School-Connect®: Optimizing the High School Experience is best implemented 2 – 5 days a week within a classroom setting. Lessons should be presented so that teachers and students can discuss homework assignments and their experiences in applying skills learned in the program to real life situations. Teachers presenting the lessons should be comfortable with the concepts and strategies they will impart to students. Ideal presenters possess and apply many of these skills in their own life and see personal development as an on-going, life-long process—one that is both rewarding and enriching. Presenters, therefore, should be willing to work on skills they need to improve in themselves. This requires a certain amount of openness, humility, and humor on the part of teachers as they share the ups and downs of becoming socially and emotionally literate. Administrators should select presenters on this basis, rather than on what teachers are available to teach the course. As long as a school meets these conditions for dosage and presenters, the program can find a “home” in different types of courses.


Freshman Seminar

Ideally, School-Connect, Modules 1-4 is implemented in a one-semester, stand-alone course for entering ninth grade students. The curriculum helps freshmen transition from a middle school setting, prepare for the increased academic rigor of high school, and meet the social and emotional challenges they may encounter over the ensuing four years. The Smaller Learning Communities model promoted by the U.S. Department of Education and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation calls for such a course.

Schools with freshmen seminars often assign teachers to the course who are experienced in the type of teaching strategies and skills training found in School-Connect. By teaching three to five seminar periods a day, teachers quickly hone their delivery to meet the goals of the program and are able to use their prep periods to become more familiar with curriculum strategies, content, and resources. In providing a freshmen seminar with trained teachers for all incoming ninth grade students, the school makes it clear that developing students both personally and academically is important. It also underscores the school’s belief that students are more likely to succeed academically when they are in a caring and supportive learning community.


English

An equally good option is integrating School-Connect lessons into ninth grade English classes. The curriculum provides Literature Links and Writing Windows in the Lesson Extensions section of each lesson. A Literature Link is a book chapter, short story, or poem that ties in with the S-C lesson theme. A Writing Window provides opportunities for reflection, often as a follow up to the Literature Link. For example, in Module 1 teachers have the option of assigning The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and having students write an autobiographical journal of reflections about the community in which they live. Literature Links use reading selections that are commonly assigned in ninth grade English courses; many Literature Links are based on selections from widely used ninth grade English textbooks.

Literature Links were inspired by Amy Corvino, a pilot teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (Greenbelt, MD) who saw her students “come alive” when S-C lessons were integrated with reading assignments. Initially, she thought that the S-C lessons might create more time pressure; instead she found that students connected to the readings in a new way and “flew through” the novels, plays, and short stories because of the added relevance to their lives. Click here to find out more about how Ms. Corvino integrated School-Connect in her ninth grade English course.


Health

Health courses provide another natural fit for School-Connect. Lessons address many if not most of district health standards and provide valuable skill practice that health textbooks often lack, e.g., active listening, interpersonal problem solving, and refusal and persuasion skills. By addressing the underlying beliefs, thinking patterns, and emotions that affect students’ decisions and behavior, the curriculum brings added relevance to health-related content. Maya Yamada, a pilot teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD, used videotapes of her teaching a School-Connect lesson in health as a key part of her successful application for National Board Certification, a coveted award for excellence in teaching. Click here to find out more about how Ms. Yamada integrated School-Connect in a Health class.

Advisory

On face value, advisory seems like an ideal place to implement a program like School-Connect. Advisories usually involve most of the teaching staff, which helps to create a sense of community, and offer low teacher-student ratios, which helps staff and students get to know each other on a more personal level. However, because advisory teachers come from different academic disciplines and have varied levels of experience in facilitating student discussions and in leading active learning exercises such as role-plays, they usually need more training and support. Advisory teachers benefit greatly from on-going implementation support from a program coordinator who functions as a master teacher. Through careful planning and commitment to the goals and values of the advisory model, schools can meet the conditions for successful implementation.

Other Settings

Alternative settings include special education classes and courses in leadership, JROTC, student government, and psychology. It is important to keep in mind that School-Connect is most effective when:

The earlier students receive the program, the greater impact it will have on their high school experience.

While School-Connect is primarily designed for classroom use, youth group leaders, resource teachers, and counselors can adapt the lessons and program strategies for use with small groups and individuals. Many of the strategies were originally conceived and tested as interventions with small groups and individuals and in non-academic settings.