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An examination of four meta-analyses of SEL programs found multiple positive outcomes in the short and long term for participating students.
In recent years, it has become commonplace among American educators to argue that if schools aim to prepare young people for life in today's complex and diverse world, then they must provide instruction in more than just academic content and skills (in English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and other subject areas). Social and emotional learning (SEL), too, is critical to students' long-term success in and out of school, and it merits careful, sustained attention throughout K-12 education (Bridgeland et al., 2013; DePaoli et al., 2017; Weissberg et al., 2015).

Already, thousands of schools within and outside the United States have implemented SEL programs (Humphrey, 2013; Weissberg & Cascarino, 2013), and many U.S. state departments of education have issued, or are in the process of issuing, standards for the development of specific SEL skills at each grade level (Dusenbury et al., 2015). So, too, have many federal, state, and local policy makers become willing to provide funding support for SEL programs.

Although SEL has been conceptualized in various ways, it can broadly be understood as the processes through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to manage their emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions (Weissberg & Cascarino, 2013). More specifically, Roger Weissberg and colleagues (2015) have identified a set of five core clusters of social and emotional competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

These competencies are thought to facilitate students' academic performance, positive social behaviors, and social relationships during the school years; reduce behavior problems and psychological distress, and help to prepare young people to succeed in college, work, family, and society (Elias, 2014; Jones & Kahn, 2017). As illustrated in Figure 1, scholars and advocates believe that SEL programming is likely to have both immediate and longer-term benefits for young people, both in school and later life.

However, educators and policy makers may wonder whether researchers have documented the effectiveness of SEL programs in bringing about these positive outcomes. To answer this question, we've examined four large-scale meta-analyses on student outcomes related to participating in school-based SEL programs. (A meta-analysis is a statistical method of synthesizing many previous efforts to measure the effectiveness of a given program; it's a way of pooling together all of the available research findings and boiling them down to a single, overall assessment.) The sum total of the existing evidence, we found, strongly suggests that SEL programs do, in fact, have significant benefits for participating students.
Results from four meta-analyses
The first meta-analysis (which has received considerable attention from educators, policy makers, and the popular media) synthesized the findings from studies of 213 school-based, universal SEL programs, including outcomes data for more than 270,000 students from kindergarten through high school (Durlak et al., 2011). Two major findings stood out:

Compared to control students, students participating in SEL programs showed significantly more positive outcomes with respect to enhanced SEL skills, attitudes, positive social behavior, and academic performance, and significantly lower levels of conduct problems and emotional distress.

The higher academic performance of SEL program participants translated into an 11 percentile-point gain in achievement, suggesting that SEL programs tend to bolster, rather than detract from, students' academic success.

This review also indicated that SEL programs managed by teachers and other school staff consistently yielded positive results, and it highlighted the role of careful program implementation in ensuring positive student outcomes. It also identified several priorities for further research, including studies of longer-term effects of participating in SEL programs and research into the effectiveness of programs outside the United States. Finally, because the review was limited to research findings available through the end of 2007, the authors also called for follow-up analyses of newer data.

Since the publication of that first study, three additional meta-analyses have been conducted (Sklad et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2017; Wiglesworth et al., 2016). All three echoed the earlier one's major findings: When researchers synthesized results from hundreds of existing studies in this area, they found that students who participated in SEL programs saw greater gains in SEL competencies and academic performance relative to students who did not participate. Further, not only did these three meta-analyses touch on newer research findings, but they also included more international comparisons and more information on both the immediate and longer-term benefits of SEL programs. In short, they provide a useful complement to and extension of the earlier work. The fact that independent research teams from the United States and Europe have replicated positive outcome findings from many experimental-control group evaluations involving several hundred thousand K-12 students offers strong support that well-implemented SEL programs are beneficial for children and adolescents.
Detailed findings
All four of the meta-analyses addressed the following domains:

SEL skills, such as identifying emotions, goal setting, self-management, problem solving, conflict resolution, refusal skills, and decision making.

about self, school, and social topics including self-perceptions (e.g., self-esteem, self-concept, self-
efficacy), school bonding, drug use and violence, and helping others.

Positive social behaviors, such as getting along with others, helping others, showing concern for others, empathy, prosocial problem solving, peace building, and cooperation.

Conduct problems, including disruptive classroom behavior, fighting, hurting others, verbal aggression, bullying, discipline referrals, and delinquent acts.

Emotional distress, such as depression, anxiety, stress, and social withdrawal.

Academic performance, including reading and math achievement, standardized test scores, school grades, and academic competence from teacher ratings.

At the same time, while all four meta-analyses touched on these six domains, and while they reached similar conclusions overall, they also differed in one respect: Two of them focused on the short-term effects of SEL programs, synthesizing data (from 255 different research reports) collected shortly after students concluded a program (Durlak et al., 2011; Wiglesworth et al., 2016), and the other two focused on longer-term effects, using data (from 129 different reports) collected at various follow-up periods - Marcin Sklad and colleagues (2012) reviewed 75 studies, covering 2008 and earlier, that assessed outcomes at least seven months after the initial SEL program had ended, and Rebecca Taylor and colleagues (2017) reviewed studies conducted through 2014, with follow-up periods that varied from 56 to 195 weeks. (Table 1 presents some of the main features of these two pairs of reviews.)

Tables 2 and 3 summarize the findings focusing on short-term outcomes (referred to as "post," for data collected immediately post-intervention) and longer-term outcomes (referred to as "follow-up," for data collected later on). Where mean effect sizes are positive, this reflects the superior performance of students participating in SEL programs relative to similar students who did not (referred to as "controls").

As shown in Table 2, the two analyses focusing on the immediate effects of SEL programs (Durlak et al., 2011; Wiglesworth et al., 2016) found statistically significant benefits for participating students. When student outcomes were measured later on (Sklad et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2017), the effects were not as strong overall, meaning that they tended to fade to some extent over time - this isn't surprising, though; studies of all types of educational interventions tend to find that short-term effects are stronger than longer-term effects. Leading researchers and educators recommend that SEL programming will be most beneficial when it is implemented in planned, ongoing, systemic ways from preschool through high school (Berman et al., 2018; Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2017; Jones & Kahn, 2017; Weissberg et al., 2015).

Two of the follow-up findings are particularly notable, though. First, the follow-up effects are quite strong in one domain: academic achievement. The results in this area (mean effects of 0.26 and 0.33), represent an 11 percentile-
point gain in achievement, over the long term, for students who participated in SEL programs relative to those who did not. To put it another way, SEL programs appear to have as great a long-term impact on academic growth as has been found for programs designed specifically to support academic learning (Hill et al., 2008). Second, the study by Taylor and colleagues (2017) found that the best predictor of the strength of students' long-term gains was the strength of their short-term SEL gains. That is, where students saw large immediate gains in their social and emotional skills, the learning tended to be relatively sticky, fading to a lesser degree over time.

Altogether, the meta-analyses we studied contain outcome data from 356 research reports summarizing short- and long-term effects for hundreds of thousands of K-12 students in a range of SEL programs within and outside the United States. With these findings, three different research groups - based not just in the United States (Durlak et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2017) but also the United Kingdom (Wiglesworth et al., 2016) and The Netherlands (Sklad et al., 2012) - have independently reached the same general conclusion about universal school-based SEL programs: They produce positive benefits for participating students on a range of behavioral, attitudinal, emotional, and academic outcomes that are evident both immediately after the intervention and during various follow-up periods, depending on the specific outcome in question.

In a recent national survey, school administrators called for additional data on the link between SEL and student academic performance (DePaoli et al., 2017). We can report that all four of these meta-analyses showed significant, positive connections between participation in universal, school-based SEL programs and student academic performance over the short and longer term. Given the consistent and enduring nature of this association, we believe that the expansion of SEL programming in low-performing schools is warranted (AEI/Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity, 2015) and that teacher preparation programs should include serious attention to SEL (Schonert-Reichl et al., 2017).

Critics might point out that the findings included in the 2017 meta-analyses are dated already, since they include only studies that were concluded by 2014. However, a lag time of a few years is typical of meta-analysis, given the amount of time it takes to survey and collect the existing research studies, do the analyses, conduct the peer review process, and go through the usual publication timeline. It is worth noting, though, that individual studies appearing up through at least the fall of 2017 have continued to report positive effects for SEL (e.g., Duncan et al., 2017; Miller et al., 2017; Muratori et al., 2017).

Overall, then, current data indicate that SEL programs are both feasible and effective in a variety of educational contexts in many countries around the world. SEL is neither a fad nor a flash in the pan but represents a useful way to improve students' social and emotional skills, which are associated with several positive behavioral and academic outcomes.
Directions for future research, practice, and policy
The meta-analyses discussed here use statistical methods to study the effectiveness of diverse SEL programs, grouping together approaches that differ from one another in the specific skills they target, the nature of the instruction, the duration, and the kinds of students participating. Thus, it will be important for future research to pursue a couple of narrower questions: What type of program is most effective for promoting which particular SEL skills and attitudes in the short and long term for which students, and what are the specific components of each program that account for its impacts?

Further, we also need research into the implementation, wide-scale dissemination, continual monitoring, improvement, and sustainability of SEL programs that have demonstrated their initial value. For example, how can we increase the capacity of schools to conduct SEL programs and assess what they have done? And how can we best align educational policies and funding so that more schools are able to offer SEL programs? In effect, we need to create better synergy among researchers, practitioners, and policy makers. Doing so will require that multiple stakeholders (policy makers, funders, educators, researchers, families, and community members) work together to ensure that as many students as possible benefit from well-conceptualized and well-implemented SEL programs.
References
AEI/Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity. (2015). Opportunity, responsibility, and security: A consensus plan for reducing poverty and restoring the American dream. Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy and the Brookings Institution.

Berman, S., with Chaffee, S., & Sarmiento, J. (2018). The practice base for how we learn: Supporting students' social, emotional, and academic development - Consensus statements of practice from the Council of Distinguished Educators. Washington, DC: National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, The Aspen Institute.

Bridgeland, J., Bruce, M., & Hariharan, A. (2013). The missing piece: A national teacher survey on how social and emotional learning can empower children and transform schools. Washington, DC: Civic Enterprises and Hart Research Associates for CASEL.

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (2017). Key implementation insights from the Collaborating District Initiative. Chicago, IL: Author.

DePaoli, J.L., Atwell, M., & Bridgeland, J. (2017). Ready to lead: A national principal survey on how social and emotional learning can prepare children and transform schools. Washington, DC: Civic Enterprises and Hart Research Associates for CASEL.

Duncan, R., Washburn, I.J., Lewis, K.M., Bavarian, N., DuBois, D.L., Acock, A.C., . . . & Flay, B.R. (2017). Can universal SEL programs benefit universally? Effects of the Positive Action Program on multiple trajectories of social-emotional and misconduct behaviors. Prevention Science, 18, 214-224.

Durlak, J.A., Weissberg, R.P., Dymnicki, A., Taylor, R.D., & Schellinger, K.B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82, 405-432.

Dusenbury, L.A., Zadrazil Newman, J., Weissberg, R.P., Goren, P., Domitrovich, C.E., & Mart, A.K. (2015). The case for preschool through high school state learning standards for SEL. In J.A. Durlak, C.E. Domitrovich, R.P. Weissberg, & T.P. Gullotta (Eds.), Handbook for social and emotional learning: Research and practice (pp. 532-548). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Elias, M.J. (2014). Social-emotional skills can boost Common Core implementation. Phi Delta Kappan, 96 (3), 58-62.

Hill, C.J., Bloom, H.S., Black, A.R., & Lipsey, M.W. (2008). Empirical benchmarks for interpreting effect sizes in research. Child Development Perspectives, 2, 172-177.

Humphrey, N. (2013). Social and emotional learning: A critical appraisal. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Jones, S.M. & Kahn, J. (2017). The evidence base for how we learn: Supporting students' social, emotional, and academic development - Consensus statements of evidence from the Council of Distinguished Scientists. Washington, DC: National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, The Aspen Institute.

Miller, C.F., Kochel, K.P., Wheeler, L.A., Updegraff, K A., Fabes, R.A., Martin, C.L., & Hanish, L.D. (2017). The efficacy of a relationship building intervention in 5th grade. Journal of School Psychology, 61, 75-88.

Muratori, P., Bertacchi, I., Giuli, C., Nocentini, A., & Lochman, J.E. (2017). Implementing Coping Power adapted as a universal prevention program in Italian primary schools: A randomized control trial. Prevention Science, 18, 754-761.

Schonert-Reichl, K.A., Kitil, M.J., & Hanson-Peterson, J. (2017). To reach the students, teach the teachers: A national scan of teacher preparation and social and emotional learning. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia.

Sklad, M., Diekstra, R., De Ritter, M., Ben, J., & Gravesteijn, C. (2012). Effectiveness of school-based universal social, emotional, and behavioral programs. Do they enhance students' development in the area of skill, behavior, and adjustment? Psychology and Schools, 49, 892-909.

Taylor, R., Oberle, E., Durlak, J.A., & Weissberg, R.P. (2017). Promoting positive youth development through school-based social and emotional learning interventions: A meta-analysis of follow-up effects. Child Development, 88, 1156-1171.

Weissberg, R.P. & Cascarino, J. (2013). Academic learning + social-emotional learning = national priority. Phi Delta Kappan, 95 (2), 8-13.

Weissberg, R.P., Durlak, J.A., Domitrovich, C.E., & Gullotta, T.P. (2015). Social and emotional learning: Past, present, and future. In J.A. Durlak, C.E. Domitrovich, R.P. Weissberg, & T.P. Gullotta (Eds.), Handbook of social and emotional learning: Research and practice (pp. 3-19). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Wiglesworth, M., Lendrum, A., Oldfield, J., Scott, A., ten Bokkel, I., Tate, K., & Emery, C. (2016). The impact of trial stage, developer involvement and international transferability on universal social and emotional learning programme outcomes: A meta-analysis. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46, 347-376.

Citation: Mahoney, J.L., Durlak, J.A., & Weissberg, R.P. (2018). An update on social and emotional learning outcome research. Phi Delta Kappan, 100 (4), 18-23.

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An update on social and emotional learning outcome research - kappanonline.org

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An examination of four meta-analyses of SEL programs found multiple positive outcomes in the short and long term for participating students. In recent years, it has become commonplace among American educators to argue that if schools aim to prepare young people for life in today's complex and diverse world, then they must provide instruction in more than just academic content and skills (in English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and other subject areas).

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Use this website to connect our PEBC practices to culturally responsive practices. This is an excellent resource

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In recent years, the science of social and emotional development has flourished. Findings from neurobiology and the study of the stress response system have illuminated how environmental factors such as poverty, chronic stress, and trauma can affect brain development to influence children's capacity to focus attention, recall information, exercise planning and self-control, and get along with others, thereby affecting their lifelong learning, behavior, and health (Jones, Bailey, & Partee, 2016; National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2005/2014; Noble, 2014). As educators understand more about the way toxic stress affects the brain's ability to manage executive function and regulate emotion, they gain a new perspective on student behavior, which may lead them to pursue new approaches that support social and emotional development as well as academic learning.

