Welcome back to another Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter! It’s April, the spring weather is here, and the end of the school year is in sight! This month we are going to focus on another low-intensity strategy that can be easily embedded in your classroom routine! Precorrection is a low-intensity strategy that can be used to prevent appropriate academic and social behaviors in the classroom. Precorrection, also called prompting, is exactly as it sounds. The teacher or adult identifies a time and place an undesirable behavior will occur and then prompts and praises the appropriate behavior. This is something that can be done daily and at multiple points throughout the day. Why is Precorrection important? One of the best things about precorrection is it empowers teachers to be proactive in behavior management by teaching and prompting the expected behavior, rather than reacting to inappropriate or problem behaviors. Precorrection can also be used across ages, classrooms, and content areas, making it a versatile strategy for teachers to have in their toolbox. For example, precorrection would be an ideal strategy for a second grade teacher to use with a student who struggles to follow the rules when playing board games with peers. Precorrection is also just as effective in helping a tenth grade student navigate the transition to the next class, including bringing the correct materials and engaging in the bell work. For a list of possible scenarios where precorrection may be helpful, check out this resource! What does Precorrection look like? There are seven simple Precorrection steps for teachers to follow:
For a detailed checklist with these steps to implementation, as well as a detailed example, check out this PDF! In other news..., we are excited to share a research opportunity for K-3 teachers to participate in a social-emotional learning curriculum for K-3 students in a randomized control trial. Our goal is to improve the social skills, behavior, and academic achievement of kindergarten through third grade students, resulting in improvements in the overall classroom experience and reductions in teacher stress. The Social Emotional Learning Study Group (SELSG+) program provides early elementary educators (K-3rd grade) with a one-stop package that includes everything teachers need to develop and support social-emotional learning skills of their students, including:
Interested? If you’re a principal or administrator, click here to fill out a short survey and be contacted by our team with more information. If you’re a teacher, click here to fill out a short survey and be contacted by our team with more information. Finally, if you haven’t already signed up to have the monthly SELSG+ newsletter delivered to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list here: https://selsg.ua.edu! And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and SEL resources
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Welcome back to another Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter! March is already here and it can feel like the days are speeding past as we inch closer to the end of the school year. This month we are going to focus on a low-intensity strategy that can be easily embedded in your classroom routine as soon as you finish reading this newsletter! Behavior-Specific Praise (BSP) is a low-intensity strategy that can be used to reinforce appropriate academic and social behaviors in the classroom. When we provide positive feedback to our students, we are engaging with an essential part of the learning process. This is something that can be done daily and at multiple points throughout the day. Why is BSP important? When educators acknowledge appropriate behavior, we are communicating with our students which academic and social behaviors are wanted and expected in our classroom. BSP can be delivered in a variety of settings with students exhibiting varying abilities and behaviors. Behavior-Specific Praise is an evidence-based classroom management practice that can be effective in improving students’ academic and social outcomes while improving the learning environment and classroom climate simultaneously (See Villeda et al., 2014 for more). What does BSP look like? Behavior-specific praise is exactly that, specific! BSP is nonintrusive and reinforces the specific behaviors you want your students to exhibit. A general ratio of 4:1 praise to correction statements is desired. Using around 6 praise statements every 15 minutes is another recommendation. The behavior specific praise statement should be a description of a desired social or academic behavior, specific to the student or class, and an overall positive praise statement. How do you implement BSP in the classroom? The first step is to select the behaviors you want to see in your classroom (e.g., listening to others, raise your hand and ask a question when you are confused; sharing materials with a classmate). Next, make a list of the specific behaviors that will help students make progress toward the social and academic behaviors expected in the classroom. Use this list to begin acknowledging student behaviors. You may choose to post positive expectations around the classroom to serve as a reminder for you and your students! Finally, we are preparing for an exciting opportunity for teachers in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida to participate in our research study to pilot our Social and Emotional Learning Study Group platform, training, and assessments. Be sure to follow our socials and sign up for the monthly newsletter to stay up to date on all our upcoming research opportunities. If you haven’t already signed up to have the monthly SELSG+ newsletter delivered to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list below and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and SEL resources. Welcome back to another Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter! This