Are Students Prepared When Personality and Power Control, Misrepresent, or Lie About the Truth?

Students Understand Social “Reality” Only When They Can Socially Analyze Multiple Realities

[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]

If I were to summarize in one sentence the single most important principle I have learned in the field of interpersonal relations, it would be this:  Seek first to understand, then to be understood.         

Dr. Stephen R. Covey

Dear Colleagues,

Introduction

   My biggest fear in writing this Blog is that some of you may not read past the first few paragraphs.

   I hope that you will. . . in fact, I hope you will read the entire Blog and honestly reflect on its message. . .

   But I will understand (but not reinforce) why some of you won’t.

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   I am a BIG “Survivor” fan!

   Truth be told, I even applied for Season 3 (I still even have my Audition Tape, and. . . . no. . . I will not post it on my website).

   While the current Survivor season is a handful of episodes in, the first two episodes highlighted Jackson Fox who is the first openly transgender cast member (but not the first such cast member) in Survivor’s 42 seasons.

   Significantly, virtually no one looking at or interacting with Jackson would know that he is transgender. Nonetheless, in Episode 2, he consciously decided to share this fact and his transformation story with the members of his “Tribe” (see the video below).

   Jackson didn’t make it very far as he was “pulled” from the “game” because the Producers were afraid that the physical (lack of water, sleep, food, athletic challenges) and emotional (personal and social stress) demands of Survivor would trigger an assortment of unsafe side effects related to the Lithium he had been taking for anxiety and to help him sleep.

   But this is not the issue. Instead, there are two “reality-related” issues here—for us as people, parents, and (educational) professionals.

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Issue #1: Our Interpretation and Reactions to Our Life Realities Impact Our Social Success

   The first issue is how some of Fox’s cast members reacted to his descriptive gender transformation story on Episode 2 (watched by over 5 million viewers), and whether those who were morally, religiously, or just personally distressed or appalled by him might have let those emotions undermine their game strategy—thereby sacrificing their chance to become the “Sole Survivor” and the winner of the $1 million dollars.

   Survivor Host Jeff Probst calls Survivor the greatest social experiment on TV today. Indeed, many are the times when the real-life personalities, beliefs, and relationships of the cast members dominate the contrived nature of the game.

   This is evident as:

·       Cast members’ attitudes toward age or gender, race or sexual orientation, socioeconomic status or job title, and/or physical stature or attractiveness. . . mix with

·       The physical and emotional demands of living on an isolated island with limited provisions, periodic group and individual high-stakes contests, and a series of unpredictable game changes and challenges (e.g., reconfiguring, merging, or relocating the cast in and out of their different “tribes”) . . . and

·       The emotional demands of maintaining one’s personal and ethical standards while having cameras recording their every move while vying (lying) to win $1 million.

   They don’t call this “reality TV” for nothing.

   Significantly, if you watch Survivor, it is predictable how most cast members’ authentic personalities emerge under the stress of the “game,” and how the behaviors and emotions inherent in these personalities either facilitate or destabilize their interpersonal interactions with others.

   In the end, those cast members who are able to socially analyze and adapt flexibly to the different realities that Survivor throws at them are the ones who successfully navigate the game, learn and grow from it, and leave the “game” with a higher level of personal insight, perspective, appreciation. . . and, maybe, $1 million dollars.

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   And this is one of the points of this Blog. . .

   All of us are living a real-life game of Survivor.

   And how we reality-check and adapt flexibly to the different realities that:

·       We have recently experienced—for example, the Pandemic with its social isolation, unpredictability, and loss. . . and

·       We are experiencing right now—inflation and the economy, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, issues of race and gender identity, the continuing political landscape. . .

. . . will determine our personal and interpersonal success as individuals, within our families and friendships, and at work and in the community.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Issue #2: Children Need to be Taught How to Understand and Respond to Life Realities

   The second issue, related to Fox’s presence and gender transformation story on Survivor, is that it was watched by countless children and adolescents—some of whom did not know or fully understand who a “transgender” person was/is.

   This issue relates to the many children and adolescents who—whether through Survivor or their family or social lives—have been exposed to the potential, if not the presence, of transgender and other LGBTQIA individuals, and who need a clear, developmentally-appropriate, factual understanding of who they are.

   And, honestly, with years of discussions, arguments, and court battles over transgender pronouns, bathrooms, participation in sports, and more. . . how many students are not aware of these transgender and LGBTQIA situations, even though they may not be knowledgeable regarding these students (see the video below)?

