Students Taking Action Together

5 Teaching Techniques to Cultivate SEL, Civic Engagement, and a Healthy Democracy

Lauren M. Fullmer, Laura F. Bond, Crystal N. Molyneaux, Samuel J. Nayman, Maurice J. Elias

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781416630999
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Social Science

A field-tested, classroom-based approach for developing the critical thinking, social-emotional, problem-solving, and discussion skills students need to be good citizens and effective changemakers.

We often hear that a key purpose of schooling is to prepare students for informed and active citizenship. But what does this look like in practice? How do teachers pursue this goal amid other pressing priorities, including student mastery of both academic content and social-emotional competencies? Students Taking Action Together, based on a program of the same name developed at Rutgers University, clarifies that the way to prepare young people for life in a democracy is by intentionally rehearsing democratic behaviors in the classroom.

This field-tested program ("STAT" for short) is built on five research-backed teaching strategies that work with existing social studies, English language arts, and history curriculum in the upper-elementary, middle, and high school levels. Incorporating these strategies into your lessons is a way to meet students' natural desire to be heard with skill-building that empowers them to

* Adhere to norms of civil conversation, even when topics are controversial and emotions are high;
* Speak confidently and listen actively;
* Engage in respectful debate aimed at understanding issues rather than winning points;
* Target communication to different audiences, needs, and contexts; and
* Examine problems from many sides, considering potential solutions, drawing up action plans, and evaluating these plans' effectiveness against historical examples.

In addition to vignettes that show the five STAT strategies in action, you'll find practical teaching tips and sample STAT lesson plans. For school leaders, there is a road map for schoolwide STAT implementation and guidance on communicating the program's value to stakeholders.

Are you ready to help students understand complex content, confront pressing social issues, and engage with the structures of power to advocate for change? This book is for you.

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Chapter 1

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The Five STAT Strategies

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As history teacher Christine Chu drove to school, she realized that her lesson plan on the Great Depression was now going to compete with the breaking news of a school shooting that had just taken place the day before at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. She anticipated that her 9th grade students would be angry and sad and would have strong views on the topic. Just thinking about the day ahead of her made her palms sweat. She hoped to connect with her department colleagues concerning how they planned to adjust their lessons to address the tragic news. She wondered if her students would feel safe. Her thinking teetered back and forth on how to navigate the conversation with the students, and her worries escalated. Then she bumped into four colleagues in the copy room—Julius, Sarah, Raul, and Keesha—and the following discussion transpired:

Julius: I'm just going to teach and implement my planned lesson. You know how sensitive these parents are anytime you get into controversial topics. They call the principal immediately to complain.

Sarah: I feel like we should discuss this with students, but I'm worried that the discussion will descend into an argument and that feelings will be hurt. I don't know if some students can handle this topic. It's too controversial.

Raul: I agree with Sarah that we should talk about this with students. I plan to lead a small-group counseling session today with sophomores who I know have been recently affected by trauma. I'm going to comb through my counseling books to see if I can find a discussion protocol.

Keesha: I don't know where you grew up, but I grew up in a community where we discussed politics all the time. We have to foster these discussions or students will never be ready. I just don't know how to begin the conversation, especially with an audience of students who get their political news from their social media news feeds.

Christine: I agree with Julius, but I also agree with Keesha. I feel as though we have no guidance on fostering the district's goal of 21st century citizenship, yet I'm the civics teacher! It gets me so frustrated. I'm at a loss.

Scenarios like this one are all too familiar for teachers. Politically contentious events that convulse our national imaginations can derail a lesson plan and catch teachers off guard. Many teachers don't feel confident to address traumatic school events or hot-button issues with their students or believe they don't have adequate time to do so. Consequently, teachers and schools often keep potentially divisive current events out of their classrooms in an effort to maintain order.

According to researcher Katrin Kello (2016), teachers feel underprepared and fearful about bringing sensitive and controversial issues into their classrooms because of their uncertainty about responding to their students' emotional reactions, pressures from the administration or community, and the ambivalent and conflicting feelings that may arise from their own beliefs and values. However, when we dismiss opportunities to discuss the nuances of such issues in our classrooms, we deprive students of the chance—indeed, the responsibility—to examine current and historically embedded narratives, especially those that sustain social inequality, and arrive at informed opinions about what they're seeing and hearing in the world around them.

