creating assignments, we often have a general idea of what a good end-product will look like, but we don't always know for sure until the work gets turned in. At that point, it's too late for students to rise to our expectations, and if we haven't clearly defined them ahead of time, it's easy for personal bias to cloud our judgment.

We'll get better work from students and judge it more fairly if we identify and communicate the criteria for success ahead of time. Many teachers accomplish this with a rubric given to students before they start. These come in different formats: A growing number of teachers are finding that students appreciate the single-point rubric for its clarity and ease of use.

I would also strongly recommend you do the assignment yourself as if you were a student-a process we call dogfooding. This will help you get much clearer on how you define excellence for this assignment.

4. How much of the grade depends on outside resources?

If an assignment is going to be completed partly or entirely at home, take a good look at how much the available resources outside of school could influence the grade. Things like transportation, money for supplies, access to technology, or help from an adult can all contribute to an end product that looks impressive, but may not directly reflect that student's academic skill or effort.

If your assignment is designed so that the focus stays on content and skills, and if you set things up so that the majority of the work happens in class, the assignments you get back should be a more accurate representation of what each student can do.

5. Can all students do well on this task, regardless of how they learn best?

If an assignment is delivered with only one type of learner in mind-with instructions only given verbally, for example-some students will be behind before they even start. Ideally, every task will be designed in a way that all students can access.

Universal Design for Learning is a framework that can help teachers design materials so that all learners have equal access to them. To learn more, watch this overview video or explore the UDL Guidelines developed by CAST. As you work to make your assignments more universally accessible, take a look at some of the great accessibility tools Microsoft offers teachers for free.

Similarly, if the task favors students who happen to have a specific type of artistic skill-the way the constitutional song assignment did for students with musical talent-others who might have preferred to demonstrate their learning through an essay, a poster, or a video are less likely to shine.

Instead of limiting student products to a single, narrow option, consider whether you can give them choices in how they demonstrate learning. If the volcano project had been designed for students to create a model for how a real volcano works, that model could have been done with a paper diagram, in a video, with a student-produced skit, or with a physical model. Not only would this give students an opportunity to put their unique gifts to use, it would also provide options that cost a lot less money to bring to fruition.

6. Could this assignment be called "practice" instead?

Too often, teachers give grades to all classroom activity; they are convinced that kids won't do something unless it's going to get a grade. And that means tasks that are really meant to give students practice in a skill or early exposure to content are ultimately included in final grade calculations.

They shouldn't. Instead of making everything graded, have students do some class work as practice, in preparation for a task that will be graded. So if students have to take a test on long division, require them to do enough self-graded practice pages until they get 80 percent or better. These problems won't be part of their final grade calculation, which also means you don't have to grade them, but students can't take the test until they can demonstrate proficiency on the practice, and their grade on the test will count. This way, their grade will reflect their mastery of long division without penalizing them for how long it took to master the skill.

Other Factors to Consider

Late Work

Some policies on late work can have a significant impact on student grades, so that a student who turns work in late can have very low grades, even if they have mastered the content. In classes where late work is penalized, a grade is a reflection of the student's time management, or of stress, or perfectionism, or dozens of other possible factors. What it isn't is a reflection of learning.

Despite this, many teachers feel that taking points is their only option for responding to late work. This piece by Starr Sackstein explores this dilemma and considers some ways teachers can address the problem without docking points. Spoiler alert: It's not a one-size-fits-all solution, because students turn work in late for a variety of reasons. "At the root of every challenge we face with students of all ages is a story," she writes. "Our job as teachers to figure out what the story is. Some students will be an open book and others we will need to be detectives to figure stuff out. Don't give up on the kids. Giving a zero is giving up and almost expecting them to do the same."

Extra Credit

Giving points for anything that doesn't directly reflect learning can have an incredibly distorting effect on grades. In some cases, it elevates grades, giving the impression of mastery without the actual mastery. In other cases, it masks problems: If a student misses a few test items, but erases them with bonus points, that student could fly under the teacher's radar and miss opportunities for reteaching.