As our understanding of social and emotional development has grown, so, too, has the number of schools across the United States adopting social-emotional learning (SEL) programs (Dusenbury et al., 2011). This growth is supported by research indicating that high-quality SEL programs can improve students' academic, mental health, and behavioral outcomes, as well as classroom climate and teacher practices (Durlak et al., 2011). A research synthesis appearing in the December/January issue of Kappan (Mahoney, Durlak, & Weissberg, 2018) confirms the positive effects of SEL interventions and programs and indicates that these effects can endure for up to three years post-intervention (Sklad et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2017).

Empowering teachers to design their SEL instruction makes sense, because they know their students best.

The frontier of research in SEL will be to push our understanding of what works, for whom, and under what conditions (see Jones, Farrington, et al., in press). Existing research suggests that SEL programs may be particularly important for low-income students, as they are more likely than their affluent peers to be at risk for social, emotional, behavioral, and academic problems (Evans & English, 2002; Raver, et al., 2013). Furthermore, recent studies find that SEL programs tend to have their largest effects among students with the greatest number of risks, including those with lower socioeconomic status or those who enter school behind their peers either academically or behaviorally (e.g., Jones, Brown, & Aber, 2011).
The state of SEL
At this point, we know that despite the emerging consensus in the scientific community about the importance of social and emotional development (Jones & Kahn, 2017), a number of barriers undermine efforts to bring comprehensive SEL programming to scale, and these barriers are likely exacerbated in low-income settings (Jones & Bouffard, 2012). These barriers include:

Implementation challenges (e.g., poor fidelity, low use of program materials),

Limited local buy-in (e.g., lack of autonomy and relevance),

Lack of financial and personnel resources (e.g., high cost of materials and time required),

Poor integration into educational practice (e.g., not used beyond the SEL block), and

Low sustainability (e.g., often not continued or implemented consistently).

Many traditional SEL programs consist of scripted and sequenced curricula that are designed to be used in a weekly 30-minute block, often led by a school counselor or designated SEL facilitator. They tend to be expensive, require significant training and ongoing support, and limit individual autonomy or choice - as adaptations or deviations from the script are seen as threats to program fidelity. While these programs are an important option, schools may have difficulty implementing them as intended, integrating them throughout the day and across multiple settings, and sustaining them over time. Such prescriptive approaches also fail to leverage the expertise of teachers who ultimately know their classroom best, and whose relationships, observations, and decisions are critical to providing effective and timely social-emotional support for students. There is a pressing need for an approach to SEL that is more flexible and feasible to implement, and adaptable to individual and place-based needs, while still achieving meaningful outcomes for children (Jones, Bailey, et al., 2017).

In our work with educators across the country, we frequently hear the following: (a) SEL curricula feel irrelevant because they don't reflect students' experiences, at times babying, oversimplifying, or ignoring the real challenges students face in their everyday lives; (b) there is not enough time for SEL because of competing academic priorities; (c) teachers and staff do not receive enough support to implement SEL programs successfully or to engage in their own authentic social-emotional growth, and (d) rigid lesson plans don't allow teachers to respond to students' evolving needs.
Three big ideas for SEL
In contrast to a one-size-fits-all approach, we imagine an approach to SEL that is developmental, flexible, and responsive to local needs - focused on strategies for teachers to implement as appropriate, rather than a sequenced curriculum for them to follow. Below, we suggest three ideas for reimagining how SEL can happen in schools and in out-of-school time (OST) settings.

SEL programming should take these developmental stages into consideration, but in our review of 25 widely used SEL programs, we found that the skills targeted don't vary across grades (Jones, Brush, et al., 2017). A developmental model should articulate which social and emotional skills lay the foundation for others at which ages, allowing educators to focus on specific skills during salient times rather than trying to do everything at once. We have created an "SEL Developmental Pyramid" (Figure 1) to identify key areas of focus for each grade level and to reflect how skills build on each other over time.

Drawing from a content analysis of evidence-based SEL programs, we can identify common strategies and practices - which we consider the essential "active ingredients" that drive change in effective SEL programs (Jones, Bailey, et al., 2017). Focusing on these strategies, rather than comprehensive curricula or scripted lessons, enables teachers and staff to address challenges or opportunities as they arise. As teachers integrate SEL strategies into their daily routines or activities in ways that work for them, students have more frequent opportunities to practice SEL skills. This approach can also increase consistency throughout the school community and smooth students' transitions between classrooms and grades.

Traditional SEL curricula are often complex and burdensome to implement, and schools struggle to embed program lessons across the day in various contexts.

With a strategy-based approach, teachers are empowered to decide what gets implemented, when, and how. Furthermore, they are encouraged to adapt strategies to accommodate specific student, classroom, and community needs. Empowering teachers to design their SEL instruction makes sense, because they know their students best. We believe that part of this approach includes providing teachers with a range of SEL resources - some offering light support and some offering substantial support - to meet teachers where they are. However, because too much flexibility has the potential to undermine the effectiveness of SEL programs, our recent work has focused on identifying the essential elements of a strategy and clarifying for teachers which elements are optional or adaptable to local contexts, individual student needs, and/or teaching preferences.
Reimagining SEL in practice
To explore this new approach, our team partnered with an OST summer program providing six weeks of academic programming to low-income urban preK-8 students. Teachers had the option of using a structure provided by the EASEL Lab (Ecological Approaches to Social Emotional Learning: https://easel.gse.harvard.edu) - comprising age-appropriate strategies described in a packet of resources provided at the training - or creating their own structure with either these same resources or different resources they created themselves or found elsewhere. The strategies we provided spanned the cognitive, emotional, and social domains and included specific, grade-level strategies as well as universal "through-line" strategies that could be used across grade levels. Strategies - such as Brain Games, Feelings Circle, and Conflict Solvers - were adapted from a comprehensive evidence-based SEL program (Jones, Bailey, & Jacob, 2014) but were designed to stand alone; they required no accompanying lessons. Each grade level had a set of slightly different resources designed to foster a grade-specific target skill, and the content was aligned across grade levels to highlight how the target skills are interconnected and to create continuity.

Before implementation began, teachers attended a two-hour training led by three EASEL Lab facilitators. At the beginning of the training, teachers reflected on the SEL strategies they already used in the classroom and how students exhibit various SEL skills. They also learned about the foundational research and guiding framework for our approach. In small breakout sessions, facilitators provided an overview of each strategy, offered tips on how teachers might tailor the strategies to meet their students' needs, and modeled the strategies while teachers participated. Although teachers had been given a structure for SEL programming, the training emphasized that the structure was flexible and that teachers had the autonomy to decide which strategies were most appropriate for their students.

Nineteen preK-8 teachers implemented the strategy-based approach with 169 students; there was one classroom per grade level. Throughout the summer, teachers collected daily implementation data about SEL strategies, weekly classroom challenges, and beginning- and end-of-summer reports of student SEL skills.

Overall, implementation data suggested that a strategy-based approach to SEL was a feasible and positive experience for students, teachers, and staff. On average, preK-5 teachers used two or three strategies per day, while teachers in grades 6-8 used one strategy per day. Teachers generally followed the recommended plan: Among all SEL activities, 83% in preK-5 and 89% in grades 6-8 were the suggested strategies from the EASEL Lab. On average, teachers were able to complete the strategies in 7-11 minutes, indicating that they could be easily implemented throughout the day.

Teachers selected SEL strategies to address particular challenges, and these varied greatly. However, some commonalities did emerge. More than half of the preK-5 teachers identified one of three skills - focusing and paying attention, addressing conflict effectively, and managing emotions - as challenging for their students. Teachers in grades 6-8 reported that students needed support with using self-control, participating as an active member of the community, and demonstrating behavior that fosters friendship.

Summer reports about students' growth on specific cognitive, emotional, and social skills revealed schoolwide improvement in every SEL area. Students achieved statistically significant growth between the beginning and end of the summer across all 13 items on our survey (see Figure 2). Furthermore, students in the bottom quartile (Quartile 1) showed the most growth; in other words, students who were initially rated lowest by their teachers in SEL skills showed the largest gains over the summer.

In addition to submitting weekly surveys, 10 teachers and two administrators participated in focus groups at the end of the summer. The following themes emerged from our analysis.

First, the strategy-based approach generated numerous positive responses. Specifically, teachers felt their relationships with students strengthened substantially over the summer as their classrooms became a space for mutual sharing and growth. Teachers also noticed an increase in students' self-esteem and a decrease in the number of conflicts on the playground.

In contrast to a one-size-fits-all approach, we imagine an approach to SEL that is developmental, flexible, and responsive to local needs.

Second, teachers felt comfortable adapting SEL strategies and incorporating them throughout the day. At times, they altered the developmental level of a strategy or the amount of time spent on it. They also figured out ways to incorporate the content into math and literacy lessons.

Third, teachers appreciated the variety of resources and preferred using the most scripted hard-copy resources, leading us to believe that, while teachers appreciate the flexibility to decide when and how to implement SEL strategies, they also want concrete details about what the strategies look like in practice. The Strategies Pack, which contained detailed write-ups about each of the strategies, was most frequently used, followed by the Daily Outlines, which provided more general guidance about how to implement strategies effectively and flexibly over time.
Next steps for SEL
The field of SEL has grown tremendously in the past two decades. As research and policy advance, the practice of SEL must also advance. Traditional approaches to SEL have focused on scripted, lesson-based curricula, and while there is strong evidence of the efficacy of traditional approaches, many schools, OST, and youth development programs do not have the time or resources to implement these programs as designed.

To complement existing SEL curricula, we argue that new approaches to SEL are needed. These approaches should be organized around a developmental model of SEL, focus on flexible and evidence-based strategies, and be responsive and adaptable to student needs. Such an approach may increase initial uptake and sustainability over time, thereby maximizing SEL's influence on children's learning and developmental outcomes.
References
Best, J.R. & Miller, P.H. (2010). A developmental perspective on executive function. Child Development, 81 (6), 1641-1660.

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2011). Building the brain's "air traffic control" system: How early experiences shape the development of executive function (Working Paper No. 11). Cambridge, MA: Author.

Durlak, J.A., Weissberg, R.P., Dymnicki, A.B., Taylor, R.D. & Schellinger, K.B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82 (1), 405-432.

Dusenbury, L., Zadrazil, J., Mart, A., & Weissberg, R. (2011). State learning standards to advance social and emotional learning: The state scan of social and emotional learning standards, preschool through high school. Chicago, IL: CASEL.

Evans, G.W. & English, K. (2002). The environment of poverty: Multiple stressor exposure, psychophysiological stress, and socioemotional adjustment. Child Development, 73, 1238-1248.

Garon, N., Bryson, S.E., & Smith, I.M. (2008). Executive function in preschoolers: A review using an integrative framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134 (1), 31-60.

Jones, S.M., Bailey, R., Brush, K., & Kahn, J. (2017). Kernels of practice for SEL: Low-cost, low-burden strategies. New York, NY: The Wallace Foundation.

Jones, S.M., Bailey, R., & Jacob, R. (2014). Social-emotional learning is essential to classroom management. Phi Delta Kappan, 96 (2), 19-24.

Jones, S.M., Bailey, R., & Partee, A. (2016, September/October). How to target intergenerational poverty with a basic life skill. Aspen Journal of Ideas.

Jones, S.M. & Bouffard, S.M. (2012). Social and emotional learning in schools: From programs to strategies. Social Policy Report, 26 (4), 1-33.

Jones, S.M., Brown, J.L., & Aber, J.L. (2011). The longitudinal impact of a universal school-based social emotional and literacy intervention: An experiment in translational developmental research. Child Development, 82 (2), 533-554.

Jones, S.M., Brush, K., Bailey, R., Brion-Meisels, G., McIntyre, J., Kahn, J., Nelson, B., & Stickle, L. (2017). Navigating SEL from the inside out: Looking inside & across 25 leading SEL programs: A practical resource for schools and OST providers (Elementary School Focus). New York, NY: The Wallace Foundation.

Jones, S.M., Farrington, C.A., Jagers, R., Brackett, M. & Kahn, J. (in press). National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development: A research agenda for the next generation. Washington, DC: The Aspen Institute.

Jones, S.M. & Kahn, J. (2017). The evidence base for how we learn: Supporting students' social, emotional, and academic development. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute, National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development.

Mahoney, J.L., Durlak, J.A., & Weissberg, R.P. (2018). An update on social and emotional learning outcome research. Phi Delta Kappan, 100 (4), 18-23.

McClelland, M.M., Tominey, S.L., Schmitt, S., & Duncan, R. (2017). SEL interventions in early childhood. Future of Children, 27 (1), 33-48.

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2005/2014). Excessive stress disrupts the architecture of the developing brain (Working Paper 3. Updated Edition). Cambridge, MA: Author.

Noble, K.G. (2014). Rich man, poor man: Socioeconomic adversity and brain development. Cerebrum: The DANA Forum on Brain Science, 2014, 6.

Raver, C.C., Blair, C., Willoughby, M., & Family Life Project Key Investigators (2013). Poverty as a predictor of 4-year-olds' executive function: New perspectives on models of differential susceptibility. Developmental Psychology, 49 (2), 292-304.

Sklad, M., Diekstra, R., De Ritter, M., Ben, J., & Gravesteijn, C. (2012). Effectiveness of school-based universal social, emotional, and behavioral programs: Do they enhance students' development in the area of skill, behavior, and adjustment? Psychology in the Schools, 49 (9), 892-909.

Taylor, R., Oberle, E., Durlak, J.A., & Weissberg, R.P. (2017). Promoting positive youth development through school-based social and emotional learning interventions: A meta-analysis of follow-up effects. Child Development, 88, 1156-1171.

Yeager, D.S. (2017). Social and emotional learning programs for adolescents. Future of Children, 27 (1), 73-94.

Citation: Bailey, R., Stickle, L., Brion-Meisels, G. & Jones, S.M. (2019). Re-imagining social-emotional learning: Findings from a strategy-based approach. Phi Delta Kappan, 100  (5), 53-58.

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Re-imagining social-emotional learning: Findings from a strategy-based approach - kappanonline.org

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To bring the benefits of SEL to more students, programs need to be flexible enough to adapt to local needs. In recent years, the science of social and emotional development has flourished. Findings from neurobiology and the study of the stress response system have illuminated how environmental factors such as poverty, chronic stress, ...

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Important lessons about race, diversity, and equity can and should be taught to children in early childhood and preschool settings. By Jennifer Hooven, Katherine Runkle, Laurie Strouse, Misty Woods, and Erica Frankenberg
In July 2016, Pennsylvania State University took over direct supervision of the Child Care Center at Hort Woods, an on-campus preschool and early learning center that had been run for the previous five years by an outside provider. But the challenge for those of us who work at Hort Woods wasn't just to adapt to new management; we also had to adopt a new mission. Penn State had just begun a universitywide campaign to become a more diverse and inclusive community, and the administration expected no less from the Child Care Center.

The effort to learn about and implement a race-conscious, antibias approach to early childhood education got under way in the fall when we began meeting regularly to discuss our own experiences with race and diversity. Over several weeks, we also participated in professional development activities led by Penn State's affirmative action office. Further, we received technical assistance from experts such as Andrew Grant Thomas of EmbraceRace - a Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization - who met separately with parents, administrators, and teachers to share research findings and practical tips for educating children about race.

