Today鈥檚 post continues an ongoing series on the practical aspects of social-emotional learning in education.
鈥楾he Itchy Sweater in the Woods鈥�
Anne Paonessa is the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at Bensenville School District 2 in Illinois:
Picture this: A student sits at their desk, staring at a math problem that seems insurmountable. Frustration builds as they watch their peers breeze through the task. Embarrassment creeps in as they start to believe they鈥檙e just not as smart as everyone else. They shut down. This scenario is all too common in classrooms, but what if we could change the narrative?
Let鈥檚 talk about integrating strategies that normalize the discomfort鈥攐r cognitive dissonance鈥攕tudents experience when connecting new information to prior knowledge. By acknowledging and addressing this discomfort, we can help students build resilience, an essential component of social-emotional learning. Incorporating this into instruction also helps students to understand that they are not alone; others are likely feeling some frustration, too.
The Itchy Sweater in the Woods strategy can be a powerful tool for teachers of all grade levels and content areas to help students build resilience when faced with an obstacle. The strategy itself involves the use of two analogies, a reflection tool, and an 鈥渦nstuck鈥� toolkit. By integrating this strategy into your content instruction, teachers can help to normalize that some discomfort is a natural part of learning. It鈥檚 a temporary state that eventually leads to mastery and more ownership of the content.
Imagine, for a moment, wearing a new sweater. At first, it鈥檚 scratchy and uncomfortable. But over time, with more wear and washing, it becomes softer and more comfortable. Or think about walking through the woods. At first, you move slowly and cautiously, avoiding rocks, tree roots, and branches. As you continually walk the same route, the path becomes clearer, and you navigate it with ease. Both of these analogies help to illustrate the learning process.
After sharing and discussing these analogies, teachers provide students with a reflection tool where they rate their current comfort level with new information or skills. This tool reminds students that learning takes time, effort, and repetition. Have students go back to the tool and give themselves an updated rating after more time with the content. Visibly seeing these changes helps them to reflect on how they felt when they were first learning and to see how they have progressed.
The reflection sheet can include options for students in the form of an 鈥渦nstuck鈥� toolkit with strategies such as:
- Start with what you do know.
- Reread the question or information provided.
- Use a resource like a sample problem or example.
- Ask a friend.
- Brainstorm possible next steps.
- Take a short break and come back to the task.
We must focus on more than academic data and give equal consideration to the SEL needs of our students. Our rising chronic absenteeism rates and increasing student-behavior issues underscore the need for a better balance. We have the opportunity to empower our students with competencies that will serve them not only in their academic learning but throughout their lives.
By incorporating strategies such as this one directly into instruction, students can apply it immediately in an authentic context. If students learn about resilience in a separate SEL lesson, it may be forgotten and not available when they need it. As students connect to the view of themselves as capable learners, we reduce the likelihood of shutting down or acting out when feeling overwhelmed or embarrassed.
By normalizing cognitive dissonance and teaching students to navigate it, we instill a sense of capability and adaptability. They learn that they can overcome obstacles, fostering a growth mindset. This builds their resilience. The more opportunities students have to work past feeling frustrated and stuck, the more likely it is that these skills will carry across situations, including those outside of school.
Integrating strategies like the Itchy Sweater in the Woods into core-content instruction can have a significant impact on students鈥� SEL well-being.
This approach aligns with the Aristotle quote, 鈥淓ducating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.鈥� We must remember that true education involves both the mind and the heart. Let鈥檚 equip our students with the tools they need to face challenges head-on, knowing that discomfort is just a stepping stone on the path to success.
鈥楳orning Meetings鈥�
Sarah Nichols is a national-board-certified teacher and Utah Teacher Fellow in Salt Lake City:
My best tool in helping students develop SEL skills in a way that feels authentic and low-stakes enough to get consistent participation is my morning-meeting routine.
The morning meeting is pretty standard in elementary classrooms鈥攁 time to come together, review the calendar, and share life experiences. It鈥檚 less standard in secondary classes, and I think that鈥檚 something we should change. I鈥檝e seen secondary teachers do a super informal version of this鈥攖hey simply save the first five minutes or so of class for unstructured, casual, teacher-directed conversation about topics students are interested in.
That鈥檚 not my vibe, though. I like structure and I like to plan. My morning meeting takes around 10 minutes and consists of standard sections. They are all put together into a slide deck that I use each morning鈥攐r whenever the class period starts. Each class, I lead students in mindfulness, go over the school calendar, and give students a chance to share and connect.
In the mindfulness section, I鈥檓 hoping to give students a chance to disconnect from their phones, friends, and stressors outside of the classroom. I use mindfulness cards, breathing techniques, and YouTube videos in this section. I don鈥檛 require them to participate in the activity, but I do require them to be silent and off their phones during this time. While students are sometimes hesitant to begin, by the end of the year, this is something that they recognize for its value. Several students have told me that they were able to use these techniques to cope with stressful situations outside of class.
In the calendar section, I review the next few weeks with the students. I make sure they know about any upcoming days with a different schedule or any days we don鈥檛 have school. We add student activities onto the calendar, as well as important due dates and, if students offer them for inclusion, their birthdays.