month we are going to take some time to learn more about Whole Child. The Whole Child approach uses proven systems and partnerships to transform schools and communities from the inside out. Whole Child promotes the long-term development and success of all children. The Whole Child approach sets the foundation for a school and community environment where students achieve their potential, families thrive, and schools and communities that are healthy and supportive. Read more about how Tacoma Public Schools has been successful engaging with the Whole Child approach for the past 8 years: https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/10/25/educating-whole-child-capturing-hearts/ The Whole Child approach embeds sound social and emotional learning strategies into the initiative as a way to ensure that students feel safe, healthy, engaged, and challenged. Both social and emotional learning and Whole Child education offer ways of approaching education in a holistic manner to support student learning and development. Both social emotional learning and the Whole Child approach are flexible and can be incorporated alongside a variety of other strategies. To read more about how SEL and Whole Child go hand-in-hand read more here: https://www.gettingsmart.com/2021/08/20/sel-and-whole-child-education-approaches-for-supporting-students-learning-and-development/ This January the state of Alabama is celebrating Whole Child Month with activities and initiatives to support and promote the Whole Child initiative across the state. Our social media during the month of January will focus on celebrating Whole Child Month and cover all the exciting things happening with SELSG+ and Whole Child Month in the state of Alabama! Be sure to check out our LinkTree for activities and calendars to celebrate with us all month long or use the following link to access materials from the Alabama State Department of Education and Tuscaloosa City Schools : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Os1_IHDASi5X4cezxXAXgw9EBOEnKnLO?usp=sharing And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and SEL resources and check out our LinkTree! Welcome back to another Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter! We hope everyone is having a relaxing and refreshing holiday break with family and friends! While long holiday breaks can be a needed change of pace, it can be difficult for some students to transition back into the structure and routines within the school day. As you prepare to start back up in January, we wanted to take some time to provide you with some strategies to move smoothly into the new semester. First of all, take some time to revisit your classroom rules and routines. As teachers, we typically do a great job at the beginning of the year teaching and modeling our classroom rules and expectations until they are well established and understood by all students. However, when coming back from a long break, some students may need some re-teaching of the rules and expectations. By planning opportunities immediately after returning, teachers can re-establish their classroom community, setting all students up for success. For some unique ways to re-visit and re-establish rules and routines, check out this resource. Additionally, coming back from break can be difficult for students who have trouble readjusting to the routines of school. Check out this website for ideas of how to ease the transition back to the classroom. We want to also highlight a social emotional learning kernel within this newsletter, called Classroom Reset. Classroom Resets take the place of warning-based classroom management systems such as tally marks or clip charts and instead focus on helping students build social and emotional competencies such as self-awareness, self-monitoring, and self-regulation of emotions. During a Classroom Reset students have an opportunity take a break from their current setting to re-regulate. There are five components of a classroom reset:
Finally, we are excited to share an opportunity for K-3 teachers. We are looking for K-3 teachers to review our SELSG+ program and provide your feedback and suggestions in an interview called a Think Aloud, which will take 90 minutes. You will receive $60 for participating. If you’re interested, you can sign up here https://bit.ly/3zi9qvh. If you haven’t already signed up to have the monthly SELSG+ newsletter delivered to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list here: https://selsg.ua.edu! And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and SEL resources Welcome back to another Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter! As educators, we know this a unique time in the classroom. It’s the time in the school year between the Thanksgiving and Holiday breaks and it’s easy to tell – some of our students are buzzing with excitement about the upcoming holidays, others may be struggling with the changes to routines, and still others may not look forward the holiday season for a variety of reasons. No matter how our students view the upcoming holiday season, it can impact behaviors in the classroom. So, we are here to talk about another SEL strategy to add to your classroom toolkit: Classroom Breaks. First, let’s talk about what Classroom Breaks are NOT. When you implement Classroom Breaks with your students it’s not a free for all, it’s not a way for kids to escape work, and it’s not a waste of time. In fact, Classroom Breaks can help improve student focus, increase academic productivity, support social skill development, and reduce stress and unwanted classroom behaviors. For more information on the benefits of Classroom Breaks, check out this article here! Classroom Breaks are highly flexible and can be implemented as a whole class strategy, a strategy for a few students who need additional supports, or a combination of the two. When setting up Classroom Breaks in your classroom, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.
