MTSS and SEL: Finding School-Wide Solution (Part I)

We’re all looking for a way to streamline the many-tentacled web that affects how students show up, develop and learn. Like the Venn diagram we use with students to show discrete and overlapping forces that make up a system, we sense the through-line or at least the relationship between things like acknowledging and managing emotions, fostering strong in-school relationships, setting and pursuing goals, having enough to eat, moving our bodies, and kids’ ability to focus on learning. The key for schools is finding those high leverage areas that, if addressed, will have positive cascading effects across other areas- and for schools, specifically on learning.

Classroom Champions’ K-8 SEL Foundations Curriculum and Mentorship+ program offer students a year-long curriculum to develop essential life skills with the support and modeling from world-class Olympic and Paralympic athletes, who are practicing those same social-emotional learning (SEL) skills to pursue their dreams.

The habits of success that Classroom Champions model like centering emotions, perseverance, goal setting and giving and receiving feedback, are also cornerstones to a healthy learning culture. It is important to foster these skills and mindsets in each students for their success as well as have a sense of what areas to bolster across the school community.

What is an MTSS?

A Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) is a framework designed to improve student learning. Using data, educators identify a few areas in need of improvement that, if addressed, will dramatically improve student learning in their schools and across the district. It focuses resources on a few high-leverage areas and builds a system of Tier 1- universal, Tier 2- targeted, and Tier 3- intensive supports for students, so they will benefit from strong foundational skills, traits or states like grit, optimism, and engagement.

Our best collaborations are with districts and schools that have data indicating what their student needs are and the implications of those needs- ie, are these essential to and affecting student learning. So they have a good idea of where they want to focus their energy to make improvements, and how those improvements will also improve student learning. They come knowing what they want to target, whether Classroom Champions might address that, and how.

We at Classroom Champions partner with schools and districts to address student needs identified through MTSS to better ensure positive student outcomes. When schools have a good idea of where they want to target their attention and energies, Classroom Champions can support with award-winning SEL resources and virtual mentors to work toward systematic improvements.

Classroom Champions as Tier 1 intervention (universal classroom)

Classroom Champions’ SEL Foundations Curriculum, viewed from an MTSS framework, serves as a universal support — the foundation for behavior and academics. In order to implement with fidelity, teachers must dedicate at least 30-minutes per week to the 8 monthly units; and for those who choose to dedicate more time throughout the week, we have supplementary material. All lessons, thematic videos, formative assessments. and materials teachers need are included on the dashboard.

Elementary teachers often choose to use Classroom Champions for their morning meetings. This can be done once a week or broken into chunks to span the week. And there are supplementary resources that complement each lesson plan. Teaching Classroom Champions lessons in the morning has the benefit of students being able to make connections throughout the day and affords them the opportunity to reflect at the end of the day.

Elementary teachers who participate in the Mentorship+ program are matched with an Olympic or Paralympic athlete who creates videos for each of the eight units, engages in live chats and asynchronous interactions over the course of the year. Some choose to make that relationship even more powerful and tangible by having their “mentor on a stick.” They will print out a color picture of their class’s mentor and affix it to a stick to evoke their presence throughout the day.

Middle school students may roll their eyes, but they like it too.

Many of our middle schools will teach Classroom Champions lessons during their advisory period. This is a time when students can reflect on their goals and what they care about, and they can have candid nonacademic conversations with a small group of peers and a trusted adult. It’s an opportunity for students to just be themselves and recommit to their motivations.

This is a broad overview of how teachers can use Classroom Champions to help kids develop essential life skills and mindsets:

• A mentor athlete introduces one of the 8 monthly concepts in a video and illustrates it with examples from their lives, and invites kids to reflect on or think about it
• The teacher uses the lesson plan to lead a discussion to explore the topic
• Students practice the concept through group discussion, individual writing, partner work, reflection and a longer-term iterative monthly challenge project
• The teacher continues reinforcing the concept throughout the week
• The role model reinforces the concept and inspires students by modeling through pursuing their dream
• The teacher shares the unit video and an activity with families to review, reinforce and build capacity at home
• The teacher checks for understanding with a formative assessment and the monthly challenge project
• The teacher re-teaches where necessary

Classroom Champions as Tier 2 intervention (targeted skills)

Fifteen percent of students may need more targeted support and opportunities for practice and feedback. While keeping the intervention maximally efficient, teachers can pre-teach specific concepts in the small group before presenting to the whole class so students have prior knowledge. Also, “Mindful Minute” videos can be used to target skills and deepen the lesson. Each unit’s monthly challenge project can be done in small groups to offer students more think-time as well as accountability partners as they learn and reflect on the skills.

The Mentorship+ program, offering a relationship with a compelling role model- an Olympic, Paralympic or professional athlete, can be used as a Tier 2 support for a small group throughout the year. A specific athlete is matched to a group for the school year to guide, encourage and inspire students through videos about the monthly theme, live chats, and asynchronous interactions.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll share how to use Classroom Champions to invite families and the community- they are integral to the system!