Review and Plan for Future Posts

TALK Friday  9 28 18

I have been reviewing my TALK*posts that started in Summer, 1015, to determine how I might proceed.  There have been 85 posted addressing Language, Literacy, and Learning for children age Birth to Grade 3.  Those themes include a focus on early language development, the relationship between language and literacy, the reading/achievement gap, social/emotional learning, and the relationship between learning success and cognitive/emotional dimension of learning in general and learning to read in particular.  This review will take a while.  I hope readers will continue to support and share these posts.

From July, 2015

http://frantoomeytalk.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2015-07-23T18:55:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=6&by-date=false

The Importance of Conversation as a Tool for Learning

There is a vast literature on language development and the role that oral language plays in literacy, thinking, and learning.  I am going to use this blog to share some of that literature, focusing on translating research and theory into ideas that parents and teachers can use on a daily basis.

July, 2018

 http://frantoomeytalk.blogspot.com/2018/07/supporting-childrens-agency.html

Supporting Children's Agency: Involving Children in Decision Making

http://files.acecqa.gov.au/files/QualityInformationSheets/QualityArea1/supporting_agency_involving_children_in_decision_making.pdf  

 National Quality Standard | Information sheet

Genuine decision making

“Sharing the power that adults hold, and trusting that children are competent decision makers can support children’s agency.

For example, educators can:

                arrange activities, routines and the physical environment so that children have a range of opportunities to make choices about what they will do and how they will do it

                provide children with the opportunity to make choices in circumstances where their decisions will be able to be accepted."

So Many SEL Resources. Would One of These Work for Your Classroom or School?

https://casel.org/what-is-sel/approaches/

Effective SEL approaches often incorporate four elements represented by the acronym SAFE:

·         Sequenced: Connected and coordinated activities to foster skills development.
·         Active: Active forms of learning to help students master new skills and attitudes.
·         Focused: A component that emphasizes developing personal and social skills.
·         Explicit: Targeting specific social and emotional skills.

 Ideally schools will use SAFE approaches to support the social and emotional development of their students. For example:

·         Children can to be taught through modeling and coaching to recognize how they feel or how someone else might be feeling.

·         Prompting the use of a conflict-resolution skill and using dialoguing to guide students through the steps can be an effective approach to helping them apply a skill in a new situation.

·         Through class meetings students can practice group decision-making and setting classroom rules.

·         Students can learn cooperation and teamwork through participation in team sports and games.

·         Students can deepen their understanding of a current or historical event by analyzing it through a set of questions based on a problem-solving model.

·         Cross-age mentoring, in which a younger student is paired with an older one, can be effective in building self-confidence, a sense of belonging, and enhancing academic skills.

·         Having one member of a pair describe a situation to his partner and having the partner repeat what he or she heard is an effective tool in teaching reflective listening.

·          

https://casel.org/guide/programs/    SELect Programs  Preschool:

• Al’s Pals
• Circle of Education
• HighScope Educational Approach for Preschool
• I Can Problem Solve
• Incredible Years Training Series
• Peaceworks: Peacemaking Skills for Little Kids
• Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS)
• Second Step
• Tools of the Mind
•  
• Elementary SELect Programs
• 4Rs
• Caring School Community
• Competent Kids, Caring Communities
• Getting Along Together

• I Can Problem Solve
• Incredible Years Training Series
• Leader in Me
• Michigan Model for Health
• MindUP
• Open Circle
• Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS)
• Positive Action
• Raising Healthy Children
• Ready to Learn
• Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP)
• Responsive Classroom
• RULER Approach
• Sanford Harmony
• Second Step
• Social Decision Making/Problem Solving Program
• Social Skills Improvement System (SSIS)
• Steps to Respect
• Student Success Skills
• Too Good for Violence
• Tribe Learning Communities

Learning From Others

Remembering those men and women who taught us what it means to be a hero.

