'Recipes for Respect' in Year 4 at Sacred Heart

Our newest Sacred Heart social skill focus is 'showing respect'. We thought long and hard as a class to come up with what we thought respect looked like, sounded like and felt like. It was a tricky skill to pinpoint as we decided it reached across all areas of life.

Here are the areas we believed respect was needed in:
- showing respect to others
- showing respect to ourselves
- showing respect to our environment
- showing respect to property

We delved in to the emotions we felt when we felt respected and how it linked to other skills such as manners and self control. To illustrate our understanding we each created a ' Sacred Heart Recipe for Respect'. We included beautiful ingredients like love, compassion, patience, kindness, self control and understanding. Each recipe was unique and meaningful.

We are now focusing on transferring our skill to outside the classroom and using it to problem solve in situations. For example when we are having a disagreement with friends we want to consider if we are being respectful. Are we showing the ingredients of compassion and understanding?

Want to know the quantities you need of the ingredients in our recipes? Come find us and ask! We are more than happy to share our recipes for RESPECT!

Year Fours and Miss Allen

Active Listening and Haiku Deck in Year 4

In Year 4 we have been discussing, learning and modelling active listening. We created a Haiku Deck together to show what active listening looks like, sounds like and feels like in our classroom. Here is a link to our Haiku Deck: https://www.haikudeck.com/copy-of-active-listening-education-presentation-tMC6p37s1g

We worked further on what active listening means when we are working in partners. We make sure we are looking at our partner, knee to knee, using manners and taking it in turns to talk. By doing this we are showing respect to our partner and ensuring we are listening. 

To help us with our self-control and practising the ability to actively listen, we completed a bubble challenge. This was a big test! Miss Allen blew bubbles all around us and challenged us to stay completely still as they moved around us. We had them pop on our nose, head and right in front of us and we didn't flinch, not even a tiny bit. Miss Allen was so impressed and now every time she says the word 'bubbles', instantly we are actively listening. We are Superstar Listeners!

Come and find us and ask us about Active Listening we would be very happy to model to you how it is done.

Miss Charlotte Allen and the Year Fours

Active Listening and Respecting Personal Space in Year 2, Term 1 2014

As another school year begins, social skills remain an important focus at Sacred Heart.  Our Year 2 students have been focusing on two important social skills in Term 1. The first being Active Listening, and the second being Respecting Personal Space.  

Y charts were used to introduce and teach the above skills to the Year 2 students. Following class discussions about what these skills look like, sound like and feel like, the teachers recorded the students’ answers on the Y charts.  These charts were then displayed and referred to as often as possible. The two Y charts developed by the Year 2 students for the above skills can be seen below:

Both teachers understand that in order for social skills to be embedded in everyday interactions, there must be multiple opportunities for the skills to be practised, reinforced and evaluated. Over the term, a number of strategies and activities have been implemented to help reinforce the focus skills. Below are some of the techniques used:

• Activities to promote active listening eg., Simon Says, News Telling and Think, Pair, Share.
• Literature to reinforce the skills eg.,  Personal Space Camp by Julia Cook.
• We taught students about a "personal space bubble" that exists around all people, which we must respect by keeping an arm's length distance from others. 
• Role-play eg., Role-playing situations that show students following/not following the above social skills
• Circle Time - an opportunity to share and discuss thoughts, feelings and ideas about the focus social skills. 
• Using naturally occurring incidents to reinforce the focus social skills.

An important part of the social skills program is to give students the opportunity to reflect on their use of social skills and for the teachers to provide feedback, both individually and as a class. In encouraging students to self-reflect on their learning, we asked them to consider questions like: How well did I use this skill? How can I improve my use of this skill in the future? 

Recently we asked our students to tell us what they learnt this term, and what they would like to learn about next term in social skills. Here is what a few of the students had to say.........

"I have learnt to keep my hands to myself and my lips closed when listening. I have also learnt to keep an arm's length away from someone when talking to them. Next term I would like to learn about how to cheer people up and how to include others in games."

"I have learnt how to respect people. I also learnt about how we all have our own personal space bubble that others need to respect. I have enjoyed the the role play activities and playing Simon Says. Next term I would like to learn about using good manners and giving compliments."

"I have learnt how to be an active listener all the time. I also learnt that there is an invisible personal space bubble around us."

Social skills in Term 2 and beyond....

