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Similar to morning meeting geared for middle schoolers

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Responsive Advisory Meeting is a purposeful routine for meeting the needs of young adolescents through building positive, meaningful relationships with caring adults and peers. There are four sequential components: arrival welcome, announcements, acknowledgments, and activity.

Why Middle Schoolers Benefit from Responsive Advisory Meeting

Responsive Advisory Meeting serves as an anchor for adolescents, a predictable routine that students need more than ever as they undergo rapid physical, emotional, and intellectual changes. Advisory provides a space and structure for teachers to support middle school students, both individually and as a group, as they develop their sense of self and identity in connection to their relationships with peers.

Responsive Advisory Meeting supports middle school students of all levels of development:

For new middle schoolers, consistency is key. While navigating a new building, adjusting to a different schedule, and mastering that right of the passage that is the locker, students find comfort and consistency in Advisory.

For older middle schoolers, Advisory offers agency. It is a springboard from which ideas for student-led service projects arise and a meeting ground for safe, healthy debate among students engaged in learning as a community.

The Four Components of Responsive Advisory Meeting

1. Arrival welcome - The teacher welcomes each student by name as they enter.

2. Announcements - In advance, the teacher writes an interactive message and displays it where it can be easily seen and read by all students.

3. Acknowledgments - In pairs or small groups, students share their responses to a prompt in the announcements message, a piece of news about themselves, or ideas about a topic related to their studies or interests.

4. Activity - The whole group does a fun, lively activity that's focused on the specific purpose of the meeting

Things to Remember

Responsive Advisory Meetings can be autonomous or can build on a common theme. Here are some tips for each component.

1. Arrival Welcome: Use your very first Responsive Advisory Meeting to focus on names. Ask each student to introduce themselves rather than reading names off a roster. This ensures that everyone is being addressed by their preferred name (which may not match the name on your roster or may have changed since the last time students were together) and that everyone can hear the proper pronunciation of each name.

2. Announcements: Communicate with digital natives digitally. If your school uses tablets or laptops, try writing the Announcement as an email or chat scheduled to send at the start of class. This also allows for more accessibility as students with visual impairments can enlarge the font and those with reading difficulty can wear headphone and listen to the message through a text reader.

3. Acknowledgments: Always read the room. Keep Acknowledgements low-risk at the beginning of the year or on those not uncommon occasions when students in the group have carried an underlying social conflict into Advisory that day. A simple one-word share around the room is always an easy choice.

4. Activity: Here is your chance to get students sinking their teeth into a rich content area or theme. Foster engagement by keeping the format fresh. If students are working on small group, on-going projects for a week or more, allow time for the group to break into pairs or for moments of solitary work and reflection.

The Purposes of Responsive Advisory Meeting

Advisory is designed to address seven key purposes:

1. Build student to student affiliation

2. Energize and re-engage

3. Reflect & recalibrate

4. Extend learning through themes

5. Support academic readiness

6. Strengthen advisor-advisee relationships

7. Develop communication and social skills development

As you become more comfortable with the practice and work to design Advisories for the year ahead, keeping these purposes in mind can help to scaffold effective, engaging lesson plans for all students.

Popular Articles about Responsive Advisory Meeting

Looking to introduce Responsive Advisory Meeting into your classroom or refine your current practices? Here are some of our most read articles on the subject:

Further Resources

For a more thorough exploration of this practice, including practical tips and effective ideas for each component, check out the following:

Also be sure to check our sample lesson plan and our 1-day planner with guiding questions to help you purposefully plan each component.

Tags: Building Classroom Community, Getting Started with RC, Responsive Advisory Meeting

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Responsive Advisory Meeting serves as an anchor for adolescents, a predictable routine that students need more than ever as they undergo rapid physical, emotional, and intellectual changes.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching

An interaction with a student prompts an elementary teacher to revamp her classroom library to make it more inclusive.

The library is the physical and metaphorical center of my classroom. It is a reading world adorned with a carpet, comfy chairs, a lamp, and bins of neatly organized books. When I remember my own childhood, I picture a colorful tapestry woven by the hundreds of worlds I visited through the pages of books.

Imagine my surprise when one of my students commented about what I thought was a magical space, "I'm tired of reading about white kids."

She followed this with a reminder that I, her teacher, am also not white. I was taken aback. More than 60 percent of my students are individuals of color. My library featured white characters almost exclusively. What schema was I helping to create for my students? I decided to make a change.

Start With What You Have

I began by making bins around the subjects I intended to cover. Make the bins you want to fill, even if they have only one book in them.