Students who are doing so well on the regular class work that they finish early don't need extra credit, they need differentiated assignments and more challenge. Students who do poorly on assignments don't need extra credit to make up the missing points; they need opportunities to re-do and improve on the work.

This piece by Joy Kirr does an excellent job of showing how a variety of typical extra credit assignments are rife with all kinds of problems.

Grade Averaging

If you calculate your grades by simply averaging them-dividing the points earned by the total possible points-your final course grade could be doing a poor job of representing what your students actually learned in your class. In this piece on the pitfalls of grade averaging , Rick Wormelli uses specific examples to illustrate this problem.

Having graded this way myself, I always liked the simplicity and convenience of grade averaging, so I know that the thought of trying some other system will likely be daunting. But if it means our grades will have more integrity, it's worth it.

One alternative to consider is something called a decaying average , which puts more weight on assignments done later in a learning cycle. In theory, this recognizes that skills should improve over time. Although this approach seems to work better in skill-based classes, it shows us one way to rethink the way we calculate grades so they are better aligned with who our students are as learners.

Grades are inherently imperfect. To truly assess our students' learning, we need to get to know them, observe them, and study a wide sampling of their work over time. When we reduce all that to a single measurement for the sake of efficiency, we lose that bigger picture. But as long as grades remain a reality in our system, let's be thoughtful and deliberate when we calculate them. ♦

Come back for more.
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Grades impact everything from college admissions to whether students get to go on certain field trips. With so much at stake, how can we make sure they measure what matters?

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from CAST

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Unwrapped Standards

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Clark County Employees if you currently have had a pre-existing account that you used InterAct account to login please continue to do so. If you are new to Clark County School District or new to Wiki-Teacher please create an account and login with your email address and password.

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List of Measurable Verbs Used to Assess Learning Outcomes

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List of Measurable Verbs Used to Assess Learning Outcomes. Clinton Community College in Plattsburgh, NY. Register today at (518) 562-4200 or clinton.edu.

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Not your everyday calendar, here you can find important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, all with related activities and resources that make them more relevant to students.

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Not your everyday calendar, here you can find important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, all with related activities and resources that make them more relevant to students.

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Rubric Maker

Make a standards-based rubric in less than a minute. Common Core ELA and Math, NGSS, C3, Core Art & 21st Century standards.
Sample Rubrics: Writing in Social Studies
CCSS Math Std 6.EE.B.6 + Critical thinking Sample Lessons: Volume of a Ford Escape
Limitations of our History Textbook
Identifying Themes in Literature
Kindergarten W.K.1 writing standard + Creativity standard
QuickStart Lesson Builder

Make a standards-based lesson in as little as 5 minutes! Add an activity or resource to spark higher-order thinking.

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Free contemporary K-12 curriculum design - ThemeSpark

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The ThemeSpark free web-based teacher tool was designed by former teacher David Hunter. The creator of the innovative Zombie-Based Learning curriculum, he founded our parent company EdCourage, Inc. to offer powerful teacher tools that easily add Authentic Learning to standards-based curriculum.

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Rubrics are generally something that makes the life of an educator easier. Rather than adding an arbitrary grade to an assignment, with rubrics educators are able to determine exactly where a student's work excelled beyond expectations and exactly where it lacked quality. Although they are highly valuable tools, creating rubrics can be a difficult and time consuming process. That is, it used to be a difficult and time consuming process until you found out about these 5 best free Rubric making tools for teachers.

How To Use The 5 Best Free Rubric Making Tools For Teachers
Editor's note: We have originally written and published this article in January 2014. Thanks to your useful suggestions and our own following of the latest developments in the fast paced field of technology, we have updated this piece in November 2015 in the hope that you will keep finding it useful. Thank you for sharing!

1. Annenberg Learner

2. EssayTagger Common Core Rubric Creation Tool

About EssayTagger Common Core Rubric Creation Tool:
The Essay Tagger Common Core Rubric creation tool is a service that allows teachers to simply and easily create rubrics based on Statewide Common Core Standards.

