Taking Social-Emotional Learning Schoolwide : The Formative Five Success Skills for Students and Staff

210 Pages·2020·1.931 MB·English

by  Thomas R. Hoerr

T A K I N G
Social
Emotional
Learning
Schoolwide
Other ASCD publications by the author:
The Formative Five: Fostering Grit, Empathy,
and Other Success Skills Every Student Needs
Fostering Grit: How do I prepare my students
for the real world? (ASCD Arias)
The Art of School Leadership
Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School
ASCD�MEMBER�BOOK
Many ASCD members received this book
as a member benefit upon its initial release.
Learn more at www.ascd.org/memberbooks
Thomas R. Hoerr
T A K I N G
Social
Emotional
Learning
Schoolwide
The Formative Five Success
Skills for Students and Staff
Alexandria, VA USA
1703 N. Beauregard St. • Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 USA
Phone: [phone] or 703-578-9600 • Fax: [phone]
Website: www.ascd.org • E-mail: [email protected]
Author guidelines: www.ascd.org/write
Ronn Nozoe, Interim CEO and Executive Director; Stefani Roth, Publisher; Genny Ostertag, Director,
Content Acquisitions; Julie Houtz, Director, Book Editing & Production; Liz Wegner, Editor; Judi Connelly,
Senior Art Director; Mary Duran, Graphic Designer; Masie Chong, Graphic Designer; Keith Demmons,
Senior Production Designer; Kelly Marshall, Interim Manager, Production Services; Trinay Blake, E-Publishing
Specialist
Copyright © 2020 ASCD. All rights reserved. It is illegal to reproduce copies of this work in print or
electronic format (including reproductions displayed on a secure intranet or stored in a retrieval sys-
tem or other electronic storage device from which copies can be made or displayed) without the prior
written permission of the publisher. By purchasing only authorized electronic or print editions and
not participating in or encouraging piracy of copyrighted materials, you support the rights of authors
and publishers. Readers who wish to reproduce or republish excerpts of this work in print or electronic
format may do so for a small fee by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), 222 Rosewood
Dr., Danvers, MA 01923, USA (phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; web: www.copyright.com). To
inquire about site licensing options or any other reuse, contact ASCD Permissions at www.ascd.org/per-
missions, or [email protected], or 703-575-5749. For a list of vendors authorized to license ASCD
e-books to institutions, see www.ascd.org/epubs. Send translation inquiries to [email protected].
ASCD® and ASCD LEARN. TEACH. LEAD.® are registered trademarks of ASCD. All other trademarks
contained in this book are the property of, and reserved by, their respective owners, and are used for
editorial and informational purposes only. No such use should be construed to imply sponsorship or
endorsement of the book by the respective owners.
All web links in this book are correct as of the publication date below but may have become inactive or
otherwise modified since that time. If you notice a deactivated or changed link, please e-mail books@
ascd.org with the words “Link Update” in the subject line. In your message, please specify the web link,
the book title, and the page number on which the link appears.
PAPERBACK ISBN: 978-1-4166-2837-8    ASCD product #120014
PDF E-BOOK ISBN: 978-1-4166-2839-2; see Books in Print for other formats.
Quantity discounts are available: e-mail [email protected] or call 800-933-2723, ext. 5773, or
703-575-5773. For desk copies, go to www.ascd.org/deskcopy.
ASCD Member Book No. FY20-3 (Dec. 2019 P). ASCD Member Books mail to Premium (P), Select (S),
and Institutional Plus (I+) members on this schedule: Jan, PSI+; Feb, P; Apr, PSI+; May, P; Jul, PSI+;
Aug, P; Sep, PSI+; Nov, PSI+; Dec, P. For current details on membership, see www.ascd.org/membership.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hoerr, Thomas R., 1945- author.
Title: Taking social-emotional learning schoolwide : the formative five
success skills for students and staff / Thomas R. Hoerr.
Description: Alexandria, VA : ASCD, [2020] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019033044 (print) | LCCN 2019033045 (ebook) | ISBN
9781416628378 (paperback) | ISBN 9781416628392 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Affective education. | Social learning. | School
environment--Social aspects. | Emotional intelligence.
Classification: LCC LB1072 .H64 2020 (print) | LCC LB1072 (ebook) | DDC
370.15/34--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033044
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033045
29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
T A K I N G
Social
Emotional
Learning
Schoolwide
Preface ..........................................................................................................................vii
1. SEL: It’s About Time! ...............................................................................................1
2. The Formative Five Success Skills ..........................................................................19
3. What Is Culture?.....................................................................................................45
Vision, Mission, Values Survey ...................................................................................57
4. Vision, Mission, Values ..........................................................................................61
Practices Survey ...........................................................................................................73
5. Practices .................................................................................................................77
People Survey ..............................................................................................................97
6. People ....................................................................................................................101
Narrative Survey .........................................................................................................119
7. Narrative ...............................................................................................................123
Place Survey ...............................................................................................................135
8. Place ......................................................................................................................139
9. Leadership Musings .............................................................................................157
Conclusion ................................................................................................................169
Acknowledgments .....................................................................................................173
References ..................................................................................................................179
Index ..........................................................................................................................189
About the Author ......................................................................................................194

