Group Social Skills Instruction (page 4)

Group social skills instruction can take place schoolwide and classwide (tier 1) or in targeted small groups (tier 2). There are many ways to embed group instruction into the everyday structure already in place in the school environment.

Schoolwide and Classwide Social Skills Instruction

Schoolwide and classwide social skills instruction provides the foundation for addressing basic skill deficits. It is extremely important (and often overlooked) that behavioral expectations at this level need to be clearly defined and taught. Many times educators will say, "Oh yes, we teach the rules. We have them posted in the school and the classroom."

Simply posting rules is not the same as teaching the expected skills, however. It is important to schedule time for teaching the expected behaviors to all students and practicing them regularly rather than simply hoping that it will just happen. When you walk into your classroom on the first day of school, assume that none of your students know how to behave appropriately in a school environment, and have a plan for embedding social skills instruction into your school day.¹

ClassMeetings

Holding class meetings is an effective way to embed social skills instruction classwide and involve students in a democratic problem-solving process. Class meetings serve as a forum for students and teachers to discuss issues, set goals, and participate in peaceful conflict resolution. Class meetings should be held regularly (ideally at least once a week), and not only when problems arise. Teachers need to provide structure for class meetings, determining who can request one and when they will be scheduled. Some teachers allow class meetings to be called by anyone at any time and any place, and others have certain days and times they are regularly scheduled. It is important that the topic of the meeting is determined at the beginning and that the meeting stays on topic.²

Mini-Lessons

Daily lessons should always have at least two main objectives—one academic and one social. For example, at the beginning of a math lesson on division, the teacher may describe to students how to appropriately get her attention by raising a hand before calling out, discuss why this is important, and practice this skill by doing a brief role play. During the lesson the teacher can give specific verbal feedback to students who are and are not exhibiting this skill, and at the end of the lesson she can provide reinforcement to those who have successfully exhibited this skill.

Frequent Positive Feedback

Frequent positive feedback provides social skills instruction by frequently letting students know exactly what behaviors are expected. Two concepts are important in providing frequent positive feedback: positive-to-negative ratio and behavior-specific praise.

Positive-to-Negative Ratio

Although there are critics of giving students praise,³ a large research base supports its effectiveness with improving student behavior.⁴ In addition, there is really no excuse not to use this extremely simple intervention: it is free and requires no extra time or preparation. Although the exact positive-to-negative ratio in the research literature varies slightly, a four-to-one or five-to-one is fairly common.⁵ Paying attention to your positive-to-negative ratio will not only provide social skills instruction to students, but it will also ensure that your learning environment feels encouraging and positive, even when redirection needs to be given at times.

As adults we don't like to be around people who point out only the bad things we do. Imagine what your job would be like (or maybe is like) if you get mostly negative feedback from your supervisor. Most people are not productive or motivated in this type of environment, and students are no different. If you are unsure of your positive-to-negative ratio, consider asking a colleague to observe your classroom and take data or videotape yourself for a day and take the data yourself. Reproducible 1 can be used for this purpose.

Behavior-Specific Praise

Positive feedback or praise that is immediate (or as immediate as possible without seriously interrupting the flow of your instruction), frequent, enthusiastic, and clear is most effective. Feedback should be given about the specific behavior that was appropriate rather than using general statements.⁶ For example say, "I really like the way you are standing patiently in line" rather than, "Good job!" to increase the likelihood that students will recognize exactly what they are doing right and repeat that behavior.

Schoolwide and Classwide Expectations or Rules

Most educators set their individual classroom rules at the beginning of the school year. The most important thing to remember here is that classroom expectations should (1) be limited to three to five general expectations that cover all common behavior problems, (2) involve students in making them whenever possible because this promotes student buy-in, (3) be stated positively in terms of what the students should do instead of what they should not do ("walk in the hallway" versus "don't run"), and (4) be posted in multiple places where they can easily be referred to. We recommend that written classroom expectations be accompanied by pictures for students who are not able to or have difficulty reading.

The classroom rules that we typically use are

1. Be safe.
2. Respect others.
3. Follow adults' directions.
4. Do your best.

Being safe at school is always the most important rule. "Respect others" targets common problem behaviors such as using appropriate language at school and keeping hands off peers. "Follow adults' directions" is self-explanatory and is an important one for most educators. "Do your best" refers to skills that are important to academic learning, such as staying on task and putting forth maximum effort.

Various programs positively state common school expectations or rules in different ways, and one is not necessarily better than the other. The key is that they follow the four guidelines listed above and are taught and reinforced consistently. Ideally, the same expectations would be used throughout the entire school (or, even better, the entire district) to send the message that all of the adults have the same expectations and are in agreement on the rules. Students often have difficulty realizing that Mr. Jones has different expectations from Ms. Castro and struggle to simply master the behavioral skills needed to be successful in one environment, much less the more complicated skill of changing their behavior based on the different expectations of different teachers. Think of how many problems could be prevented or avoided (and how much time would be saved) if every adult in the environment (including office, lunch, and recess staff) consistently expected, reinforced, and held students accountable for the same behaviors.