How To Use EssayTagger Common Core Rubric Creation Tool:
Click the link above to visit the EssayTagger Common Core Rubric creation tool. Once there, click the "Begin" button at the bottom of the page. First, select the grade level of your rubric and click "Continue". On the next page, determine the elements from the Common Core Standards that you would like students to be graded on and click "Continue". On the next page, customize the Common Core elements you specified and click "Continue". Now input the title of the rubric as well as your personal information and click "Create Rubric". Now you are able to print, download or share your new Rubric!

Create the best Course for your School with the Right Vendor

Find, choose and compare the top eLearning Content Development Companies for K12!

3. Teachnology General Rubric Generator

Free Educational Technology

Now that you have the 5 best free Rubric making tools for teachers, there's no reason not to utilize them in order to make grading every assignment easier!

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The 5 Best Free Rubric Making Tools For Teachers - eLearning Industry

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Rubrics are generally something that makes the life of an educator easier. Rather than adding an arbitrary grade to an assignment, with rubrics educators are able to determine exactly where a student's work excelled beyond expectations and exactly where it lacked quality. Although they are highly valuable tools, creating rubrics can be a difficult and time consuming process.

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Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

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In yesterday's post we talked about grading and we featured a number of apps to help teachers with their grading. In today's post we cover a closely related concept: rubrics. These are scoring and criterion-referenced guidelines teachers create to help with, among other things, the assessment of students performance. A rubric, according to Deborah Allen and Kimberly Tanner, "denotes a type of matrix that provides scaled levels of achievement or understanding for a set of criteria or dimensions of quality for a given type of performance, for example, a paper, an oral presentation, or use of teamwork skills."

Two major functions of rubrics are: guiding and assessing. They guide students as to what is expected of them in a given activity or assignment and they also assist teachers in evaluating students performance along a pre-defined set of values, standards, and objectives. Rubrics can be used by "a teacher to assess a student, a student to assess a peer, or a student to self-assess their own work" (TeachersFirst). Two main types of rubrics are to be distinguished here: Holistic and Analytic rubrics.

1- Holistic rubrics:
A holistic rubric is general in scope and uses a single scale where all assessment criteria are grouped into a single criteria used to assess the overall performance of students work."Performance descriptions are written in paragraphs and usually in full sentences". (Queens University).

2- Analytic rubrics
An analytic rubric addresses specific areas in students performance. It resembles a grid "with the criteria for a student product listed in the leftmost column and with levels of performance listed across the top row often using numbers and/or descriptive tags." (Depaul).

Reasons why you should use rubrics:

They make your grading objective by explicitly stating standards and grading norms to be followed

They help students make clear expectations of what a higher performance on particular performance tasks requires.

They 'encourage reflective practice on the part of both students and teachers' (Allen and Tanner)

Holistic rubrics save you time by "by minimizing the number of decisions raters make" (Depaul)

Analytic rubrics help you "provide useful feedback on areas of strength and weakness" (Depaul)

The sources list at the bottom of this post contains some useful links and resources to help you learn more about rubrics, how to use them, sample rubrics and many more.
There are several tools you can use to create rubrics. Below is a collection of some of the best of them:

1- Quick Rubric
This is a simple and easy tool to help you make different rubric types. You can build your rubric from scratch and when you are done you can save, print and share with others. Quick Rubric provides you with some handy resources to help you learn more about the pedagogic strength of rubrics.
2- Essay Tagger
Essay Tagger allows you to easily create Common Core-aligned rubrics. You can select the elements you want to include in your custom rubric. All along the way, Essay Tagger provides you with clear instructions on how to proceed in each stage in your rubric creation.
3- Rubric Maker
Rubric Maker is another simple and easy to use tool to create rubrics. It does not require registration and is totally web based. You can create and customize your rubric the way you want and when you are finished you can print and share it with others. It does not offer any option to save your finished product other than printing.

This is one of the most popular rubric makers out there. It provides pre-made rubric templates based on different topics (e.g., math, writing, science, music, reading). The tool is free and can be used without registration, however, only registered members are allowed to save and edit their rubrics.
5- Teacher Rubric
Teacher rubric is a Google Docs add-on that lets you create quick rubrics. It "increases the teacher's grading productivity by eliminating repetitive clicks, presenting the rubric selections in an easy to use format and presenting the final grades in a consistent, professional format."