   As noted, our children and adolescents are exposed to, confronted by, and live with many social and other issues that occur during their day-to-day “realities.” Exposure to and interactions with transgender and LGBTQIA peers and adults are just one such issue.

   Simplistically, adults (teachers) have two polar opposite approaches to helping our children and adolescents navigate these issues:

·       Ignore and “protect” them from the issues and/or the diverse—and sometimes contradictory and contentious—opinions regarding them; or

·       Inform and instruct them regarding the issues and contradictions—giving them a developmentally-sensitive social problem-solving framework to use, over time, to make their own decisions.

   For me—as in the title of this Blog—students can only understand and reconcile the social “realities” in their lives (which extend to local, state, national, and international issues and events), when they can socially analyze and understand others’ similar and different social realities (note the Covey quote at the top of this Blog).

   And yet, there are some who want to restrict this educative approach.

   With all due respect to those who disagree, these issues need home-school-and-community discussions. . . because these issues transcend the home setting and parental discretion. We need to listen to and discuss these issues. They should not (as they already have) become lightning rods for arguments, insults, filibusters, politicization, and demagoguery.

   To wit:

·       While Florida Governor DeSantis recently signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, that will not eliminate discussions about LGBTQIA students and people. In fact, it will only mean that students will discuss these issues outside of their formal education and, perhaps, access and embrace information that is biased, inaccurate, or damaging.

·       If State Legislatures (or even individual principals or librarians) ban and remove certain school library books, students who want to read these books will still get them (can you spell “Amazon”?), and other students not exposed to them will not have the opportunity to debate their meaning and implications.

[Parenthetically, according to Goodreads, the Top Ten Most Banned Books are: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Diary of a Young Girl,” “1984,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “Carrie,” “The Lorax,” “Bridge to Terabithia,” “The Five People You Meet in Heaven,” and “Watership Down.”]

·       If the South Dakota and Louisiana State Departments of Education, for example, want to ignore the historical experts that they collaborated with in their respective states, and rewrite and sanitize their K-12 American History standards and content. . . avoiding a critical thinking and inquiry-based analysis of our country’s strengths and weaknesses . . . then students will be less prepared to understand contemporary race and other cultural issues, to succeed in a global economy and society, and/or to differentiate between reality and fake news.

   In summary, here are some of the relevant lessons:

·       Parents (and educators) cannot fully control everything that their children (and students) are exposed to;

·       Children are naturally curious, and they want to understand strange, unique, controversial, and enigmatic things in their social worlds;

·       Parents (and educators) cannot successfully sterilize or insulate their children’s (and students’) worlds to fully isolate them from information, topics, experiences, and circumstances that the adults deem “off-limits”; and

·       In the absence of the information and adult discussion, instruction, and guidance, some children (and students) will access the information anyways through peers, the internet, and/or social media... but they may get misinformation, and they may not have the skills to differentiate between fact and fiction.

   While a terrible analogy, controversial topics can be like COVID-19. We can sterilize, isolate, and protect ourselves to the extreme, but some children and adults still are exposed and fall prey to it.

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Preparing Students When Personality and Power Control, Misrepresent, or Lie about the Truth

   Over the past few years, an additional layer of instruction has become essential to prepare our students— as above—to differentiate between fact and especially fiction.

   Some of the fiction (e.g., fake news) occurs through the media and social media, and some of it is “controlled” by algorithms that are embedded in the social media apps that students are using on their computers and smartphones.

   Some of the fiction is benign. . .

   But some of the fiction is intentionally motivated to change, indoctrinate, or solidify specific attitudes, opinions, or behaviors in a new generation of eventual adults.

   In fact, some of this latter fiction has financial, commercial, political, antisocial, and malicious underpinnings, and some involves misinformation, disinformation, or flat-out lies.

   If students are not taught and do not master necessary social media literacy skills, then they become susceptible to these traps, and they can internalize the inaccurate messages while externalizing inappropriate or maladaptive behavior.

   Some recent examples of Fake News or Disinformation that could confuse students include:

·       Disinformation on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

A recent Education Week article (March 11, 2022; CLICK HERE) interviews Eisha Buch, the director of education programs for Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that encourages the teaching of media literacy in schools. Buch notes how TikTok is being used to disseminate Russian propaganda through fabricated news, image, and video reports related to the invasion of Ukraine.

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·       Critical Race Theory (CRT)—what it is and is not.

This is a continuing political and educational issue that impacts students in multiple ways.

