Small World Consulting

One message around SEL and UDL in (science) education has been consistent and clear, “We all need to be intentional in incorporating SEL and UDL strategies into our planning.” Being an educator is overwhelming. We all need easy to implement strategies that work. Unfortunately, it’s easy to go down a rabbit hole when exploring the SEL and UDL frameworks only to find that we have just lost precious planning minutes and still aren’t sure how to move forward. In my opinion, one of the easiest and most friendly ways to be intentional about fostering a supportive learning environment is to bring CASEL’s 3 Signature Practices to your regular classroom routine. And while this may not be new to many of you, sometimes a quick reminder can be helpful. 

CASEL is the organization at the heart of the SEL in education movement. The 3 Signature Practices are the Inclusive Welcome, Engaging Strategies and Intentional Close. These are research based and practical strategies that can help you quickly be intentional in your planning – and there’s a good chance you are regularly engaging your students with many of these most of the time already. A great many of the shifts in instruction highlighted in A Framework for K – 12 Science Education (link to free PDF download here) and all of the OpenSciEd curricular resources incorporate versions of these three SEL practices and many UDL approaches as well. And those of you familiar with Adaptive Schools will see lots of strategies / approaches here that feel familiar. 

As a science educator, I was really good at bringing Engaging Strategies to my students’ learning – and I see this in the science classrooms I visit. I would, however, often run out of time at the end of the period and not give enough attention to an Intentional (and optimistic : ) Close. I now realize that not taking a minute or three at the end of my classes actually lost me time and learning in the long run – and may have even left students feeling anxious. Here’s a great three minute video from Edutopia that can get you up to speed on some great Optimistic Closures that are in line with the Intentional Close SEL practice.  

The CASEL SEL links in the post above and this link will all take you to their 3 Signature Practices Playbook  that has a lot more information, a ton of examples of each of the 3 practices and a lot more to explore. Within five minutes checking out the playbook I can almost guarantee you will find something new to bring to your next class that will foster a more supportive learning environment. 

I will wrap this post up with a quote from their Playbook that I think does a nice job of summarizing these 3 Practices (come to think of it – perhaps I should have lead with this 🤔), 

“The SEL 3 Signature Practices are a TANGIBLE framework for people to implement SEL practices. They work alongside any program, in any content area, they are very flexible, and can be used at almost any age. They are one way to answer the question: but what does SEL look like in action?” – Michelle District SEL Coordinator