Sources:
1- http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/rubrics/what-are-rubrics.cfm
2- http://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-development/Documents/Tutorials/Rubrics/1_what_is/easy_as_pie.htm
3- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1618692/
4- http://www.schrockguide.net/assessment-and-rubrics.html
5- https://chfasoa.uni.edu/analyticholisticrubrics.pdf
6- https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/assessing-student-work/grading-and-feedback/rubrics-useful-assessment-tools
7- https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/feedback-grading/rubrics/Pages/types-of-rubrics.aspx
8- http://www.queensu.ca/teachingandlearning/modules/assessments/35_s4_05_types_of_rubrics.html
9- http://www.teachhub.com/technology-classroom-tools-create-rubrics
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Creating Rubrics: Tools and Resources for Teachers

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In yesterday's post we talked about grading and we featured a number of apps to help teachers with their grading. In today's post we cover a closely related concept: rubrics. These are scoring and criterion-referenced guidelines teachers create to help with, among other things, the assessment of students performance.

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TeachersFirst - Rubrics to the Rescue: What Are Rubrics

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Students have been known to refer to rubrics as “those things with the little boxes”, while teachers know rubrics as a set of scoring guidelines that evaluate students’ work and provide a clear teaching directive. Rubrics are a powerful, authentic tool used to assess students’ work. This scoring tool lists specific criteria for a project or piece of work. The criterion helps students to have a concrete understanding and visualization of “what counts”. Each standard or criteria also includes a gradation scale of quality. The rating scale could be numerical, qualitative, or a combination of both. Rubrics seek to evaluate assignments based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score.

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Here's an example of a rubric for an apple pie. "Below Expectations," "Meets Expectations" and "Above Expectations" are the rating scale indicators of recipe, apple filling and crust criteria. The indicators are filled in with descriptors of each level of quality.

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Analytic Rubrics

An analytic rubric resembles a grid with the criteria for a student product listed in the leftmost column and with levels of performance listed across the top row often using numbers and/or descriptive tags. The cells within the center of the rubric may be left blank or may contain descriptions of what the specified criteria look like for each level of performance. When scoring with an analytic rubric each of the criteria is scored individually.

Example Analytic Rubric

Articulating Thoughts Through Written Communication-Final Paper

Advantages of Analytic Rubrics

Provide useful feedback on areas of strength and weakness.

Criterion can be weighted to reflect the relative importance of each dimension.

Disadvantages of Analytic Rubrics

Takes more time to create and use than a holistic rubric.

Unless each point for each criterion is well-defined raters may not arrive at the same score

Developmental Rubrics

Developmental rubrics are a subset of analytic trait rubrics.

The main distinction between developmental rubrics and other analytic trait rubrics is that the purpose of developmental rubrics is not to evaluate an end product or performance. Instead, developmental rubrics are designed to answer the question, "to what extent are students who engage in our programs/services developing this skill/ability/value/etc.?"

Generally, this type of rubric would be based on a theory of development.

Example Developmental Rubric

Intercultural Maturity

King, P.M. & Baxter Magolda, M.B. (2005). A developmental model of intercultural maturity, Journal of College Student Development, 46(2), 571-592.

Advantages of Developmental Rubrics

Useful when the goal of evaluation is to determine level of development rather than the quality of a final product.
Especially when there is no expectation that students should or could fully develop a skill or ability during the course of their education or potentially ever (such as in "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs," there is no expectation people can or will become "self-actualized").

Rubric can be based on relevant developmental theory.

Disadvantages of Developmental Rubrics

Conceptually, this type of rubric is more difficult to design.

Developing a developmental rubric requires a close tie between assessment criteria and the theory of development.

Holistic Rubrics

A holistic rubric consists of a single scale with all criteria to be included in the evaluation being considered together (e.g., clarity, organization, and mechanics). With a holistic rubric the rater assigns a single score (usually on a 1 to 4 or 1 to 6 point scale) based on an overall judgment of the student work. The rater matches an entire piece of student work to a single description on the scale.

