Lauren Casella

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Maximizing Student Learning with 3 Signature SEL Practices

Written by Lauren Casella, Ed.D., 2022 CTE Faculty Fellow

The encouragement of learning. The education of the whole person. The service of faith and the promotion of justice. The pillars of our LMU mission statement invite each of us to build a welcoming culture for learning, engage students in complex content, and ask students to reflect on their learning and growth in a semester.  Given this important work, what are ways we can maximize student learning and care for each student in mind, body spirit?  Research demonstrates that social and emotional learning (SEL) instructional practices can lead to improved student learning outcomes (Durlak, et al., 2011; Taylor et al., 2017) and foster an inclusive classroom community. For context, The Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines social and emotional learning (SEL) as the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions (CASEL.org, 2022).  CASEL suggests three pedagogical moves to bring SEL into the classroom: welcoming inclusion activities, engagement strategies, and optimistic closures (CASEL, 2022). These practices are presented thoroughly in this SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook (CASEL, 2019) and summarized below.

Welcoming Inclusion Activities

These activities serve as rituals or routine openings that can establish safety and predictability for our students, support contribution by all student voices, set norms for respectful listening, and allow people to connect with one another creating a sense of belonging (CASEL Playbook, 2019). The purpose here is to create a climate of inclusion, belonging, and connection.

Key Features:

• Everyone’s voice is heard by at least one other person.
• There is an element of personal choice
• Whenever possible, each person is welcomed by name.

Check-In Activities:

• A success I recently had ___ or One thing that’s new ___ .
• Set an intention: How will I show up for my learning today? How will I approach my work?
• How are you? With the Mood Meter tool or Share a peak and a valley from this past week

My experience: Some days I come to class a bit chaotic and feeling stretched for time. In haste, I skip the opening activity and start with content. Generally, as a result, the whole lesson falls flat, few people participate, and group work is lack luster. This always reminds me that time to welcome all is time well spent. Note:  Students can “pass” or send a note to me privately for these activities. 

Engagement Strategies

These strategies create a spaciousness during our lessons for student thinking, processing, and making connections. These activities can be opportunities for conversation in partnerships, triads, small groups, or whole group.  The purpose is to build relationships with one another and the content.

Key Features:

• Create the opportunity for sense-making for self or with others.
• Include a variety of strategies and activities that honor the array of cultural norms and

personal working styles that exist in your group.

Example Strategies:

• Think Time: 30-90 seconds of silent think time before speaking, sharing.
• Think-Ink-Pair-Share:
• What is something about _______ that you are now wondering about?
• In what ways did your understanding of _______ deepen or change?
• What is something you heard about _______ that stood out to you?
• Brain Break - Stand and Stretch: Refresh and reset the brain.

My experience: There are days when I get on a roll about my content, and I just want to keep talking.  Students look engaged as I can see they are making eye contact, but I’m not sure what they are thinking or what is making sense to them.  I have to force myself to stop and allow time for students to “chunk and chew” the content.  Generally, my rule is 10 minutes of lecture = 2 minutes of some stop and think time.

Optimistic Closure

As a part of the Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm, reflection is a core practice of the learning experience at LMU. Let’s end class intentionally with a moment of pause and reflection. Our goal here is to support students in making sense of new learning in relation to previous knowledge, and importantly to build anticipation for future learning.  The purpose is to leave class on an optimistic note, feeling connected, productive.

Features

• Give students time to reflect.
• Respect the diversity and varied experiences of the group.
• Everyone’s voice is heard by at least one other person or in writing.

Activities:

• List what’s “My Next Step”? Or I’m eager to learn more about ___ .
• A word or phrase that reflects how I feel about moving forward with this…
• Offer an appreciation for someone in the room...
• Intention: How did I show up for my learning today? How did I approach my work?

My experience: I often “teach to the bell” meaning that I’m giving directions, reminding students about assignments, projects, tests, and due dates, office hours, etc. while they are leaving class or logging off.  I’m working on ending my lecture or activity with 5 minutes of space for reflection or forward thinking.

In conclusion, I’ve found success using these SEL practices in my online and in personal classrooms. For quick reference here is the SEL 3 Signature Practices Playbook (CASEL, 2019).  Fun fact: these practices are also highly effective with adult learners.  Consider a welcoming activity, engagement strategy, and an optimistic closure for your next class and meeting :)

Join us Monday, 4/4 at 4pm in the CTE Classroom, UHall 3030, to brainstorm ways of implementing these three strategies!