I already owned some books about characters from diverse ethnic backgrounds, but they were hidden-mixed in with other chapter books in bins marked with reading levels. I pulled every book out of the bins and made a pile on the floor. I weeded out books about people of color written by white authors and books that reinforce stereotypes, like The Indian in the Cupboard.

Look for topics that can be covered by your existing titles. You might need to start without much in the way of cultural diversity. Examples of such topics include Caring for Others, Be Yourself, Accepting Differences, Standing Up for What's Right, and Girls Are Powerful.

Involve Your Students

One student took the first bin and labeled it Books About Asian Americans. It was followed by Books About African Americans. Per student requests, we made bins for a variety of cultural groups and labeled them Chinese American Girls, Native Americans, and Kids Who Recently Moved to the U.S.

Although the majority of bins were focused on ethnicity, students also made bins for themes and topics such as disabilities, different types of families, foster care, and divorce.

Ask your students to suggest books. Keep a list in your library and have students find books they want to read.

Choose Relatable Stories

We're careful when choosing the books for the bins. I want contemporary books written about contemporary issues. I want students to feel proud and accepted-to see other children who struggle to find a voice, and who have dreams and challenges like their own. I carefully distinguish between realistic fiction and historical fiction.

Imagine if the only time you read a book about someone who looked like you, it was about slavery-and it was the only book in your classroom library to represent you. Or the book was about an internment camp. Yes, we need to remember this history. But these historical accounts should not be the only books that a student sees in the library that reflect his or her background.

Continue the Momentum

Creating a diverse library is an ongoing project. I found many diverse books at library sales and at secondhand stores like Goodwill. When I found multiple copies of the same book, I bought them all, including seven copies of Becoming Naomi Leon.

When it was time to replenish books through PTA or classroom funds, I made a concerted effort to buy culturally inclusive books. My library began slowly shifting. There are many resources to find diverse reading materials.

Make your space reflective of your intentions. In your library, get rid of decorations that do not have a function. Hang posters of African American writers, Native American poets, or Mexican American novelists.

Suggest that the school library start a special section for culturally inclusive books. I had many conversations with our school librarian about ways to build a more diverse collection.

Student Engagement and Self-Esteem

It was a big deal when our diverse classroom library began taking shape. Students took care of our bins and worked to find other books that could be included. Books previously unread- Year of the Dog, for example-were suddenly hot commodities. We had a waitlist for books by Pam Muñoz Ryan and Louise Erdrich.

Students began caring for books-holding each other accountable for returning them properly and for taking care of the organizational systems of our library. The classroom library was "our library." It was a place of pride in our individual and collective stories.

"I think it's good," the student told me later when I interviewed her about our library. "It's good except for..." and she pointed to the one book bin that was empty: Books About Girls From Senegal. That was a bin, she assured me with her bright grin, she was going to fill one day.

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Culturally Responsive Teaching An interaction with a student prompts an elementary teacher to revamp her classroom library to make it more inclusive. The library is the physical and metaphorical center of my classroom. It is a reading world adorned with a carpet, comfy chairs, a lamp, and bins of neatly organized books.

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Center for Responsive Schools is pleased to offer these free resources to support a safe reopening of schools. Created by teachers for teachers, these plans keep social distancing and virtual learning environments in mind as they guide teachers in welcoming students to the new school year and rebuilding positive, equitable learning communities.

The First 10 Days of Morning Meetings (K-6) and The First 10 Days of Responsive Advisory Meetings (6-8) will help you bring hope and joy back to your classrooms, whether you are teaching in-person, virtually, or both. Complete the form below for free access to these resources!

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Center for Responsive Schools is pleased to offer these free resources to support a safe reopening of schools. Created by teachers for teachers, these plans keep social distancing and virtual learning environments in mind as they guide teachers in welcoming students to the new school year and rebuilding positive, equitable learning communities.

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Sample form for feedback from students

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Google Forms - create and analyze surveys, for free.

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The calendar below is not a comprehensive list of religious and cultural holidays, but it includes dates of particular significance to some traditions represented on campus. Holy days may fall on different dates from year to year because many are calculated based on a lunar calendar. Dates of holy day observances may also vary regionally.

Suggestions for additions to this list may be directed to Kerrie Stewart.

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The calendar below is not a comprehensive list of religious and cultural holidays, but it includes dates of particular significance to some traditions represented on campus. Holy days may fall on different dates from year to year because many are calculated based on a lunar calendar.

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High School is not the time to let up on SEL

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High School is not the time to let up on SEL

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Edutopia article about the importance of SEL with high school students.

