Level 3
An essential component of social reconstruction is the ability for a student to enter society at a functioning level. More specifically, students will enter society with an adequate ability of social engagement. Insofar as school is concerned, instructors then have an obligation to teach students certain life skills that will help them transition from life inside the classroom to life outside the classroom.
1. Establishing proper turn taking - When we engage in conversations outside the classroom, their is an expected format that any given conversation should follow. It is a constant ebb and flow of give and take. Taking these outside expectations and applying them inside the classroom helps create a routine pattern of conversation that is respectful and normalized. When speaking in class, students should follow proper turn taking techniques, just as if they were outside the classroom. Students will speak with dignity and respect for one another. They will listen when they are prompted and speak when they feel appropriate. Nobody's voice should feel limited in proper turn taking, but every voice deserves a chance to be heard.
2. Fostering emotional maturity - The classroom is a place of learning, and sometimes learning that goes beyond content standards. High school students are in an extremely formative time period in their life. As we have begun to see through brain development, emotional maturity takes time. The classroom should be a place where students are able to learn emotional maturity through measured responses to different emotional situations (Shapiro, 2004).
3. Leading with empathy - An important aspect of social engagement is the ability to empathize with others. A large portion of empathy stems from the absence of assumptions. Instead of bringing predispositions into conversations, we lead with empathy to gain an actual understanding of situations and people as they are and not how we perceive them. The first step in a potentially emotionally charged conversation should be an extension of empathy and understanding towards the other person. This is how instructors should engage with their students, and how students engage with each other.
4. Apology as an expected norm - Social interactions, by their very nature can be contentious. Contention is not always resolved by the most amiable of means. It is not that we try to hurt others, but often we let our emotions hijack our mental processing and create collateral damage from our decision making. An important skill to learn is the importance of the apology. In practice this means an acceptance that we often have to swallow our pride, and be confident enough in our relationships to make ourselves vulnerable. Apologies don't fix every situation, but they are an indispensable part of remorse and mediation (Lederach, 2003).
5. Practicing stasis as a model for problem solving - Stasis Theory concedes the fact that two sides are in a disagreement. Instead of focusing on the issue as a whole, it breaks the disagreement down into four parts: facts, definition, quality, and outcome. Seeking stasis is to question each of those four parts in the given disagreement in order to find common ground. Before a productive conversation can begin, stasis needs to be found on all four levels of the disagreement. Using this technique allows for more positive interactions to come from disagreements, and ensures that problem solving seeks to solve problems in an effective and productive manner.
6. Self regulation - As much wisdom as teachers can impart on students, there is a point to the notion that nobody knows someone better than themselves. Self regulation is an important aspect of emotional and social interactions because you are best aware of your own limits. Teaching self regulation is teaching someone to be aware of their needs, their strengths, their shortcomings etc. It is a sort of self-literacy. Through self regulation, everyone is able to gauge their ability to engage in social and emotionally taxing situations (Steiner, 2003).
7. Wellness Wednesday - One Wednesday of every month is used to monitor the emotional, social, and physical wellness of each student. It offers students and opportunity to stop and reflect on the aspects of their health and feelings. This sort of metacognitive approach to self-health allows students to transfer this idea into situations outside the classroom, in that they do not a prescribed Wednesday to evaluate their self-health. Wellness Wednesday just seeks to establish an introduction for students to create systems of healthy reflection.
8. Restorative circles - Being in high school in itself is a tacit acknowledgment that things are not OK all the time. Life happens, and more importantly life happens during extremely emotionally vulnerable time periods in life. Restorative circles are the praxis of that acknowledgment. A restorative circle teaches emotional literacy in the ability to talk about one's struggles and feelings. The feeling of a restorative circle should be uplifting in the overwhelming sense of support you feel from the classroom community (Pranis, 2005).