Social and Emotional Learning to Support Formative Assessment

Social Belonging Exercise: Normalizing Uncertainty

Time: Approximately 30 minutes Intended audience: Students in grade 2 and up



SEL for Formative Assessment by Davidson, S., Bates, L., McLean, C., and Lewis, K., is licensed

under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Step-by-Step Guidelines

Timing / Content:topic/steps/activities / Notes to facilitator / Resources/ materials
5 minutes / Making friends
1.Welcome the group and introduceyourself.
2.Ask the students to individually (silently) think about some things they doto make friends at school. Is it ever hard to make friends?Why?
Key points
◇It’s normal to have trouble making friendssometimes. / In general, activities like this are most beneficial if they are not presented as “interventions.” Rather than saying this activity is intended
to boost a sense of belonging, emphasize the importance of connecting to what is important in our lives.
10 minutes / A message from the future
1.Explain that today we’re going to share our knowledge and experience of what it’s been like to be an “X”-grader [fill in with appropriate grade] withsome younger kids that are coming to school nextyear.
2.Read example letter(s) to students and discuss as a wholegroup.
Key questions
◇How did it feel to hearthis?
◇Have you ever felt this way? (This should be the main focus ofdiscussion.
Encourage students to think about how their own experiences compare to the examples). / Option: Have student volunteer(s) read
the example letter(s) instead of readingto them.
You are encouraged to collaborate with older students to edit the letters so that they reflect your school community. / Example letter(s) from other students
Timing / Content:topic/steps/activities / Notes to facilitator / Resources/ materials
10-15
minutes / My letter to future students
1.Pass out blank paper and pens orpencils.
•Give students 10–15 minutes to write their letter, focusing on thefollowing questions: What advice would you give to a new student who isstarting
X grade and is worried about making friends? What do you wish you had known?
•Check on group progress at the 10-minutemark.
•Give the group more time, ifnecessary.
•Have students who finish quickly edit and revise theirletters.
•Using the key questions below, ask the whole group to reflect onthe experience of writing theletter.
Key questions
◇Who do you hope reads yourletter?
◇How did writing this letter make youfeel?
◇What was easy about doing this?
◇What washard? / The decision about whether to actually share the letters with future students
should be made with your colleagues and the administrators at your school. / Blank paper
Pens or pencils
(or use computers)