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In elementary school, it's common to have social and emotional lessons built into the curriculum, and the research shows that they have a strong, positive impact on student outcomes and school climate. But a 2019 survey of 15,000 K-12 teachers and 3,500 principals confirms what many probably suspect-that by the time kids reach high school, standalone SEL lessons are rare. The study's authors suggest that "explicit, stand-alone lessons tend to be better suited for, and more likely to be adopted in, elementary schools." And as kids enter the teenage years, they found, teachers tend to use more informal practices-for example, squeezing in short exercises when busy academic schedules permit.

The relative scarcity of high school SEL lessons, says David S. Yeager, assistant professor of developmental psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, is a question of quality. "Typical SEL programs ... have a very poor track record with middle adolescents, even when they work with [younger] children," writes Yeager in a 2017 report. "Programs for adolescents are sometimes simply aged-up versions of childhood programs-for instance, they communicate the same message, but now the character doing the talking has a skateboard and a chain wallet."

That's almost certainly not good enough. Teens are not outsized elementary students-nor are they mini-adults, ready to take on adult schedules and responsibilities without lots of help. Virtually all of the cognitive science and research from the last two decades reveals that the adolescent brain is still undergoing dramatic change. In particular, a profound reorganization of the prefrontal cortex is believed to reflect their continuing struggle with executive function skills like self-control and emotional regulation, while a more mature rewards center in their brains pumps out a steady stream of new desires, interests, and social attractions. Teens are, as a result, more sensitive to social rejection and much more likely to take risks to impress peers; more prone to addiction and depression; and more likely to experience the onset of mental illness than any other age group. That's borne out in a battery of studies that show rising rates of teen anxiety, depression, suicide, and mental health issues.

Former high school teacher Ronen Habib knows that our SEL practices need to catch up to the science and extend into high school, and he has personal experience with the kind of stress and anxiety that teens face. Three years into his first teaching job at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, Habib felt overwhelmed by burnout and exhaustion, feeling he'd "lost touch with why I became a teacher in the first place-which was to deeply inspire and connect with kids," he says. Then one of his students died by suicide-"It totally broke me," he recalls.

After therapy and mindfulness practice helped Habib get back on his feet, he thought: "Why are we not teaching these same skills to kids, because they're trainable skills. We assume kids don't know how to add fractions, so we teach them, as we should. Why do we assume they know how to self-regulate? Why do we assume they know how to raise their base level of happiness?"

Redesigning the First Few Minutes of a Class

For Habib, changing how he approached his students and his job started with capitalizing on the first few minutes of class each day. "We can't take for granted where our students are. Every student comes into the classroom from a different place," he said. "Some students just saw their parents fight. Another student is hungry. They're all over the place. You need to help them to bring their lid back down so they're able to actually be here with you. And you do that through connection."

Based on these ideas, Habib designed and taught a popular Positive Psychology class to Henry M. Gunn High School juniors and seniors and thinks every school should have one-but if you don't, changing how you approach the first few minutes of class is a good place to start.

Here are a few practices Habib recommends for the beginning of class. They are designed to prime kids' brains for learning and provide students with a portable model they can use every day-even outside the classroom.

Gratitude circles: "Even before the bell rang, my students knew they needed to sit down, take out their journal, and write three things they feel grateful for." After journaling, Habib stood in a circle with his students, and each shared something they felt grateful for. "It doesn't take long, like two minutes, and it ups the base happiness level for everyone," he says. "These two minutes establish what's called emotional resonance in the classroom-when brains are in sync in a positive way because people are experiencing positive emotions together."

In Redwood City, California, high school teacher Aukeem Ballard employs a similar 60-second closing circle exercise he calls " the three As," during which students can volunteer statements he calls appreciations, apologies, and ahas. Ballard says it helps his class reflect positively on their day and builds classroom community.

Playing games: Habib also suggests trying two to three minutes of warm-up games like "pass the ball" or " counting to 10" -lighthearted games designed "just to create joy and connection," he says. Among stressed-out teenagers, "laughter is so contagious, it's powerful."

Laura Davis, a high school teacher in Honolulu, Hawaii, likes to use a rotating set of fun warm-ups like "three-sentence story" or "eye scream" once a week at the beginning of class. "Many students tell me that warm-ups are the best part of their day," Davis writes.

Mindfulness practice: Finally, Habib suggests leading students in a couple of minutes of mindfulness practice, such as mindful breathing, where students take one, then three more, mindful breaths and notice what happens somatically in their bodies.

When teachers give students the space to quiet down and reflect on where they're at, says Aukeem Ballard, it's a concrete way for them to practice emotional intelligence skills such as self-awareness and self-management. "The hypothesis is that if you can do that, then you are better equipped to interact with your environment in a proactive way, instead of in an extremely reactive way," Ballard explains.