For example, many students have not been taught what CRT truly is. They do not understand the issues and implications involved if a teacher were to discuss certain racial topics that are disallowed in some states. And, when uninformed, they cannot gauge the accuracy of certain accounts addressing CRT and other race-related topics posted on the internet and social media... or discussed by their administrators and school boards.

We have discussed much of this in our December 4, 2021 Blog (CLICK HERE).

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·       Accounts of the Senate Confirmation Hearing of Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In a Forbes article (CLICK HERE), it was reported that, “Evaluators at the American Bar Association refuted Republican senators’ allegations that Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson had been lenient toward child pornography offenders, saying Thursday during her Senate confirmation hearing there’s ‘no evidence’ to support the claims, as they emphasized how well qualified she is to serve on the court.”

If students are unexposed to this evidence, their opinions of this important historical event may be based only on the original question-and-answer interactions between these senators and the Supreme Court nominee.

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   As noted above, given all of this, students need social media training so that they can differentiate between fact and fiction—especially when facts and information are misrepresented by those in power or those who wish to assert their power.

   Here, Eisha Buch—the Common Sense Media director referenced in the March 11, 2022 Education Week article above—suggests the following in response to a question asking her for the “top tips for spotting disinformation and what questions students should be asking themselves when they view content on social media”:

Look for unusual URLs or site names, including those that end in a “dot co.” Those are trying to appear like legitimate sites but they’re not. A second tip is to look for signs of low quality—words in all caps, headlines that have grammatical errors, bold claims that have no sources, or really sensationalized images—those are signs or clues that you should be skeptical of the source.

 

Check a website’s “About Us” section. Find out who supports the site or who is associated with it. If this doesn’t exist and it requires you to register before you can learn anything about the backers, then that should be a red flag and you should wonder why they aren’t being transparent up front.

 

Consider whether other credible mainstream news outlets are reporting the same news—corroborate the story. If they’re not, it doesn’t mean that it’s not true, but it does mean you should definitely dig deeper.

 

The last one, which is also a question to ask yourself, is to check your emotions: click bait and fake news strives for extreme reactions. If the news is making you feel really angry, it could be a sign that you should dig deeper and check multiple sources.

 

Consider the diversity of backgrounds of your students. Depending upon the news ... different kids may respond and react differently to what they are seeing and hearing, especially if they have differences in their family backgrounds or situations.

 

These are tips or strategies for spotting fake news or misinformation in articles. But to how we talked about in the beginning, how are young people finding this fake news? If it is on social media, it does become a little bit harder.

 

To me, that’s where it’s more about what are the questions you’re asking yourself. So, do you understand how the algorithm works? [For instance, some social media algorithms tend to flood users with information that tends to confirm their worldviews rather than question them, creating a sort of information echo chamber.] What am I seeing? What content is being served up to me? Why is this content being served up to me? And that, to me, goes back to the idea of, do you understand how the algorithm works?

 

And then being able to, of course, try to corroborate those stories. You can do reverse image searches to really see whether the images are fake or not. There are ways even through social media that you can do additional steps to check the credibility of what you’re seeing.

 

In terms of questions. Asking yourself, “what’s the difference between a theory and an actual conspiracy? Why is this so appealing to me?” Notice your gut reaction. Is there a motive behind the person or the source who is putting this information out there? Is there potentially an ulterior motive?

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Summary 

   Some might say that Survivor is not reality, but a manipulation of reality. And I believe that this is an accurate characterization.

   And yet, despite some of the contrived situations on Survivor, the cast members are tasked with physically surviving on a deserted island, they are emotionally invested and motivated to win the game, and their reactions and interactions on Survivor are real—and often representative of their interactions with others when they are home, at work, or socializing with friends.

   As a parallel and reflecting the “social experiment” nature of Survivor, it is interesting to recall:

·       Psychologist Stanley Milgram’s studies in the 1960s where he investigated how far people would go—relative to obedience and authority—to obey an order. His experiments involved instructing those participating in his studies to deliver increasingly high-voltage shocks to an actor in another room, who would scream and eventually go silent as the shocks became stronger.

While the shocks weren't real, the study participants were made to believe that they were, and some obeyed the study experimenter who exhorted them to increase the voltage and disregard the screams.

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·       Psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford University prison experiment. Designed to last two weeks and study the psychological impact of becoming a prison guard or prisoner, the experiment was discontinued after six days because many of the guards in the simulated prison became abusive, and the prisoners eventually engaged in a riot.

More specifically, as tensions began to escalate on Day Two, prisoners eventually barricaded themselves inside their cell, and the guards used fire extinguishers to break the riot, also implementing various psychological tactics as a way of regaining control.

