WICOR in BSD - WICOR and SEL

What is Social Emotional Learning? (SEL):

Self-Awareness: Students perform goal-setting exercises, as well as self-inventories on their learning styles, and self-identity their personal priorities.
Self-management: Organization—including focused note-taking, information management, time management, and goal setting—is one of the main cornerstones of every AVID classroom.
Social-awareness: Classes are structured to empower students to navigate and influence their environment.
Relationship skills: Students are provided opportunities to develop their skills in order to effectively communicate and collaborate in an array of diverse settings.
Responsible decision making: Through AVID’s emphasis on inquiry, students can explore issues more deeply in order to take a more thoughtful approach to challenges presented to them.

-AVID SEL Framework

What students need:

Rigorous Academic Preparedness: Social and emotional learning supports students’ readiness to learn, allowing them to access and succeed in rigorous coursework.
Opportunity Knowledge: Social and emotional learning allows students to set goals, make choices that support their long-term aspirations, and successfully navigate transitions to the next level.
Student Agency: Social and emotional learning allows students to believe in and activate their own potential; build relationships; persist through obstacles; and exercise their academic, social, and professional knowledge and skills.

-AVID SEL Framework

Activities to integrate social emotional learning in the classroom:

Start the Year by Fostering Your Students’ Growth Mindset

8 Fun Ways to Help Your Students Collaborate in the Classroom

Kind Cards

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During the first weeks of school:

During the First Weeks of School

"The first days and weeks of school might be the most important days of the entire school year. It is during this time that students need social and emotional learning support as they experience the anxiety of something new. This is your opportunity to set a positive tone for everything that is to come. You can help students feel safe and welcomed, so they can be excited to learn. Creating a positive, supportive classroom will open the door for risk-taking and a growth mindset throughout the year. These are both essential to helping students reach their personal potential as well as feel socially and emotionally secure.

When planning your first two weeks of school, [include community-building activities] as part of each day. These might be longer and more involved during the first few days of school and then reinforced with more compacted activities as you get further into the school year. These first activities will often be specifically designed to build community, and it’s helpful to call this out when you are doing them. Explain to students that community is important to you, you care about them, and you want them to feel comfortable and included in your classroom.

After the more focused community-building activities, it can also be helpful to weave smaller mixers into your academic learning activities. For instance, if students are asked to work in groups, build in a mixer or introduction activity to start the group process of fostering a team atmosphere. This process can also work when students are paired up with a work partner. Another efficient approach is to weave personal topics into the academic content. If students present a speech, have them share a personal experience. If they are practicing their writing, have them write about something that helps you get to know them better. If they are counting, have them count something that matters to them. This approach allows you to get to know students while they are practicing their academic skills.

As you plan your community-building activities, consider how you can facilitate them in a variety of classroom formats: face-to-face, virtual, or hybrid. You’ll probably even need to consider the different ways that face-to-face instruction might look, as well. Are your students allowed to move around the room, or do they need to remain socially distanced? If social distancing is required, can you use collaborative documents and tools to connect students? Even with social distancing, are there ways to have your students share verbally? These connections and opportunities to have a voice are key to creating a classroom community, but they may require some creativity on your part to make them fit your specific environment."

Source: AVID Open Access www.avid.org

Ideas and Strategies:

Encourage Student Ownership and Voice
- Give students a voice in creating classroom norms.
- Ask students what is important to them.
- Allow students to decorate the classroom.
- Rotate classroom duties and tasks, so everyone is involved.
- Ask for student feedback about a class activity or assignment.
Personal Introductions
- Share verbal introductions to the whole class, in small groups, or with partners.
- Interview and introduce a partner.
- Record and review introductions virtually.
  - Flipgrid
  - Padlet
  - Online discussions
  - Collaborative slideshows (Template)
- Schedule individual Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams meetings with each student.
Learning Teams
- Create smaller learning communities within your classroom.
- Teams can create names, logos, and cheers to establish a team identity.
- Create a team T-shirt (Template).
- Start every team activity with a quick personal share-out.
- Make sure that each team member has a group role.
- Solve a puzzle or complete a task (such as a Flippity Scavenger Hunt) as a group.

Full-Class Mixers
- Games: Survey students and create a Quizlet Live or Kahoot! activity for them to identify and get to know each other in a game format.
- BINGO: Play “Community Building BINGO” by getting classmates to sign off on a square of your BINGO board. If you are doing this virtually, you might need to post the board and have students “sign” (type) their names on a common board, allowing multiple names on each square. Encourage students to try for a blackout!
- Would You Rather…?: Have students share out quick responses to “Would you rather…?” statements.
- “My Favorite…” Speeches: These are simple, quick share-outs that allow students to learn about each other.
- The Name Game: This lets students learn each other’s names by going around the circle repeating each student’s name and something they shared to a quick prompt.
- Musical Shares: Randomize partner groups by mixing students until the music stops, and then they share their response. In a virtual environment, you could use a virtual partner generator, like the Flippity Name Picker.
- Two Truths and a Stretch: Have each student submit two truths and a stretch to you with their name. You can periodically pull up one student’s list and ask the class to try and identify which item is the stretch. You might consider using a polling tool, like Socrative or Poll Everywhere, so everyone gets to be part of the activity.