Archives: social skills

Thinking back on all of the students I have taught over the years, I can easily identify students who I considered easy to teach. Would I say that these students were my most academically successful? Probably not. But they had a firm understanding of the social skills they need to help them succeed in school. They knew how and when to ask the right questions when they were in need of help. They understood and followed the protocol of the classroom.

Students who are socially competent are more likely to succeed in school while students with social deficits are more likely to experience failure with peers, adults, and their academic studies. Dr. Melissa Miller, assistant professor of special education at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, refers to these types of social skills as the hidden curriculum of schools. While we explicitly talk about the academic curriculum, we often assume that students should enter our classroom already possessing the social skills needed to be successful. So we often don’t talk about those skills. In recent years, Dr. Miller has been researching the explicit inclusion of social skills instruction within traditional academic instruction.

Embedded social skills instruction

Studies have shown that classroom teachers are often hesitant to devote class time to the development of social skills. With the increase of demands on classroom time and raised stakes of accountability measures, this idea of protecting classroom time for academic instruction is understandable. However, this pushes social skills instruction into pull-out programs that have been shown to provide minimal impact on the students’ ability to generalize and employ the learned social skills. Many researchers have now identified that the key for students, especially those students with social deficits, to learn the social skills needed to be successful in school comes in the form of embedding social skills instruction within academic curriculum. Dr. Miller and her research associates developed a list of 20 research-proven strategies for embedding social skill instruction in the classroom.

1. Identify skill deficit vs. performance deficit.
2. Monitor behavior
3. Select and prioritize replacement skills.
4. Conduct reinforcement surveys.
5. Develop a plan with your students.
6. Engage in daily morning meeting activities. (E.g. greet, share, activity, news and announcements).
7. Take advantage of teachable moments.
8. Teach social skills the same way you teach academics.
9. Connect social behaviors to academic skills.
10. Teach social skills in context.
11. Role play.
12. Provide both examples and non-examples.
13. Use self-monitoring.
14. Provide reinforcements.
15. Provide prompts and cues.
16. Provide feedback.
17. Involve other members of the school faculty.
18. Involve parents.
19. Evaluate.
20. Involve all students.

Dr. Miller’s research

One of Dr. Miller’s recent studies was focused on the inclusion of social skills instruction during guided reading instruction in third-grade classrooms. In collaboration with the teachers, the researchers identified on-task behavior as the target behavior and defined it as having hands on assignment-related materials, remaining in assigned areas, having eyes on assignment or the person talking, limiting conversations to assignment-related topics, and asking for help using appropriate prompts. The social skill instruction was delivered during the last ten minutes of small-group guided reading instruction.

Students were given “score sheets” to help them self-monitor their own behavior. During the social skills instruction, the skill was introduced, modeled, and then practiced by the student with feedback from the instructor. At the end of the day, the “score sheets” were reviewed and the students’ performance was reinforced. Through this instruction and reinforcement, the students demonstrated more on-task behavior both in the classroom as well as in other locations at the school.

So what?

The behavior of students with social deficits impacts not only their own learning, it often impacts the learning of their peers. The inclusion of explicit social skills instruction does not have to be a labor- and time-intensive investment to generate behavioral improvements. The most meaningful way to teach social skills is within the content you are already teaching. Including social skill instruction is a small thing that all classroom teachers can do that will have a long-lasting impact on our students’ educational trajectory.

Dr. Miller’s tips

Data is anything that tells you how your students are progressing

Data comes in many shapes and sizes, from the descriptive data we might share with a parent about how their child behaved in class today to statistical data that is generated through end-of-course testing. As teachers, whether we acknowledge it or not, we thrive on data. We constantly collect data about how our students are progressing as we review our grade books or monitor conversations around the classroom.

Know your students

It is no shock to a teacher that no two students are exactly alike. But with growing class sizes and increased testing, our students are often asked to fit in a predetermined mold. As classroom teachers, it’s important to get to know our individual students to better understand who they are, what kind of prior knowledge they are bringing with them, and what kind of learners they are.

Know your own instructional and learning style. Then find balance

Teachers are notorious for defaulting to their own learning style while teaching. Just as all of our students are unique, they also learn in different ways. It is important to remain vigilant over how much we rely on our own learning style and make conscious efforts to incorporate and promote other learning styles.

Researcher bio

Dr. Melissa Miller’s research focuses on the prevention and remediation of academic difficulties for students with learning and behavior problems. Her most recent research investigated the ways in which teachers differentiate reading instruction and establish classroom management structures to promote reading development.

A full biography can be found at the School of Education website.

Ask Dr. Miller

Dr. Miller will be presenting at LEARN NC’s fall conference on Nov. 7. Her 1:00 session is entitled, “Improving Teachers’ Preparation to Address the Needs of North Carolina’s Diverse Student Population.” As with all sessions in the fall conference, time is built in to the session for teachers to ask questions. The conference is free and entirely online.