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·       Psychologist Walter Mischel’s 1972 Marshmallow experiment investigating children’s ability to delay gratification. In this study, a child between 3 and 5 years old was brought into a room and presented with a reward, usually a marshmallow or some other desirable treat. The child was told that the researcher had to leave the room, but if they could leave the marshmallow alone until the researcher returned, the child would get two marshmallows instead of just the one they were presented with. If they couldn’t wait, they wouldn’t get the more desirable reward.

Years later, Mischel followed up with some of their original study participants. He discovered that those children who were able to delay gratification during the marshmallow test were rated significantly higher on cognitive ability, had higher SAT scores, and were more able to cope with stress and frustration as adolescents.

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   Regardless of your opinion of Survivor as a reflection of “real life,” it is real that Survivor highlighted the presence of a transgender cast member earlier this season.

   And this potentially did create a necessary teachable moment for both children and adults watching the episode.

   Finally, this does symbolically represent hundreds of similar circumstances where the media and social media introduce controversial topics—some which are true, and others which involve fake news— that children and adolescents need to understand and navigate in their own lives.

   Indeed, a study published yesterday (March 25, 2022) by Eisha Buch’s (again) Common Sense Media group found a 17% increase in screen use among teens and tweens during the (Pandemic) last two years.

   On average, daily screen use went up among tweens (ages 8 to 12) to five hours and 33 minutes from four hours and 44 minutes the two years prior, and to eight hours and 39 minutes from seven hours and 22 minutes for teens (ages 13 to 18).

   And so, our Conclusions are:

• Students’ understanding, interpretations, and reactions to the information and issues that they are exposed to in the media and social media—including those related to politics, race and gender, socioeconomic status and inequity, past and present historical events, health and mental health—frame their realities and how they respond internally (e.g., emotionally, relative to self-esteem) and externally (e.g., interpersonally, relative to adults and peers).

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·       Adults need to understand that they cannot fully control everything that children and adolescents are exposed to, and that trying to artificially shield them from controversial, but prevalent, issues only means that that the children and adolescents will find a way to “self-educate,” and that some of this “education” may be inaccurate and harmful.

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·       Children and adolescents need to be explicitly and progressively taught social media literacy skills so that they can differentiate between fact and fiction, accurate news and fake news.

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   As always, I appreciate everyone who reads this bi-monthly Blog and thinks deeply about the issues or recommendations that we share.

   Even as the school year begins to wind down, and some are already thinking about next year, if I can help you in any way—in my different areas of expertise (see our Website: www.projectachieve.info), know that I am always happy to provide a free one-hour consultation conference call to help clarify your needs and directions on behalf of your students and colleagues.

Best,

Howie

 

[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]

Fitting Social Skills Instruction into the School Day: Necessity, Priority, Fidelity, and the Secondary School Advisory Period

Effective Planning, Execution, and Accountability are Essential to SEL Success

[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]

Dear Colleagues,

Introduction

   I’m going to begin this Blog discussion with a mixed message.

·       We will start by discussing the importance of teaching students—from preschool through high school—the interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional awareness, control, communication, and coping skills that they need for school, peer, graduation, and post-graduation success. 

·       We will then address the importance that these skills be taught as part of the general education curriculum and by classroom teachers, and the difficulty in “finding time” to do this during the school day and across the school year. 

·       Next, we will next focus our “Blog time” on Middle and High Schools that often carve out an Advisory Period where social skills are taught. 

·       And then—and here’s the mixed message—we will discuss how Advisory Periods “solve” the “time dilemma,” but are not working due to limitations that need to be considered, prevented, or resolved.

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The Importance of Teaching Social Skills and the Dilemma of When to Teach Them

   As districts and schools scramble around to “do” social-emotional learning, it sometimes seems that “doing anything” takes precedence over implementing effectively planned systemic and systematic strategies that result in demonstrable student outcomes.

   To “begin with the end in mind”:

   The primary preschool through high school SEL goal should be (as in any academic area) to consistently teach and help students master and demonstrate—at an independent or self-management level—their interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional awareness, control, communication, and coping skills.

   While this should occur along a multi-tiered continuum of services, supports, strategies, and interventions, the instructional process begins as social skills are taught to all students in their general education classrooms by their classroom teachers.

[CLICK HERE to re-read our last Blog—February 19, 2022:

The SEL Secret to Success: You Need to “Stop & Think” and “Make Good Choices.” Helping Students Learn and Demonstrate Emotional Control, Communication, and Coping]

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   As the author of the best-selling, evidence-based preschool through high school Stop & Think Social Skills Program [through SAMHSA, and on the National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) since 2000], it is still always difficult to convince classroom teachers to implement this SEL necessity with fidelity.