In the short time that the current Year 2 class have been involved in our social skills program, it has been very encouraging to see students build more positive relationships and demonstrate respect to others in and out of the classroom. We look forward to reinforcing the above skills as well as introduce new skills next term. We are confident that the students will continue to benefit from the social skills program at school and at home, as well as encourage healthy social development in future years. 

Techniques and Strategies to Reinforce Social Skills

Over the past few weeks in Year 2, we have been focusing on the school social skill: Encouraging Others.  To begin with, we taught the skill using the Y chart strategy outlined in A Clear Method for Teaching Social Skills.  Following a class discussion, the students made turtles to record their responses to the Y chart headings to demonstrate their understanding of what Encouraging Others looks like, sounds like and feels like. Below is a photo of the finished turtles, which are currently displayed in our classroom.

We recognise that social skills take time to master and students need to have plenty of opportunities to practice skills. We have been working on a number of strategies to reinforce the Encouraging Others social skill in Year 2, which are outlined below.

Role Play -   Role-play is an excellent teaching strategy with many benefits including:

• engages students
• makes learning meaningful and relevant
• builds confidence and;
• teaches empathy.  

Our students have been involved in creating short role-plays that demonstrate how to encourage others, which they then presented to the class. They did a fabulous job!

A few tips to offer regarding using role-play with students are:

• model role-play for the students
• for the more reluctant role-players, do the first few role-plays in front of small groups of children (i.e., a smaller audience).
• reassure students that all performances will be appreciated and respected and;
• practice makes perfect: role plays are made for repetition.

Circle Time - A feature of our classroom environment is Circle Time. Positioning the students in a circle instantly creates a sense of community.  In Year 2 we use Circle Time to share and discuss thoughts, feelings and ideas.  The social skill Active Listening, the first ever social skill we taught to our Year 2 students, has lead our students to be respectful of the speaker and understand what it means to be a good audience member, as well as being proficient at taking turns.  In our most recent Circle Time session we asked our students to give examples of some of the comments they would hear, or have heard, from teachers and students encouraging others.  We passed "George", our class dragon, around the circle. Each student gave George an encouraging comment. 

Using naturally occurring incidents to reinforce certain skills - We recognise the importance of social skills being reinforced in authentic situations.  For this reason, we encourage our students to demonstrate the skill Encouraging Others throughout the day, in and out of the classroom. We regularly invite the students to share “success stories” of when they have 1) demonstrated a taught social skill and 2) witnessed others demonstrating the social skill.  In preparation of our upcoming school sports carnival, we have been practising the team sports as a whole-class. This has provided an excellent opportunity to practice the encouraging others skill and praise students’ efforts when they do.

As can been seen above, there are number of strategies we use to help reinforce social skills with our students.  We endeavour to teach and reinforce social skills in a supportive, fun and engaging way. We try to always think “social skills” in our interactions with our students in and out of the classroom. We are looking forward to trying new techniques and building our repertoire of strategies. 

Social Skills: Parent Involvement

At Sacred Heart, we recognise the importance of parent involvement when it comes to reinforcing social skills introduced at school. We currently encourage parent support and participation in a number of ways.

As mentioned in the previous post A Clear Method for Teaching Social Skills on our blog, Social Skills Y charts are sent home to the Year 2 parents for discussion and reinforcement. By doing this, parents can use the same language and students see the importance of applying the learnt social skill across different settings. The feedback from parents has been positive and it has been very encouraging to see parents actively involved in the teaching and learning process by discussing with their children the focus social skill and looking for opportunities to reinforce it outside of the school environment. 

Through notices in our school newsletter and posters around our school grounds, we have also been raising awareness about the social skills that we are focusing on as a school and have been encouraging the school community to take part in the The Ripple Effect Initiative by asking them to embrace the skills through role modelling. Another valuable feature of our newsletters is the regular links that we have been making to the articles written by parenting expert, Michael Grose, found at Parenting Ideas. This excellent blog offers advice to help parents (and educators) develop happiness, confidence and resilience in children. Our school also currently subscribes to a weekly newsletter from Parenting Ideas, which provides us with professional quality tips and strategies that we share with the school community via the newsletter. 

This very blog aims to not only document our journey and disseminate information regarding student well-being, social skills and engagement, but also to involve parents and the wider community in the process. It is imperative that as a school community we remember to always think "social skills" and use every naturally occurring opportunity to teach and reinforce social skills. We look forward to continuing this journey and we are excited about what the future holds. 

