Enriching Education: Communication and SEL in the Classroom

With schools struggling to help kids catch up from pandemic learning loss, now is not the time to neglect social-emotional learning (SEL), says Rolland, author of The Art of Talking With Children: The Simple Keys to Nurturing Kindness, Creativity, and Confidence in Kids.

“Instead, teachers and schools should be encouraged to develop a framework of high-quality conversation that will bring these two areas together,” she writes. “Through this framework, both teachers and students will be supported to build stronger relationships and connect more deeply — even while boosting student learning.”

Key points:

• Many students face grief, trauma, and huge changes to their family structures that often upend their attachments and daily lives. On average, one child lost a parent or primary caregiver for every four COVID-related deaths from April 2020 to June 2021. The effects were greater for children from families of ethnic or racial minorities, who accounted for 65% of those losing a parent or primary caregiver.
• Much of the daily support for students falls on teachers and their ability to teach and model social-emotional skills. These include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
• By emphasizing high-quality conversations, we support students in learning these lessons at the same time as academic ones. Back-and-forth discussion promotes learning and builds relationships.
• The ABCs of rich talk — Drawing from research in a range of fields, interviews with linguists, neuroscientists, and psychologists, and from her clinical work, Rolland developed a framework called “rich talk.” Rich talk is based on three key elements: It is adaptive, both in the moment and over time, as it responds to children’s temperaments and moods; it is back-and-forth, involving careful attention to the balance between adult and child speech, and it is child-driven, starting with what interests, worries, or otherwise engages a student.
• Three “Es” — High-quality conversation expands on students’ utterances; explores their thoughts and questions in a way that goes beyond the here-and-now; and helps them evaluate their strategies and ideas, considering next steps through an optimistic lens.

“As we face the start of a new school year, likely with its own pandemic challenges, we desperately need to support teachers with frameworks like these,” Rolland says. “Students are hurting. Teachers and parents are hurting. Students can’t learn well if we ignore their grief. Teachers can’t teach well if we ignore their burnout and need for human connection with other teachers and with the students they serve.

“There’s no need, and no time, to point fingers or argue over whether academics or social-emotional skills should come ‘first.’ The point is, we need them both, and we need them now.”

I had a chance to learn more in this interview.

Why is it so important for teachers to be aware of the trauma and struggles their students are facing?
All teaching is about relationships. When kids feel close to their teachers and able to confide in them, they have a much easier time learning--and teachers have an easier time teaching. If teachers don't understand the struggles their students are facing, they may discipline them rather than first understanding why the behavior is happening.

How can teachers engage in real conversations to help kids feel supported in the classroom?
Try starting with brief check-ins with individual students, and with groups of students, throughout the day. Take the opportunity to ask students to write you notes at the end of the day about what they're feeling or experiencing--or simply ask about their moods every day.

How can teachers carve out time in a busy daily plan to make meaningful connections?
They don't need to see it as separate from teaching. They can do this work through teaching as well--for example, asking how students would feel if they experienced what a character in a book did, or if they have ever experienced something like that.

Why is effective communication so important in the classroom?
When teachers communicate effectively, they help students learn far more deeply while also modeling a way of interacting that will help students in their later lives. So much of our adult lives are about communicating well, and we need to help students with this starting from early on.

About: Rebecca Rolland, EdD, is a mother of two and a Harvard Speech-Language Pathologist whose new book The Art of Talking With Children details "rich talk" and listening to cultivate children's creativity, kindness, and curiosity. To learn the seven pillars of rich talk to empower your family relationships, visit RebeccaRolland.com or her online press kit rebeccarolland.onlinepresskit247.com.