   This is even after providing professional development with teachers that:

·       Discusses research that shows how students who demonstrate good prosocial skills in kindergarten have (correlationally) better social, emotional, health, and income outcomes as adults;

·       Share studies showing that the schools who teach students interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional control, communication, and coping skills have (correlationally) fewer discipline problems and better student academic engagement and outcomes;

·       Emphasizes how students with more proficient social skills contribute to more positive classroom climates, effective classroom management strategies, and successful cooperative or project-based learning groups; and

·       Recognizes that, during the past two Pandemic years, many students have returned to school with significant social, emotional, and behavioral needs that can potentially impact their academic and social-emotional success.

   Relative to this latter point, in an Education Week article last week (February 24, 2022) titled, “Educators See Gaps in Kids’ Emotional Growth Due to Pandemic,”

   Reporter Evie Blad noted:

The challenges of returning from remote learning combined with responding to the stress of adults during a national crisis have led some children to struggle with their emotions and with social routines, school and district administrators told Education Week. In some cases, that leads students to withdraw, they said. In others, it may lead them to act out or seek attention.

 

In a national survey of educators administered by the EdWeek Research Center in January, 39% of respondents said that “compared to prior to the pandemic in 2019, the social skills and emotional maturity levels” of their current students are “much less advanced.” 41% said their students were “somewhat less advanced” in those areas, and 16% said they were “about the same” as their pre-pandemic peers.

 

The data come as states and school districts continue to design and adapt recovery plans, many of which place a heavy emphasis on helping students with mental health, emotional stability, and regaining a sense of normalcy. But they face hurdles: schools have struggled to attract and retain staff in all areas, including counselors and social workers; the evolving nature of the pandemic has stressed employees, too; and children respond to the stress of adults around them.

 

Administrators who spoke to Education Week said they expect their heightened concerns about students’ social-emotional well-being will continue into future school years.

   While counselors and school psychologists are essential to the multi-tiered continuum here, we have been training general (and special) education teachers to provide the initial, core (Tier 1) instruction of social skills in their classrooms since 1990.

   This is one reason why (once again) our work—in both social skills and school-wide SEL/PBIS systems—was designated as evidence-based by SAMHSA, CASEL, and included in the NREPP Registry over 20 years ago.

   The Point here is that: While we need our counselors and school psychologists, we can have a significant, immediate impact on the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of many students—who do not need Tier 2 or 3 services—by implementing effective SEL initiatives that are anchored by an evidence-based social skills program taught effectively by well-trained, coached, and supported classroom teachers.

   But the “Teaching Time Dilemma” must be factored into this process.

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The Teaching Time Dilemma

   As with any classroom-based strategy, the issue of how to fit it into an already-packed instructional day is always present.

   This issue is compounded by the fact that social skills—like academic skills—need to be taught with pedagogical integrity. Otherwise, the student outcomes desired will not be attained, and the time invested will be wasted.

   But. . . this issue is even further compounded, in our current Pandemic-impacted world, because students are both academically behind and they have concurrent social-emotional needs.

   This means—as with the dosage amount of a COVID-19 vaccination—that enough time (and the “right” time during the school day) needs to be devoted to social skills instruction.

   And this means that school administrators, classroom teachers, and related services professionals need to:

·       Consciously commit—prior to training and implementation—to social skills instruction that consistently occurs across the entire school; 

·       Determine, in the context of strategic planning and prioritization, what classroom activities need to be eliminated or de-emphasized—so that the social skills instruction consistently occurs for the “right” amount of time each week; and 

·       Protect—at all costs—the time blocked for social skills instruction.

   Relative to the first point above: The simple fact is that—when students are experiencing social, emotional, or behavioral challenges in the classroom—they will be less able to engage and learn in the academic program. You can have the greatest teachers and most wonderful instruction in the world, but if the students are not engaged, motivated, and focused, all of that goes for naught.

   Thus, social-emotional skills are essential to helping students to benefit from their academic programs— making the rationale for including social skills training a logical necessity.

   For students who already have “good” social skills, we want to enhance and enrich these skills—nurturing these students, perhaps, into leadership roles.

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   Relative to the second point above: Yes—some academic work will need to be “re-prioritized” in order to “make room” for the recommended social skills instruction.