In James Baldwin's 1962 New York Times article, "As Much Truth as One Can Bear," the novelist, poet, activist, and playwright wrote, "Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced" (p. 38). As educators, we have a moral obligation to provide spaces in our public schools for students to process and discuss current events that affect them or that they experience in their lives and to integrate these discussions in classroom learning. Only this will prepare them to create the future they desire to see.

Moreover, depriving students of opportunities to process their emotions and thoughts can lead to unhealthy consequences and trauma. Students today are subject to a barrage of distressing images and live footage of tragic events; such media coverage is nearly inescapable. According to the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma (2005), people who are indirectly exposed to tragedy through media coverage can develop symptoms akin to those associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.

So, although we can't control students' exposure to such media coverage, we must not underestimate our power to provide them with the space to process these shared experiences. This book, with its five Students Taking Action Together (STAT) strategies, will serve as a guide. The strategies will help teachers and students develop the skills to process and respond to tragic events in safe and secure learning environments. Students will learn the power of developing shared norms, expressing their opinions, listening respectfully and appreciating the perspectives of others, and generating plans for constructive social action, all while honing their public speaking skills. And teachers will learn how to prepare their students for life in a democracy by intentionally rehearsing democratic behaviors in their classrooms.

Social-Emotional Learning and Civil Discourse

The canvas of democracy is filled with emotion-laden discussion, debate, disagreement, and dissent. Naturally, these expressions are necessary for civil discourse and social justice work. Because emotions play such a large role in such interactions, effective civil discourse demands the development of effective social-emotional learning (SEL) skills. That's why the five research-based STAT strategies integrate the five competencies put forward by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), which are self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

Emotions are the fuel for youth action. Placing emotions in the forefront of instructional planning values what many scholars, historians, and business leaders have noted—that the single most significant factor in transformational leadership is emotional intelligence (Goleman et al., 2002). Psychological theorists John Mayer and Peter Salovey (Mayer et al., 2004)—who influenced Daniel Goleman's 1994 bestseller, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ—define emotional intelligence as one's ability to

• Reason about emotions to enhance thinking.
• Accurately perceive and read emotions.
• Access and generate emotions to assist thinking.
• Understand emotions and emotional knowledge.
• Regulate emotions to promote emotional and intellectual growth.

At this moment in education, teachers are eager to integrate social-emotional learning into their instruction without it being just another add-on intervention. To support such integration, as well as teacher awareness, vocabulary building, and knowledge construction in social-emotional learning, each STAT strategy lesson in this book features SEL Competency Connection boxes that show how a given competency can unleash deeper and more meaningful learning and prosocial behavior.

In her 1994 book, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, author and activist bell hooks writes, "The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy" (p. 12). The more engaged students are in classroom discussions of oppression, justice, power, and equity, the greater the potential to raise student consciousness of how these constructs limit the rights, freedom, opportunities, and access of others in society. STAT strategies channel the enduring spirit of bell hooks and Paulo Freire's (1968) liberation pedagogy by empowering students to be cocreators of their learning and to interrogate power in the classroom.

According to the National Council for Social Studies (n.d.-a) in their Guide to Civil Discourse for Students, civil discourse is

a conversation in which there is a mutual airing of views. It is not a contest; rather, it is intended to promote mutual understanding. Civil discourse follows general rules of polite behavior. This does not mean that you have to behave like Mr. or Ms. Manners, but it does mean that there are certain behaviors that make everyone uncomfortable and that indicate that a conversation has turned hostile and unproductive. (p. 1)

All too often, adolescents learn from the modeling of the adults around them to avoid sensitive conversations because they can boil over into conflicts. The STAT strategies can help normalize dissent, disagreement, and the discomfort associated with such challenging conversations while keeping the dialogue focused on the issues. They can help students engage with the content and facts rather than focus on personalities and who is "winning" in the discussion.

STAT strategies serve as the antidote for the vacuum of models that students are exposed to. "As a classroom community," bell hooks (1994) writes, "our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing one another's voices, in recognizing one another's presence" (p. 8). Her point here reminds us that participating in social learning experiences and building connections with others generates a natural energy. To achieve hooks's vision, we need strategies that foster open and honest civil discourse.

