Many of our students experience high-levels of stress. These days, of course, that鈥檚 particularly the case for many English learners and others in the face of the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown.
Having documents has not stopped thousands in similar situations from being taken into custody by immigration authorities. And even if students were born in the United States, many have family members who are at risk, and students themselves are in danger of racial profiling.
Today, educator Elise White Diaz offers a strategy for how teachers can support students experiencing stress. She鈥檚 specifically talking about English learners, but I think her suggestions can be applied to help any student.
Emphasizing Co-Regulation
is the author of Discover, Connect, Respond: A Practical Approach to Trauma-Informed Instruction and an educational consultant with Seidlitz Education:
A classroom vignette: Yvette鈥檚 story
Yvette鈥擬ei Li鈥檚 chosen 鈥淎merican鈥� name鈥攕its quietly at the back of the classroom, eyes on the board. Four pink mechanical pencils are neatly lined on her desk. After instructions, the class begins working, but Yvette does not move.
Her teacher approaches.
鈥淵vette, are you good? Do you know what to do?鈥�
Yvette nods, glances at her classmates, picks up her pencil, and lowers her head. When a disruption pulls the teacher away, she makes a mental note to check in with the ESL teacher, puzzled as to why Yvette鈥�"reclassified鈥� years ago as a fluent English speaker鈥攁ppears not to follow verbal directions.
What the teacher cannot see is that Yvette鈥檚 brain is no longer on math. Earlier, classmates mocked the smell of her lunch. Already navigating peer relationships through an accent and cultural invisibility, her nervous system is in survival mode. Her thoughts spiral鈥攏ot about the assignment but about avoiding humiliation. When the teacher asks if she is OK, Yvette nods, not because she understands but because compliance feels safer. Her silence is protection, not confusion.
Why This Matters
Teachers need ways to connect with students across language and culture and determine whether disengagement reflects stress rather than language proficiency. Learning depends on regulation: Students must be calm enough to access higher-order thinking in the cortex rather than operating from survival responses.
For some culturally and linguistically diverse students, shutdown behaviors are often misread as limited English skills, causing 糖心动漫vlog to overlook the role of stress and belonging in learning.
Introducing the S-Connect Routine
The S-Connect Routine is a simple, classroom-ready tool to help teachers pause, gather information without assumptions, and communicate across language and culture. It provides a structure for connection, understanding, and co-regulation鈥攈elping teachers guide students out of survival mode and into readiness for learning.
The routine has four steps teachers can use when a student shows signs of stress (fight, flight, or freeze). For multilingual learners at the beginning stages of language production, it can be delivered verbally in simple language, written as a brief note, or through a translation device.
Step 1: See
- Name the observable behavior without judgment. Example: 鈥淵vette, I see that you鈥檙e looking at the board and haven鈥檛 started yet.鈥�
- Invite the student to share: 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going on?鈥� Perhaps this happens through a quick written note on her desk, for her eyes only.
Step 2: Sounds Like
- Repeat back what the student says verbatim to help them feel seen. In Yvette鈥檚 case, this happens in note form: 鈥淚t sounds like you are having trouble focusing right now because you are having a rough day.鈥�
- Follow with: 鈥淚s that right?鈥�
- This slows the interaction and communicates understanding across language differences.
Step 3: Suggest
- Offer an emotion word to help the student name their experience. Perhaps, for Yvette, it鈥檚: 鈥淎re you feeling discouraged?鈥�
- Many students鈥攑articularly from hard places鈥攈ave limited emotional vocabulary.
- As notes, 鈥淲hen we can name it, we can tame it.鈥�
Step 4: Support
- Ask 鈥淗ow can I help?鈥� Yvette responds that she鈥檇 like to go get a drink of water to clear her head and then come back to work.
- This shifts problem-solving ownership to the student, increasing agency and self-efficacy rather than teacher-directed compliance.
Why It Works
Traditional behavior management often prioritizes compliance. The S-Connect Routine emphasizes co-regulation鈥攈elping students feel safe enough to think, communicate, and learn. Over time, it builds emotional awareness, resilience, and stronger teacher-student relationships, especially for multilingual learners navigating stress across language and culture.
Your Turn
- Try the S-Connect Routine the next time a student appears disengaged.
- Notice how the interaction shifts from correction to connection.
- Reflect with a colleague or instructional team to refine your approach.
A printable lanyard version of the routine is available
Thanks to Elise for contributing her thoughts.
Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it鈥檚 selected or if you鈥檇 prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
You can also contact me on X at or on Bluesky at
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via . And if you missed any of the highlights from the first 13 years of this blog, you can see a categorized list here.