BIG Emotions and Small Children

Big Emotions Video: ANGER and DISAPPOINTMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neDLfBe_2ZA  

41 Minute Video; Start at the 5+ minute point

Teaching Children How to Cope with Their Big Emotions. Focus on Preschoolers

Published on Jul 11, 2014

Recording of a webinar from the Head Start National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning (Jan 17, 2014) which discusses how to communicate to children that all emotions are okay, and how to manage them. Begin with emotional literacy, teaching the words tense, stressed, and relaxed. Use relaxation techniques (thermometer, deep breaths, etc.). Help children manage anger and handle disappointment. Use dragon brain and turtle steps.

Note similarities to I Can Problem Solve Program: Focus on Language and Communication.

The K-Primary Grades Version of Shure's Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving program

I just received the K-Primary version of the Interpersonal Cognitive Solving Program Program.

While it is definitely the same format as the other versions, it is clearly geared to younger children.

The focus is on the vocabulary of feelings and relationships. It includes words like "frustrated, some-all, if-then, fair, good idea....

At the same time, dialogue continues to be a primary teaching tool, with many age-appropriate pictures and activities to teach and use the "feeling"/"relationship:"words. It is a flexible, teacher friendly program designed to help children become problem solvers.

Evaluating Models of SEL.

Perhaps we can start with “Models” that give us some insight into how a particular “model” gives us sufficient detail to form an opinion about its usefulness to a particular teacher/class.

I am going to start with…   I CAN PROBLEM SOLVE by Myrna Shure  

AGES: Booklets for Preschool, K-1, and Elementary Grades   (Available from Amazon as “used” copies.  The following quotes are from the Elementary Grade Edition.        Ability range (80-120+IQ) Page 3.                                                                                       

AREAS of FOCUS: “Problems they have with other children”:  “….we have learned that, as early as age 4, youngsters who learn how to use ICPS skills in time become less impatient, over-emotional, and aggressive, as well as better liked and more concerned about their peers in distress.  Over inhibited youngsters become more outgoing, better able to express their feelings, and more like to enter into activities with others…” (Page 1, Introduction)

TIME FRAMES:  “Teachers report that, with the first few weeks most children begin to adopt ICPS concepts outside of formal training, especially words describing people’s feelings.” (Page 1)

Begin the program as early as possible in the school year…Some teachers have integrated ICPS into their lesson plans for one 40-45 minute period three times a week.” With this schedule…”sufficient to complete the entire series well within the school year.”(Page 6)

Number of Lessons:  77, divided into 2 groups: Pre-Problem Solving Skills (1-36) and Problem-Solving Skills (37-77)

DIALOGUE.  “Central to the ICPS program is the process of problem-solving dialoguing…” (Page 8) 

Basic Principles of ICPS Dialogue:          

                      

                “First, both child and teacher must identify the problem.”…

                “Second, when dialoguing, it is important to understand and deal with the real problem…”

                “Third, once the real problem has been identified, the teacher must not alter it to fit his or her own needs.”….

                “Fourth, the child not the teacher must solve the problem.”…

                “Finally, the focus is on how the child thinks, not on what he thinks (in other words, the specific conclusions he comes to”….

RESEARCH:    20 years of school-based research.  References included. 

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE PROGRAM:

*Simplicity, including the *Clarity of lesson format and range of materials

*Flexibility (“Feel free to adapt the wording or content of any lesson.”

*Can be class based

*Refer to the lessons as “games” or “activities”

Many "Models" address Social Emotional Learning!

We’ve highlighted: CASEL’s model, as well as those of Zimmerman, Paris and Winograd, Carolyn Saarni (Emotional Development), Myrna Shure (I Can Problem Solve).

What criteria can a teacher use to choose among all of the possible SEL Programs?

How can a teacher or parent sift through all of the labels that address a child’s sense of “Agency” in both the personal and social domains?

If we look across models, can we develop a set of SEL skills that children can begin in preschool? …  In Kindergarten? … In 1^st Grade?  Is follow through important across elementary grades?

Can parents and teachers do this on their own or is a school wide commitment necessary?

Should we focus on personal and/or relationship skills?

Can we match "A" Model of SEL to the individual child's skills and needs?

Lots of questions to answer over the next several weeks.