Preface
Who you are is more important than what you know.
Important as they are, academics should be the floor of our expec-
tations for our students’ growth, not the ceiling. We need to intention-
ally teach children social-emotional learning and the Formative Five
success skills of empathy, self-control, integrity, embracing diversity, and grit
so they can succeed in life. In this book, I address each of the Formative
Five success skills through the lens of John Coleman’s “six components
of a great culture” (2013): vision/mission, values, practices, people, narrative,
and place. Of course, in the real world, distinctions among components
of culture are not crystal clear; people engage in practices in various places,
and a narrative emerges. This same overlap also applies to the Formative
Five skills: empathy and embracing diversity are closely related, for exam-
ple, as are self-control and grit. Seeking and recognizing opportunities for
synergy among both the Formative Five skills and Coleman’s six compo-
nents will vastly increase the likelihood of success. While this book flows
from my previous book, The Formative Five, it can be read on its own
(although, of course, I heartily recommend reading The Formative Five!).
John Coleman wisely notes that for our values to matter, they must
be embedded in what we do, part of our everyday routines and actions.
This is undoubtedly true: Our habits carry us through the day without
requiring much contemplation or decision making on our part. Chances
vii
viii TAKING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING SCHOOLWIDE
are that you don’t recall much of your travel to work this morning, for
example—it just happened.
In The Power of Habit (2012), Charles Duhigg says,
Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of
well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits. And
though each habit means relatively little on its own, over time, the meals
we order, what we say to our kids each night, whether we save or spend,
how often we exercise, and the way we organize our thoughts and work
routine have enormous impacts on our health, productivity, financial secu-
rity, and happiness. (pp. xv–xvi)
Of course, the habits Duhigg describes create our culture, so it is
really culture that we take for granted. This is especially the case in set-
tings like organizations, where we work with others toward a common
goal. Our habits save time, energy, and thought—sometimes. Other
times, our habits aren’t productive. Perhaps the situation has changed,
but our habits haven’t; possibly a habit isn’t as effective as we think,
but we don’t get the feedback to step back and question it; maybe we’ve
developed a habit to insulate us against coworkers rather than work with
them. In any of these cases (and in many more), the habit doesn’t help
us serve our students or ourselves. We need to examine and reflect on
all our habits, even the good ones—in fact, how do we know whether a
habit is good if we don’t?
As Duhigg notes, “People [can’t] detect most of the bad smells in
their lives. If you live with nine cats, you become desensitized to their
scent. If you smoke cigarettes, it damages your olfactory capacities so
much that you can’t smell smoke anymore” (p. 43). On a less malodor-
ous note, here’s a personal example: For years, I was known for my out-
rageous ties in school (and by outrageous, I mean ugly). Kids and faculty
members delighted in making comments, faces, and sarcastic remarks
about them. But I wore these kinds of ties so often that I became accus-
tomed to the conflagrations of colors and clashing patterns. My habit, in
other words, had inured me to the visual pain that my ties caused others.
Preface ix
The good news is that we don’t have to be shackled by our hab-
its. We can choose the habits that we want and consciously work to
develop them, and by doing so transparently—acknowledging the focus
and including others in our efforts—we increase the likelihood of suc-
cess. We can also work to rid ourselves of habits that are harmful. (Yes,
I am working on selecting more attractive ties—or at least considering
whether they clash with my shirts.)
This is an exciting time to be an educator because we know more
about how children learn than we ever have before and we understand
the role we can play in shaping their futures. We must recognize and
support the whole child. Students are more than stanines. Let’s learn
together!