NorCal Educator's Digest
Integrating Visual Arts and Social and Emotional Learning
Submitted by Sandra Azevedo
When Team Lead, Jennifer Spangler, Program Coordinator for Arts Education at the Butte County Office of Education, applied to be part of the Year 1 NorCal ELC she wasn’t certain how they would tackle their Problem of Practice (PoP). The team wanted to integrate visual arts as a core curriculum element and leverage it to support social and emotional learning (SEL).
Jennifer and her team, Samantha Muntifering (Oroville Union High School), Marie Fox (Oroville City Elementary School District), Nancy Meyer (Paradise Children’s Community Charter), and Christianne Langford (Thermalito School District) believe there are two main drivers that contribute to the PoP:
- School administrators are unaware of the potential of visual arts to teach SEL to students.
- Visual arts teachers don’t recognize that SEL is already inherent in many of their lessons and classroom practices.
With the guidance of NorCal ELC, her team made significant progress. Utilizing the California Visual and Performing Arts Standards along with CASEL’s (the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning) framework with its five (Google Doc) core competencies - self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making Jennifer and her colleagues have now developed a common language and foundational understanding of Visual Art and SEL integration. They have:
- Developed and administered a survey to collect data from the members of the team to track their own baseline knowledge, understanding, and capacity to incorporate SEL practices and Visual Arts.
- Developed and administered a survey to collect data from administrators and teachers regarding their current knowledge on integrating SEL and Visual Arts.
- Conducted individual Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles integrating Visual Arts and SEL in their own classrooms.
One example strategy at Oroville High School included a student Visual Art Gallery Walk paired with student reflections about what they believed the artist was communicating (Social Awareness) followed up with a student-student conversation protocol discussing the artist’s perspective and the observer’s hypothesis (Social Awareness/Relationship Skills).
Jennifer reflected that she is learning a lot about leading improvement processes. For example, using rapid PDSA cycles was new to both her and her team. She appreciates the opportunity to grow as a leader, connect as a learning community, and elevate the power of Visual Arts as a medium for fostering SEL.
Jennifer and her team will continue their work in Year 2 of the NorCal ELC Program in order to:
- Deepen their relationships and understanding about Arts and SEL,
- Use their new knowledge to develop actions to increase administrator awareness of the power of Visual Arts and SEL,
- Develop Arts and SEL strategies to support teachers in classroom implementation, and
- Monitor efficacy utilizing continuous improvement processes.
Interested in forming a NorCal ELC Team?
Each NorCal ELC Team works together to address a specific local problem or concern. Support from the NorCal ELC Coches includes activities for learning more about school leadership and how to sustain a culture of continuous improvement. A NorCal ELC coach advises each team and provides access to tools for change, as well as opportunities to network with colleagues throughout the region. Team Leads participate in leadership coach training and all participants attend monthly professional learning sessions, including winter and summer institutes. Team Level participants earn an annual stipend. For more information, visit the How to Participate page.Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is Gaining Momentum in California
Contributor, Sandra Azevedo, Butte COE
“Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge.” -Audre Lord
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) had been gaining momentum in California prior to COVID-19. Since COVID-19, SEL has leaped to the forefront of many educational efforts as our lived experiences highlight the importance SEL plays in our daily lives with questions such as:
- How do we develop and maintain healthy relationships with distance learning?
- How do we have respectful conversations about politics, race, and other matters of social justice?
- How do we regulate and care for ourselves while simultaneously supporting our students’ well-being in the face of long-term stress and adversity?
According to the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL): SEL “is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions”. CASEL’s Framework, generally used in California, names five core competencies -- Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making.
CASEL’s definition and framework emphasize that SEL is not a program or curriculum but a lifelong process that occurs in various contexts. CASEL promotes systemic SEL through four focus areas to guide school transformation: 1) Plan to Build Awareness, Commitment, & Ownership, 2) Strengthen Adult Competencies and Capacity, 3) Promote SEL for Students, and 4) Practice Continuous Improvement.
The California Department of Education (CDE) adopted five guiding principles (PDF) to support Social and Emotional Learning in 2018. They include:
- Adopt Whole Child Development as the Goal of Education
- Commit to Equity
- Build Capacity
- Partner with Families and Communities
- Learn and Improve
In 2020, CASEL revised its SEL definition and framework to strengthen and amplify connections to equity.Transformative SEL, a term gaining in usage, emphasizes citizenship, culture, identity, agency, belonging, and engagement as important elements of the five core SEL competencies. It’s important that SEL work is grounded in a larger context of equity and cultural responsiveness. In an article titled, Why We Can’t Afford Whitewashed Social and Emotional Learning, Dena Simmons notes: “…. educators often teach SEL absent of the larger sociopolitical context, which is fraught with injustice and inequity and affects our students' lives.