Taking our cue from the National Association for the Education of Young Children and other leaders in the field, we chose to adopt an antibias education framework comprising four essential goals:

#1. To promote the development of children's positive social identities;

#2. To help children learn accurate language to describe human differences and develop caring, respectful relationships with others (including those who differ in terms of race, gender identity, family structure, religion, socioeconomic class, and ability);

#3. To recognize unfairness and understand that it is hurtful; and

#4. To empower children to respond to situations that are unfair (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

However, we soon found that while it is one thing to voice support for such principles, it is something else entirely to bring them to life in the classroom. Teaching practices are notoriously slow to change, as are deep-seated beliefs and assumptions about race. Moreover, we found it particularly challenging to have productive conversations about these issues during fall 2016, given the racially divisive tone of the presidential campaign under way at the time. Nor did the demographic makeup of our workplace make those conversations any simpler. Because of its connection to a major university - which attracts students, faculty, and staff from all over the country and the world - Penn State's enrollment is fairly diverse, including many students of color (18%) and international students (15%). Hort Woods' enrollment is even more diverse. However, nearly all of us who work there are white, and many of us grew up in the mostly white and rural part of central Pennsylvania that surrounds the university.

Finally, while discussions about race can be difficult for many educators, they tend to be especially difficult for those of us who work with very young children. Children are often presumed to be "innocent" of racial biases, and many adults worry that by talking about race, they might inadvertently lead them to biased views. In fact, though, research suggests that children as young as 15 months old already notice race and express racial preferences; by the time they enter kindergarten, children tend to display racial prejudices that are similar to those of the adults in their lives (Dunham, Baron, & Banaji, 2008; Katz & Kofkin, 1997; Killen, Crystal, & Ruck, 2007).
In our own words
Below, three of us offer firsthand accounts of our experiences to date as we begin to implement a race-conscious, antibias approach in an early childhood setting.
Jennifer: Living up to our commitments
We have many signs posted around our classroom, but only one of them sits in a big wooden frame by our cubbies. Titled "All Children Belong Here. This Is Our Promise To You," it ends, "We are in this together, working for a world where every child is protected and honored, exactly as they are" (excerpted from Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2017). Even more than a sign, it is a commitment, a love letter, and an inspiration for our curriculum and instruction. We promise to nurture children, value them, teach them to be friends with others who are different from them, resist unfairness, and uproot our own biases as adults. Ingrained in this commitment from the educators to the children is the work we each must do on a personal level to examine our own thoughts, feelings, and dispositions so that we are ready and able to make good on our promises.

When we posted the sign, we had no idea where the educational journey would lead, but we wanted children to feel and understand the promise as fully as possible. Over the past several months, we have wandered down many curriculum paths in our classroom with children who are 3 to 5 years old. We studied the colors of our skin, mixed paint to match it, and looked closely in the mirror to notice and draw our features. We learned about racial injustices in U.S. history (and those still occurring today) and talked about what it feels like to be kept out or treated unfairly. And we made a time line with photos of the first single cell organisms, dinosaurs, prehistoric humans, and - almost all the way to the end of the time line - separate drinking water fountains, illustrating just how little time has passed since segregation was legal in this country.

Discussions about race can be difficult for many educators, but they tend to be especially difficult for educators who work with very young children.

While it has been easy for the children in my classroom to notice and list their differences, they are still learning to recognize and appreciate their similarities. In class, we wrestle with questions such as: What do all people need? Does everyone have rights, and what are they? Often, we reread the sign by our cubbies, reminding ourselves why we are discussing these themes. And I get the sense that the lessons are beginning to sink in. Recently, for example, we welcomed a new child into the classroom. A few days later, at circle time, another child shared his thoughts about the newcomer: "Everyone is welcome here. If you have black skin, you are welcome here, just like (our new friend). He has black skin, and he is welcome here." I can't say how much our curriculum contributed to these heartfelt words of welcome, but I do know that we are creating a safe and fair classroom for everyone from our oldest friend to our newest friend.

I still have a lot to learn, too. Growing up in a small rural town in a school system with very few people of color, I received a one-sided view of our country's history, and I've had to challenge my own ways of thinking and interacting with people. But this effort to become an antibias educator has been some of the most essential and rewarding work I have done in my 17-year career.
Katherine: Giving kids the words they need
People disagree as to whether very young children understand concepts like diversity. But in my work with infants and toddlers, I have learned that even at these early ages, children need to learn that differences are OK and that everyone should be comfortable in their own body. Children are always looking, listening, and taking in information from the world around them, so it's important to make the classroom environment as accepting as possible, including by offering a diverse range of toys, pictures, and books.

We started our conversations in my mixed-age infant/toddler classroom about race and diversity by reading Karen Beaumont's book I Like Myself (Harcourt, 2010). While we were reading and discussing the book, I suggested words and phrases for the children to use, such as "I like myself" and "I'm proud I'm me," and I asked them to name specific things they like about themselves. Also, I took various pictures of each child, focusing on their hands, eyes, and mouths. We looked at the photos and talked about the differences they saw, like skin tones and the shapes of kids' mouths. Noticing the range of eye colors in the pictures, one child blurted out, "Kate, our eyes are different!" I took that as an invitation to read aloud Todd Parr's book It's OK to be Different (Little Brown, 2009), which led to a discussion about how some people are blind, some use a wheelchair, some speak another language, and on and on.

I grew up in a time and place where such conversations were hushed, and nobody talked about these kinds of differences. It took me some time to understand how important it is to give children the appropriate language to talk about these things. But I've become hopeful, like all the teachers here, that these conversations will have a lasting impact on these children and that they will learn not to be colorblind but, rather, to understand and use their language to accept and appreciate the differences they see in this diverse world.
Laurie: Talking about race with other adults
As the supervising teacher in a mixed-age preschool classroom, I know that every child, parent, student, and teacher has been shaped by their own life experiences and perceives the world through the filters created by race, gender, ability, socioeconomic status, family structure, religion, and political affiliation. Given how divided our society is along these lines, it shouldn't have surprised me that the decision to implement antibias education practices would spark a debate, testing the cohesiveness of my three-person teaching team.

My first glimpse of the struggle ahead came one afternoon in October 2016. A 4-year-old boy in dramatic play was wearing a blazer and a pearl necklace. "I'm Hillary Clinton, and I'm going to be president! Will you vote for me?" he asked. "I have some problems with my emails, but I'm going to be a good president!" I delighted in seeing this young boy take on the persona of a strong female role model, but the moment ended abruptly when another child yelled out from across the room, "Lock her up!" These children had not escaped the bitter politics of our era, I realized. Nor could their teachers agree on what to do in response or whether it should be their role to intervene when children bring political views into the classroom. Further, because this happened right around the time that we began to focus on issues of race and diversity, our teachers came to associate the theme of antibias education with political debate.

Over the following months, politics continued to seep into the classroom. For example, in March 2017, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries, a 4-year-old in our class was left to wonder whether his grandfather's much anticipated visit would be postponed. Preschoolers take the issue of fairness very seriously, and they were consumed with questions about whether the president was being fair. One child announced that she would be going to Washington, D.C., "to fight Donald Trump." During a read-aloud about frogs, another child said, out of the blue, that "Donald Trump is not a good friend," to which a classmate replied, "Yeah, because he isn't fair." In the teacher team, we continued to disagree over whether it was our role to engage the children in discussing politics, but we eventually came to agree on a strategy: We would explain to them that Americans can make things fairer by coming together to talk about their feelings and decide whether to change the law.

The harder challenge was to guide teachers in reflecting on certain beliefs and values that have been taught to them and reinforced throughout their lives. Anybody who takes an honest look at themselves will have to admit that they've behaved in ways that are insensitive or hurtful to members of other groups. But it can be difficult to talk about these things. To challenge our own assumptions about colorblindness, we have to raise issues and use language that probably seems taboo. It's tempting just to remain silent, even though this means denying the struggle that people of color, including many of our children and families, face every day.

For weeks, I worried that the teachers in my team wouldn't make it past this hurdle. Our conversations boiled over into arguments, and it looked like we'd never be able to resolve our conflicting beliefs about politics, gender, and race. Every day, I worried that the teachers would give up on implementing the antibias teaching model and that resignation letters would appear on my desk. I knew an action plan was desperately needed that could help us to grow professionally and rebuild trust and recreate a once-supportive work environment.

I read dozens of articles related to antibias education and race and, at my team's curriculum meetings, asked teachers to read the most powerful articles, think critically, and engage in deep conversations. Sometimes we agreed, sometimes conversations were hard to navigate, and sometimes we walked away with hurt feelings. Each time, I hoped that we would work through this and that we would be stronger for having taken this journey together.

After weeks of debate, my team finally found a simple answer to our dilemma, allowing us to move forward. Antibias education, we agreed, is not tied to a particular political party or value system. It is a nonpartisan tool for supporting children's social-emotional development, affirming their self-worth, addressing race and culture openly in our classrooms, treating all children fairly, and encouraging them to think critically about the problems that our society faces. Through this lens we all see the value of the work ahead.

It can be a daunting task to figure out exactly which language will resonate with particular age groups, but it is essential to do so.

Lessons to date
In some respects, our implementation of an antibias education model has only just begun, and we hope to deepen the work in all of the Child Care Center's classrooms. However, after pursuing this approach for more than a year, we've already learned a number of important lessons about incorporating antibias teaching, particularly about race and diversity, into a preschool setting:
#1. Try not to jump to conclusions.
In an infant/toddler or preschool classroom, teachers have to be exceptionally careful to slow down and avoid making snap judgments when kids talk about complex topics such as race. Young children tend to be very literal, and adults often read much more into their words than they intended. At Hort Woods, for example, a white child recently called a classmate with dark skin a "dirty man," which immediately raised alarm bells among the teachers: Was this child repeating a racist comment heard outside of school? Was an intervention required? As it turned out, the first child had noticed the second child touching some eggs at the lunch table, and he was concerned that his friend might be exposed to salmonella.

When adults are eager to confront racial bias, they can become too quick to see a teachable moment in every remark. In this case, though, to jump on the comment right away would have been a mistake, needlessly signaling anxiety about the subject of race and potentially causing the children to shy away from it.
#2. Look for subtle cues and nonverbal behaviors.
As teachers, parents, and supportive community members, we need to make a conscious choice to engage in courageous conversations with young children. This requires us not just to overcome our own biases and discomfort but also to encourage kids to ask questions, let us know what's on their minds, and show us what's troubling to them. Young children often express their curiosity in subtle and nonverbal ways, so one of us (Misty, our curriculum specialist) has been helping other staff members learn how to be close observers of children's behavior around issues related to race and difference. For example, while many older preschool children have the verbal skills to ask direct and probing questions, toddlers may simply point to someone who looks different than them, or reach out to touch another child's hair or skin. Each of these situations is an invitation for caring adults to scaffold children's learning and help them learn to appreciate differences in others.
#3. Adapt to the age group.
Children of all ages are constantly trying to make sense of the confusing world in which they live. But when teaching about diversity - as with teaching about every other topic - the age of the kids matters a great deal. The words you choose, the concepts you introduce, and the depth of conversation you aim for should all be calibrated to fit the given children. It can be a daunting task to figure out exactly which language will resonate with particular age groups, but it is essential to do so. When it comes to their understanding of race and diversity, a class of infants and toddlers is in a very different place and needs very different kinds of lessons and explanations from a class of 4-year-olds. Relying on a process of reflection to think through topics and conversations one might have with children gives us time to choose our words carefully, evaluate concepts by judging their developmental appropriateness, and translate the subject into words and concepts young children will understand.
#4. Build community.
EmbraceRace talks about the importance of raising racially literate children in community. We have focused on connecting with families, and one of us (Erica) has hosted a series of brown bag discussions to provide parents an opportunity to ask questions about the curriculum and learn about related resources. This has also extended to a recently adopted statement of diversity for the larger network of Penn State child care centers, which lends important institutional support for teachers doing this work and communicates to current and prospective parents the value placed on antiracist, antibias education. The importance of support from leadership is a critical foundation to attain the benefits of diverse classrooms (Hawley, 2007), and it is especially important now, given current societal tensions over issues related to race and immigration.
#5. Be patient with colleagues.
Having peers who can support each other's professional growth is an essential part of taking on antibias education. Supportive coworkers help move us forward to be courageous in leading conversations about diversity and inclusion. Even Laurie's difficult conversations with colleagues ultimately led toward professional growth. The act of working through topics that are challenging, and sometimes uncomfortable, helps us assess our biases and allows the opportunity to dive deep into conversations that influence our practice. Because our teaching team is composed of white women, our initial lens during conversations about race and American institutions comes from a perspective of privilege. By acknowledging racism and systemic oppression, we teach children ways to counter them by explicitly teaching social-emotional skills, breaking down stereotypes, building empathy, and coaching activism.
A concluding thought
This journey can be challenging for early childhood educators, especially for many of us who were raised to be colorblind and to avoid explicit discussions of racial differences. Teachers are always choosing which lines of inquiry to scaffold and extend. It can be tempting to shy away from some of children's more challenging questions and embarrassingly loud declarations. But if these are used as learning opportunities, instead of treated as disruptions, powerful lessons about race can be shared with children of all ages (Kuh et al., 2016).
References
Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J.O. (2010). Antibias education for young children and ourselves. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J.O. (2017, March-April). Living our commitments: A pledge to all children and families. Exchange.

Dunham, Y., Baron, A.S., & Banaji, M.R. (2008). The development of implicit intergroup cognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 12 (7), 248-253.

Hawley, W. (2007). Designing schools that use student diversity to enhance learning of all students. In E. Frankenberg & G. Orfield (Eds.), Lessons in integration: Realizing the promise of racial diversity in American schools (pp. 31-56). Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.

Katz, P.A. & Kofkin, J.A. (1997). Race, gender, and young children. In S.S. Luthar, J.A. Burack, D. Cicchetti, & J.R. Weisz (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Perspectives on adjustment, risk, and disorder (pp. 51-74). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Killen, M., Crystal, D., & Ruck, M (2007). The social developmental benefits of intergroup contact among children and adolescents. In E. Frankenberg & G. Orfield (Eds.), Lessons in integration: Realizing the promise of racial diversity in American schools (pp. 31-56). Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.

Kuh, L., LeeKeenan, D., Given, H., & Beneke, M.R. (2016). Moving beyond antibias activities: Supporting the development of antibias practices. Young Children 71 (1).

JENNIFER HOOVEN, KATHERINE RUNKLE, LAURIE STROUSE, and MISTY WOODS are early childhood educators at the Child Care Center at Hort Woods, University Park, Penn. ERICA FRANKENBERG ( euf10@psu.edu) is the parent of two Hort Woods children and director of the Center for Education and Civil Rights, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Penn.

Originally published in February 2018 Phi Delta Kappan 99 (5), 61-66. © 2018 Phi Delta Kappa International. All rights reserved.

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Never too early to learn: Antibias education for young children

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Important lessons about race, diversity, and equity can and should be taught to children in early childhood and preschool settings. By Jennifer Hooven, Katherine Runkle, Laurie Strouse, Misty Woods, and Erica Frankenberg In July 2016, Pennsylvania State University took over direct supervision of the Child Care Center at Hort

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Supporting students' social, emotional, and cognitive growth can improve outcomes on other measures, such as grades, test scores, graduation rates, and success in college and careers. That's just one of many conclusions from From a Nation at Risk to Nation at Hope, a new report from the Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. The report is a culmination of two years of conversations, meetings, and site visits, as well as a review of research into promising education practices.

The report includes six recommendations, with examples, of how schools and communities can strengthen student outcomes:

1. Set a clear vision that broadens the definition of student success to prioritize the whole child. This includes identifying the social, emotional, and academic knowledge and skills graduates will need.