Example Holistic Rubric

Articulating thoughts through written communication- final paper/project.

1. Above Average: The audience is able to easily identify the focus of the work and is engaged by its clear focus and relevant details. Information is presented logically and naturally. There are no more than two mechanical errors or misspelled words to distract the reader.

2. Sufficient: The audience is easily able to identify the focus of the student work which is supported by relevant ideas and supporting details. Information is presented in a logical manner that is easily followed. There is minimal interruption to the work due to misspellings and/or mechanical errors.

3. Developing: The audience can identify the central purpose of the student work without little difficulty and supporting ideas are present and clear. The information is presented in an orderly fashion that can be followed with little difficulty. There are some misspellings and/or mechanical errors, but they do not seriously distract from the work.

4. Needs Improvement: The audience cannot clearly or easily identify the central ideas or purpose of the student work. Information is presented in a disorganized fashion causing the audience to have difficulty following the author's ideas. There are many misspellings and/or mechanical errors that negatively affect the audience's ability to read the work.

Advantages of Holistic Rubrics

Emphasis on what the learner is able to demonstrate, rather than what s/he cannot do.

Saves time by minimizing the number of decisions raters make.

Can be applied consistently by trained raters increasing reliability.

Disadvantages of Holistic Rubrics

Does not provide specific feedback for improvement.

When student work is at varying levels spanning the criteria points it can be difficult to select the single best description.

Criteria cannot be weighted.

Checklists

Checklists are a distinct type of rubric - where there are only two performance levels possible. Checklists tend to be longer than other types of rubrics since each aspect of performance you are looking for in students' work/performances essentially becomes its own criterion. When you are using a checklist, every decision is binary (yes/no, present/absent, pass/fail, etc.). Most rubrics can be converted rather directly into a checklist. For example, here is a rubric for grading journal entries:

Here is the same rubric converted into a checklist:

Advantages of Checklists

Checklists are generally a simpler and faster way to grade than using a more traditional rubric since you are making discrete decisions for each individual performance criterion rather than trying to determine where students' work fall into performance criteria that generally encompass a range of difference performance expectations. This also makes the grading clearer to students. Using checklists may result in less arbitrary (and more consistent) grading decisions. For example, most instructors are clear on what the top performances look like and what the bottom performances look like, but the middle gets fuzzier. When students understand that their grades will be based on all or nothing decisions, checklists also have the potential to raise the rigor of and students' performances on our assignments.

Disadvantages of Checklists

Creating checklists for your assignments might be a slightly onerous process. This is both because checklists are longer than a traditional rubric and because identifying each of the discrete elements of "clearly written" or "well organized" might be difficult. You may find that cannot easily convert every performance element you are looking for into a checklist format. Performance criteria that are difficult to operationalize will also be difficult to convert into a checklist. It may also be difficult to decide on the exact level of granularity that might be appropriate for each assignment. For example, "uses good grammar" might be appropriate for most classes, but would be far too broad if you are teaching a course on grammar. Checklists also lose the middle so there is not a way to award credit to students who get most of the way toward achieving a criterion.

​

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An analytic rubric resembles a grid with the criteria for a student product listed in the leftmost column and with levels of performance listed across the top row often using numbers and/or descriptive tags. The cells within the center of the rubric may be left blank or may contain descriptions of what the specified criteria look like for each level of performance.

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Overview

In a UDL-based classroom, assessment is a source of meaningful information that enables educators to plan flexible learning activities that support student learning. As UDL curriculum is designed to be flexible and accessible, the assessment methods should be the same.

Assessment in the UDL classroom means providing the strategies and tools to students so that they can best demonstrate their learning. There should be no mystery to assessment. Students should know exactly how they will be assessed and what knowledge or skills they are responsible for demonstrating. They should know what mastery level understanding looks like and how to achieve it.