CDE continues to advance SEL in California through multiple efforts. They have just released Transformative Social and Emotional Learning TSEL Competencies and Conditions. They have also collected and vetted SEL tools and resources in an online searchable database that can be found here. This offering is an evolution of Social and Emotional Learning in California, A Guide to Resources (PDF) that includes snapshots of 25 vetted SEL resources, websites, and toolkits.To stay connected to CDE’s SEL efforts subscribe to the SEL Newsletter by sending a "blank" message to join-sel-planning@mlist.cde.ca.gov . NorCal ELC maintains links to SEL resources in the project website Knowledge Center.
If… according to Turnaround for Children, “Relationships are the fuel for human development; they foster trust and belief, and are a buffer against stress”, then… “Connection is the foundational remedy for stress and adversity – and the precursor to learning”. And that is why, more than ever, the time for SEL is now.
NorCal Pro-Learning Survey
Help Us Identify Professional Learning Needs
Each year NorCal ELC is tasked with identifying educator professional learning needs within our northern California region. This information is used to adjust our local offerings and to report to 21CSLA and the California Department of Education. You can help us with this by responding to a brief survey.
Click Pro Learning Survey 2021(opens in new window) to take the survey.
NorCal ELC Webinar Series
We’re sponsoring a series of webinars that focus on increasing equity in education and social and emotional learning. The September live cast webinar with Bill Shively, Bill Rich, and Sandra Azevedo will be on September 21, 23, and 28.
You Told Us to Think Outside the Box: River Jim Canoeing, SEL & Improved Life Trajectories
With Bill Shively, Bill Rich, and Sandra Azevedo
- Tuesday, September 21, 3:30-5 PM (Pacific Time)
- Thursday, September 23, 3:30-5 PM (Pacific Time)
- Tuesday, September 28, 3:30-5:30 PM (Pacific Time)
Join North State educators Bill Shively, Bill Rich, and Sandra Azevedo for this three-part interactive presentation to learn how you can utilize innovation to leverage neuroscience, play theory, and social and emotional learning to support at-promise students and change life trajectories.
Register here(opens in new window) to attend this three-part webinar.
Listen to Learn: Authentic | Student Voice as a Powerful Learning Tool
With Holli Hanson & Chris Hoyos - Abeo School Change Pat Erwin - Principal, Lincoln HS, Tacoma Public Schools
- Wednesday, October 20, 3:30-5 PM (Pacific Time)
Archived Webinars
Earlier NorCal ELC webinars will soon be archived in the Knowledge Center on our website. They include:
Healing-Centered Teaching: Supporting Students and Self
With Dr. Jamie Gunderson and Dr. Rebecca Justeson of the CSU, Chico School of Education
This presentation focuses on helping you understand the influences of stress and trauma on learning and teaching, and identifying healing-centered teaching practices, as well as tools for supporting students in crisis. Educators prepare to face challenging educational contexts head-on by engaging in self-care, maintaining a focus on behaviors that enhance resilience, and exploring post-traumatic growth as a pathway to healing and mitigating long-term intergenerational impacts in communities affected by stress and trauma.
View recorded webinar here(opens in new window).
Give Kids the Whole Buffet: Reducing Barriers Using UDL
With Kendra Tyler of the Glenn County Office of Education
This interactive webinar is packed full of lesson planning and UDL take-away strategies to address barriers within curriculum, instruction, materials, and assessment. Receive support for using UDL guidelines and principles through a "buffet" of digital and non-digital tools so you can support ALL students as you activate engagement, action, expression, and representation, and create expert learners in our schools.
View recorded webinar here(opens in new window).
21CSLA State Center - Book Release
Leading the Launch: A Ten-Stage Process for Successful District Initiatives
By Kim Wallace; Released by Solution Tree(opens in new window) on September 3rd, 2021
Kim Wallace, Associate Director of the 21CSLA State Center has a new book out, Leading the Launch: A Ten-Stage Process for Successful District Initiatives. It contains a comprehensive, field-tested process for implementing new initiatives in schools and districts. This resource includes strategies, tools, case studies, action plans, and checklists to guide implementation. Kim has a 26-year career in education from high school teacher to superintendent to 21CSLA.