   But let’s be honest. Most schools are already reassessing, revamping, renovating, and recalibrating (downsizing) their academic programs to focus— as they should—on “power standards” (or pivotal foundation skills), student mastery, and teaching students at their skill—and not grade or chronological— levels.

   With so many students academically behind already, we need to stop talking about “double-booking” instruction so that students can “catch up” to some unrealistic proficiency or norm-referenced skill level. We need to establish a balance between academics and social-emotional learning.

   Indeed, the current obsession on academic acceleration is adding even more social-emotional pressure and stress on our students, which is making it even more difficult (as above) for them to academically focus, which is increasing their already-existing academic gaps.

   When are we going to stop this vicious cycle?

   Clearly, now is the time to stop this cycle, because now is the time when schools are reprioritizing their academic expectations. Now is the time to integrate social skills instruction into the general education curriculum, and to schedule the instruction so it can be implemented with fidelity.

   (Remember the correlational research cited above about the potential academic pay-off when schools are teaching and students are using their social skills.)

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   Relative to the third point above: A strategically reprioritized curriculum—that includes social skills instruction—gives teachers permission (and protection) to devote the time needed to focus on teaching students essential interpersonal and social-emotional skills.

   But beyond this, administrators still need to consistently reinforce the importance of the social skills instruction—formally and informally.

   Examples of formal reinforcement include principals (a) requiring that teachers put their weekly social skills instruction into their class schedules and lesson plans; (b) observing at least one social skills class per year as part of the coaching and evaluation process for each teacher; and (c) providing teachers feedback and data on students’ social skill interactions in both classroom and common school areas.

   Examples of informal reinforcement include principals (a) celebrating teachers’ effective social skills instruction (and their student outcomes) at faculty meetings; (b) emphasizing their schools’ social skills program in parent and community communications; and (c) ensuring that the social skills program has a prominent place on their school’s website and in their School Office.

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Easier at the Elementary than Secondary Level: The Advisory Period

   From a scheduling perspective, elementary schools have a much easier job relative to ongoing, year-long social skills instruction. This is because classes are more self-contained, students have one (or fewer) teachers (than at the secondary levels), scheduling specific blocks of time is more flexible, and students typically stay in more stable cohorts, clusters, bubbles, or groups.

   Thus, scheduling for social skills instruction at the secondary level is more challenging—especially if all of the students in a school are expected to be involved on an ongoing basis.

   While some districts (and states—through their state standards) integrate social skills into the Social Studies curriculum, districts are often reluctant to ask other subject-area teachers to take time away from their academic program to devote to social skills instruction. Nonetheless, when this is done, schools attempt to equally distribute the academic time-loss by teaching social skills during a specific period each day (e.g., 1^st Period, 3^rd Period, 7^th Period) or on selected days (e.g., once or twice per week during the designated period).

_ _ _ _ _

   Some middle and high schools avoid the dilemma above altogether by teaching their social skills curriculum to all students during a 20- to 30-minute Advisory Period each day or on selected days each week.

   I have consulted with many middle and high schools across the country that do this and, quite honestly, very few schools are able to sustain high-quality social skills instruction across all of their teachers and Advisory Periods for even two years—if that at all.

   Indeed, in most cases, despite training and administrative oversight, the quality of the social skills instruction by many teachers—even in Year 1 of the initiative—is spotty at best. . . and, for some teachers, there is no social skills instruction at all, and the Advisory Period has become a glorified “homeroom.”

   Some schools try to compensate for less skilled or unmotivated social skills teachers by having the social skills lessons “taught” over the school’s closed-circuit TV or broadband system—expecting every teacher to effectively prompt their students’ attention and then reinforce and practice the skills presented during the second half of the Advisory Period. But this, too, has been largely unsuccessful.

   Other schools buy a “packaged” social skills media-driven program that teachers “cue up” during the Advisory Period. Once again, teacher-led discussions regarding the skills or issues presented and student roleplay practices are expected, but this does not consistently occur—or with high, mastery-level quality.

   Indeed, without the live instruction, followed by guided roleplays—where students must “dramatically” act out their social skills scripts and “good choice” behavioral interactions to mastery, most students (at best) will leave the Advisory Period instruction being aware of different social skills and the importance of controlling and effectively channeling emotions, but not being independently skilled in demonstrating them under different real-life circumstances.

   Moreover, if students are not held accountable, in other school settings and at different times during the school day, for demonstrating the social skills taught in the Advisory Periods, the Advisory instruction—even when of high quality—will not provide its promised “return on investment.”

