Social Belonging for Formative Assessment - Facilitation Guide
Social and Emotional Learning to Support Formative Assessment
Social Belonging Research Overview Time: Approximately 45 minutes Audience: School-based educators
Preparation
Pre-work and reading list
• Read through the slide notes within the PowerPoint file. The notes are provided to explain the intended message for each slide. These notes are not intended as a script for the presentation—feel free to communicate the ideas in your own words.
• Practice going through the slides in “slide show view” to learn where slide animations are and understand how to progress through the content.
• Complete background reading: Yeager, D. S., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Social-psychological interventions in education: They’re not magic. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 267–301.
Session outcomes
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
• Define social belonging.
• Understand the importance of belonging for formative assessment.
• Feel familiar with the research base in this area.
• Use actionable strategies to implement belonging interventions with students.
• Train other adults using the materials provided.
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/ materials2 minutes / Welcome and objectives
1. Welcome the group and introduce yourself.
2. Review the session’s learning objectives. / It’s ok if you’re not an expert.
Option: Create a customized sentence starter that reflects the current climate in your school or community. / Slides 1-2:
• Title slide
• Learning objectives
2 minutes / Define social belonging
1. Show the Belonging: What Is It? slide.
2. Make the following key points:
Key points
◇ Youth’s lives are rich with complex social interactions and relationships. Under- standing the concept of belonging is useful for understanding young people’s experiences and achievements in school and life.
◇ Social belonging is in the eye of the beholder: If a youth doesn’t feel like they belong, then that is their reality. / Slide 3:
• Belonging: What Is It?
Timing / Content: topic/steps/activities / Notes to facilitator / Resources/ materials
5 minutes / OPTIONAL ACTIVITY
1. Invite the group to individually reflect on a time in which they felt like they really belonged in a group, a community, or a space (such as a classroom). Give them 1–2 minutes to reflect.
2. Pair-share: Ask the group to turn to a partner and spend a few minutes sharing their example.
3. Prompt the pairs to switch speakers after about 1 minute. / This is an optional activity.
1 minute / Belonging and formative assessment
1. Show the first How Does Social Belonging Relate to Formative Assessment? slide.
2. Make the following key points:
Key points
◇ Using formative assessment practices makes both teachers and students responsible for their learning.
◇ With responsibility comes vulnerability: Students have to be willing to reveal what they’re thinking and understanding, even if that means they show their mistakes and misperceptions. / Slide 4:
• How Does Social Belonging Relate to Formative Assessment?
Timing / Content: topic/steps/activities / Notes to facilitator / Resources/ materials
1 minute / Belonging and formative assessment
1. Show the second How Does Social Belonging Relate to Formative Assessment? slide.
2. Make the following key point:
Key point
◇ Teachers not only have to be willing to give feedback that corrects student mis- takes, they also have to be willing to reflect on their own practice and adjust it. / Slide 5:
• How Does Social Belonging Relate to Formative Assessment?
1 minute / Belonging and formative assessment
1. Show the third How Does Social Belonging Relate to Formative Assessment? slide.
2. Make the following key point:
Key point
◇ For formative assessment to work, the classroom environment needs to be a space of trust, respect, and comfort. / Slide 6:
• How Does Social Belonging Relate to Formative Assessment?
1 minute / Belonging and formative assessment
1. Show the fourth How Does Social Belonging Relate to Formative Assessment? slide.
2. Make the following key point:
Key point
◇ Social belonging helps create a safe, collaborative space in which the implicit message is “We’re all in this together! Let’s work together so everyone learns!” / Slide 7:
• How Does Social Belonging Relate to Formative Assessment?
Timing / Content: topic/steps/activities / Notes to facilitator / Resources/ materials
5 minutes / The importance of belonging
1. Show the Belonging Is a Fundamental Need slide.
2. Ask group members to raise their hands if they have observed similar behavior in students.
3. Review the Exclusion Is Painful slide and the Belonging Matters for Everyone slide.
4. Make the following key points:
Key points
◇ Belonging is universally important and humans are “hardwired” to connect with others.
◇ Experiencing exclusion—or lack of belonging—is intensely painful and can have serious psychological and health consequences.
◇ Belonging is important to everyone, across the entire lifespan. However, young people are particularly vulnerable during adolescence and times of major transitions. Youth from marginalized groups are also particularly vulnerable to feelings of exclusion. / Slides 8-10:
• Belonging Is a Fundamental Need
• Exclusion Is Painful
• Belonging Matters for Everyone
Timing / Content: topic/steps/activities / Notes to facilitator / Resources/ materials
5 minutes / Social belonging research
1. Walk through the Do I Belong Here? slides to illustrate the recursive process of belonging uncertainty.
2. Show the Belonging in School: So What? slide and the Belonging as a “Psychological Hub” slide.
3. Make the following key points:
Key points
◇ Being uncertain about belonging makes people more vigilant to cues regarding be- longing status and leads to a more negative interpretation of events.
◇ Just as general belonging leads to positive psychological and health outcomes for adults, school belonging leads to important health and academic outcomes for students.
◇ Because belonging facilitates other outcomes we know are critical for student success, it can be thought of as a psychological hub and is an important factor for educators to attend to. / These slides contain animation to demonstrate the concepts. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the animation beforehand. / Slides 11-16:
• Do I Belong Here? (4 slides)
• Belonging in School: So What?
• Belonging as a “Psychological Hub”
1 minute / Belonging and Identity
1. Show the Belonging and Identity slide.
2. Make the following key points:
Key points
◇ Belonging is context specific. A person can have a distinct sense of belonging within a school, a particular class, or a group of friends. A person can also experience a sense of belonging with their larger social categories, such as gender, race/ethnicity, or sexuality.
◇ Because belonging and identity are linked, what promotes belonging is likely to also promote positive identity and vice versa. / Slide 17:
• Belonging and Identity
Timing / Content: topic/steps/activities / Notes to facilitator / Resources/ materials
12 minutes / Strategies for promoting social belonging
1. Show the Classroom Strategies to Promote Social Belonging slide.
2. Make the following key points:
Key points
◇ Knowing your students well—and finding points of connection with them— can bolster their sense of belonging.
◇ In a jigsaw classroom, groups of students read different articles and rotate around the room to share what they have learned. For more information, visit Jigsaw.org
3. Show the Normalizing Belonging Uncertainty slide.
4. Make the following key points:
Key points
◇ The goal of this activity is to communicate a twofold message: Worrying about belonging is normal for everyone, and it fades with time.
◇ In part 1 of the activity, students read sample letter(s) that convey this message.
◇ In part 2 of the activity, students write a letter that could be shared with younger students. This helps students see themselves as benefactors instead of beneficiaries of help.
◇ This activity uses belonging to give young people a more adaptive way to interpret normal social setbacks and adversities.
5. Show the Values-Affirmation Exercise slide.
6. Make the following key points:
Key points
◇ In this activity students write about personally held values of importance.
◇ This activity helps young people develop a more expansive view of the self. When students think of themselves in a bigger sense, negative events are less threatening. / Detailed instructions for carrying out these activities are packaged under separate cover. / Slides 18-29:
• Classroom Strategies To Promote Social Belonging
• Normalizing Belonging Uncertainty (5 slides)
• Values-Affirmation Exercise (5 slides)
• Thank you