If you have water on your kitchen floor you should check the kitchen sink. If the power goes out, you should pull out a flashlight and go take a peek at the electric box. When your phone dies…you charge the battery.

But what if the problem is student behavior? The same logic applies. What is the source of the behavior? Is it a classroom management concern? Or something deeper? The source of conflict may be a skill that can be taught and improved upon.

That’s where an emphasis on SEL can be helpful and why schools are electing to embed those skills into their behavior rubrics.

What is SEL? 

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which students acquire and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes to understand and manage their emotions.

By understanding those emotions, they can set and achieve positive goals, build and maintain healthy relationships, and make responsible decisions. There are five core components of SEL:

• Self-awareness: The ability to understand one's own emotions, thoughts, and values.

• Self-management: The ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

• Social-awareness: The ability to understand the emotions and perspectives of others.

• Relationship skills: The ability to build and maintain healthy relationships.
• Responsible decision-making: The ability to make choices that are in one's own best interest and the best interest of others.

Now take a second to think about the behavioral issues in your school. It’s not hard to see how that behavior would improve if your students increased capacity in these areas. 

There are many different ways to teach SEL, including through social-emotional learning programs, classroom activities, and family-school partnerships. 

It can also be combined with other behavior programs like PBIS, trauma-informed care, restorative practices, as well as more traditional school discipline plans. PBIS points and SEL can be a great combination just as PBIS and school culture can be.

In fact, PBIS and SEL can both be featured within the same behavior rubric.

SEL Behavior Rubrics 

Your behavior rubric should be comprised of the qualities, actions, and traits that your school community values. If you choose to incorporate SEL into your rubric that means including the five components we listed above.

But your rubric must go a step further if you want results. You can’t simply put all of the important stuff on paper and plan on things getting better. You get what you reinforce. One great way to reinforce SEL skills is to include those components on your LiveSchool rubric.

LiveSchool allows educators to create a points tracking system that can be used to positively reinforce those critical skills.

Why Do Schools Use SEL? 

Schools utilize SEL for a number of reasons, including:

1. To improve academic achievement: 

This is because SEL skills help students to focus, manage their emotions, and build relationships with teachers and peers.

2. To reduce problem behaviors: 

SEL skills can also help to reduce problem behaviors such as bullying, aggression, and substance abuse. This is because SEL skills help students to resolve conflicts peacefully, manage their emotions, and make responsible decisions.

3. To create a positive school climate: 

SEL skills can help to create a positive school climate where students feel safe, respected, and supported. This is important for students' overall well-being and academic success.

4. To prepare students for life after school: 

SEL skills are essential for success in life after school. They help students to develop the skills they need to get along with others, solve problems, and make good decisions. All vital skills in the workplace.

How to Create Your SEL Behavior Rubric 

To include SEL in your behavior rubric you can take a few very simple steps. 

1. Start by identifying the SEL skills you want to assess

You can choose to include all five components if you’d like. But if you already have a rubric in place it might be wise to only include the skills you think are the most critical for your students. This will prevent your rubric from becoming too complicated and cumbersome. 

2. Plan lessons and activities that will help students develop the SEL skills

It’s not exactly fair to give points (or take them) from the students based on skills you haven’t taught. Set aside some time to incorporate the lessons necessary to build the skills you are targeting.

3. Use the rubric to reinforce those SEL skills

Once your rubric has been created or updated, it’s time to reinforce the skills you’ve identified. Think of this as “catch them doing something good”. 

When you see a student display competency with one of the skills, let them know. Praise them! Give them points if you choose to reinforce your rubric with LiveSchool.

4. Track students' progress over time 

Track your data. What’s going well? What isn’t? Now adjust or double down accordingly. 

SEL Rubric Examples 

There are multiple ways to include SEL into your behavior rubric. Let’s take a look at a few excellent examples:

1. The FCA Way

Freedom Crossing Academy successfully implemented a school wide social-emotional learning program by embedding SEL skills within their school’s PBIS behavior rubric. For SEL, Freedom Crossing follows the Capturing Kids Heart model and serves as a national model school.

The school’s mission is “Falcons Take F.L.I.G.H.T.” and they have included these six characteristics into their behavior rubric. FLIGHT stands for Focus, Leadership, Imagination, Grit, Heart, and Team. When a student exhibits one of these characteristics, the school reinforces it by awarding points.

School Administration believes that alignment is key to a successful school-wide implementation which is why everything they do goes back to what’s on their rubric -their behavior expectations, school mission, and vision.

2. Self Management at Crystal Lake

The behavior rubric at Crystal Lake focuses on Student Excellence & Self Management and includes a list of rubric items for which students can earn or lose points. 

What’s great about this rubric is its specificity: students know exactly what’s expected of them in all locations and at all times, teachers know exactly what they can and should give points for, and it’s easy to report on growth and performance for each expectation.

3. Portrait of a Northgate Graduate

Northgate Middle School utilizes the 3 Rs to develop a PBIS matrix that supports trauma-informed teaching: Respectful, Responsible, and Ready.

They have also included the portrait of a graduate into their rubric. A portrait of a graduate is a document or statement that outlines the qualities, skills, and characteristics that a school or institution hopes to instill in its graduates. It provides a clear vision of what it means to be a successful alumni from that institution.

The Portrait of a Graduate is unique to each institution. For Northgate, it includes many traits that are consistent with the 5 SEL components:

By building it into their behavior rubric, students are reminded to live the values daily, and the staff is reminded to notice and redirect toward them.

Building a Positive Culture With SEL Behavior Rubrics

Positive School Culture is an idea that is tough to define and easy to imagine. It’s tough to communicate because every school has its own uniqueness due to staff, students, geography, and even architecturally different aspects. 

By building on the five components of SEL, schools can help build more positive relationships within their buildings. On that same note, districts that invest in SEL can create more positive relationships throughout their entire school community. 

If you would like to explore more about how schools and districts can combine concepts like PBIS and SEL head over to Spotify and listen to Dedeeh Newbern, Fayette County Public Schools Director of Student Support, on Episode 25 of The LiveSchool Podcast.