RSU 16 Social Emotional Learning Resource Center

The SEL 3 Signature Practices were developed in response to these commonly heard questions: “But what does SEL look like?” and “How can we start doing SEL right now?”

The SEL 3 Signature Practices are one tool for fostering a supportive environment and promote SEL. They intentionally and explicitly help build a habit of practices through which students and adults enhance their SEL skills. While not an SEL curriculum, these practices are one concrete example of a way to help people understand and practice the goals of an overall systemic SEL implementation plan.

Why? We set the tone for our learning and interactions as we launch the school day, run a staff meeting, deliver a lesson or facilitate professional development. Our goal is to purposefully and thoughtfully design each element to achieve a particular outcome. Adults and students walk into work or school each day as our whole selves. We bring our strengths, challenges, and outside circumstances which contribute to how we embrace or face the day. We transport our intentional goodwill and our implicit biases. We carry the memory of our last time in this environment, as well as our history of similar situations.

What? Intentionally chosen strategies, activities, and protocols foster interactions that model SEL in action and help create an equitable experience. They establish a safe container for equity of voice, for truly seeing one another, and celebrating one another as our fullest selves. By integrating moments of reflection, positive interactions, and appreciations, we craft the climate and culture we’re striving for— one in which everyone in the room feels they belong to a safe and caring community of learners, where they are valued and able to learn and work together productively.

Who? Everyone! Students and adults alike are a part of the lifelong learning process for developing and using strong SEL skills. Teachers, leaders, district staff, and out-of-school time agencies use these practices to great effect, to collaboratively build environments in which the fullness of each person’s identity is acknowledged and elevated.

When? Build in these practices throughout the day, every day as a regular part of daily lesson planning, meeting agendas, and professional learning facilitation to create a climate and culture of safety, inclusion and belonging, and to support strong, effective learning environments.

Welcoming/Inclusion Activities

These activites are brief, interactive experiences that bring the voice of every participant into the room, making a connection to one another and/or to the work ahead, with each perspective-laden, culturally-rich voice being heard, respected and learned from. The more we fully share ourselves and are fully received and understood by others, the stronger and safer our learning environments become. Growing knowledge of and appreciation for our groups help ensure that we will provide opportunities to welcome people in the ways they need and want to be included.

Welcoming Routines

a well-taught system of actions or series of tasks that contribute to an expected rhythm that starts an event. This might be a list of pictures and/or written directions near the door of an elementary classroom, or a “Do Now” on the board for secondary students that spells out expectations upon arrival. Students and adults who enter can see at a glance exactly how to get engaged. Practicing these steps, as you do with other classroom routines, is an investment in creating a calm, orderly space in which learners move with confidence and agency.

Welcoming Rituals

a special subset—a routine imbued with special meaning. An example is how the U.S. Supreme Court justices begin their work days by each shaking every other justice’s hand. This carries symbolism, making a public statement that despite strongly held differences of opinion that will be expressed during this work session, they are all civil members of the group, able to maintain personal connections across lines of difference. Examples of welcoming rituals in a classroom include a warm, consistent greeting of every student at the door.

One, Two, Three, Clap!

Four Corners

Greeting Frenzy

Name and Motion

Mix and Mingle

Synectics

What's New

Engaging Strategies

Engaging strategies are inherently infused with SEL, vary in complexity, include reflection and processing time, and consist of sequential steps that are facilitated to support learning individually (like the use of “turn-to-your-partner”) and collectively (for example, “Socratic Seminar” and “Jigsaw”). The goal is being in tune with and responsive to neurological, biological, and social and emotional needs!

Since SEL skills are integral to engaging strategies, it’s critical that as educators we make SEL explicit. Being aware of the skills we’re developing and how they impact learning will support learners in being ready and able to intentionally engage in SEL integrated instruction. It is important to provide a balance of interactive and reflective experiences to meet the needs of all learners, and to meet the leader’s needs in helping to bring the group’s energy up or down, as the moment dictates.

Brain Breaks

Brain breaks provide vital opportunities for anchoring learning, regaining focus, and enhancing creativity. Offering opportunities to be up and moving helps keep brains refreshed and open to learning. Timing and design of brain breaks tie directly to the on-going experiences. If a particular class period or meeting is mainly lecture / directed input, schedule specific brain breaks to digest material and provide sense-making opportunities. When the room is more autonomously centered, breaks may be available in an authentically personalized way, in keeping with the individual flow of learning and doing.

Transitions

Transition techniques, including routines (“Five-minute heads up before we…”) and rituals (singing “It’s time to put the toys away so we can play another day…”), foreshadow shifts within a class period or school day. These are helpful techniques for all people and are absolutely essential for some, including those with processing challenges or for whom traumatic events have impacted their social and learning experiences.

Optimistic Closure

Close each experience in an intentional way. An OPTIMISTIC CLOSURE is not necessarily a “cheery ending,” but rather highlights an individual and shared understanding of the importance of the work, and can provide a sense of accomplishment and support forward thinking.

Optimistic Closures may be reflective about the learning, help identify next steps, or make connections to one’s own work. Since our learning and our work are always a part of an on-going journey, these experiences bring a moment of pause, of collection, of reflection, to help anchor learning and build anticipation for the efforts to come.

What’s important is that each engagement, class period, or school day ends in a thoughtfully planned and meaningful way, helping everyone leave with appreciation and energy, looking forward to connecting again.

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