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

3. Change instruction to teach students social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Embed these skills in academics and schoolwide practices, not just in stand-alone lessons.

4. Build adult expertise in child development and the science of learning.

5. Align resources and build partnerships between schools, families, and community organizations to address the whole child.

6. Forge closer connections between research and practice by building new structures for researchers and educators to collaborate on pressing problems.

The report's website includes the commission's research, practice, and policy agendas; tools for helping communities follow these recommendations; and videos produced by Edutopia, in collaboration with the commission, showing how educators can support students' social, emotional, and cognitive growth.

Source: National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. (2019). From a nation at risk to a nation at hope. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute.

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6 recommendations for supporting students' social, emotional, and cognitive growth - kappanonline.org

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Supporting students' social, emotional, and cognitive growth can improve outcomes on other measures, such as grades, test scores, graduation rates, and success in college and careers. That's just one of many conclusions from From a Nation at Risk to Nation at Hope, a new report from the Aspen Institute's National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development.

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PEBC Instructional Practices

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Many students need to be shown explicitly how to engage productively in academic discussions. But teachers should be careful not to stifle the genuine exchange of ideas. By Jeremy Glazer
Classrooms can be places where students learn to talk with and listen to others, skills that have become increasingly important at a time when there are concerns about the lack of civil discourse in our country. We are seeing a renewed interest in classroom discussion because of its value both for student learning and for democracy. The Common Core State Standards, for example, encourage students to "propel conversations by posing and responding to questions . . . [to] actively incorporate others into the discussion; and clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions" (NGA & CCSSO, 2010). Unfortunately, though, some of the very teaching practices designed to encourage student voice are not fostering the kind of critical talking and listening essential to empowering discourse.

In my own observations of high school English classes that feature "academic discussion," I often see more of a focus on being academic than on having an actual discussion. Teachers put so much emphasis on the format and style of academic talk that students never actually get a chance to engage in a genuine exchange of ideas. Students may speak a lot, and they may frame their thoughts in the ways that the teacher has required, using sentences that start with "To summarize what's been said so far . . ." or "To build on what Elvia said . . ." But within a few minutes I feel like I'm watching a familiar sitcom in which every line is scripted and rehearsed. I already know where these conversations are going, and I am very rarely surprised by what I hear.

My concern with such classroom talk is not just pedagogical but democratic as well. If we want students to believe words matter, not just in schools but in life, we should avoid faux conversations in which they simply go through the motions, parroting the sorts of words and phrases that their teachers want them to use. Instead, we need to create environments that teem with energy, where students wrestle with ideas that truly mean something to them.

I was observing a class several months ago when - in the middle of a perfectly competent academic discussion - I heard something that suggests the kind of intellectual work that I'm after: "Hmm . . . ," a student said, making the sound that people make when they're genuinely intrigued by an idea and need to ponder it for a moment. (Recently, for example, when I learned that the word "cliché" comes from the sound old copying machines used to make, I found myself saying, "Hmm . . ." as I let this bit of information sink in.) That's a worthy goal for classroom conversations, I realized. We should privilege and aim for the hmm . . ., that moment when students hear something that makes them pause and look at the world in a new way. It's not enough to help them develop a competent academic voice. We should also teach them to use words powerfully, in ways that matter to themselves and their peers.
Formal classroom discussions
The more students talk in class about academic content, the better their opportunities to learn, to contribute to each other's learning, and to be engaged in the intellectual substance of the curriculum. However, we can't take for granted that just because students have chances to talk, their words will be important or compelling. More conversation isn't necessarily better conversation (Nystrand & Gamoran, 1991). Formal discussions can easily become just another means of "doing school," (Pope, 2001) or going through the motions to please the teacher.

By "formal discussions," I'm referring to the kind of planned, structured talk that goes by names such as Socratic Seminars, Structured Academic Discussions, or Structured Academic Controversies, which aim to make literacy practices more transparent for students by pointing out specific conversational moves, sentence structures, and conventions for them to use. I don't mean to downplay the value of these approaches. They draw from more than 40 years of research and practice in the field of writing composition, which gradually has moved away from what Romano (1987) calls the "due Friday" model of instruction, in which teachers give students an assignment and a due date and leave them to figure out the rest on their own. The work of scholars such as Applebee and Langer (1983), Bizzell (1986), Hillocks (1995), and many others has shown how important it is for teachers to provide explicit guidance to students throughout the writing process, particularly to students who have had limited exposure to academic kinds of speaking and writing (Delpit, 1988).

When we focus too narrowly on the desired form and structure of classroom discussions, we can inadvertently stifle the genuine exchange and exploration of ideas.

The current emphasis on structured academic discussions extends this approach from the teaching of writing to the teaching of communication more broadly, and it speaks to the growing recognition that many students can benefit from being shown explicitly how to engage productively in classroom talk. Often, they need preparation, guidance, and even formal rules for turn taking, listening, and the framing of comments. Otherwise - when teachers simply throw them into conversations, suddenly announcing, "Let's talk about this" - things tend to go badly. A few students end up monopolizing the discussions, for example, or students talk over or past each other, or the teacher gives up and shifts back to lecture mode.

To be clear, I am not arguing against this kind of explicit, guided instruction in conversational norms and practices. I simply want to add a word of caution, pointing out that when we focus too narrowly on the desired form and structure of classroom discussions, we can inadvertently stifle the genuine exchange and exploration of ideas. It's worth noting that the word discuss descends from a Latin term that meant to dash to pieces or break apart. And there's something about that earlier meaning, suggesting tension and discord, that's essential to good discussions. It is, I think, that urge to break things apart - to provoke a "Hmm, maybe I need to rethink this . . ." - that makes conversations come alive.
Discussion as cargo cult
Over the past two years, I've observed discussions in more than a dozen high school English classrooms in California, looking for evidence that students were engaged in the kind of intellectually substantive exchange of ideas long advocated by scholars such as Nystrand and Gamoran (1991). Specifically, I focused on what students were saying, what they were doing while other students spoke, and whether and how they followed up on or grappled with the ideas offered by their classmates. What I saw, over and over again, were teachers and students paying so much attention to the process of having a good discussion - taking turns, paraphrasing each other's comments, listening actively, and so on - that they couldn't actually have good discussions.

Many students need to be shown, explicitly, how to engage productively in classroom talk.

Strangely enough, I was reminded of the cargo cults I learned about in an anthropology class in college. Cargo cults emerged, mostly in the South Pacific, when island communities were first exposed to the modern transportation systems of the United States and Europe (Worsley, 1959; Read, 1958). According to some anthropologists (though others disagree with this interpretation of events), having learned of airplanes and large ships and the western goods they brought with them, some groups of Melanesians attempted to lure cargo to their islands with constructions that resembled runways, planes, docks, or warehouses but were in fact nonfunctioning replicas (e.g., airplanes made out of palm fronds or wood structures roughly shaped like air traffic control towers). Not surprisingly, such rituals failed to secure cargo. And since then, cargo cults have become synonymous with efforts to replicate something's outward form while missing its fundamental essence (e.g., the effort to build a "plane" that has no engine, fuel, or mechanical system).

Similarly, in many classrooms, I've observed what seem outwardly to be competent academic discussions, with students taking turns, offering hypotheses, and using familiar talk moves, sentence frames, note-taking strategies, and nonverbal gestures meant to show interest. But the conversation has no spark, no sign that important ideas are truly being exchanged. The academic versions of runways, towers, and docks are on display, but the intellectual cargo never arrives. On closer inspection, there is none of what Mercer, Wegerif, and Dawes (1999) call exploratory talk, in which students chew on interesting ideas and engage "critically but constructively with each other's ideas" (p. 97).
Listening for something beyond words
Some months ago, a parent told me about his daughter's experience in a class where the teacher used the technique of Socratic Seminar. He had noticed that the night before each classroom discussion, she would become very nervous, dreading the next day at school. Why, I wondered, would an upcoming discussion provoke such anxiety? Why would his daughter be so nervous to enter a setting where interesting ideas are taken up, played with, discarded, and explored? Why was a structure that was intended to empower his daughter and make it easier for her to participate in classroom discussion, causing her to lose her voice rather than helping her develop it? I realized that discussions had, in some cases, become yet another tool for evaluation, an opportunity for students to try to perform within rigid parameters.

Then, one day, I saw a conversation go right. I was observing a discussion of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and at first it looked like the same old routine. Trying their best to use "academic" language, a few students commented on the color yellow and its importance as a symbol. A few others compared the characters of Tom and Gatsby. Everybody took care to "add on to" previous comments and to "invite" each other into the discussion. It was all a bit listless, but they were playing their parts, acting like capable students. And then, after fumbling a bit for words, a student asked a question about Gatsby's obsession with Daisy: "Why are all these guys even fighting over her anyway? What makes her so desirable?"

That is when I heard it. A pause from the group, followed by at least one audible hmm. . .

Suddenly, the discussion began to have some life. The cargo had actually arrived. Other students had theories and hypotheses (which may or may not have been introduced with the sentence stem "I hypothesize. . . " I didn't notice because it didn't matter). They were genuinely interested in their classmate's question. They were engaged. They wanted to offer ideas about Daisy, about desire, about Gatsby, and about Tom. They were saying things I had not heard before in a conversation about The Great Gatsby, saying things that would not be in any online summary. They were breaking apart ideas and building new ones. In short, they had reached a moment of exploratory talk, which, I would argue, is one of the fundamental goals of academic discussion. And that brings me back to the sound.

That is when I heard it. A pause from the group, followed by at least one audible hmm ... Suddenly, the discussion began to haave some life.

The power of hmm . . .
Hmm is a sound we make when confronted by an unexpected idea, something that makes us reconsider our assumptions. We can't have lively discussions when we already know what's likely to be said. Or, more precisely, while we can have such discussions (I can recall more than a few faculty meetings), nobody enjoys them or seeks them out.

If we believe that empowerment comes from supporting students' agency and creativity, then we need to nurture the unexpected, encouraging them to shake things up (Beghetto, 2009). Often, the most provocative ideas come in the form of tentative, half-formed comments, offered by students who feel moved to speak up even though they're not sure what words to use. Further, when students provoke such a reaction - whether a thoughtful pause or an audible "hmm . . ." - they get authentic feedback, showing them that their words and ideas matter, that they can have a powerful effect. They learn that the whole point of a discussion, whether academic or informal, is to share new and compelling ideas. And with luck, they'll transfer this lesson to their lives outside school, becoming the sort of people who make it their habit to engage in lively conversations.

So far, though, in observing classroom discussions and reviewing discussion rubrics and lists of talk moves, I have seen little encouragement for students to provoke a "hmm . . ." from their peers. Again and again, the goal seems to be to get students to have competent discussions but not to move others to think differently or to break ideas apart and form new ones.
Not a silver bullet - just another arrow for the quiver
I do not mean to suggest that it is easy to foster dynamic academic discussions or that it is always a good idea to encourage students to offer provocative, half-formed ideas. I imagine that if I told my students that I value the "hmm . . .," then they'd soon begin saying it all the time, treating it as just another empty gesture to perform for the teacher. But I do think it can be useful to pay close attention to the ways in which students react - viscerally, audibly, emotionally - to each other's words and ideas in the classroom. And we should often remind ourselves what we are listening for, asking ourselves an essential question about the purpose of classroom talk: Precisely what are we trying to accomplish by inviting students to participate in discussions?

We may have several goals in mind for student talk - e.g., giving them access to academic language, making participation more equitable, teaching them how to synthesize and summarize - but let's not forget that perhaps the most fundamental goal is to engage students in a real exchange of ideas, encouraging them to grapple with unexpected ideas and new ways of thinking.

In the English department, we ask students to interpret literature through various lenses; it's a practice we should use when thinking about classroom discussions, too: We might see things one way when looking through the lens of democratic participation (Is everyone speaking?), another way looking through the lens of gender dynamics (Is a certain group dominating the discussion?) or academic language (Are students using proper forms and structures?). But we need to remind ourselves that nothing is more important than looking through the lens of student engagement if we want students to feel the power of words and appreciate the privilege and value of participating in meaningful conversation, both in school and in the rest of their lives.

Empowering student voices is not simply a matter of increasing the number of words they speak in the classroom or helping them master academic language and rhetorical moves. Real discussion is more than just a collection of gestures and forms. We should aspire to teach students to create conversational spaces where minds work together to test and break apart old ideas and to influence and shape new ones.
References
Applebee, A.N. & Langer, J.A. (1983). Instructional scaffolding: Reading and writing as natural language activities. Language Arts, 60 (2), 168-175.

Beghetto, R.A. (2009). In search of the unexpected: Finding creativity in the micromoments of the classroom. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 3 (1), 2-5.

Bizzell, P. (1986). Composing processes: An overview. In A.R. Petrosky & D. Bartholomae (Eds.), The teaching of writing. Chicago, IL: The National Society for the Study of Education.

Delpit, L. (1988). The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people's children. Harvard Educational Review, 58 (3), 280-299.

Hillocks, G. (1995). Teaching writing as reflective practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Mercer, N., Wegerif, R., & Dawes, L. (1999). Children's talk and the development of reasoning in the classroom. British Educational Research Journal, 25 (1), 95-111.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA) & Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). (2010). Common core state standards for English language arts and literacy (section SL.9-10.1.C). Washington, DC: NGA & CCSSO.

Nystrand, M. & Gamoran, A. (1991). Instructional discourse, student engagement, and literature achievement. Research in the Teaching of English, 261-290.

Pope, D. (2001). Doing school. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Read, K.E. (1958). A 'cargo' situation in the Markham Valley, New Guinea. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 14 (3), 1958.

Romano, T. (1987). Clearing the way: Working with teenage writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Worsley, P.M. (1959). Cargo cults. Scientific American, 200, 117-130.

JEREMY GLAZER ( jglazer@stanford.edu) is a doctoral candidate, Stanford University Graduate School of Education, Stanford, Calif. Formerly, he was a teacher in the Miami-Dade County (Fla.) Public Schools and the School District of Philadelphia, Penn.

Originally published in February 2018 Phi Delta Kappan 99 (5), 56-60. © 2018 Phi Delta Kappa International. All rights reserved.

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The power of hmm . . . : Bringing life (back) to words in the classroom

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Many students need to be shown explicitly how to engage productively in academic discussions. But teachers should be careful not to stifle the genuine exchange of ideas. By Jeremy Glazer Classrooms can be places where students learn to talk with and listen to others, skills that have become increasingly

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3 SEL Practices Teachers Can Use Every Day

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These social and emotional learning strategies won’t take a lot of time, but they can have a big impact on middle and high school students.

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Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Teachers can cultivate a positive learning environment by adapting pedagogical strategies that are familiar to students.

In teacher preparation programs, high school educators are taught to focus on their content areas, and there isn't as much emphasis on pedagogical structures. At times, it prevents instruction from being academically or socially differentiated.

Elementary structures can be used to really rethink learning in ways that create classroom communities that are equitable and provide opportunities for rigor and engagement at the high school level. These same structures can be adapted to engage students at an academically appropriate level for high school students.

We know that more emphasis on social and emotional learning (SEL) in all grade levels is important. With 45- to 50-minute periods in high schools, the traditional course of action has been to have the first week of school include a couple of icebreakers and then move into syllabi, rules, and instruction. SEL can't just be one and done in grades 9-12. It can be infused into all learning.