Easing Up on Homework

Habib's homework awakening came during his years teaching AP economics-micro and macro-at Gunn High School. They were intense, rigorous courses, with lots of homework. The trouble was, Habib discovered that some of his students were cheating, and when he tried making homework assignments more complex and cheat-proof, kids devised new ways to cheat.

When a fellow economics teacher explained that he preferred a zero-homework policy, Habib recalls, "my brain exploded, like, that's a real thing? It just completely opened up a new arena of possibilities for me."

He eliminated homework the following school year. In its place, he developed strong formative assessments that provided deeper, more accurate reads of students' knowledge and skills. Where prior formatives had been less important to students' grades, because homework had played a larger role in the grading equation, now a solid formative assessment became a catalyst for students to up their game. "It was amazing-the kids were a lot more engaged and asking much better questions," says Habib.

With all the time he saved not grading homework, Habib headed to the gym. "I took care of myself, which made me a much better teacher-a lot more centered, a lot more energy. And happier."

Prioritizing Connection

The effort to make human connections, says Habib, should underpin all social and emotional work in schools-and high school is no exception. "For kids to know that there is at least one adult, for example, in a school that cares about them is massively important." In large schools with 1,500 or more students, this can be challenging. "There's always about 50 kids that no one knows," he says. That's when schools need to do relationship mapping. "You get all the teachers in the gym; you print all the kids' names on whiteboards. And you tell teachers to put a dot next to students that they know," says Habib. "The students who don't have dots, you assign teachers to them and tell them to form a relationship with this kid. It's so critical."

Teacher David Tow makes a habit of checking in regularly with his high school students. It's important to ask each student, "'How are you doing?'-and mean it," says Tow. "For the past six years, I've stood at the door and welcomed my high school students in with a handshake and a variant of that question. If I sense any problems, I might ask 'Really?' or 'You sure?'" It's reassuring for teens to know that "an adult in their life cares about their well-being," Tow writes. "Student responses, even if they don't answer honestly, can reveal volumes about their actual mental and emotional status." For online classes, have students queue up in a virtual "waiting room"-you can often find this feature in the settings of a tool like Zoom-so that you can admit and greet each child by name.

Tow also makes a point of scheduling a "substantial check-in" with every student each month and sets standing office hours, which he uses "to meet with students about more than just academic concerns."

Building In Your Own Self-Care

A happier teacher is critical when it comes to modeling mindful, emotionally regulated behavior to students. "A very simple technique for teachers is to take a minute, put a hand on your stomach, take a deep breath, and notice your stomach rise and fall with your hand," says Habib. "Believe it or not, doing that actually makes a huge difference: It reminds you that you have a body. It reminds you to take deep and healthy breaths."

Teachers are always busy. "But the truth is, you can give yourself 30 minutes to work out every day, or go on a walk-it's your choice," he says. It's a mindset that requires being "ruthless with protecting your time." This means, for example, closing the classroom door during the after-lunch prep period to do a 15-minute meditation, or working out in the school gym before prepping for the next class. "That doesn't mean that you always close the door," he added. "But it means that sometimes you can't serve students, and that's OK."

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High School Is Not the Time to Let Up on SEL

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In elementary school, it's common to have social and emotional lessons built into the curriculum, and the research shows that they have a strong, positive impact on student outcomes and school climate. But a 2019 survey of 15,000 K-12 teachers and 3,500 principals confirms what many probably suspect-that by the time kids reach high school, standalone SEL lessons are rare.

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In his article, Michael Moody, asks us to look internally to help solve issues surrounding equity in schools.
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-08-27-is-growth-mindset-the-missing-piece-in-the-equity-discussion

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How does a school or district begin to tackle the seemingly insurmountable issue of equity? Decades of attempts at closing the persistent (and perhaps even widening) achievement gap, along with the knowledge that this is an immense and deeply historical issue to address, make it feel as if the task may be impossible. Yet we have ample data to suggest that the need is there and is essential to address, because nearly all aspects of a child's education are impacted by underlying issues related to race.

Despite challenges, many districts are trying to support growth for all students, no matter what their circumstances. We see strategic plans emerging that name equity as a goal. And for some time now we've seen school improvement plans focused on "closing the achievement gap." The upshot is typically an increased focus on data collection or improving existing intervention approaches to accelerate achievement.

I would argue that these actions are important, but alone they're insufficient. There's a much more fundamental question we need to ask ourselves: Do we really understand the root causes of inequitable education, and do we really believe in equity?

