Students Taking Action Together: 5 Teaching Techniques to Cultivate Sel, Civic Engagement, and a Healthy Democracy

A field-tested, classroom-based approach for developing the critical thinking, social-emotional, problem-solving, and discussion skills students need to be good citizens and effective changemakers.

We often hear that a key purpose of schooling is to prepare students for informed and active citizenship. But what does this look like in practice? How do teachers pursue this goal amid other pressing priorities, including student mastery of both academic content and social-emotional competencies? Students Taking Action Together, based on a program of the same name developed at Rutgers University, clarifies that the way to prepare young people for life in a democracy is by intentionally rehearsing democratic behaviors in the classroom.

This field-tested program (STAT for short) is built on five research-backed teaching strategies that work with existing social studies, English language arts, and history curriculum in the upper-elementary, middle, and high school levels. Incorporating these strategies into your lessons is a way to meet students' natural desire to be heard with skill-building that empowers them to

* Adhere to norms of civil conversation, even when topics are controversial and emotions are high;
* Speak confidently and listen actively;
* Engage in respectful debate aimed at understanding issues rather than winning points;
* Target communication to different audiences, needs, and contexts; and
* Examine problems from many sides, considering potential solutions, drawing up action plans, and evaluating these plans' effectiveness against historical examples.

In addition to vignettes that show the five STAT strategies in action, you'll find practical teaching tips and sample STAT lesson plans. For school leaders, there is a road map for schoolwide STAT implementation and guidance on communicating the program's value to stakeholders.

Are you ready to help students understand complex content, confront pressing social issues, and engage with the structures of power to advocate for change? This book is for you.

Lauren M. Fullmer is a 5th grade teacher, an instructor for the Academy for Social-Emotional Learning in Schools, an adjunct professor at St. Elizabeth University and Dayton University, and a consulting field expert for the Rutgers Social-Emotional Character Development (SECD) Lab. Her primary research focuses on trauma-informed practices to meet the needs of at-risk learners in the K-12 classroom and on integrating social-emotional learning and social justice practices into content-area instruction.

Laura F. Bond is a K-5 curriculum supervisor who has served as a high school and elementary school assistant principal. She taught secondary social studies for 19 years. A member of the executive board of New Jersey ASCD, she is passionate about whole child education and disrupting the hidden curriculum in schools and classrooms through equity-driven social-emotional learning and inclusivity measures.

Crystal N. Molyneaux is a New Jersey-certified school psychologist who counsels students in group and individual settings to assist in self-awareness, self-efficacy, and self-management in hostile or adverse situations. She works in the Rutgers Social-Emotional Character Development (SECD) Lab on the Students Taking Action Together (STAT) project and is passionate about SEL, restorative justice, empowering women and girls, decreasing systemic racism and oppression, amplifying student voice, and creating and maintaining student support systems while also using evidenced-based methods to build confidence.

Samuel J. Nayman is a postdoctoral fellow in clinical child/pediatric psychology at the Mayo Clinic. A graduate of Rutgers University's clinical psychology doctoral program and Yale School of Medicine's doctoral internship in clinical and community psychology, he served as project director at the Rutgers Social-Emotional Character Development (SECD) Lab and has designed and consulted on school-based SECD programs. He has published a number of articles and a book chapter on the topic.

Maurice J. Elias is a professor in the psychology department of Rutgers University, the director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Character Development (SECD) Lab, and a codirector of the Rutgers-based Academy for SEL in Schools, which offers online certificates in social-emotional learning instruction and school leadership. The recipient of multiple awards for SEL and character education scholarship, he has published extensively on these topics and currently writes a blog on social-emotional and character development for Edutopia.