Pic 1: The titlecard “Supporting Your Students” is displayed.
Pic 2: The title fades and is replaced with Ms. Abbie standing in front of a blank whiteboard.
Building a positive classroom helps you get to know your students. Knowing your students helps you understand their behavior and spot any changes.
Pic 3: Two speech bubbles, one with a question mark, appear on the whiteboard next to Ms. Abbie.
But, what should you do when you notice behavior or changes that concern you? How big should the concern be before you talk to a student? When you do talk to them, what should you say? These are all questions we ask ourselves.
Pic 4: The text “Navigating Concerns” appears above the speech bubbles with a hazard symbol.
Here’s how you can navigate concerns:
The earlier we’re able to address a students’ challenges, the more we can do to support them before things escalate. Not every student who needs help asks for it.
Pic 5: The speech bubbles are replaced with the word “Approach.”
Sometimes we need to be proactive and approach the student early. That’s not to say we need to sound the alarm for every little thing, just make it a regular habit to check in, and give them the space to share what’s going on.
Pic 6: The word “Identify” appears above “Approach.”
This gives you the chance to Identify students who may need support. Signs of distress can manifest in several ways, depending on the student, their age and grade.
Pic 7: The text on the whiteboard fades away and is replaced with the title “Warning Signs” with an orange hazard symbol.
Anything considered a change in student behavior, or a behavior that’s extreme, could be a sign of things like anxiety, depression, or something stressful happening in their lives.
Here are some common warning signs you may notice. Take a moment to reflect and think about if you’ve encountered any of these signs in students before:
For lower high school (9 to 10) students, warning signs can be:
For upper high school (11 to 12) students, warning signs can be:
Pic 8: The screen returns to Ms. Abbie standing in front of a blank whiteboard.
Some things happening behind the scenes could call for a check in as well. If a student shares any of this information with you, it might be a good idea to check in with them, and loop in the school counselor, too:
Pic 9: The screen transitions to an image titled “Risk Factors” with a red hazard symbol.
Here are some common risk factors you may observe. Take a moment to reflect and think about if you’ve encountered any of these signs in students before:
For lower high school (9 to 10) students, risk factors can be:
For upper high school (11 to 12) students, risk factors can be:
Pic 10: The screen fades and is replaced again by the image of Ms. Abbie standing in front of a whiteboard. The whiteboard has the title “Navigating Concerns” with a hazard symbol and the text “Identify” and “Approach” underneath.
Once you’ve noticed any concerning changes, the next step is to decide whether to Approach the student to learn more about what’s causing it.
Pic 11: The text fades away and is replaced with the title “Approach” with a set of speech bubbles. Underneath it is a list with the text “Talk to them,” “Build trust,” and “Support them.”
When in doubt, it’s usually the safer choice to talk to them.
If the warning signs turn out to be something small, then you’ve shown the student that you care and built more trust with them.
If it’s something larger, you can help support them. If you feel the conversation could take a serious turn, or if you’re not comfortable, ask a school counselor or administrator to join you.
Pic 12: The text fades away and is replaced with the underlined words “Observable Behaviors,” “Open-ended Questions,” and “Reflections.”
During these steps, you can use techniques to help the student open up. Let’s talk about:
Observable Behaviors, Open-ended questions, and Reflections.
These are things that you may have noticed during the “Identify” step and can bring up as you “Approach” the student.
Sometimes it’s hard to bring up things you’ve noticed without students arguing or feeling defensive.
Pic 13: The text is replaced with the underlined title “Observable Behaviors.” Below are two check marks, “Stick to the facts” and “Avoid judgments or exaggerations.”
Defensive reactions can be minimized by sticking to the facts: mention your specific observations of their behavior without judgment or exaggeration.
Here are some things to keep in mind when mentioning Observable Behaviors:
Pic 14: The image fades and is replaced by a slide titled “Observable Behaviors” with the subtitle “Be specific.” Both are underneath an image of a frame being minimized by arrows.
State the exact behavior you noticed and only mention what is objectively true.
Pic 15: The next slide is subtitled “Stay grounded.”
Separate the student from the behavior. This will help you feel calm and open-minded in the situation.
Pic 16: The next slide is subtitled “Stay Neutral” with an emoticon with a neutral face.
Use neutral language without any judgment.
Pic 17: The next slide is subtitled “Use ‘I’ statements” with an image of an eye looking four directions.
Focus on your perception of the behavior.
Pic 18: The screen fades to a slide with the title “Observable Behaviors.” The text asks, “Is this an example of Observable Behavior?” and provides an example sentence underneath. The example sentence reads “I noticed you had your head down for a lot of class today.”
Feedback: Yes, this is an example of Observable Behavior because it is specific about the perceived behavior and uses non-judgmental language. It’s also an “I” statement, which softens it. And it doesn’t exaggerate about how much class they spent with their head down.
