Why We Circle the Wagon: Social-Emotional Learning, Comparative Education, and Language
In the fall semester of my master’s program, my professor, my colleagues, and I would sit in a large circle and discuss our lives, our work, and any other relevant events. My professor called this “Circle the Wagon,” and declared it a powerful Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) strategy. When I became an in-service teacher, I started to implement Circle the Wagon in my own classes. As a result, my students developed the skills necessary to become intellectual and moral citizens.
What is Social Emotional Learning?
According to O’Conner, Feyter, Carr, Luo, and Romm (2017), SEL “is the process by which children and adults learn to understand and manage emotions, maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions” (p. 1). The focus on emotional learning provides students with opportunities to grapple with their emotions, with the emotions of their peers, and with the complexity of relationships.
O’Conner et. al. (2017) write that SEL is centered on “self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decisionmaking [sic.]” (p.2). By supporting the development of both intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, students are gaining valuable skills not only helpful in social experiences, but also with academic activities. Supporting a student’s social and emotional education, therefore, reinforces academic learning.
If students feel safe and welcomed in a classroom, they can focus on academic engagement.
When the United States passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, many thought that it would lead to a wave of SEL-focused changes. ESSA’s initial design, for example, revised America’s basic education act and revised the troubled 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) provisions.
John Rosales’s 2017 article, “How ESSA Advances Social and Emotional Learning,” highlights the importance of ESSA’s SEL connection, which emphasizes the role of teachers and the importance of creating a welcoming environment in the classroom. While ESSA seemed to pave the way for a more balanced education (SEL included), no states, according to Evie Blad (2017), have enacted plans to incorporate SEL under the ESSA provisions. According to Bland, Critics of SEL-focused measures under ESSA believe it would be a mistake to measure SEL in the same flawed ways the United States measures academic learning (e.g. high-stakes testing).
Circling the Wagon: Implementation
Even as the United States government makes strides in SEL, the focus on SEL must not only be on legislation. Teachers can use SEL strategies in their classrooms to supplement and support the existing curriculum. This is where Circle the Wagon enters the scene. Circling the Wagon serves as an excellent and quick strategy to “check-in” with students.
In my own classes, I implement this strategy bi-weekly, and I have been highly impressed with the results.
Circle the Wagon refers to a practice done by the pioneers of westward expansion throughout the course of America’s history. Settlers traveling by wagon caravans would move into a circular shape to help protect themselves from enemies and predators. They would set up camp within the perimeter of circle, before resuming their travels the next day. This form of protection inspired the design of the SEL strategy. Students, in their own circle, share their emotions and needs to help foster communities in the classroom — communities where they can feel protected.
I currently serve the Japanese Exchange and Teach (JET) Program as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT). I work in a private junior and senior high school in Tokyo, where I am responsible for teaching and assisting in over 18 classes per week. Though scheduling constraints prevent the implementation of Circle the Wagon in all of my classes, I have successfully conditioned my 15-minute morning classes to this routine. At the beginning of each semester, I provide my students with Circle the Wagon the instructional handouts:
Additionally, I give them “Emoticon Sheets” (left) that depict wide-ranging emotions. Students can utilize this to help them characterize their feelings with more variety. To my surprise, Circle the Wagon and its ancillary materials had unintended effects on my ESL classroom. It provided a “safe avenue” for students to practice their English without fear of ridicule. Its SEL-based focus proved conducive to language acquisition study. As a result, their English language proficiency (speaking) improved tremendously.
Circle the Wagon closely matches Japan’s recent educational policy trends. According to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sport, Culture, and Technology (MEXT), Japanese schools focus on developing a student’s intellectual, physical, and moral education. Their current approach parallels ESSA in America, which moves slides the focus of education from an intellectual-based center to include SEL for a more balanced education (MEXT, 2006; Rosales, 2017).
Conclusion
As an SEL strategy, Circle the Wagon does wonders for student engagement and participation. At the beginning of each semester my students were very apprehensive to speak in English. The “circling” process took about 15 minutes (the whole class). Within two weeks, my students were talking with more passion, with more specificity, and with greater volume (and, they were doing it in 5–7 minutes). I would say that implementing it in my ESL classroom proved successful.
Compounding its success with its role as an SEL strategy, Circle the Wagon really allowed me to jump into the community-building project that makes the classroom such a dynamic learning environment. In Japan, classroom communities flourish (see my article on it here), making Circle the Wagon a complementary community-building tool.
Nonetheless, it allowed me, as a new teacher to this community, to form strong bonds with my students, as we engage in the learning process together.
Editor’s Note: According to CASEL, the goal of Social-emotional learning programs is to cultivate the development of five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills as well as responsible decision-making. Circle the Wagon is an easy-to-implement technique that, if incorporated into the routine of the class, builds all of these competencies while at the same time, letting the students know that they are all in this together and everyone matters. The classroom is not just about the curriculum, but it is actually more about them, their progress, their own goals, their mindsets to learn and their potential.
References
Blad, E. (2018, March 01). No State Will Measure Social-Emotional Learning Under ESSA. Will That Slow Its Momentum? Retrieved June 11, 2018, from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/10/04/no-state-will-measure-social-emotional-learning-under.html
MEXT. (2006, December 22). Basic Act on Education. Retrieved from http://www.mext.go.jp/en/policy/education/lawandplan/title01/detail01/1373798.htm. Published by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
O’Conner, R., De Feyter, J., Carr, A., Luo, J. L., & Romm, H. (2017, February). A review of the literature on social and emotional learning for students ages 3–8: What’s Known Implementation strategies and state and district support policies. Retrieved June 11, 2018, from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/projects/project.asp?projectID=443
Rosales, J. (2017, June 30). How ESSA Helps Advance Social and Emotional Learning. Retrieved June 11, 2018, from http://neatoday.org/2017/06/30/essa-sel/