So, what might Classroom Breaks look like in the classroom? Let’s look at an example from a sixth-grade classroom where Maggie has been struggling to focus on her independent work. She often ends up wandering around the room and talking to her peers. Her teacher has decided to set up impromptu breaks with Maggie to help her reset and self-regulate during independent work time. Maggie and her teacher have agreed to a signal that either can use to suggest a break time: tapping their watch twice. When Maggie is prompted to take a break, she moves to a designated spot in the classroom, chooses a fidget to play with, and sets the time for three minutes. When the timer goes off, Maggie returns the fidget to its box and goes back to her desk. Maggie and her teacher have practiced this routine over and over until Maggie is able to follow these steps independently. Here’s another example of how a teacher uses breaks in her classroom. There are a number of different activities you can utilize during classroom breaks to give students structure during the break including coloring sheets, breathing activities, reading materials, fidgets, mindfulness activities, music, and journaling/writing prompts. Creating a list of activities, you are ok with in the classroom and allowing students to choose from the list can be a powerful way of giving students voice and increasing the effectiveness of the break time. If you are implementing set breaks for the whole class, you might consider short physical activities (e.g., jumping jacks, running in place) as well – there is evidence that this can be effective in improving behavior and focus during the day. Here’s some more ideas for breaks in the classroom! If you haven’t already signed up to have the monthly SELSG+ newsletter delivered to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list here: https://selsg.ua.edu! And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and SEL resources Welcome back! It’s time for another Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter! In the October newsletter, we want to talk about using Emotion Checks in the classroom. What are Emotion Checks? Emotions Checks are a structured opportunity within the classroom routine for students to self-reflect on how they are feeling at that moment. In elementary classrooms, they are often done at the beginning of the day and at other set points (e.g., after returning from lunch or recess). In secondary classrooms, they are usually done at the beginning of the class period. Emotion Checks support the CASEL social and emotional learning competency of self-awareness, or the ability recognize your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and values and how that impacts your behavior. (For more information about the CASEL SEL competencies, check out this handout.) Emotion checks are a crucial part developing the self-awareness competency; before students can focus on how their emotions and feelings impact their behaviors, students first have to become proficient at identifying their own emotions and feelings. Emotion checks can help. Besides helping students master identifying their own emotions and feelings, there are a couple of other benefits to using emotion checks. First, for students already able to identify basic emotions, emotion checks can help students understand and identify more complex emotions (e.g., what as student might initially identify as mad, might really be them feeling frustrated or jealous). Emotion checks also help us normalize all feelings. It’s important that we teach students that all feelings, including feeling emotions such as mad, sad, and jealous, are ok. By having students reflect on their emotions and have their emotions validated, you are modeling that all feelings are normal. Finally, emotion checks provide teachers an avenue to build rapport and relationships with students. There are lots of different ways to use emotion checks in your classroom. Some teachers use paper and pencil emotion checks, while others utilize the classroom technology. The great thing about emotion checks is the implementation has flexibility. Here are a couple different ways emotion checks can be implemented in the classroom:
No matter how you choose to integrate Emotion Checks into your classroom, it’s important to remember a couple of things. First, make sure you teach and establish the routine of how Emotion Checks work in your classroom. Modeling conducting emotion checks is a great way to not only teach students how to do an Emotion Check, but it also helps normalize self-awareness of our feelings. Also, think about how you will respond when students indicate they are in need of additional supports. What does that look like in your classroom? How can you support your students? Finally, we are excited to share an opportunity for K-3 teachers. We are looking for K-3 teachers to review our SELSG+ program and provide your feedback and suggestions in an interview called a Think Aloud, which will take 90 minutes. You will receive $60 for participating. If you’re interested, you can sign up here. Welcome back! It’s time for another Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter! In the September newsletter, we are going to focus on creating classroom routines with engaging practices. We all know the importance of establishing and teaching classroom routines. Classroom routines create a predictable learning environment for our students, which is especially important for students with trauma in their background. The safety and security students feel when they know what to expect and what’s expected from them is an important precursor for teaching and developing SEL skills in the classroom. Engaging strategies, which can be used to increase student engagement, can also be embedded as a classroom routine for your students. Additionally, many engaging strategies allow students to practice different SEL skills and competencies. More information about engaging strategies can be found in the 3 Signature Practices Playbook on pages 19-35. Brain breaks are one type of engaging strategies that can be built into a classroom routine. Not only can brain breaks give students the opportunity to move around, but they can also help us prepare our brains to process new information. One of the other positive aspects about brain breaks is that can be implemented without any additional materials, with minimal pre-preparation, and take only a few minutes. However, those few minutes can give students the opportunity to take a break from the cognitive load that school places on them and a chance to relax. To infuse brain breaks into your class routine consider:
To learn more about brain breaks, check out this article. Also, take a look at the transition techniques you are using in your classroom. Establishing routines and rituals that occur at transitions (e.g., the beginning of the day, the end of a class period) can support students, especially those who struggle to process information. For example, providing a five-minute heads up before a change in activity can be helpful in preparing students for the switch. Another example would be a short bellringer activity or a quick write for students to start as they come into the classroom. For more examples of bell ringers, check out this article here. If you haven’t already signed up to have the monthly SELSG+ newsletter delivered to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list here: https://selsg.ua.edu! And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and SEL resources. Welcome back to the latest Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter! As educators, we know August means the beginning of back to school – whether you’ve already started the new school year or you’re preparing to welcome students back, we want to take the time to wish you a happy, safe, and healthy school year with your students! In the spirit of welcoming our students back for another year of learning and growth, we wanted to dedicate this newsletter to building relationships. Building strong, positive relationships with our students can not only support student learning in the classroom, but also facilitate SEL growth for your whole class. Two ways to not only build rapport with students, but also establish positive relationships among students is through Warm Welcomes and Optimistic Closures. Warm Welcomes and Optimistic Closures are both considered Signature Practices for supporting SEL by CASEL and they are easily implemented into existing classroom schedules and routines. More information can be found in the 3 Signature Practices Playbook. Warm Welcomes: The purpose of a Warm Welcome is to set a positive tone by acknowledging students and preparing them for upcoming instruction and activities. Warm Welcomes do not have to take a long time, but can help students more smoothly transition into the next activity or task. Some examples of Warm Welcomes are:
To learn more about Warm Welcomes and for more specific examples of how to incorporate them in the classroom, check out pages 10 – 18 in CASEL’s 3 Signature Practices Playbook. Optimistic Closures: We all know that ending classroom instruction or activities can be abrupt or hurried. Incorporating purposeful, specific closures to the end of an activity or instruction can allow for review of important topics, allow students to share individual thoughts and opinions about the topics discussed, and allow for a transition to the next class or activity. While one type of optimistic closure could be sharing a positive affirmation (e.g., “I did a great job reading to myself today.”) or a highlight of the day (e.g., “I finished writing two paragraphs today.”), not all optimistic closure activities need to focus on positives. Other options include:
To learn more about Optimistic Closures and for more specific examples of how to incorporate them in the classroom, check out pages 36 – 46 in CASEL’s 3 Signature Practices Playbook. If you haven’t already signed up to have the monthly SELSG+ newsletter delivered to your inbox, sign up for our mailing list here: https://selsg.ua.edu! And be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and SEL resources Hello! Welcome to our first Social Emotional Learning Study Groups (SELSG+) monthly newsletter. We’re so excited to have a place to share ideas and resources related to social-emotional learning. This month, we wanted to take some time to talk about what is social-emotional learning (SEL). SEL is a complex, multi-faceted concept that can seem overwhelming to define. In short, SEL encompasses the “thinking, behavioral, and self-regulation skills children need to interact effectively, make and maintain relationships, achieve social goals, and be successful in school and life”- Clark McKown. Looking at this definition, you can see why SEL is so important for student success. Students with strong SEL skills regularly report stronger academic skills, fewer behaviors in the classrooms, stronger problem-solving skills, and better long-term outcomes. A strong understanding of what SEL is an important part of incorporating SEL into schools and the classroom. Check out these websites and resources for more information about SEL. CASEL (the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) is a great resource for information on SEL skills. This specific link provides more information on what SEL is and its benefits in and outside of the classroom. Looking to incorporate more SEL into your school this year? Check out CASEL’s Guide to Schoolwide SEL Essentials. This 70 page PDF provides explanations on SEL ideas and concepts, as well as tools to use in your school. This blog post talks about defining social and emotional learning skills, as well as provides teams a worksheet to help identify and define SEL skills that are most important to you! By defining skills, you can focus in on the skills you want to improve among your students. Before you go, we want to take a minute to introduce the SELSG+ project. Our team, led by Dr. Greg Benner from the University of Alabama, is working to create a digitally delivered professional SEL development for K-3 elementary teachers. To provide teachers the knowledge and support needed to deliver effective SEL instruction, SELSG+ will include: Teacher trainings and materials on evidence-based Tier 1 SEL instruction for K-3 students
We are currently in the development process of SELSG+, and while we are building, we wanted to provide educators, administrators, and others who are invested in SEL with a monthly update on our project and SEL resources and tools that can be immediately used in the classroom. If you are interested in learning more about SELSG+, receiving our monthly newsletter straight to your email, and getting updates on the project, please sign up for our mailing list here and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and SEL resources. |
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