Pic 19: The next slide provides another example sentence, “You always put your head down.”
Feedback: This isn’t an Observable Behavior. “You always put your head down” is an exaggeration and could provoke defensiveness.
Pic 20: The next slide’s example sentence is “You weren’t paying attention when you had your head down in class.”
Feedback: This isn’t an Observable Behavior. “You weren’t paying attention when you had your head down in class” is not an example of a neutral observation and could provoke defensiveness.
Pic 21: The screen returns to the image of Ms. Abbie in front of a whiteboard which has the underlined text “Observable Behaviors,” “Open-ended Questions,” and “Reflections” written on it. This text fades and is replaced with the underlined title “Open-ended Questions.” Underneath is the check marked text “Help students share more.”
The right questions can help a student open up and feel comfortable sharing with you. Open-Ended questions, which don’t have a one-word answer, usually help students share more.
Here are some examples of what is and is not an Open-ended Question.
Pic 22: The screen fades to a slide with the title “Open-ended questions.” The text asks “Is this an example of Open-ended Questions?” and provides the example sentence “Does that make you sad?” underneath.
Feedback: This is an example of a closed question. This question gives the student an easy way out by saying “yes” or “no.” It doesn’t encourage them to share more. It also limits discussion to one emotion, sadness, when they might be feeling other things.
Pic 23: The next slide’s example sentence is “What’s happening at home?”
Feedback: This is an example of an open-ended question. It opens up the conversation and gives the student a chance to share anything that might be relevant.
Pic 24: The next slide’s example sentence is “Tell me more about that feeling.”
Feedback: Yes, this is an open-ended question. Not all open-ended questions have to be actual questions. The goal is to have the student share more.
Pic 25: The screen returns to Ms. Abbie standing in front of a whiteboard with the title “Open-ended Questions” written on it. “Adjust as needed” and “Show them you want to listen” are checkmarks underneath.
Asking closed questions may feel like it’s saving time, but a lot of times you end up needing multiple closed questions to find the information you’d get from a single open-ended question.
You also have to accept that sometimes students just don’t want to share, no matter how good your questions are. All we can do is show them we want to listen and invite them to open up.
Pic 26: The text fades away and is replaced by the title “Reflections” and the checkmarks “Listen Carefully” and “Paraphrase.”
Reflections involve careful attention to what the student is saying and choosing specific parts of it to paraphrase back. Whatever you reflect, the student is likely to expand on. For example:
Pic 27: The screen fades and is replaced with the image of a child and a teacher sitting in chairs, talking, with the title “Reflections.” The student’s speech bubble reads “After my grandma died, people said they cared about me, but now everyone’s forgotten. I wonder if people actually care at all.”
Pic 28: The teacher responds, “You still really miss your grandma.”
Pic 29: The student replies, “Yeah. Like, when I get good news I want to call her to tell her, and then I remember I can’t. I just miss her a lot and I don’t know how to feel better about it.”
Pic 30: The screen fades and returns to Ms. Abbie, standing in front of a whiteboard. The whiteboard has “Reflections” written on it with the image of two word bubbles. The text underneath reads “Focus on what the student is saying.”
Reflections are at their most powerful when they focus on what a student is saying and encourage them to talk about it.
It’s in these moments that we make sure to give students time to process in the moment.
It may feel uncomfortable to sit in silence for a moment or two, but it’s so important to offer students the space to think through their feelings.
Pic 31: The text fades and the underlined title “Steps” appears with “Approach” and “Identify” underneath on the whiteboard. A second underlined title, “Techniques,” appears with the text “Observable Behaviors,” “Open-ended Behaviors,” and “Reflections” underneath.
We’re going to have a conversation using the steps and techniques we just talked about with a student of mine, Jake.
Pic 32: The text fades away and the word “Identify” appears.
The first step is to Identify, which we can do together now.
Here are some behaviors I noticed over the last week or so.
Pic 33: A young student, Jake, stands next to a list of his recent behaviors:
These are all examples of “observable behaviors” and changes that could be cause for concern.
Pic 34: The screen fades and is replaced by an image of Ms. Abbie with the text “Identity” on the whiteboard next to her.
Erring on the side of caution leads to early detection of any problems before they bubble up.
Give your students some choice. Ask if they have any ideas of strategies they might like to use.
Let’s sit down with Jake now.
Pic 35: The underlined title “Techniques” appears with a list which includes “Observable Behaviors,” “Open-ended Questions,” and “Reflections.”
Don’t forget to use Observable Behaviors to bring up a behavior, Open-Ended Questions to encourage the student to share, and Reflections to show you’re listening.
You can alternate these techniques as needed to build trust and encourage Jake to share.
In this interactive conversation, you can explore good and (pauses) not-so-good options and see what happens.