While many leaders strive to identify how to address the inequity experienced by our students, this work will likely falter if we don't first acknowledge that the first step is examining the people-not just the policies-behind this complex equation. I believe we'd make more progress by first focusing on ourselves as individuals and then using what we've learned to improve entire schools or systems. After all, it's the individuals in the system who ultimately impact student achievement on a day-to-day basis.

Asking the Big Questions

The first step in this process involves asking educators to unpack the big questions about our own biases. We can start by asking ourselves questions like:

What background and experiences do I bring into my classroom that impact how I engage with students and my colleagues?

How do my background and beliefs potentially bias my work as an educator?

What do I truly believe is possible in terms of student achievement?

Many educators have an image of equity in their minds that only relates to race. While race is, of course, a major factor in these discussions, I approach equity as a much broader construct. For example, consider white students in rural Mississippi and white students in Santa Monica, Calif. While both of these groups of students are the same race, they likely receive very different educational experiences. Socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, family background, disability, religious beliefs-there are so many aspects of who we are as human beings that must be considered to ensure equitable environments and opportunities for all kids.

But when different schools, even those within the same district, face such different issues, how do we begin to tackle these issues head on? First of all, the solutions will need to be tailored to the specific context. And oftentimes that context includes acknowledging deep, sometimes difficult historical events. We have to remember that equity is not just about our current status. We must also acknowledge that generations have fought for the right to freedom, equality and education. The challenge now is to move beyond talking about wanting equitable opportunities for kids, and honoring those who have previously fought so hard for equity by joining their courageous efforts to do something about it.

That work begins with asking salient questions such as:

How do we recognize bias?

How did we get here?

What do we do with this knowledge?

How does bias impact our interactions with students?

Is my bias impacting outcomes for the students I serve?

The ability to answer these questions honestly is the first step. The belief that will allow educators to enter this self-exploration and these conversations is growth mindset, the idea that existing skills and abilities can be improved through dedication and hard work. Addressing equity with a growth mindset is an opportunity for educators to take off their "teacher hat" and put on their "learner hat."

Helping Teachers Be Learners Too

To grapple with the issue of equity, educators need guidance and resources that will help them to not only examine their own teaching practices, but to engage in the often-challenging discussions with colleagues and administrators. They need to acknowledge where their own classrooms and schools may be lacking in addressing equity and plan steps to address these needs.

Additionally, teachers and school leaders can examine data such as attendance, discipline and student achievement, looking for trends that might provide insights into whether or not the school is providing equitable opportunities for students and identifying strategies that might help to level the playing field. Another often neglected, but rich source of data lies within our students. We need to be asking them about their experiences in school and how we can improve upon what they experience every day. This open and honest dialogue is a "must" as part of our data that informs what we do about equity.

Often, teachers don't have these opportunities to engage in such conversations or rigorous professional learning. Schools and districts may provide professional development around the issue of equity and hope that it results in a transformation of their teachers' practices. But in reality, these "workshops" satisfy issues of compliance but lack the design necessary to actually impact instructional practice in any tangible way.

Only with defined, ongoing structures can teachers develop the growth mindset required for transforming their practices in ways that help to address issues of equity in education. This is, and will be, challenging work. But it is the right work.

Clear Structures to Address Equity

A first step for school leaders who want to be a catalyst for real change is to provide the time and space to have conversations about equity-and acknowledge that it's a process, not an event. Leaders need to explicitly plan for and facilitate this work. This might be at grade-level, school-level, or district-wide meetings.

Educators need ongoing opportunities to:

Talk about equity;

Define what equity means and examine it from both a personal and professional perspective;

Look at data to unpack issues of equity;

Discuss the lack of equity with students to discover how it manifests itself in the student experience; and

Brainstorm causes for these issues.

In addition to carving out time and facilitating difficult conversations, leaders must provide structures for teachers to engage in this work. This might include coaching around instructional practice to help teachers address the needs of all learners. It may involve examining the existing support structures and re-evaluating their effectiveness.

Ultimately, school leaders need to examine the way they engage with the issue of equity with every stakeholder. We need to stop talking about it only at the policy level and start engaging everybody in the conversation. Addressing issues of equity is no easy task, but nothing will change until we take the first step toward including teachers in the process as individuals whose perspectives matter and have an impact on the work of educating all students.

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Is Growth Mindset the Missing Piece in the Equity Discussion? - EdSurge News

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How does a school or district begin to tackle the seemingly insurmountable issue of equity? Decades of attempts at closing the persistent (and perhaps even widening) achievement gap, along with the knowledge that this is an immense and deeply historical issue to address, make it feel as if the task may be impossible.