1. Adapt the Feelings Check-In
Courtesy of Sarah Said
As elementary teachers use daily smiley face check-in prompts, I created two different daily Quick Response (QR) codes, one where students can check in and another where they can check out. Under the codes, I keep a "feel wheel" that students can use to help them find language that describes how they're feeling at that moment of the day.

After they scan the QR code with their phones, students click on how they're feeling and might type in anything they feel like I need to know. If a student's phone doesn't work for this, I have paper versions for them to complete.

Our check-out QR code tells me how they think the class did on their social contract (student-created class expectations) and whether or not we worked toward the learning target that day. From this tool, I've learned so much about my students (that I wouldn't know otherwise) and built relationships with them.

2. Have Class Jobs or Tasks for Students

In my classroom, students have jobs, and they rotate every quarter: paper management, affirmation production lead, social contract consultant, academic consultant, and classroom greeter. At first, students found this very odd, but now after about a month of classes, they have embraced this as really a way to be included in the classroom.

There have been days when I've forgotten to remind them of their tasks, and they tell me that they need to introduce a new student to the social contract and pass out paper and equipment to others.

3. Create Anchor Charts for Learning Concepts

Anchor charts are typically created in elementary classrooms through teacher-led instruction-where the teacher does all the writing and all of the speaking. I thought that this structure would be effective for high school students if they lead the process of creating anchor charts in order to reach the literature standard of identifying themes in a text.

For our unit, I had students unpack the theme of children's books. They had to distinguish the topic, moral, and main idea utilizing a design that also supported the theme of the book using Canva. Students drove the content and the design of our "classroom anchor charts" while learning how to use a graphic design application that may help them in their future workplace.

After they completed the charts, I printed and laminated their creations to support other students' understanding of the concepts that their peers illustrated. I've also had students create anchor charts and map out concepts in the form of sketch notes to support their own learning and help each other. I truly believe that if students have to create a product to teach a concept, they learn it better.

4. Make Classroom Word Walls
Courtesy of Sarah Said
For students in grades 9-12, word walls are a helpful tool. In my classroom this year, I'm utilizing student-created word walls in order to support the unpacking of new vocabulary. We look at the important words in our learning targets that students need to know, and we expand our knowledge on them.

At the beginning of each unit, I introduce students to learning targets that are derived from the reading and writing Common Core standards. In order for students to reach the target, it's critical for them to know the vocabulary of the target, and that supports their understanding of the skills they need to build.

After I spend five to seven days explaining the target vocabulary, at the beginning of a unit, I assign each student a word, and they use it to draw word art. Then, I have my students tell me which versions they think should go above our learning target wall in the classroom. I continue to reference the word wall as we continue on through the unit. I noticed that as students were building their skills in understanding different concepts, they also continued to reference the word wall.

High school classrooms can be colorful, engaging, rigorous, and inclusive. The days of students just listening to teachers lecturing are gone; they benefit from the chance to engage in learning that is tactile and not behind a screen. As high school teachers, we can remind ourselves that we are both content and pedagogical experts. Incorporating engaging elementary structures in high school is the post-Covid instructional reimagination that students need, deserve, and helps them thrive.

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4 Elementary School Strategies That Work in High School

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Teachers can cultivate a positive learning environment by adapting pedagogical strategies that are familiar to students.

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Welcome to the SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook, your on-ramp for integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) into classrooms, schools, districts and offices.

Weave the signature practices throughout the day, every day, as a regular part of planning and facilitating lessons, meetings, and professional learning. These research-based practices can be part of a systemic approach to SEL. They help us build and practice social and emotional skills and create a climate of belonging for everyone, building strong, equitable, effective learning and working environments.

Inclusive Welcome

EXAMPLES

An inclusive welcome is culturally and linguistically respectful, builds community, and connects to the work ahead. When planning and facilitating activities, educators are always thinking, "What's my purpose?" The inclusive welcome is an opportunity to bring that purpose to life. What to a casual observer might appear to be an icebreaker or time-filler can be an intentional, effective educational strategy.

Engaging Strategies

EXAMPLES

Engaging strategies offer opportunities for participants to more fully grasp content and to connect learning to their own contexts. Build in a balance of interactive and reflective experiences that vary in complexity and style to meet the needs of all participants and your intended outcomes for the time together.

Intentional Close

EXAMPLES

An intentional close highlights an individual and shared understanding of the content and purpose of the engagement, illuminates the intellectual and emotional experience just shared, can provide a sense of accomplishment, and supports forward-thinking. The closing activity may be reflective of the process or the content, help identify next steps, make connections to one's own work, or show appreciation for one another.

What does SEL look like? How can we start doing SEL right now?
The SEL 3 Signature Practices were developed in response to these frequently asked questions. Grounded in CASEL's SEL framework and focal constructs of SEL , these practices are an accessible starting place for do-able, effective systemic SEL. While they can appear simple, they provide opportunities for influencing complex systems in significant ways.

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The Signature Practices can provide a common starting point for do-able, effective SEL implementation. While they may appear simple, the Practices serve as an on-ramp for developing a rich and productive systemic approach to SEL.

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State Resource Center: Teacher Practices Schools can adopt one or more evidence-based approaches to ensure that all students are supported in their social

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Relationship mapping allows teachers to evaluate their connections with students to determine who needs more support.

Yet, as the school year unfolds, creating purposeful relationships with students can easily get lost in the shuffle of lesson plans and administrative duties. Relationship mapping is one way teachers can put relationships back in the forefront and focus on building purposeful connections in a classroom. After two to three weeks of getting to know students, I use this technique in my classroom to determine the relationships I need to focus on and decide which relationships I can use to support and increase student belonging and growth.

Relationship Mapping

Imagine a map not of geographical features but of interpersonal connections. Relationship mapping is this kind of map: a visual representation of the bonds between you and your students. It lets you quickly see who is deeply connected and who might need more engagement. This tool transforms abstract concepts of student relationships into concrete, actionable insights, enabling you to craft a more connected and supportive learning environment.

To start relationship mapping, get student rosters for the various classes you teach. Then choose whether you want to map digitally or on paper with four different-colored highlighters.

The next step is to identify your interpersonal connection level with students. For each name on the roster, assign one of four different highlight colors.

One color should be used for level 1 (L1): distant acquaintance. This is a student with whom you have had minimal interaction in the classroom. They may or may not interact during instruction, and you know little about the student.

The next highlight color represents level 2 (L2): transactional relationship. This relationship is characterized by academic knowledge without a personal connection. They might answer questions, but you know no information about the student, and they do not try to interact in the classroom unless prompted.

The next color is for students who have developed some attachment. They go under level 3 (L3): personal connection. For this level, you know at least two pieces of information about the student that they have openly shared. They seek guidance and help from you in the classroom.

The final color is level 4 (L4): deep relationship. This is a relationship in which the student will openly share information, feels safe sharing their thoughts and opinions, and actively seeks your guidance and advice.

With colors assigned, go through the student rosters and color code your relationships with students in your class or classes. Once you've finished with color coding, analyze your map.

Identify L1 and L2 students who need more support and recognize the strong connections you could use to support lower-level connections in the room. Once lower-level relationships are apparent, list the students who need more support and work to build deeper relationships with them. Every quarter, repeat and ensure that every student has the opportunity for a L3 or L4 relationship.

Creating these maps for 75 students usually takes me 10 to 15 minutes. I print out the rosters and use highlighters, and it's definitely time well spent.

3 Quick Strategies for Deepening Student Relationships

1. 2x10. This approach involves spending just two minutes each day for 10 days having a personal conversation with a student. Each day, ask the student a question and build on what has been discovered. Consider using these leveled questions developed by social psychologist Arthur Aron to foster more significant relationships.

These interactions must focus on the student's dreams, hobbies, and goals to help build trust and rapport. Each day, bring up information learned from the previous day and ask questions to learn more about the student. It's possible to do multiple students on the same day and track what you learn on a roster.

2. Providing strong peer mentors. Another powerful method to build stronger relationships is to use relationship contagion, or the tendency for people to mimic the emotions of those around them. Pair students who are at L1 and L2 with those from L3 and L4. This can be done through direct mentoring during instruction or by strategically moving students on a seating chart.

This will help build classroom relationships and encourage engagement while offering academic and social support. The benefits extend beyond the mentees to the mentors, who gain leadership experience and strengthen their classroom connections. Through observing the positive relationship of the mentor and teacher, mentees are more likely to build trust and form positive bonds with the teacher as well.

3. Give students a personalized space. Relationships form when students feel they can share and be valued for who they are. A simple way to do this is to provide a space for students to share accomplishments and information about themselves in the classroom.

I do this by having a metaphorical refrigerator door-a bulletin board or white space-where students can share whatever they would like with the class. This allows students to share themselves at their own discretion and shows that I have a space that values my students' passions and interests, which helps foster student-teacher relationships and builds relationships between other students. It also gives me insight into passions and events I can utilize in instruction to boost engagement and foster connections with my students.

Relationships are Key

Relationship mapping is more than just a tool; it's a strategic approach to ensuring every student can have a solid relationship with the teacher. By focusing on and nurturing these essential relationships, we create a learning environment where every student can thrive. Embracing relationship mapping allows us to work to ensure that each student feels connected, valued, and seen so they can develop to their full potential.

Responses are generated by artificial intelligence. AI can make mistakes.

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Using Relationship Mapping to Improve Relationships With Students

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Relationship mapping allows teachers to evaluate their connections with students to determine who needs more support.

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At Whiting Lane Elementary School, in West Hartford, Connecticut, all students are held to a high standard for presenting their ideas-and they receive direct instruction and support in order to be successful in building communication skills. In a fourth-grade classroom, curriculum specialist Karen Bridges leads students through a feedback activity where they have opportunities to practice in trios, using a rubric to give thoughtful, productive critiques of their classmates' presentations on local history.

The school prides itself on creating safe and supportive learning environments, so a foundation has already been laid that allows students to feel comfortable in sharing their works-in-progress with each other. The students take turns actively listening and rating their peers on clarity of speech, confidence in body language, and quality of their accompanying slide decks. An anchor chart with sentence stems for both positive feedback and constructive criticism is posted on the wall of the classroom, giving structure to the conversation to ensure that it is helpful.

The results are tangible: better, more polished student work, stronger communication and public speaking skills, and importantly, a deeper sense of shared responsibility and ease with collaboration within the classroom community. "I want students to feel that sense of pride in their work and to feel a sense of pride knowing that I'm also helping a friend, a peer, to improve what they are doing," says principal Karen Kukish. "I know that it's my responsibility as part of that classroom family to exchange my thoughts and ideas with my classmates."

To try this activity (and adapt it for any subject), download the peer feedback rubric as seen in the video, developed by Whiting Lane fourth-grade teacher Dawn Beckley. It's meant to be printed as two-sided and cut in half.

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Building Communication Skills With Peer Critique

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When students use a rubric and sentence starters to provide feedback to their classmates, they help each other improve their work.

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Unorthodox assessments can bring out students' creativity and improve their engagement in class.

In running an after-school club for students learning English on the island of Mauritius, I always strive to bring interactive, engaging, hands-on activities to the learners under my care. And as a National Geographic Certified Educator, I use nature and environmental literacy to teach the language. Each lesson includes creative art as part of the learning process. When I first started teaching, I had no idea that what began as a fun activity for my students would become an assessment tool using comic strips.

My students and I started a project last year to learn about the effects of plastic pollution on the environment and human health along with how to take concrete action to reduce, reuse, and recycle, or 3R, plastics. One of the activities was to create a mini-story about being a 3Rs ocean superhero, using a six-box comic strip. My students range in age from 7 to 15 and have different levels of English knowledge, mostly intermediate. They have all done the same activity with varying degrees of creative expression and vocabulary.

Scaffolding

Playing a lifespan-of-plastic matching game

Watching a TED-Ed video on the life cycle of a plastic bottle

Discussing photos of marine animals affected by ocean plastic pollution

Reading Let's Clean Our Precious Mauritius and drawing our favorite part of the story

Reading Earth Reminder, a 3Rs infographic

Brainstorming about how to 3R plastics in their immediate environment (at home, at school and in their community)

The following scaffolding activities allowed the students to create a mini-story comic strip about how they could implement the 3Rs, which I used to simultaneously assess their understanding:

The Comic Strip Assessment Process

I asked students to create a mini-story comic strip where they would be 3Rs ocean superheroes.

The criteria: The words reduce, reuse, and recycle had to be part of the story. The drawings and sentences also had to show and/or describe the actions they were taking to be a 3Rs ocean superhero.
Courtesy of Danielle Zélin
Vision board: A vision board helped the students keep their focus on the flow of the story and which elements should be included while crafting their comic strips.

The aim of the vision board was to give space and time for the students to imagine themselves as main actors in the understanding and application process. Even though writing sentences would suffice, having visual reinforcements can help students better retain the information.

Collaborative assessment: After the task, the words and drawings were assessed orally, working with each student one-on-one. Additionally, peer assessments could be applied here: I call it the gallery assessment, where I displayed all comic strips on the wall, and students walked around and gave constructive feedback.
Courtesy of Danielle Zélin
The samples in this article are from Eva, age 8, and Pearl, age 9. The activity or assessment can be applied to different ages. The drawings vary from simple to more detailed visuals. The sentence structures also vary based on the students' proficiency levels. The key as an educator is to keep an open mind with the creative expressions, as they are unique for each student.

Comic Strip Styles

Traditional: There are numerous websites with free downloadable or printable comic-strip formats. Here are some of them that I found and used:
Created by Danielle Zélin using Canva
Now, if you are Canva-savvy, you can create your own themed comic strip, as I did for the 3Rs ocean superhero.

Digital: I have encountered some students who needed more confidence in drawing, so I encouraged them to create a digital comic strip using Canva. Some of them used the templates already in place; others made their own by using graphics and photos.

Interdisciplinary Options

Comic strips can be used to assess many areas of learning. As a TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and eco-educator, I have used them as a way to assess my students' understanding. The process of using creative arts as an assessment tool not only is an interesting and engaging way for the students to be assessed without test pressure, but also gives them the space and agency to express and transfer their creativity on a canvas.

Below are some activities where I have used comic strips as an assessment tool.

Environmental Science: Growing of a Seed: The students are asked to represent on a comic strip the different steps of how to grow a seed into a plant.

ESL/English: Adjectives (Emotions): The students explore different adjectives connected with emotions ( sad, angry, delighted, amused) and find the meaning in the dictionary. As an assessment, the students create a small story on a comic strip and use the different adjectives they learned. After listening to a story or watching a short video about any topic of interest, the students show the sequence of the story on the comic strip.

Most of the time when we think about assessment as trained educators, we think in terms of grids, points, testing, and reports. The word assessment itself often becomes a source of stress and anxiety for both students and teachers. But the process can be made fun for everyone by allowing students to tap into their creativity to show what they know and can do.

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Using Comic Strips as an Assessment Tool

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Taking advantage of an assessment tool using comic strips gives students a chance to be creative and increases their engagement in class.

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6 Research-Backed Ways to Break up Your Lectures

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Lectures are efficient ways to convey information, but kids tend to tune them out. Here are 6 activities that will keep students focused while improving learning outcomes.

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These ideas for using exit tickets for formative assessment and to quickly see how students are feeling may be particularly helpful for new teachers.