Transparency in assessment methods will not only result in a better overall learning outcome for students, it will also reduce the students' stress and anxiety that is normally associated with assessment. Research and experience clearly show when students are stressed or feeling anxious, demonstration of understanding and performance levels are reduced. The goal of assessment in the UDL classroom is to provide an additional activity that enhances the students' learning experience while simultaneously providing the teacher with the information needed to plan subsequent learning activities.

Assessment within the UDL framework is the area in which most educators express the most concern. How will I assess my students if they are all doing different activities? How can I assign grades if they are showing their learning in different ways? How am I supposed to compare a puppet show to a book report? And the big question - isn't it unfair to compare a puppet show to a book report? These are all valid concerns - the answer lies in shifting from assessing the learning product to assessing attainment of the learning outcomes.

In this video, teachers discuss how they tackle the challenge of assessment in their classrooms now that students are engaged in producing a variety of projects. They reflect on some of the same concerns all educators have and how they have seen the benefits of transparent and flexible assessment methods.

In a traditional curriculum, goals are often constrained by a single method used to achieve the goal. Students work toward the same goal using the same resources and tools to produce the same product. This automatically sets the bar too high for some students and too low for others. The design is intended for the 'average' student. But who is that mythical 'average' student? Most UDL educators feel he doesn't exist and, even if he does, designing for the 'average' misses everyone else. In a UDL classroom, students work toward the same learning goal, but they may use different methods to attain it and varying ways to demonstrate their learning along the way.

To be effective in this area, we need to be clear on what we are assessing. For example, if we ask students to write an essay about the diminishing habitat of polar bears, are we focused on assessing how well the student is able to write and follow the structure and quality of essay writing conventions or are we focused on assessing the students' understanding regarding the future of polar bear habitat? We can add the necessary flexibility once we identify our assessment target. Continuing with this example, if we are interested in assessing our students' skills in essay writing, the topic for the essay itself can be open to student choice instead of restricting it to polar bear habitat. On the other hand, if we are interested in assessing students' understanding about global warming and how it impacts polar bear habitat, we can allow students to demonstrate this understanding in various ways like creating a PowerPoint presentation, a diorama, a poem, and so on.

When assessing students who are completing different tasks to demonstrate their learning, it would be extremely challenging to generate assessment criteria for each specific type of product or presentation students may choose to complete. A better strategy is to use the lesson's 'big idea' and 'essential questions' to form the basis of the learning outcomes to be assessed. Every student, no matter what product he or she was creating, would be subject to the same assessment criteria. Once again, it is most effective to involve students in the determination of the assessment criteria - a natural activity while discussing the learning goals for the lesson or unit.

There are more standard assessment guidelines that BC educators can use to develop their assessment tools. For example, the BC Performance Standards for tasks related to reading and writing could be used to assess students on their proficiency when completing tasks with literacy based outcomes.

In general, in the UDL-based classroom, there are 3 different types of assessment that mutually inform students and teachers about the level of student understanding. All three are an integral part of a UDL-based curriculum and are planned before the curriculum is delivered. The three types of assessment include:

Assessment for learning

Assessment of learning

Assessment as learning

Assessment for Learning

Assessment for Learning is also referred to as formative assessment. This type of assessment happens on-the-spot during a classroom activity as an informal check-in to determine where students are in the general pacing of a lesson. This feedback allows teachers to make changes to the lesson in a responsive and immediate fashion. This form of assessment works with both whole-class or individual response.

This short video shows how some teachers use this no-tech assessment strategy to check student understanding during the lesson. This is a non-threatening strategy for students as they can change their answers if needed.
Video: Personal Whiteboards Nick Korvin, teacher
Should see your whiteboard out and solve for x please, start with the equation and then solve for x.
Pam Rutton, teacher
So as I read through the stories, the story, you're welcome to draw on your whiteboard or use your tiles as I read through the story.

Spaghetti and meatballs for all. He baked 16 loaves of garlic bread and made 8 pounds of fresh pasta. He simmered 8 quarts of spaghetti sauce and rolled 96 meatballs.

Okay so as of right now I would like to see your setting for 22 people.
Nadia Young, teacher
You will need one whiteboard and I will hand out a clock after.

