Social/Emotional development is the foundation of all the learning that takes place in 3rd and 4th grade at Summers-Knoll. We believe that before students can engage in the academic material, they need to feel safe, supported, and heard.
Morning Meetings/Daily Reflections
Morning Meetings and end of the day reflections are fundamental to building a sense of community in the 3rd and 4th grade. These moments provide students with the opportunity to share about themselves, listen attentively to their peers, and take risks in a safe environment. These periods also help to reenforce classroom guidelines, as students can set intentions for the day/week and reflect on how the day went.
Classroom Guidelines
Our classroom guidelines follow the Peace Education Plan from the U School Approach. This plan is essential to developing a classroom culture of safety, collaboration, and joy. Each letter of PEACE represents a different classroom value: Play and be Safe Everything gets respect Awareness Communication Eudaimonia
Conflict Resolution
We want students to understand that conflict is a natural human interaction and also give them concrete tools and skills to help them navigate the difficult situations that will arise both in and out of school. With this, we are cultivating important skills for our changing world--the ability to effectively communicate our perspective, listen to the perspective of others, develop personal and social responsibility, and collaborate in diverse settings.
We use the framework of Non-Violent Communication (NVC), an approach to conflict resolution and human interactions in general that stems from compassion and speaking from our hearts. We spend time in class practicing concrete strategies from NVC, such as making observations rather than evaluations, recognizing "initial" or "false" feelings and digging deeper into ourselves to name our "true" feelings, being able to connect our feelings to our needs, and eventually making requests to help us move forward from conflict. Students enjoy creating and performing skits around NVC and other conflict resolution practices.
Social Justice
Social Justiceis central to our Peace Work curriculum in 3/4. Students engage in a variety of activities and conversations that ask them to reflect on their identities and interactions with the world around them. We utilize the social justice standards/anti-bias framework from the site Teaching Tolerance in order to engage students in discussions around identity, justice, diversity, and action. For more information, visit our resources page.
Growth Mindset
Growth Mindset, a concept developed by psychologist Carol Dweck, is another fundamental aspect of Peace Work. Dweck characterizes two main "mindsets", or ways of perceiving one's self: fixed mindset and growth mindset. In a fixed mindset, people believe they either are or aren't born with certain talents, and that cannot change. This generally shows in students believing they either are "naturally smart" or "dumb". In a growth mindset, however, you understand that there is no limit to the growth of your abilities. It is often characterized by "the power of yet". For instance, in a fixed mindset, one might say: "I am just no good at riddles." In a growth mindset, one might say: "I cannot solve this riddle yet." We use a variety of tools and resources to help students first become aware of their mindsets they are operating with, and then to cultivate a growth mindset. You can view some of the resources we use on our resources page.
Mindfulness
Throughout the day, we take breaks as a group to restore a sense of stillness, peace, and calm to our classroom community and selves. We use a variety of resources to practice mindfulness and meditation, such as the Headspace App or utilizing physical manipulatives for breathing exercises. These practices help all of us to cultivate awareness and bring our attention to what is present inside and outside of us, and encouraging us to take in observations without judgement or criticism. See our resources page for more information!