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Middle school teachers can use common edtech tools to incorporate social and emotional learning strategies throughout the day.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a critical part of students' educational experience in my classroom. It's the process through which they learn how to manage their emotions, build positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. As a teacher, it's my responsibility to ensure that students have the necessary skills to succeed in all areas of their lives, and SEL is a crucial component of this. When students feel safe, supported, and understood, they're more likely to engage in learning and to achieve their goals.

I incorporate SEL into our daily classroom routines and lesson plans by creating a positive and supportive classroom environment through technology integration and using mindfulness exercises. Here are some of my strategies.

Google Forms

Students enter the classroom and, using Google Forms, fill out a daily bell ringer, which contains a daily "How are you?" question. They select an emoji from the choices to express how they're feeling that day. I can quickly open up another tab to see individual student responses as well as those of the entire class, so that these daily emoji checks give me a quick temperature reading on how my students are doing individually as well as collectively.

Consulting the data, I can quickly decide if our class needs a moment of silence or a brain-break video or if students are ready to start. It's important to provide students with opportunities to articulate their emotions, and I've found that emojis work really well with middle school students. And those students who may be uncomfortable sharing their feelings with the entire class have the same opportunity to express their feelings if they choose to.

There's also an optional open-ended response that lets students tell me anything else if needed. Sometimes students will articulate that they're doing great or need additional support. This allows me to get to know my students on a deeper level and makes me cognizant of their mood for that day.

Templates can help my students gain coping skills, resilience, emotional awareness, and empathy. There are a few slide templates on Pear Deck that I use on a daily basis: Stress Check; What Is Filling Your Bucket?; Give a Thank You to Someone in Your Class; and A Moment of Silence. Students who may be uncomfortable saying out loud how they're feeling can answer these from the comfort of their screen.

It's also very important to provide a safe space for students to connect with me and let me know how I can better support them moving forward. For example, when students enter the classroom, we have a moment of silence to help them refocus in the event they're having a stressful day at school. Also, What Is Filling Your Bucket? helps students articulate what's going well for them and hopefully instills a sense of gratitude. In contrast, with this strategy students also can express what areas of their life may be draining for them and appropriately identify them rather than bottling up these emotions all day long.

Articulating gratitude to peers is another area that I want to help my students develop when it comes to their own SEL. Students can type a "Thank you" to someone in the class who has been a good friend, has helped them in one of their classes, or was nice. I've seen the faces of those who receive a compliment light up, and I find this practice particularly helpful. We do the gratitude tribute about once a week, so students have had some time to reflect and to participate. I usually integrate these templates after the warm-up, and they take about five minutes to complete.

Another one of my favorite edtech tools to integrate in my middle school classroom is Quizizz. I find it important to have multiple ways for my students to check in with me, as it's not a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, I use the open-ended response as well as a recording feature response for students' daily check-ins. This is different from other digital options because it provides opportunities for students to talk to me and leave me a private audio or written message if they feel comfortable.

The two simple prompts I always use are How are you feeling today? and Is there anything else you want to share with me? These questions are great conversation starters and provide another opportunity for students to practice their own SEL skills in a tangible way.

Providing a space for students to talk to me helps them articulate their feelings out loud if they choose to. Through these submitted responses, I'm able to follow up if needed and better serve my students based on their feedback. If necessary, I can also refer them to our school or mental health counselor. These activities can be completed at the beginning or ending of the class.

I also use GoNoodle, which is a free website that provides educators with mindfulness and brain break videos. The mindfulness exercises are especially beneficial when we need a breather in the classroom. I can tell by the looks on students' faces when it's time for a reset. There are videos that range from yoga and deep-breathing exercises to silly dance videos. Depending on the need, I tailor the choice of video to the class and what may benefit us all collectively.

It's important to remember that some students thrive with movement exercises, and others may not feel as comfortable. I usually incorporate these videos halfway through a lesson or after recess for a reset. They're also a great idea when there's inclement weather. The videos can take anywhere from one to six minutes, depending on the selection.

For my morning meeting templates I use Lumio. The templates include the current date, the word of the day, an affirmation of the day, and a quick writing prompt. Completing these morning exercises helps build our classroom community. These activities usually take about five minutes, and we complete them at the beginning of our class. It's important to take time at the beginning of class to start off on the right foot. This sets the tone for the rest of the day, and if some students have had a rough morning, the routines help bring consistency.

After students have had time to respond, we share our responses as a class. This helps students to feel part of the class and begins building our empathy for others. It's also great practice for students to work on their active listening skills. I usually do these morning meeting activities on Monday, hoping to set the tone for the week on a positive note.

By prioritizing SEL in my classroom, I can help students develop the skills they need to thrive both academically and personally. It's my duty as an educator to ensure that my learners are prepared for success. Integrating technology into my middle school classroom can have a positive impact on my students' social and emotional learning.

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5 Quick Ways to Integrate SEL in the Classroom

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Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) Middle school teachers can use common edtech tools to incorporate social and emotional learning strategies throughout the day. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a critical part of students' educational experience in my classroom. It's the process through which they learn how to manage their emotions, build positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

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It is the teacher's role to make sure this happens.

The Multi-Tasking Teacher

Although to be an effective teacher it often feels like you need to be one of those Hindu gods with a dozen arms, I believe that educators do need to hold standards and objectives in one hand and formative assessments in the other. We then need to juggle them back and forth. It's essential to break down a high-priority standard into bite size learning objectives that are measurable and then it's absolutely critical to have a way to check, every single day, on how well students mastered that objective.

Having a well-written learning objective, in student-friendly language, is not enough.

This isn't easy. In fact, there's nothing easy about teaching. But it is essential that every time students leave our classroom, we ask a number of questions:

How do I know that they learned what I wanted them to learn?

How well did they learn the objective?

Who mastered it and who didn't?

Which parts of the objective did students struggle with? What misconceptions did they have?

If we don't answer these questions, all of our careful planning and breaking down of standards and creating a positive learning environment and making curriculum relevant is useless.

As educators, we are responsible for learning, not teaching.

So how do we do assess every day how well students mastered the objectives?

The Key: Formative Assessment

A lot has been written about on-going, formative assessments, but my favorite resource is Checking for Understanding by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey This book is a quick and easy read, very accessible and full of dozens of ways to thoughtfully and systematically monitor student learning.

Fisher and Frey define a formative assessment as one that serves to improve instruction and provide student feedback and which is administered throughout instruction. Students use the results to monitor their own learning; teachers use the results to check for understanding and then to plan their next instructional moves.

In contrast, a summative assessment is administered at the end of a course or unit, and is used to measure student competency. Teachers use these results for grades.

If formative assessments are used consistently, and used well, neither a teacher nor a student should ever be surprised by his/her final grade, and I would argue that the great majority of students should be successful.

A Few Examples

Formative assessments can be:

Questioning strategies that are used with the whole group or individuals

Think-pair-share, during which the teacher circulates and listens to students sharing

Individual mini-white boards for ongoing assessment during a lesson

An "exit ticket," which is a quarter or half sheet of paper where students write about their learning for the day, or answer a brief question or two

Hand signals, as a quick and easy way to check for understanding

I imagine that most teachers are familiar with these strategies and many others.

Recently I observed a fantastic first grade Sheltered English teacher who used a variety of formative assessment techniques to ensure that students mastered their objective (to analyze characters and identify the setting in a picture book).

As the teacher read the story, she instructed students to use specific hand gestures when they heard repetitive phrases and to repeat those phrases out loud. This engaged students, assured that they were following the language patterns, and allowed the teacher to check that all students heard and understood a repeating phrase (important oral language development for English Language Learners).

Then she had students talk to each other about the characters and share their ideas with the whole group. Finally, she distributed three response cards to the children: one card said "who," another said "when," and the last said "where."

The teacher named a character or aspect of the setting, such as "sheep," and students had to hold up the card that identified the literary element. In this way, the teacher was able to immediately see who was struggling with the concepts and to provide corrective feedback.

Planning is a Must

When I write lesson plans, I have a column in which I write the activity that students will do or where I detail my instructional moves. Next to that is another column where I identify the formative assessment strategies that I will use during those activities.

In order for my checking for understanding to be as useful as possible, I need to carefully plan and consider which strategy will be most effective with the planned activity. If I don't plan, I tend to use a few strategies over and over, or I don't get the most accurate data. This doesn't mean that I don't throw in a spontaneous strategy now and then, but it assures me that I'll get the student data I need by the end of that lesson.

What have you learned about formative assessments from using them? Do you have a strategy to check for understanding that you find effective? Please share your ideas and expertise with us!

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Do You Check for Understanding Often Enough with Students?

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It is the teacher's role to make sure this happens. Although to be an effective teacher it often feels like you need to be one of those Hindu gods with a dozen arms, I believe that educators do need to hold standards and objectives in one hand and formative assessments in the other.

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Events that center students' picks in art, music, and food can create powerful opportunities for them to increase their sense of belonging.

Caiaimage/Sam Edwards / iStock

The bell rings, and lunch begins. Students move to "the commons"-our cafeteria space at school-getting in lines to pay for sammies, slices, and sides before settling into their friend groups to chat or do last-minute homework. Some are tucked behind their phones-together but alone-while others flip through the pages of a book. What if this scene could look different?

Introducing: First Fridays. Once a month, during lunch at our high school, students gather to engage in a school event that celebrates them. Modeled after the First Friday events that take place in many cities and towns (when community members gather to experience local culture), First Fridays at school offer students a chance to listen to music, view art, and sample cuisine. The tradition has become a cornerstone of our school community and is replicable across school sites.

The Importance of a Meaningful School Culture

Creating a positive school climate and culture is essential for student success. When students feel like they are an important part of the community, they're more likely to be engaged in their learning and have a positive attitude toward school.

In my practice as an assistant principal, I knew that I needed to find a way to enhance our school culture. We had talent in our school, and I hoped our students would be brave enough to share those talents with others-fostering new connections while enlivening our community.

By making space in our routine to incorporate music, food, and art into the school environment-and, importantly, dedicating time to come together as a community-our school became more connected, and students articulated a boosted sense of belonging.

Incorporating Music

Throughout the year, we invite student musicians in ninth through 12th grades to make requests to play on First Friday, either in groups or solo. Performers choose the material they're going to perform (provided it's school appropriate), which offers them a sense of agency. And the community enjoys the anticipation of waiting to discover what types of music will be played, and by whom.

One student shared, "I am so thankful for First Fridays because it gives us a chance to see our friends play, and we can connect with each other through music in a group rather than just in our earbuds."

Student performers feel a sense of pride over their work: "It was really fun. A very unique experience for sure," one shared. From a freshman performing a piano solo to a group of seniors playing popular songs to our school's jazz ensemble playing performance pieces, First Fridays invite a wide range of musical exposure and appreciation among attendees.

Celebrating Cuisine

Another important part of First Fridays is good food. It connects all students and cultures and provides an opportunity for community members to sample foods that they may not have tried before.

Every month, we collaborate with Food Services to suggest a theme or idea for our food tasting: From soups to sweet treats, wing sauces to macaroni and cheese bites, the surprise menu generates excitement. "We never know what the food will be, and we can't wait to find out," one student shared. "We also like that it is vegetarian so all kids can have the chance to try it."

Students are given the opportunity to provide feedback and share what foods they enjoy and would like to see on the menu. These special food choices often become regulars on our lunch menu, and the process fosters deepened connections between students and food service providers, enhancing everyone's sense of community.

Appreciating Artwork

The third component of First Friday is showcasing student artwork. In the commons, students can take a gallery walk to see pieces of art produced by their classmates. Students who observe the artwork engage in discussions with one another, express their admiration for the artists, or become motivated to produce original artwork themselves.

In addition to fostering self-esteem and confidence, this sharing of art cultivates an appreciation for creativity and expression, offers a real-world audience to student artists, and sparks conversations among students and adults who may not have previously connected.

Building a Supportive Atmosphere

At our school, what started as a small event has become a staple in our community. Students frequently share their gratitude for the tradition and say that not only do they enjoy observing their peers' talents, but also they notice that the routine has a positive impact on their mental health and well-being.

There is a sense of calm and joy when the music is being played and students are engaging in conversation, clapping for their classmates after each song, vying for their favorite food to become a fixture on the school menu. Students' artwork enhances the atmosphere of our physical space. And as all of these elements combine and cohere, so does our community.

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Celebrating Student Interests to Create a Positive High School Culture

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Events that center students' picks in art, music, and food can create powerful opportunities for them to increase their sense of belonging.

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A look at some ways administrators can foster active participation by students in improving school culture.

©Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images

The tardy bell rang 15 minutes ago. You spot five students yelling and running into the restroom as you turn the corner, and you ask yourself, "What can I do to encourage these kids to report to their classrooms on time and ready to learn?"

School leaders spend much of their day focused on the management and logistics of running a school, but creating a positive and inclusive culture requires paying attention to different facets of the campus environment. Involving students in shaping the learning environment can yield positive results.

The protégé effect, or using peer-to-peer techniques, can be useful not only in the classroom but in developing a healthier, more positive school culture. School leaders should involve student leaders in the implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) to consistently foster an environment that's conducive to learning.

Schedule Time for Interaction

School leaders have many competing priorities, but scheduling time for face-to-face interaction with students is vital to creating a positive school culture. Because it is not possible to meet with every student, consider selecting a group of students who represent different facets of the school campus for monthly in-person interaction.

Teachers and other students can make useful recommendations about who might best represent the varied interests and skills of a student body. Creating a smaller student ambassador cohort and designating routine interactions gives administrators the opportunity to hear about campus concerns.

When I initiated regular meetings with students who were in the top 10 percent academically, I found that other students were reluctant to hold conversations with these ambassadors. We moved to a system that ensures more diversity from the student body because we recognized the importance of having students build authentic relationships with many of their peers.

Communicating directly with students also demonstrates a commitment to your shared vision for the culture and climate of the school. The meetings provide a space for students to share their peers' cares, concerns, and celebrations.

Establish Objectives and Encourage Collaboration

During the meetings, discuss with students the PBIS objectives they can implement with peers. Specific objectives could include hallway behavior during class changes (e.g., walking on the right at all times to improve traffic flow, and wearing ID badges at all times).

In our meetings, we also identify priorities for school culture from the administration's perspective. For example, we encourage students to consider ways to address cyberbullying. Once the goals are agreed upon, students can work to develop ways to communicate those goals to others. In our school, students make posters or handouts using acronyms that are easy to read and universally understood by students and staff as visual reminders of our shared objectives.

Peer-to-peer interaction is also valuable in establishing a positive school culture. Seniors in our school designed a mentoring program for underclassmen to decrease behavior referrals.Ten seniors recommended by teachers worked with a group of 20 students from the lower grades over a nine-week period. The principal and seniors spoke before each session and shared behavior strategies they intended to use, like self-regulation, self-monitoring, and self-advocacy.

The seniors had an opportunity to give younger students advice regarding how they should manage disruptive impulses that might lead to misbehavior in class. They also encouraged their younger peers to speak up in class when they did not understand a concept. The seniors took ownership over the development and success of the program.

Create Predictable Consequences

For effective PBIS, administrators need to provide predictable consequences for problem behaviors. The consequences are most effective when students are involved in their implementation through the creation of a social contract that details the expected behaviors and the consequences students will receive if they do not follow the code of conduct. In our school, the agreed consequences are: (a) a warning and assignment of a behavior essay, (b) a phone call home, and/or (c) an office referral.