Participating in STAT strategies-based learning gives students opportunities to

• Listen to opposing and diverse views.
• Wrestle with conflicting views, contradictions, and paradoxes.
• Come to understand that two things can be true but not match ethically.
• Learn to appreciate views they disagree with.
• Learn to express disagreement while respecting others' points of view.
• Come to appreciate their successes and also grasp what they might need to do differently in the future.

Everyone gains from experiencing productive struggle, dealing with the discomfort of uncertainty, and holding conflicting views in the mind. The journey through this social-emotional soup is a nonnegotiable path to nurture the muscles for civil discourse and civic engagement.

STAT and Social Justice Learning

On March 1, 2020, just months before his death, Congressman John Lewis spoke in front of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the scene of the 1964 Selma March for voting rights, urging listeners to "get in trouble, good trouble and help redeem the soul of America" (Rashawn, 2020). Lewis's remark reminds us that a democracy demands responsible citizens, and it harks back to a warning from one of the Founding Fathers. In 1787, when Benjamin Franklin was asked what type of government the United States has, a republic or a monarchy, he replied, "a republic—if we can keep it" (Beeman, n.d.). A democratic republic requires a citizen's conscious choice to serve as an active agent of change in the ongoing struggle for human rights and justice for all. Thus, the spirit of active social justice—or, as Lewis put it, "good trouble"—is built into the foundation of the United States and is upheld in the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution.

STAT strategies provide rich academic social issues content and a pathway that give students the opportunity to practice social justice learning in the classroom rather than having to learn it by default when compelled to take action. In addition, STAT levels the traditional power dynamics of the classroom community from what Brené Brown (2020), in a recent conversation on leadership with then–presidential candidate Joe Biden, called "power over" to a more transformational learning space of "power with" that our democracy rests on.

For the purposes of this book, when we refer to social justice learning, it's helpful to consider Heather Hackman's (2005) five essential components of social justice learning (see Figure 1.1). Although we didn't develop our STAT lesson plans around Hackman's five components, we do see some natural alignment that can enhance your understanding.

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Figure 1.1. Heather Hackman's Five Essential Components for Social Justice Education

1. Content mastery/factual information
2. Tools for critical analysis (systems of oppression)
3. Tools for action and social change
4. Tools for personal reflection
5. An awareness of multicultural group dynamics

Source: Hackman, 2005.

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As you can see in Figure 1.2, we have structured our lesson plans to incorporate Hackman's five components of social justice learning. The lessons have a common structural approach to help you navigate your implementation of the strategies to support social justice learning.

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Figure 1.2. The Five Essential Components for Social Justice Education in STAT Lesson Plans

Component: Content mastery/factual information

STAT Lesson Plan Feature: An inquiry-based problem-solving approach that drives deeper learning with topically relevant sources

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Component: Tools for critical analysis (systems of oppression)

STAT Lesson Plan Feature: Approaches to an analysis and evaluation of content sources that critique power systems and pursue the truth

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Component: Tools for action and social change

STAT Lesson Plan Feature: Strategy-driven activities that advance leadership and advocacy work to effect change for the common good

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Component: Tools for personal reflection

STAT Lesson Plan Feature: Thoughtful, reflective learning experiences at the end of each lesson

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Component: An awareness of multicultural group dynamics

STAT Lesson Plan Feature: Teacher supports that promote effective group processes for inclusive learning

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In addition to featuring a focal social-emotional competency, each ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Democracy, Schools, and the Classroom
• Chapter 1. The Five STAT Strategies
• Chapter 2. Norms: Creating the Climate for Civil Conversation
• Chapter 3. Yes-No-Maybe: Building Skills for Social Awareness and Peer Listening
• Chapter 4. Respectful Debate: Developing Empathy and Perspective-Taking
• Chapter 5. Audience-Focused Communication: Creating Effective Presentations
• Chapter 6. PLAN: A Problem-Solving Strategy for Historical Understanding and Social Action
• Chapter 7. STAT Integration Across the Curricula
• Chapter 8. STAT in the Inclusion Classroom
• Chapter 9. Scaling Up STAT
• Appendix A. Matrices for Available STAT Lessons
• Appendix B. Four Sample STAT Lessons
• Appendix C. Teaching Tips
• Appendix D. Resources for Further Reading and Learning
• Appendix E. STAT Elevator Pitches to Key Stakeholders
• References
• About the Authors
• Related ASCD Resources
• Study Guide
• Copyright