   Indeed, every school should systematically develop a multi-year social skills “scope and sequence” so that the most essential skills are taught. . . and periodically prompted, used, evaluated, and reinforced in every classroom by every teacher in the school. Without this planning and execution, the probability that students will transfer the Advisory Period training such that they learn how to apply the skills automatically and independently in real-life situations is low.

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Advisory Period Effective Practices

   A review of the current literature discussing and evaluating Advisory Periods returned very few good quality citations. From a research perspective, there is virtually nothing. From an “effective practice” perspective, a few articles are useful.

   Below—based both on the articles reviewed, and my own 30+ years of experience in training schools to implement school-wide social skills instruction at the middle and high school levels—is a summary of the most notable effective Advisory Period practices.

   The first step in the process involves the need for planning before implementation. This planning should be done by a duly-constituted committee or subcommittee (for example, of the School Climate and Discipline Committee) that has representation from all of the critical constituencies in the school—from administrators to teachers to mental health and related services professionals to support and ancillary staff to students.

   Initially, this Committee should meet—on a regular basis beginning six to eight months prior to the Advisory Period “roll-out”—to plan all of the important functional elements of the initiative. After roll-out, this Committee will continue to meet so that (a) formative evaluations and mid-course corrections are completed; (b) staff and student participation and feedback are monitored and addressed (as needed); and (c) the quality and outcomes of the curriculum and instruction is validated and revised (as needed).

   The Committee, then, needs consistency, regularity, and stability. After the first two years (where Committee membership does not change), members should receive staggered three-year “terms,” so that the Committee never loses more than one-third of its members (and its “institutional history”) at the end of any school year.

   As alluded to immediately above, some of the critical elements that the Committee needs to strategically plan include the following:

·       The goals and expected outcomes of the social skills program, its instruction during the Advisory Period, and its transfer into classroom and common areas across the school

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·       How the goals and expected outcomes—including the fidelity of instruction and implementation— will be formatively and summatively evaluated

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·       The selection and/or development of the social skills curriculum, in addition to its multi-year (e.g., Grades 6 through 8, or Grades 9 through 12) scope and sequence, and its grade-specific lessons or lesson plans (including built-in accommodations or supports for different students in need)

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·       Staff training, coaching, supervision, support, and evaluation; along with decisions regarding staff pairing (if, for example, Advisory Periods will be co-taught/co-led) and staff logistics (for example, when and where will Advisory Periods occur, and will staff stay or loop with the same Advisory cohort of students during their time in the school)

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·       Student involvement, contribution, feedback, and voice; along with decisions regarding what students will be organized into what Advisory Periods (single-grade or multi-grade? gender-specific or random?), how they will be paired with teachers (by academic interest? by race or gender?), whether student mentors will be used (and how they will be trained and supervised), how students with multi-tiered needs will be supported

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·       How the initiative will be shared with the School Board, parents, and other community members; how it will be (as relevant) integrated into community-centered discussions and programs; and how community assets and resources can be identified and used to strengthen the school’s planned Advisory program

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   At a more molecular level, the Committee should integrate the following “effective practices” into the planning discussions and outcomes:

·       As organized in the multi-year scope and sequence (see immediately above), the Advisory Period should teach specific interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional awareness, control, communication, and coping skills 

For example, as discussed in our last February 19, 2022 Blog and in the context of a focus on interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional awareness, control, communication, and coping skills, some essential skills might be:

Ø  Avoiding Trouble/Conflict Situations

Ø  Deciding Whether to Follow the Group

Ø  Dealing with Peer Pressure

Ø  Being Honest/Acknowledging your Mistakes

Ø  Apologizing/Excusing Yourself

Ø  Dealing with Teasing

Ø  Dealing with Being Rejected or Left Out

Ø  Dealing with Losing or Not Attaining Desired Goals

Ø  Showing Understanding of Another’s Feelings/Empathy

Ø  Dealing with and Responding to Another Person’s Anger or Emotionality

Ø  Walking Away from a Fight/Conflict

Ø  Negotiating to Resolve Conflicts Peacefully and Productively

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·       All of the social skills should be taught from a cognitive-behavioral and social learning theory perspective by (a) teaching students the skill scripts/steps and their related behaviors; (b) behaviorally modeling or demonstrating the skill; (c) providing every student multiple roleplay opportunities across different relevant scenarios with feedback on their “performances”; and (d) practicing specific situations “under conditions of emotionality” so that students learn how to demonstrate the skill under those real-life circumstances.