This helps empower students to be more involved at school and to practice their executive-functioning skills. It鈥檚 a great venue to have further conversations, like about the appropriate dress for homecoming vs. prom or how to join a cool club whose competition or activity we might be highlighting that week.
My favorite section is 鈥渆verybody shares. I bring all students to the front of the room, where we stand in a circle. Students go around the circle and answer a prompt. The questions range from silly 鈥渨ould you rather鈥� questions to more meaningful probes about their dreams or fears. This is something that I adjust depending on the size of my class. If I have a particularly large class or a shorter-than-usual amount of time to dedicate to my morning meeting, I might have them share in smaller groups or incorporate this into an attendance roll-call/call-and-response activity.
I give students lots of choice during this time鈥擨 always go around the circle starting with the person to my left, so anyone who wants more time to think can stand farther to my right. I also let them choose to 鈥減ass or play,鈥� so that they can opt out of sharing an answer out loud if they want (though I don鈥檛 often have students make that choice, especially as our classroom community grows throughout the year).
My morning meeting routine is essential in building community and developing students鈥� social and emotional skills. Students get to practice executive functioning and regulation skills while being exposed to the many different ideas, experiences, and perspectives in the class. I can integrate SEL topics into everybody shares and follow it up with explicit social-skills instruction.
Everyone gets a chance to be seen and heard, and I have a chance to get to know my students beyond what they show me in their daily work. To me, this is the most authentic and impactful activity for supporting social and emotional learning skills for my students.
Supporting Multilingual Learners
Mindi Teich is an multilingual-learner coach at and provides professional development and technical assistance to leaders and teachers of multilingual learners in a variety of school districts:
As the multilingual-learner population grows, 糖心动漫vlog must ensure social-emotional-learning practices are inclusive of them. During recent coaching visits to schools, the most effective SEL strategies for multilingual learners I鈥檝e seen are those that are thoughtfully designed to consider their unique strengths and needs and are seamlessly integrated into regular instruction.
In addition to recognizing and honoring their cultural and linguistic assets, successful SEL strategies also build multilingual learners鈥� sense of belonging by helping them feel connected academically to their classrooms. I鈥檒l share two classroom strategies related to of self-awareness and self-management that enhance multilingual learners鈥� sense of belonging by helping them feel capable of completing assignments and contributing to the academic community.
Support multilingual learners to recognize and build on their individual strengths and areas for growth:
For multilingual learners from more collectivist cultures, their sense of identity and definition of success can be closely tied to the groups to which they belong, such as their family or larger community. For these students, discussing personal strengths, a skill associated with self-awareness, may not come naturally and may initially make them feel uncomfortable or self-conscious.
In addition, some multilingual learners may not yet have the English vocabulary needed to express themselves in this way. Educators can support them by providing , modeling how to use them, and providing ample practice so students can become more comfortable talking about their strengths and areas for growth.
I visited a 2nd grade classroom that was at the midpoint of a unit on subtracting three-digit numbers. Knowing that this is often a challenging unit, the teacher included regular check-ins for students in her planning, the most recent one completed at the end of the previous day鈥檚 lesson. The teacher provided the following sentence stems, specifically tailored to help students think through their current strengths and areas for growth in this unit:
o Looking at a subtraction problem with three-digit numbers, I feel ______.
o When subtracting three-digit numbers, I am already good at ___________.
o I could help a friend ______________________________.
o I would like to get better at _________________.
After reviewing student responses, the teacher was able to plan and carefully structure a warm-up activity for the following day that would strategically match students so they could each make use of their strengths to support peers.
In some cases, student strengths were directly related to the math, while in other cases, students identified other skills such as knowing another language or being able to help a friend stay calm when problems got difficult. In wrapping up the activity, the teacher made a point of acknowledging the variety of strengths that the class brought to the activity and how each was important in solving the math problem.
Support multilingual learners to set and monitor goals:
For some multilingual learners, larger class projects that involve many steps and tasks can seem overwhelming. Without support for developing and practicing self-management skills, some might not feel equipped to persevere and complete these projects. The was developed out of just this type of need we noticed when working with multilingual learners and their teachers.
Here鈥檚 an example of how this type of tool was used in a high school earth science class. Students were researching various weather phenomena to write an argumentative report on what had the greatest impact on erosion. To support multilingual learners with self-management, the teacher included interim deadlines and rubrics to keep them on track.
However, knowing a few multilingual learners might need additional support, he worked with students to use a goal-setting document to help them break up the work, complete tasks, and get support if needed. The teacher also set up more frequent check-ins with multilingual learners to make sure they managed their time well and could celebrate when they completed a task. The small celebrations encouraged them to continue to work toward completing their tasks, built their confidence and self-management skills, and helped them feel connected to their classroom community.
When thinking about supporting multilingual learners with SEL and enhancing their sense of belonging at school, don鈥檛 forget how important it is to also help them feel academically connected to the classroom.
Thanks to Anne, Sarah, and Mindi for contributing their thoughts!
Today鈥檚 post answered this question:
What are the most effective social-emotional-learning strategies that you鈥檝e seen, and why do you think they are so effective?
In Part One, Diana Laufenberg, Marie Moreno, and Marcus Luther shared their recommendations.
In Part Two, Michelle Makus Shory, Melanie Battles, and Leah Porter wrote about their experiences.
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 .
