Mike Kaechele

Tag: Project Based Learning

  • 5 Ways to Integrate SEL in the New Year

    I have never been one for New Year’s resolutions. Most of my planned changes around exercise and diet are lucky to last a month. So rather than resolutions, let’s look at 5 ways to start integrating Social and Emotional Learning competencies into your daily classroom routines.

    1. Check in

    Students develop their Self-Awareness when they feel safe and loved. Teachers create psychological safety by establishing meaningful relationships through daily conversations with all of their students. An excellent routine for this is meeting students at the door. You might give students a greeting choice or if you are extremely creative you could have a personalized handshake for every student.

    Another tool is the Yale RULER Mood Meter. This helps students identify their emotions which is the first step to learning self-control. Use the Check In as a formative assessment on whether or not each student is ready to learn or has some concerns that need to be addressed first. Check Ins might feel too touchy/feely for secondary teachers, but middle and high school students desire to be seen daily too.

    2. Check out

    An important part of Responsible Decision Making is reflection. Reflection creates velcro moments where the learning “sticks.” Start a daily routine of ending each class with a Check Out. Try journaling, exit tickets, or turn and talks. Mix it up between written and verbal checkouts to keep it fresh.

    Sometimes reflection should focus on content with a formative check of a concept learned. Other times students can self assess on an SEL competency that the class is concentrating on. Students could consider how their group is working together or if they have been actively listening without judgement. Reflection doesn’t need to be a huge time suck. Two or three minutes a day is enough.

    3. Re-evaluate Norms

    The start of the year is a great time to reboot class norms and routines, but why not ask students to evaluate the current class culture? Give your students specific scenarios where they struggle to discuss in a talking circle. Students will develop Self-Management by coming up with updated norms for class.

    Each day assign one norm to focus on during the class period. At the end of class, have students self assess how they did on that norm by holding up a fist to five. Be sure to debrief privately with individual students whose number does not match your observation (whether it is higher or lower). This is your opportunity to reinforce the norms and hear their perspective on why they are struggling.

    4. Read

    Empathy is the most important aspect of Social Awareness. Lack of empathy is a major cause of conflicts around the world. Literature is a great way to teach it. In Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain Zaretta Hammond states, “When we are being told a story or are telling it, the brain’s neurons light up not only in the language processing parts of the brain but in other regions just as if we were performing the action ourselves (p.135).” Stories allow us to experience other’s lives and perspectives.

    Literature should be a part of every classroom, kindergarten through high school. Some of the best genres to teach empathy are biographies and historical fiction. Choose diverse stories to encounter feelings and opinions from across time and space. Don’t neglect less traditional forms such as graphic novels, podcasts, audio books and picture books. Read aloud to your whole class to engage reluctant readers in empathetic stories.

    5. Launch a Project

    Project Based Learning is the ideal framework for SEL. Look over your standards for the next quarter and think about what adults use that content and in what context. Have your students actively engage by mimicking professional jobs that match the content. Invite in local experts to guide your students through inquiry. For project ideas by grade level and content, check out the Project Library at PBLWorks.org.

    Relationship Skills such as teamwork and communication are best taught, practiced, and assessed in the context of student groups working on an authentic project. Students need to be directly taught SEL, just like any content or skill. Don’t try to teach all of the competencies at once. Choose one aspect at a time to address during the project so students can focus on improvement in that area.

    Questions? Interested in SEL and PBL Consulting?  Connect with me at michaelkaechele.com or @mikekaechele onTwitter.

  • Mastery before Creativity

    Pure Joy!

    This morning I saw this incredible video of Nandi Bushell covering “In Bloom” by Nirvana. Nandi is 9 years old! I was struck by her talent and exuberant emotion as she played. I have watched it over and over even as I write this because the video is so compelling to me.

    But do you know what Nandi is not?

    Original. On this video and others, Nandi plays covers on the drums while she listens to the original song on headphones. She does an excellent job of mimicking the drummers, but no one could argue that she is creative here. She doesn’t even put her own spin on the songs’ beats. The novelty here is that she is only 9 and is too cute with how she plays (perfect formula for YouTube views).

    If this was school, we might be tempted to criticize her for “copying.” She is not playing her own music or writing her own songs. Where is the creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving? But on the internet, she goes viral and gets to meet her heroes-the actual musicians who wrote and perform the songs that she loves.

    It’s hard to be very creative in anything that you have no background knowledge or skills in. The first step needs to be mastery of skills before prolific creativity can happen. So musicians start out playing covers as they learn their craft. Then as they become confident, they find their voice and start to write their own stuff. Often it takes years before musicians ultimately find their niche.

    So for teachers, the first time that you attempt Project Based Learning in your classroom, you might not create your own project from scratch but borrow ideas that you found on the web. It might not be novel or 100% authentic for your students. When it’s completed, the local media might not show up at the school showcase, making your students the stars of today’s news.

    And it’s all good!

    It’s ok to start off PBL “playing covers” of other teacher’s projects. Not everything has to be original to be powerful and meaningful for students. Given the opportunity, students will start to riff and make the project theirs.

    For students, we can’t expect them all to produce incredible, high quality work the first time that they are introduced to PBL. We may need to gradually release them with sentence stems, scaffolding, models, and mentorship.

    But for many students, they will get to use some of their talents not always acknowledged in core content. This will build confidence that leads to more participation, higher quality work, and eventually creativity.

    Note this does not mean that we lower expectations, but that we are realistic about growing students from where they are to the next step on their path toward mastery and self-management. It is about a culture of effort with permission to fail, but support that keeps students pushing onward toward ultimate success.

    It also doesn’t mean that students can’t reach the high levels of Blooms before learning skills. It just means that their first attempts will be messy, rough draft thinking and will need proper scaffolding. Nandi is playing complex songs, not just beginning music lessons. She is obviously motivated to improve her skills by the creativity of the best drummers in the world, not by some “Drumming for Dummies” type of music lesson. Her drumming is highly skilled; it’s just not original yet.

    I am confident that Nandi will not spend her whole life playing covers, but is on a path where she will soon perform her own rocking songs.

    If you are new to PBL, try a proven project from another teacher. You will soon be writing your own projects customized for your students as you experience the power of student and community centered pedagogy. And as for your students, encourage them to try things that they aren’t experts at yet. An open culture that is pursuing mastery will lead to growth and creativity naturally!

    Questions? Interested in SEL and PBL Consulting?  Connect with me at michaelkaechele.com or @mikekaechele onTwitter.