A Clear Method for Teaching Social Skills

In order for students to acquire social skills more effectively, students need to understand why they are learning the skills, ways the skills can be practiced,  how well they use the skills and how they can be improved. With this in mind, a clear method for teaching social skills is required. One approach that the Year 2 teachers have been using with great success involves the use of Y charts. The following Y chart was developed by the Year 2 students following a class discussion regarding the social skill: Including Others.

The method the Year 2 teachers follow to introduce, teach and reinforce a social skill is as follows:

• Introduce the social skill. The skill is always one that is needed by the students in the current classroom context.

• Hold a class discussion about the chosen social skill: What it looks like/sounds like/ feels like

• Teacher records students’ answers on the Y Chart. Write what the students say – it needs to be in their language!

• Display and refer to the chart as often as possible.

• Practise/use the skill. A variety of strategies are used, including: role play, games, social stories. All specialist teachers and educational assistants are actively involved with reinforcing the skill. In addition to this, the Y Chart is sent home to parents so that it can be reinforced.

• Evaluate students' use of the skill/provide feedback. Review and reflect: How well did I use the skill? How well was the skill used by others? How can I improve my use of this skill in the future?

Both Year 2 teachers recognise that social skills take time to master. Time is needed both for explicit teachng of the skills and for the informal practice of the skills in authentic situations. All of the above needs to take place in a supportive accepting environment, one where students feel comfortable to make mistakes.

Social Skills for Teaching

We believe that when making decisions about which social skills to teach, it is essential to consider the needs of our students as well as identify the skills that will support and develop our school's vision and circle of courage. In discussion with staff, we select social skills that we feel will benefit all of our students and assist us to achieve our school aims. Each class teacher also identifies skills specific to his/her class to teach and reinforce. To help us with our selection of social skills for teaching, we have drawn from the suggestion of social skills in Bennett, Rolheiser and Stevhan's Co-operative Learning: Where Heart Meets Mind (1991). A sample of these social skills include:

• Active listening
• Using quiet voices
• Taking turns (equally)
• Asking for help
• Praising
• Giving compliments
• Receiving compliments
• Moving quietly around the school
• Expressing support – no “put-downs”
• Staying on task
• Being gentle
• Saying kind things
• Checking for understanding
• Encouraging others
• Criticising ideas, not people
• Disagreeing in non-hurtful ways
• Saying please and thank you
• Occupying the same place co-operatively
• Controlling anger
• Ignoring distractions
• Negotiating
• Being responsible
• Accepting differences
• Being assertive in acceptable ways
• Being a good support
• Resolving conflicts
• Reaching agreement/consensus
• Acknowledging worth of others
• Following through
• Following directions
• Being organised
• Being confident
• Showing persistence
• Getting along
• Asking questions
• Summarising
• Including others
• Expressing non-verbal support/encouragement
• Celebrating success
• Being self-controlled (keeping hands and feet to yourself)
• Making eye contact
• Being positive
• Respecting personal space
• Playing fairly
• Being a good winner
• Being a good loser
• Appropriate tone of voice
• Suggesting (not bossing)
• Offering help

What can you add?

The Ripple Effect Initiative: Whole-School Approach to Social Skills

We see the teaching of social skills to be integral to achieving our school vision. At Sacred Heart, we recognise that social skills learning is most effective when it is fun, engaging and students apply what they have learnt to authentic situations. We also recognise the important role of parents, primary care givers and the wider community in helping our students to become proficient at using social skills. For this reason, we have adopted a whole-school approach to teaching and reinforcing social skills with our students. 

In 2013, The Ripple Effect Initiative was introduced and has been “making waves” through our school community. With each new social skills focus, students have the opportunity to practice skills and see the ripple effect it brings to people and situations around them. We began by focusing on the social skill: Giving compliments (as seen below). This particular skill links closely with the Belonging and Generosity elements of our school vision. We wanted our students to feel secure in giving and receiving compliments, as this is a powerful skill in counteracting criticism.  We set our students the challenge of giving one person a real compliment each day over a two week period. We also asked all the adults in the school community to play a part by modelling the skill to the students, with the intention of improving our own social skills as well as the students.

In the short time that we have implemented The Ripple Effect Initiative, we have been very pleased with the effect that it has already had on our students’ social skill development. We are looking forward to the implementation of our next whole-school social skill - Encouraging Others.