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·       Integrated into the social skills instruction and roleplay opportunities should be, for example and on a skill-by-skill basis: (a) guided group discussions on the use and importance of the skills; (b) surveys and/or self-evaluations of students’ current and emerging (after instruction) proficiency with how effectively they are using specific skills; (c) literary or historical readings that provide examples of the appropriate and inappropriate use of specific skills (and their differential outcomes); (d) discussions of skill-relevant current events or social, moral, or ethical dilemmas; (e) relevant YouTube or other videos; (f) opportunities for students to prepare, discuss, and debrief their roleplays; and (b) student discussions on how and where new social skills will be needed and used in the classroom, with peers, or across common areas of the school.

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·       Built-in times in the Advisory Period calendar to students and teachers to debrief the current status of the group and the social skills instruction so that group-specific improvements or enhancements can be planned and implemented

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·       Formally scheduled whole-group and/or grade-level-specific opportunities for teachers (and others) to debrief the current status of their groups and the social skills instruction, and to share successes, failures, issues, and challenges so that group-specific improvements or enhancements can be planned and implemented

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·       The development of on-line/on-demand Advisory Period/social skills instruction training modules—perhaps developed during the initial round of live trainings, so that each year’s group of new faculty have an immediate training and content resource, and the school does not have to continually do new live training each year with a small number of new staff

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Summary

   Teachers, administrators, and related services professionals are intimately aware of the social, emotional, and behavioral skill gaps that many students are exhibiting in their classrooms—along with the academic gaps created or exacerbated by the Pandemic.

   Indeed, we quoted a recent Education Week Research Center national survey of educators that revealed that:

·       39% of respondents said that “compared to prior to the pandemic in 2019, the social skills and emotional maturity levels” of their current students are “much less advanced;” 

·       41% said their students were “somewhat less advanced” in those areas; and 

·       16% said they were “about the same” as their pre-pandemic peers.

   To address these gaps, this Blog discussed the importance of teaching students—from preschool through high school—the interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional awareness, control, communication, and coping skills that they need to be both behaviorally successful, as well as academically successful.

   We then described some the characteristics of an effective social skills program—a critical anchor to any school’s SEL/Positive Behavioral Support system, and addressed the dilemma of who and when to teach the social skills and why.

   Part of the dilemma rests with the fact that teachers and administrators are so focused on “catching students up academically,” that they do not believe that any time can be devoted to social skills instruction.

   This dilemma was directly addressed by noting a series of interdependent psychoeducational realities that result in the conclusion that the absence of social skills instruction will actually undermine students’ academic recovery.

   The remainder of the Blog outlined critical details on where to schedule a social skills program at the elementary and secondary levels, with special emphasis on the secondary Advisory Period. Here, the essential components needed to strategically plan, implement, evaluate, and sustain a successful schoolwide Middle or High School social skills process—using the Advisory Period as a “home base”—were presented.

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More Resources: A New On-Line/On-Demand Course on Implementing Effective SEL/Positive Behavioral Support Systems in a School

   If you are thinking about implementing an SEL/Positive Behavioral Support system in your District or School. . . .

   Or if you are currently implementing SEL or PBIS framework activities, but are not getting the results that your students and staff need. . .

   We want you to know that we are in the process of publishing a new On-Line/On-Demand Course based on our evidence-based blueprint and 30+ years of implementing our evidence-based SEL/PBS model in thousands of schools across the country.

   The Course is titled:

Teaching Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills to Improve Student Engagement, Self-Control, and Achievement

   The course has 15 sessions (and one Bonus Session), and it provides over 15 hours of presentations that provide the multi-tiered components and implementation steps—at the school, staff, and student levels—to teach students the interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional awareness, control, communication, and coping skills that they need to be academically and behaviorally successful.

   With all due respect to my colleagues, the psychoeducational information in this course is different than the SEL (from CASEL) and PBIS (from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs) frameworks that have significant gaps and flaws and that are not working for many schools, staffs, and students.

   A free Introductory Webinar will be available, and more information on the Course can be found at the Link below:

[CLICK HERE for More Information on this New On-Line SEL/PBSS Course]

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   As always, I appreciate everyone who reads this bi-monthly Blog and thinks about the issues or recommendations that we share.

   If I can help you in any of the SEL/Positive Behavioral Support System areas discussed in this message, know that I am always happy to provide a free one-hour consultation conference call to help clarify your needs and directions on behalf of your students and colleagues.

   You, too, can be one of the many districts, schools, or psychoeducational settings to take advantage of this post-Blog opportunity. I hope to hear from you soon.

Best,

Howie

[CLICK HERE to read this Blog on the Project ACHIEVE Webpage]