Enhancing Peer Relationships through Morning Meeting Implementation

1. How can the implementation of Morning Meeting build and enhance peer relationships? Stephanie Miller

2. Background • Pinnacle School #35 • 18 5th graders (10 girls, 8 boys) • “I feel like some people in this class aren’t being very nice” –Anonymous student • Formation of cliques • Feelings of exclusion

3. Literature Review Sociocultural Theory – Vygotsky: Based upon the idea that a learner's environment plays a pivotal role in his/her learning development. • According to the sociocultural perspective of human development (Vygotsky, 1978), an individual’s interpersonal perceptions are affected by the social context in which he or she is embedded.

4. Literature Review Cliques: • Cliques are subgroups of children who selectively and frequently affiliate with one another. • Involvement in a clique affects an individual’s functioning in many areas, including social, academic, and behavioral functioning. • When individuals identify themselves as a member of a group, they tend to show favoritism toward their in-group members and regard those in-group members to be similar to themselves. • Children engage in more positive social interactions (e.g., cooperation, talking, positive affect) with their friends than with their non-friends. • Children tend to affiliate with peers who are similar to themselves in demographic, social, and behavioral characteristics. Thus, it is likely that children’s peer perceptions of similarities drive their clique affiliations.

5. Literature Review Connectedness and Belonging: • Students who feel connected to school report that they like school, feel they belong, have friends at school, and believe their teachers care about them and their learning. • Students who experience acceptance are more highly motivated and engaged in learning and more committed to school. • Being accepted, included, or welcomed leads to positive emotions, such as happiness, elation, contentment, and calm. • Being rejected, excluded, or ignored leads to often intense negative feelings of anxiety, depression, grief, jealousy, and loneliness.

6. Literature Review

7. Literature Review Research indicates that educators who establish firm boundaries, foster warm personal relationships in the classroom, and enable students to have an impact on their environment strengthen students’ attachment to their school, their interest in learning, their ability to refrain from self-destructive behaviors, and engage in positive behaviors.

8. Literature Review What is Morning Meeting? • A dedicated amount of time (approx. 20 mins.) each morning. • A way to start the day with positive academic and social-emotional learning. • An engaging way to start each day, build a strong sense of community, and set students up for success socially and academically. • Four parts: greeting, sharing, group activity, morning message

9. Literature Review Morning Meeting benefits for older students: • Helps to create and extend connections among all members of the classroom community. • Allows pre-adolescent students do what they most want and need to do: interact with their peers. • Older students long to be part of the group, but they are often not quite sure how to join together in a way that doesn’t exclude others. • Helps students within the classroom community get to know each other better. • Helps to build cultural knowledge and appreciation.

10. Action Plan Step 1: Introduce Morning Meeting Step 2: Establish Expectations for Morning Meeting Step 3: Implement Morning Meeting in daily routine Step 4: Collect data for three weeks (observations, survey, interviews)

11. Methods • Time frame: Approximately 15 minutes (depending on activity), immediately following specials • Components: greeting, group activity, brief discussion of agenda for the rest of the day • Focus: activities in which students interact with the whole group, many different classmates, and/or students they don’t typically interact with

12. Methods • Establish expectations – to make our Morning Meeting respectful, safe and fun, what guidelines do we need to follow?

13. Methods Some of our Favorite Greetings: • ball-toss greeting • silent greeting • elbow-shake greeting • different languages greeting • snowball greeting • number groups greeting

14. Methods Group Activities: • Nonverbal birthday lineup • Common groups • Buzz • 2 truths and a fib • Weekend plans • Hot and cold • 4 C’s • Famous pairs • ABC story • 21 questions • Marshmallow/spaghetti tower • Find a friend bingo • ABC categories • Math expression pairs • Switch sides

15. Data Collection • Journal: what we did during Morning Meeting, details of what happened and how it went, my personal reflections, observations both during Morning Meeting and throughout the day, other notes. • Pre and Post Student Survey: statements related to student attitudes towards themselves, others and school.

16. Results Pre-Morning Meeting data:

17. Results Post-Morning Meeting data:

18. Analysis of Data • Increase in students’ knowledge about one another. • Increased feelings of comfort among classmates. • Increased feelings of belonging. • Increased feelings of respect. • Increase in willingness to work in a group or team.

19. Limitations • Second half of the year • Time frame • More quantitative data (frequency of interactions between students, frequency of inclusion and exclusion outside of Morning Meeting)

20. Reflection • Morning Meeting is an effective tool to promote positive social relationships in the classroom. • Classroom community and environment improved due to the presence of Morning Meeting in the classroom.

21. Next Step • I recommend the continuation of Morning Meeting. • I will implement Morning Meeting in my own classroom.

22. References • Allen-Hughes, L. (2013). The Social Benefits of the Morning Meeting: Creating a Space for Social and Character Education in the Classroom. Online Submission. • Kriete, R., & Bechtel, L. (2002). The morning meeting book. Northeast Foundation for Ch. • Kriete, R., & Bechtel, L. (2006). Morning meeting. Elias, M., & Arnold, H. The educator‟ s guide to emotional intelligence and academic achievement, 109-118. • Kwon, K., Lease, A. M., & Hoffman, L. (2012). The Impact of Clique Membership on Children's Social Behavior and Status Nominations. Social Development, 21(1), 150-169. • Sari, M. (2012). SENSE OF SCHOOL BELONGING AMONG ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS. Cukurova University Faculty Of Education Journal, 41(1), 1-11. • http://sguditus.blogspot.com/2013/02/maslows-hierarchy-of-school-needs-steve.html