SEL in the Schools

At the elementary-age stage of development, children are beginning to navigate social situations more independently. It’s important for this age group to be equipped with foundational SEL skills so they are able to navigate social situations with positive prosocial behaviors. Students must learn the foundational skills of self awareness and self management in order to have strong relational and self regulatory skills. These key areas provide the basis for how we teach SEL to our students in Kindergarten through 5th grade.

 

At APS, we draw from several empirically based SEL curricula:

Gibbs School

To help create a safe and supportive environment at Gibbs School, each student is assigned one advisory group of about 10-12 students and a teacher/staff member at the start of the school year. Responsive Advisory meets four mornings in the six day cycle for 20 minutes throughout the year, and provides a space and structure for teachers to support middle school students, both individually and as a group, as they develop their sense of self and identity in connection to their relationships with peers. 

The four components of Responsive Advisory Meeting are:

• Arrival welcome – The teacher welcomes each student by name as they enter.
• Announcements – In advance, the teacher writes an interactive message and displays it where it can be easily seen and read by all students.
• Acknowledgments – In pairs or small groups, students share their responses to a prompt in the announcements message, a piece of news about themselves, or ideas about a topic related to their studies or interests.
• Activity – The whole group does a fun, lively activity that’s focused on the specific purpose of the meeting

• build student to student affiliation
• energize and re-engage
• reflect & recalibrate
• extend learning through themes
• support academic readiness
• strengthen advisor-advisee relationships
• develop communication and social skills development
  
  

Ottoson Middle School 

Currently Ottoson Middle School engages in a number of SEL approaches to foster connection and build community. We use school wide programming, field trips, classroom activities, and dedicated learning community time to achieve our SEL goals.

The Counseling Department annually does some small group, school wide psycho-education on the signs and symptoms of depression to go along with our mental health screening to help students know when and how to seek support for themselves or a friend. We have been using the Signs of Suicide programming for the past 10 years. Altough the rate of suicidal thoughts in students has increased over this time period, the loss of life has decreased. This is the data that was presented to central admin a couple years ago. 

School Counselors use their google classrooms to provide resources to students, amplify the DEI work in the district and social emotional learning opportunities. Students also take part in advisory each month on early release days. This year advisory activities have included a lesson on how to be an upstander, a door decorating contest, and goal setting. 

To explore more of Ottoson's SEL practices, check out the OMS counseling monthly newsletters. 

Arlington High School engages in a number of SEL practices that align with the district’s goal of supporting student growth and belonging. Tier 1 SEL practices, such as Advisories and Collaborative Problem Solving® (CPS), help to facilitate strong relationships among peers and staff members and promote critical life skills. 

Advisories:

Students are assigned an advisory at the beginning of the year. Each week, students spend time with their advisory and engage in activities designed to strengthen connections, create community between students and teachers, and promote positive school climate and culture. Previous advisories have focused on teaching and practicing the 5 core SEL competencies.

Wellness Workshops: 

Each year, a series of Advisories are dedicated to Wellness Workshops. Wellness Workshops aim to increase mental health awareness and decrease stigma associated with mental health struggles. Three one-hour workshops are held each November and December, and are designed to be a time to practice self-care and come together as a community to foster a sense of belonging. Students have the option to choose from a wide range of wellness topics, from jewelry making to yoga. Below are some examples of past Wellness Workshops: 

• Pixar Shorts: Join staff for some entertaining short animated flicks with follow up chats about mental health themes.
• Maintenance Phase Podcast: Each week students will listen to and discuss a different episode of the Maintenance Phase podcast, where Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon "debunk the junk science behind health and wellness fads."
• Queer Flag Garlands: Examine the history of queer flags and craft your own decorative flag garland! Join to think about what flags have to do with identity, do a bit of crafting and add some color to your walls.
• Living the Granola Lifestyle: Chill out indoors with members of our outdoor-loving AHS Hiking Club! We'll incorporate relaxing activities like coloring or friendship bracelets with discussions about National Parks.

Inclusion Workshops:

Throughout April, a series of Advisories are dedicated to Inclusion Workshops. Inclusion Workshops are intended to highlight and support diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging among the AHS community. Students are able to choose three one-hour workshops, with topics ranging from representation in media to examining diversity in children’s books. Below are some descriptions of past Inclusion Workshops:

• Spruce Tone Films: Diversity and Inclusion in Nature: Spruce Tone Films is a "collective of passionate creators with the goal to tell timely and compelling stories. We develop, pitch and produce our own original films, as well as branded docs and commercials for socially and environmentally responsible companies and nonprofits." We will watch documentaries such as "Detroit Hives," "Venture Out," "Forward," as well as others. The last session will be a Q&A with one of the directors and producers, Palmer Morse.
• Amanda Gorman: Poetry and Activism: Poet and activist Amanda Gorman, the youngest ever inaugural poet, uses her art to express her beliefs and promote social change. In this workshop, watch some of her performance poetry, admire her use of language, and respond in drawings, words, or conversation—your choice!
• Adultin n' Stuff: Equity in Personal Finance and Life After High School: Play fun games while learning about taxes, investing, loans, etc. 
• BIPOC Mental Health Workshop: A space for discussion and learning about how mental health issues affect BIPOC people at a disproportionate rate.

Collaborative Problem Solving®:

Collaborative Problem Solving® (CPS) is an evidence-based and trauma-informed approach to addressing and reducing undesirable behaviors in students by teaching them the skills they may be lacking. At AHS, we use CPS as part of our progressive disciplinary interventions. Students, teachers, deans, and support staff collaboratively work with students to address undesired behaviors. The Collaborative Problem Solving® approach is owned and developed by Think:Kids (www.thinkkids.org), a program based in the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA.

 

“CPS helps adults shift to a more accurate and compassionate mindset and embrace the truth that kids do well if they can – rather than the more common belief that kids would do well if they simply wanted to. Flowing from this simple but powerful philosophy, CPS focuses on building skills like flexibility, frustration tolerance and problem solving, rather than simply motivating kids to behave better. The process begins with identifying triggers to a child’s challenging behavior and the specific skills they need help developing. The next step involves partnering with the child to build those skills and develop lasting solutions to problems that work for everyone" (Think:Kids).

 

At the heart of CPS is the problem-solving conversation--or Plan B--in which the adult empathizes with the student's/child's perspective, shares their own concerns, and works with the student to find solutions that address both the child's and adult's concerns.

 

CPS supports CASEL’s 5 SEL competencies through crucial skill development such as emotion- and self-regulation, executive functioning, communication skills, cognitive flexibility, social skills, and incorporates the student in the process of finding solutions, all while helping students build strong relationships with adults.

 

The introduction of CPS at Arlington High School has been a collaborative, multi-partnered and long-standing initiative. In 2017, we began the training and coaching of administration and support staff at AHS. We then brought CPS training and coaching to AHS teachers in 2019 and from here on, we will be training all new staff in CPS practices. In February 2024, we introduced CPS to our students in their advisory. Looking ahead, we hope to offer CPS workshops and training to parents.