When students do not adhere to the code of conduct, teachers and administrators ask the student and their peers to reflect upon the undesired behavior. Students categorize the behavior as a minor infraction or a major infraction using the social contract parameters they helped design.

Celebrate Successes

When administrators and staff give students ownership in their learning environments, it creates a sense of pride in students. In my school, we encourage students to use social media to tell our story. Students also follow our Instagram and Twitter feeds, where they can tag each other for positive behaviors. When a student receives a "spotlight" recognition from a teacher or peer, we post their picture in the commons area with a caption about what makes the student exceptional.

Finding ways to celebrate success fosters more active participation by students in shaping school culture inside and outside of the classroom.

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A look at some ways administrators can foster active participation by students in improving school culture. ©Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images The tardy bell rang 15 minutes ago. You spot five students yelling and running into the restroom as you turn the corner, and you ask yourself, "What can I do to encourage these kids to report to their classrooms on time and ready to learn?"

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Creating a Positive Learning Environment

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When students' mental, emotional, and physical needs are met, they're more likely to love school-and they learn more.

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These formative assessment strategies allow teachers to provide targeted feedback that students can use immediately.

Here's a common scenario: Mara doesn't know how things got so bad, so fast. Ninth grade started just a couple of months ago, and she's already close to failing three classes. Last night, her mother saw her English grade, got really angry, and told her to ask for help from the teacher.

What Mara's mother doesn't realize is how challenging that will be. Mara is having a hard time understanding why she got Ds on her first two essays, especially after she looked over both assignments carefully and did her best. Her teacher gets irritated sometimes, and Mara is afraid that if she tells him that she cannot understand how to do well, she will make him mad. Besides, she can't keep giving a class so much energy if she keeps getting nowhere. She doesn't know what to do.

Many middle and high school students find it difficult to achieve and maintain success. Juggling an increasingly demanding course load presents heightened friction for kids who are in the transitional stages of sixth and ninth grade. As the year progresses and demands on time increase, it also gets harder for teachers to know how to support struggling students. Tapping into the power of streamlined feedback strategies can help everyone remain focused on the learning target.

'I Do, We Do, You Do'

When students learn new skills, they often do better with a gradual release of teacher-directed instruction. Many classrooms follow an "I Do, You Do" model and skip the middle step: "We Do." For example, an English teacher might model writing a specific kind of sentence for students and then say, "It's your turn." The expectation with this "I Do, You Do" teaching style is that students can immediately apply a new learning skill by seeing it in action.

However, the problem is that many students need more time to process information. Instead, if the class tries a "We Do" approach for a few minutes to write their sentences collaboratively (perhaps in small groups and with teacher support), that provides more opportunity for discussion around areas of confusion.

With "We Do," the feedback process becomes far richer. Art teacher Brandon Ryan shared a practice with me that he finds essential in having students understand how feedback directly comes from having clear learning criteria: "Before we start working, we review the criteria for success as a whole group, and it stays visible while students are working. I have students work in table groups or pairs to analyze one another's work and determine if the criteria have been met. We do whole group critiques where we look at two or three student examples as a class in order to give objective feedback to the student who created it."

As a result, students understand how to be successful, what to do next if they encounter struggle, and best of all, benefit from the energy and productivity that comes from normalizing learning as a process.

Higher-Order Questioning

Higher-order questions, which spur student thinking by taking the learning in a more complex direction to promote critical thinking, are too often underrated as a strategy for uncovering important information. At the close of nearly every class I teach, I ask students to write an open-ended question on a small slip of paper, which also serves as their exit ticket. Content-based questions reveal just as much about what students understand as what they do not and provide a necessary window into how to proceed next with instruction.

For students who are afraid to ask the teacher for help and are consequently struggling in class, the process of anonymously writing questions at the end of class provides a risk-free avenue to getting some clarity. It is therefore tremendously important that teachers follow up with answers in a timely manner and that they validate all questions as being vital pathways to learning so that kids don't have any reason to feel that their questions were considered worthless.

With the consistent knowledge of where all kids in the room stand with daily learning, the class momentum will be far more consistent, as the teacher is able to address concerns and issues before they snowball. All students need this kind of regular check-in, but it is especially helpful for students who either are new to a school or have differentiated needs.

Holistic Sort

When teachers get bogged down in grading a large number of assignments, students do not receive feedback in time to make necessary adjustments to their understanding and are therefore more likely to give up. Providing feedback is not synonymous with giving a grade, and the value in letting students know where they stand informs their future success. Deciding which assignments deserve a grade and which exist solely to give the teacher data requires some discernment, but it's well worth the effort. As for student pushback about not getting graded on everything, they will not be as vocally opposed to feedback for its own sake once they see the value of correcting their mistakes before their work is evaluated.

Suppose a sixth-grade science teacher wants to assess how accurately students identify mutually beneficial relationships within ecosystems by asking them to make a list of such interactions among organisms. Rather than grade the assignment or spend time making numerous comments, the teacher can divide student understanding into two categories labeled "Met" and "Not Yet." Then, looking for overall patterns, the teacher makes notes about what mistakes students who are in the "Not Yet" category seem to encounter and uses that information to guide next steps.

This process is short and direct and provides the sort of visibility about student outcomes that makes instruction more relevant. In addition, students receive far more incisive feedback that helps them improve before a higher-stakes opportunity presents itself in terms of grades, and they are therefore less likely to get bogged down in a sense of failure.

Thinking back to Mara and her discouragement, imagine that her English teacher has engaged in even just one of the feedback strategies suggested above. She will have a much better idea of why she is failing, or perhaps she will not be failing at all. It just takes effective feedback processes to help a new secondary student-or any student, for that matter-understand how to be successful and maintain that momentum through the school year and beyond.

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3 Quick Feedback Techniques to Help Students Stay on Track

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These quick feedback techniques give teachers a sense of where students are and to allow them to provide quick, targeted feedback.

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Student feedback can mean much more than an end-of-year survey-teachers can gather and use it all year to guide instruction.

I've always valued student feedback. For the first few years of my teaching career, one of the final things I had students do during their time in my classroom was complete an extensive survey about our time together comprising questions on a range of topics, from how they personally felt in the classroom to which books they most enjoyed and what suggestions they had for future classes.

With summer on the horizon, though, students would usually speed through these questions, and I-equally antsy to jump into summer break-would skim the results, save them in a folder to look at in the fall, and pack up my classroom.

In an effort to be more intentional about bringing student voices into my classroom, I made a shift: I broke the survey into smaller pieces to administer throughout the year, and I used it as an on-ramp to whole-class conversations about student feedback. Doing so greatly impacted my classroom community, so I share my process in hopes that it will do the same for others.

Pacing Check-Ins

At the end of September, I include a survey question at the end of our assessment: How has the pacing of class been so far? This year, roughly 60 percent of my students chose "Goldilocks," meaning they found the pacing of class "just right," but the rest were split between "too fast" and "too slow."

These numbers were helpful to see early in the course, as I was able to adjust and differentiate my instruction based on students' individual answers. In the next class, for example, students walked into the room to find the results presented in front of them. I asked them to reflect individually and discuss in small groups what they would doif they were the teacher who received this feedback.

Then, I took a seat so that I was at eye level with them, attached a blank sheet of paper to my clipboard, and asked them to share their ideas with the class. Ten minutes later, I had several important perspectives written down that I hadn't considered-for example, how many of my students were trying to balance both extracurricular activities and after-school jobs. Students also gained better understandings of their peers' experiences.

'Teacher Choice' Reflections

One of my priorities as a teacher is to be open with students about the choices I make in the classroom, from seating charts to text selections and assessment strategies. To me, it is important to be open about not only the choices I make but also the reasoning behind them-and to then ask students to reflect on those choices, too.

With my sophomores, I ended one unit with a "If you were the teacher..." gallery walk. Around the room, I hung posters with examples of, or questions about, instructional choices I had made. For example, one poster posed a question to students about whether a single novel or collection of short stories would have worked better for the skills of a given unit.

Students moved around the room, marking their level of agreement on a linear scale for each of the posters. They then discussed at stations what choice they would have made if they were the teacher.

We moved from the gallery walk to whole class discussion, which generated powerful feedback that benefited my professional growth and that of colleagues teaching the same unit in other classrooms, with whom I shared my students' thoughts via a professional learning community. Most students said they would've preferred "at least one more personal-choice reading unit" to take the place of a whole class novel. This feedback is shaping our planning for next year-and I made sure to tell students so that they know we're implementing their feedback.

Discussing and Ranking Potential Changes

After gathering students' feedback, I find it meaningful to present to students potential curricular or instructional changes I'm considering for the next school year, based on their insights.

For example, after a unit built around Shakespeare's King Lear and analytical writing with synthesis, I was considering several curricular shifts that I wanted students' feedback on: extending the unit by a week, adding more resources earlier in the writing process, and narrowing the list of additional texts offered for synthesis. On the final day of the unit, students deliberated in small groups over these ideas, not only agreeing or disagreeing with them but also ranking them in terms of the priority they'd recommend if they were leading the classroom.

I was also able to share how some of the best parts of this year's King Lear unit were a result of student feedback from the previous year-reaffirming my commitment to making student feedback central to what the classroom looks like going forward.

Building Real-World Feedback Skills

There are many ways to get feedback from students, and the amount and type of questions you ask them will depend on your own classroom and curriculum contexts. However, across all strategies, I've discovered two consistent priorities in this participatory pedagogy: using specific questions rather than exhaustive surveys and returning student feedback to the classroom community as quickly as possible to begin a conversation around it.

Additionally, by engaging in these practices, students have a chance to practice the real-life skill of offering feedback in a professional, productive way while interacting with and negotiating the perspectives of others in trying to come to a consensus and proposed solution. And teachers gain deeper insights into students' learning experiences, meaning that we can offer highly tailored instruction that boosts engagement and brings students' authentic voices into the learning process.

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Collecting and Using Student Feedback Throughout the Year

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Student feedback can mean much more than an end-of-year survey. See how one teacher gathers and uses feedback throughout the year.

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13 Formative Assessments That Inspire Creativity

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Sometimes mixing in formative assessments that go a step beyond exit slips and low-stakes quizzes can inject some fun—and creativity—into learning.

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Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages

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Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.

We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.

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Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students. We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.

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Protocols are structured processes and guidelines to promote meaningful, efficient communication, problem solving, and learning. Protocols give time for active listening and reflection, and ensure that all voices in the group are heard and honored. Using protocols appropriately in meetings with colleagues, students, parents, and others helps you build the skills and the culture necessary for productive collaborative work.

Although protocols are not needed for some meetings (such as those for disseminating information or updating participants without inviting feedback), once a group becomes accustomed to using protocols, they're more likely to collaborate more efficiently and effectively even when protocols are not being used.

Like guardrails along a highway, NSRF protocols, under the leadership of a trained coach, provide guidance and a safe place for honest and useful feedback. They also ensure that the group involved arrives at the proposed destination rather than being pulled off-track.

NSRF has a vast array of protocols and activities to help participants:

Address complex dilemmas with fresh perspectives

Improve their work quickly with thought-provoking questions

Share and learn from successes

Introduce ideas, topics, or programs

Expand thinking, find essential messages, discover other perspectives

Interpret data

Observe classrooms and environments to improve teaching, coaching, learning, or other work

Brainstorm and improve projects, plans, or materials at any stage of progress

Look at student work with specific objectives and needs in mind to improve outcomes

Our Protocols A-Z List is free and provides access to our original protocols, alphabetized by their given titles and downloadable as PDF files.

Our most updated and complex protocols are exclusive to Annual Members and trained Critical Friends Group® Coach Members. NSRF is a small non-profit office, and your paid memberships help to support our office which works to support YOU as an educator!

Our paid members have access to newly constructed, extended, searchable Protocols Libraries! Members' and Coaches' Protocol Libraries have detailed search filters that allow searches by categories such as "Planning & Brainstorming" and "Working with Data." You can also preview brief summaries of purpose per protocol or activity. These libraries also contain activities, downloadable cards, documents, and applicable articles. You can view our protocols and activities as interactive web site pages through the Linked Title, or you can download them as PDF files. We hope to gather even more materials for you in the days to come!

To view these exclusive, extended libraries, be sure to log in with your username and password and to purchase your membership through our Store. Find the library links under "Protocols" in the top main menu. These are BIG libraries, so you might give them a few seconds to upload. We have a lot to offer, especially to our trained CFG Coaches!

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Jailyn Jenkins joins Michelle Morris Jones to unpack the PEBC Teaching Framework and specific ways in which teachers can promote student discourse that is meaningful; culturally responsive and sustaining; and inclusive of all voices. First and foremost, we must invest in building relationships with students and establishing rituals and routines that promote talk in our classrooms. This involves examining our internal biases and beliefs about who's holding the power and knowledge and who gets to have a voice. Laying the groundwork for rich and lifeworthy discourse begins on day one by engaging students in conversations about their lives and interests as well as content. This creates an expectation that each and every student has something to say that is valuable.

When planning for discourse Jailyn considers:

Lifeworthy Topics: What matters for students? How can you build a bridge between content standards and life outside of school?

Intentional Planning: What do you want students to talk about and how will that build community or understanding? How are you going to scaffold the conversation for student success?

Multiple Entry Points: Can everyone contribute something to the conversation in some way? What modes of discourse or languages are students able to use to express their ideas?

Open-Ended Questions: Are questions crafted in a way that promotes critical thinking or are they designed to elicit a particular response? In what ways can students explore the "how" and "why" rather than the "what" or "who"?

In closing, Jailyn encourages us to double down on lifeworthiness by building authentic relationships with students, expressing creativity that leads to innovation, and putting ourselves in the seats of students.

Jailyn Jenkins, "Educator, Advocate, Wellness Enthusiast" teaches science, facilitates professional learning opportunities, and serves as an instructional coach in Aurora Public Schools. Jailyn has a Bachelor's in Education from Arizona State University and a Masters in Education Administration from Grand Canyon University. She is a Denver native, loves adventure, trampoline parks, and just about anything that brings joy! Follow her on Instagram @Ms.Jenkins.Science

The Phenomenal Teaching Podcast is brought to you by Public Education & Business Coalition (PEBC) and is intended to elevate the strands of the PEBC Teaching Framework which is illustrated in Wendy Ward Hoffer's book, Phenomenal Teaching. Thank you for joining us this season as we strive to elevate the stories of educators who are making schools and classrooms more phenomenal than ever before by implementing community, planning, workshop, thinking strategies, discourse, and assessment strategies that promote agency, equity, and understanding.

PEBC is a nonprofit organization that is proud to provide free quality content to educators. If you would like to support our work by sponsoring this podcast, please contact Michelle Jones at mmorrisjones@pebc.org.

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Lifeworthy Topics: What matters for students? - PEBC

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Jailyn Jenkins shares ways teachers can promote student discourse that is meaningful, culturally responsive, and sustaining.

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1. PEBC Teaching Framework - Discourse.pdf

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Working on SEL? Start with student talk. — TeachFX

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Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has become a key focus of district administrators, school leaders, and teachers across the country…

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Trauma-informed teaching is not a curriculum, set of prescribed strategies, or something you need to "add to your plate."

It's more like a lens through which you choose to view your students which will help you build better relationships, prevent conflict, and teach them effectively.

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What is childhood trauma?