Assessment of Learning

Assessment of Learning is also referred to as summative assessment. This form of assessment is based on a collection of information throughout a designated time period. Assessment of learning focuses on the level of a student's understanding about the concepts, information and skills that were presented and developed during a unit of study. Common forms of summative assessment include: mid-term or final exams, student portfolios, projects that have written and/or oral products, or performance tasks that demonstrate student mastery of the learning outcomes.

To ensure students to know what is expected of them, clear criteria must be presented at the outset of a lesson or unit. This is key to ensuring that student efforts are appropriately directed at learning outcome achievement and they perform well during summative assessment activities.

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In a UDL-based classroom, assessment is a source of meaningful information that enables educators to plan flexible learning activities that support student learning. As UDL curriculum is designed to be flexible and accessible, the assessment methods should be the same.

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Using UDL Correctly to Assess Student Performance

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Using UDL Correctly to Assess Student Performance

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We empower educators to reimagine and redesign learning through impactful pedagogy and meaningful technology use. We achieve this by offering transformative professional learning, fostering vibrant communities, and ensuring that digital tools and experiences are accessible and effective.

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We create practical, timely, affordable professional learning to help educators and instructional leaders provide students with a modern, equitable, and quality education.

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Multiple choice tests have been a staple of student assessment for decades, and it is likely that they will remain so for a long time to come.

The biggest advantages of multiple choice tests include that they are extremely easy to grade, and it is simple for teachers to identify where students and classes at large struggle. A simple scan through a grading machine will score the tests, and item analyses options help teachers see where there are areas of strength and weakness.

Multiple choice tests conducted properly are another tool for teachers to measure learning and reflection. But there are many different ways to assess student skills, and multiple choice tests need to be understood within the spectrum of the many options available.

Another powerful assessment tool for teachers to use is to have students write down their own answers to questions. Instead of having students merely select the correct option, written answers compel students to compose their own unique answers to demonstrate their understanding.

A written assessment can come in many forms, depending on what the teacher desires. Whether one question, several questions, or many questions, the written test has several advantages that cannot be as easily replicated in multiple choice assessments.

Advantage 1: Students are forced to demonstrate the extent of their knowledge. There is no such thing as "guessing" on a written test. Students either know the material or they don't, and the format of the test requires that they express their understanding rather than merely bubble in someone else's words.

Advantage 2: Articulation is part of the assessment. While a multiple choice test can help assess student thinking, it allows little room for student articulation. A written assessment instead requires that students perform two essential tasks - thinking and the articulation of that thinking.

Advantage 3: Students can explain their thinking. Students often try to "argue" their reason for picking a certain multiple choice answer that, in their mind, seemed perfectly justifiable at the time. Whether they have a good reason or not, if we reflect on it, it is exactly that skill - the identifying and arguing in defense of one's answer - that we really want students to do. A written assessment offers a format for students to defend their answer by proving that their reasoning is justified.

Advantage 4: Written assessments take less time to create. While proper time should be allocated to deciding what exact questions to ask and how to phrase them, written assessments generally require less design time than multiple choice tests. Multiple choice assessments require many questions and many possible answers choices. Written tests only require the questions. (But yes, you're correct, they do take more time to grade.)

Advantage 5: Teachers can provide better feedback on answers. A multiple choice question is either right or wrong. On a written assessment, an answer may be partially correct, and different portions of the answer may receive different attention. A written, developed answer allows for more opportunity for a teacher to assess thinking and articulation, and an instructor can target feedback to address specific portions of a student's response.

While there are many different kinds of assessments, a written assessment offers several advantages that multiple choice tests cannot. As a teacher is deciding how to best prepare and assess his or her students, the instructor should take the advantages and disadvantages of each form of testing into consideration.

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are written assessments better than multiple choice tests

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Multiple choice tests have been a staple of student assessment for decades, and it is likely that they will remain so for a long time to come. The biggest advantages of multiple choice tests include that they are extremely easy to grade, and it is simple for teachers to identify where students and classes at large struggle.