One of the best definitions I've heard of trauma comes from researchers Rice and Groves (2005): trauma is an exceptional experience in which powerful and dangerous events overwhelm a person's capacity to cope. Every child has a different capacity to cope, so this definition honors each child's individual reactions and interpretations. Trauma is not necessarily violence. It could be things like divorce, major/frequent/sudden changes in living situations, or bullying.

Trauma is an epidemic right now, affecting kids across racial and socio-economic lines. It's probably safe to say that every teacher is working with kids who have experienced trauma. And yet most kids who have experienced trauma will not receive any kind of special services or counseling. The kids will simply show up to the classroom, and you'll be expected to understand, process, and manage all those complex emotions and behaviors on your own. Here's what you need to know to support them.

5 things to understand about trauma

There's a book called Fostering Resilient Learners ( by Kristin Souers and Pete Hall) which gives a general overview of how to be trauma-sensitive. At the beginning of the book, the authors provide five baseline understandings about trauma. I like that as a foundational structure, so I'll share those five things here and tell you a bit about what I've learned about them.

1) Trauma is real.

We have to let go of this notion that kids can just "leave their problems at the door," forget about everything that happened outside the classroom, and focus on learning. We're not even able to do that as adults when there's something upsetting happening in our lives. We cannot expect little kids and teenagers to do that.

When we pretend that nothing has happened and ignore kids' lived experiences, we find ourselves getting into conflict and confrontation with kids unnecessarily. Understanding that trauma is real and not minimizing or discounting it is the first and most important step to being trauma-informed.

2) Trauma is prevalent.

This is not just something happening to a certain type of kids. We have to examine our biases and understand that trauma is prevalent among kids of all races and all socio-economic statuses and neighborhoods. There are kids in your classroom right now who have experienced trauma that you are not aware of and may never find out about.

You don't need to uncover the trauma, necessarily, but you do need to believe that it is happening to the kids in your classroom. Knowing that will help you be trauma-sensitive: You'll be on the alert to look for signs of trauma and respond in an appropriate way instead of assuming kids are fine and taking their misbehavior at face value as just them "trying to give you a hard time."

3) Trauma is toxic to the brain and can affect learning and development in a multitude of ways.

Here's what Alex Shevrin Venet has to say about this - she's an educator currently teaching at the university level, as well as a school consultant, and she's currently working on a book about holistic trauma-informed approaches:

Trauma just really messes with healthy development in all kinds of ways. It can be anything from difficulty regulating emotions to difficulty regulating body temperature. I have had students who wear shorts the entire year-round or who are always wearing a hoodie in the middle of the summer, and it's connected to a difficulty regulating how hot or cold their body feels. Really, when you think about the impacts of trauma, you can throw everything you know about regular child development out the window and start to look at each individual kid and say, "Where might they need some help in developing a skill or practicing something that for whatever reason, didn't develop along the way?"

Trauma is especially toxic to the brain and impactful on learning when it's chronic or ongoing, as happens frequently for students living in poverty. I spoke with Jeff Baker about this - he's a therapist who's worked as a school counselor, and is also a journalist and noted activist and organizer:

The fear that children feel when experiencing trauma has a very indelible imprint on their development. Popular related stresses are ongoing - they don't go away. It's not a one-time life event to live in a poor neighborhood that has a food desert, or that is rife with gang or community violence, or where it's common to see police brutality. These things happen every single day, and so the stress becomes chronic over time. When stresses become chronic, the neurological side of things is that the stress hormones remain in the body, because the mind is telling the body that it must always be alert for triggers and a lack of safety. So, students bring this mindset and really the embodiment of trauma into the classroom and to the school. We like to separate these contexts in which the child develops and grows; however, they are all very interlaced and inextricably linked in a way.

4) In our schools, we need to be prepared to support kids who have experienced trauma, even if we don't know exactly who they are.

Sometimes the trauma manifests in really bold, obvious ways and with seemingly obvious causes, but most of the time, kids who have experienced trauma will not really be aware of their trauma or even able to name it. Many of them will be well into adulthood before they have labels for what they experienced and are able to understand and process how it's impacted them.

This is important to understand because it will help us apply trauma-sensitive practices to all our students rather than just the ones we know for sure (or assume) have experienced trauma. Alex calls trauma-informed teaching a "universal approach" which all kids will benefit from, so we don't need to isolate and identify trauma-impacted children and apply the strategies only to them.

5) Children are resilient, and within positive learning environments, they can grow, learn, and succeed.

Kids who have been impacted by trauma are not hopeless cases. They do not need our pity. We don't need to focus on all the ways they've been harmed, make excuses for them, or assume they're less capable. Kids who have been impacted by trauma simply need to be conscious of and sensitive to their lived experiences.

How does trauma impact student learning and kids' behavior in school?

Alex gives a great summary of things to look out for:

A kid who has experienced trauma is really finely attuned to safety and danger. They are constantly looking out for, "Am I safe or am I in danger right now?" And their ability to accurately process those cues gets all messed up. If you as the teacher have what you feel like is a neutral facial expression, your student might actually be interpreting that as you being angry or upset with them, and then they might go into survival mode where they feel like, "Okay, my teacher might be mad so I'm going to put up my defenses so that I stay okay."

It's not just about the facial expressions or the social interactions but also really tiny cues in the environment of the classroom that you might not even notice, like if something goes by the window, or if there is a loud sound from a different floor of the building, or if there's a student who moves unexpectedly. Any of those types of things can trigger that survival brain for students.

The three responses of survival mode that people usually talk about are fight, flight, or freeze. You can probably picture many of your students going into any of those three categories.

Freeze might look like shutting down, head on the desk, and not responding to any of your verbal cues. Flight might look like that kid who is constantly going out into the hallway without saying anything to you or is moving around the classroom a lot. Fight is where trauma behavior and what we might call challenging student behavior might look exactly the same, because fight can look like talking back, getting aggressive, throwing stuff, or look like any of those types of things that we sometimes write off as being disruptive.

That might actually be their survival brain coming out. When you're in survival brain, you can't learn and you can't have a calm interaction that follows complete logic. If you're just trying to survive, you're doing whatever it takes, and I think that a lot of teachers don't realize how many of their students and how often those students might be going into survival mode as opposed to being in a calm state and ready to learn.

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Mistakes to avoid when working with kids impacted by trauma

Don't assume you know who's been impacted by trauma and who hasn't, the extent of the trauma, or the reason for it. There's always more that kids don't tell us or that we haven't uncovered. Be humble and realize you will always be working with incomplete information.

Don't label kids or unnecessarily advertise their trauma. Working with kids impacted by trauma is not a bragging right for the teacher to prove how hard his/her job is. You don't need to announce it to people, as this can result in children being labeled. Other adults can easily make assumptions about kids if they only know about the trauma and not about all the other qualities and experiences - including positive ones - that students bring to the table. Don't make a kid who's been traumatized into THAT kid who everyone whispers about and feels sorry for.

Don't judge the trauma or compare traumatic situations. It's not for us to decide if an experience was "not that bad." When you find yourself feeling jaded in this way, and thinking things like "I've seen worse" and "Come on, kid, get over it," it probably means you're feeling overwhelmed with all that's on your plate and you're not emotionally strong enough at the moment to be trauma-sensitive. It's natural to have those moments, so be on the lookout for them and be prepared to do a bit of self-care so you can step back from the situation and see it from a bigger and more compassionate perspective.

Don't take the behavior personally. It's not about you, and if you can avoid taking misbehavior as a personal disrespect or affront to your authority, it will be so much easier to respond constructively. Remind yourself that the student is not giving YOU a hard time, the student is HAVING a hard time. Look for ways to help the student deal with those challenging emotions instead of adding more emotions to the mix.

Don't try to dig up trauma and psychoanalyze kids. Students may not understand what happened or be able to label their experiences as traumatic, and you probably don't have the time, energy, or training to do a deep dive into your students' issues. Fortunately, you don't need to know all the details of what happened to students in order to help them. Spend less energy figuring out the cause and more on understanding solid ways for responding to the effects in your classroom. Alex calls this shifting away from playing the "trauma detective" and instead, seeing yourself as the "connection maker" who can connect students to people who do have the resources to help them manage trauma.

Don't take on the burden of fixing the trauma for the child. You are not responsible for solving the problem or restoring the child to wholeness. If you try to do that, you will carry the emotional weight of that trauma vicariously, and that does nothing to help the student. The student needs you to be emotionally available and strong, not in a ball of tears because you're so upset about what the child has experienced. Make it your goal to be compassionate and caring while being lovingly detached from the situation. It is not yours. Do not take it on.

Practical strategies for trauma-informed teaching

Be present and emotionally available.

There are ways to communicate to kids that you are there if they want to talk and letting them know you are a safe adult. From a practical standpoint, this looks like being in the moment with kids instead of frazzled, distracted, and seemingly overwhelmed. The older they get, the more kids will pick up on those cues and they will not see you as someone they can talk to. Slow down a bit. When you ask a child, "How are you?" really listen for the answer. Allow some silence so the student can respond from an honest rather than reflexive place.

Ask kids directly how you can help them.

When you see a student is struggling with emotions that day, it's sometimes best to be direct. Say, "I notice you seem to be feeling upset today. Is there anything you need me to do right now?" If the child doesn't know or doesn't respond, ask, "Is there anything you DON'T want me to do right now?"

Try to read the students' body language and notice patterns in the way they behave so you can read between the lines on the days you can't get a direct answer. You can also remind the student about resources and coping strategies that are available: "Feel free to sit over in the library area and get yourself together for a few minutes if you think that would help."

Watch for triggers, even the innocuous ones, and respond proactively.

I once taught a student who would crawl under his desk and sob whenever I asked the class to take out a certain textbook. I taught another student who would cry and bang his head on his desk when we played a specific multiplication game. I didn't entirely understand why either of those two reactions occurred, but after the second time for each, I realized those were triggers and started taking proactive steps to help the students understand what was about to happen and find coping mechanisms.

When you see an outburst, shift from judgment to curiosity.

Instead of asking what's wrong with a child, ask what's going on with the child. Changing your perspective a bit might not sound like a concrete strategy, but it is! Thinking this way will shift your countenance, demeanor, and energy. It will help you respond in productive and trauma-sensitive ways and students will be able to sense that shift.

Learn more about the families and community you serve, asking "What else could be true besides my assumption?"

Here's Jeff on that:

I definitely think that it starts with a curiosity about the students and their families, but also about the communities that they're coming from. One thing that I've found helpful is asking what else could it be besides what I'm perceiving besides the subjectivity and bias that I might be bringing to the situation and the assumptions that I might be making.

I've found that this is hard because a lot of teachers don't live in the same communities that their students are coming from. It's impossible to know unless teachers are very intentional about finding out more about what their students' lives are like on a day-to-day basis beyond their classroom.

Provide structure and predictability to counteract students' feeling of being "on high alert" at all times. Jeff had something to say about this, too:

Part of the reaction to childhood trauma is sort of this uncertainty that looms over each day, not knowing what's going to happen and staying in the constant state of alertness that is really stressful to navigate simultaneously while paying attention. Having a very predictable, structured day can often provide the stability that students don't have in other environments.

Making the classroom a quiet, safe space where students can work uninterrupted, without distractions, or surprises really, and also having sensory materials (small rubber balls to squeeze when they're stressed, stuffed animals, pillows with different fabrics, rocks, crystals, etc.) particularly for young children, can be coping strategies and outlets for expressing the stress that they're going through which aren't often present in the home.

Dismantle structures and discipline policies that strip kids of power and control.

Some of the ways that we traditionally "do school" can be triggering for kids who are impacted by trauma. Alex explains:

There are some structures in school that inherently just don't go with the trauma-informed approach. For example, some of our discipline practices like automatic suspensions, or shaming kids in front of the class, or giving a random consequence for something that they did all take power and control away from students. If you've experienced trauma, one of the first things to go is your sense of power and control over the world.

As teachers, if we perpetuate that feeling - that you're actually not in control over your world - we might be making things worse. It's not just about building relationships and everything will be great. We have to think about how we are participating in systems that might be making things worse for kids.

The reason that I think that it's hard for teachers to talk about this is because a lot of teachers are in a school system where they don't have power. They are told to do this curriculum at this time, and you're going to get an evaluation and you don't have control over it. Or, you can't choose how to run your classroom because everyone in the school has to run it this way. It's really difficult for teachers who feel that way because they kind of pass on that feeling of being controlled to their students.

Be mindful of the potential impact of vicarious trauma.

Teachers can experience a sort of secondary PTSD from dealing with students' responses to trauma all day. This takes a toll on you emotionally, so it's important to recognize that and build in self-care practices. Here's Alex on that:

That's called vicarious trauma which is basically when you feel the impacts of trauma because you have been bearing witness to the impacts of trauma for someone else. It's really common for teachers and social workers and other care providers to have. There are a few things you can do.

One is self-care and wellness that we talk about all the time, but really committing to that and taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional health. The biggest thing that a lot of teachers don't do is make time to process what's going on.

By process, I don't mean vent (like when you go to happy hour at the end of the week where you complain about the challenging student behavior from the week before). What I mean is sitting with one trusted colleague, or therapist, or clergy member, or whoever that safe and supportive person is for you, and not necessarily talk about what the students did that week but about how it made you feel.

Maybe you had a student that was acting out all week, and not necessarily talking about that it was so frustrating ... but did you feel helpless? ... not good enough as a teacher because you can't figure this kid out? ... like you need more support from your administrator? Talk about what's actually going on for you and not letting those feelings sit and fester and grow - that's what I encourage teachers to do and find that way to make sense out of all these various things that are happening to you every week.

Working with kids impacted by trauma is challenging, but we Alex Shevrin Venet is a Vermont-based educator currently teaching at the Community College of Vermont, Castleton University, and Antioch University. Alex's experience as a teacher and leader at a therapeutic middle and high school showed her the power of a relationship-based, trauma-informed approach in helping students learn and grow. She is an education writer and community facilitator for Edutopia, a school consultant, and is currently working on a book about holistic trauma-informed approaches. You can find her on Twitter at @AlexSVenet and her website is unconditionallearning.org. Jeff Baker is a mental health counselor, educator, noted journalist, and activist. A published writer with an M.Phil.Ed. in Professional Counseling from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, his commentary on social justice issues has appeared in numerous publications. As a trained counselor, Jeff has expertise in feminist therapy and sociocultural issues, as well as general counseling topics. Broadly, Jeff's work in education focuses on child and family welfare, education policy, and school mental health. In addition to his work around education and mental health, Jeff is a vocal advocate for the prevention of bullying, child abuse, and sexual assault. You can find him on Twitter at and on his website at jeffbaker.org. This post is based on the latest episode of my weekly podcast, Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers. A podcast is like a free talk radio show you can listen to online, or download and take with you wherever you go. I release a new short episode each Sunday and feature it here on the blog to help you get energized and motivated for the week ahead. I'd love to hear your thoughts below in the comment section! Peergrade is a platform that makes it easy to facilitate peer review in your classroom. Students review each other's work, while Peergrade takes care of anonymously assigning reviewers and delivering all the relevant insights to teachers. With Peergrade, students learn to think critically and take ownership of their learning. They also learn to write kind and useful feedback for their peers. Peergrade is free to use for teachers and students. To learn more, visit peergrade.io. don't need to save kids from their trauma. We need to really see kids and help them become the best versions of themselves.

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A crash course on trauma-informed teaching

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I'm giving you a solid foundation for understanding trauma-informed teaching practices and specific dos and don'ts to make it easier to navigate this in your classroom.