Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, uses a variety of activities in the weekly, 90-minute Habits, Community, and Culture (HCC) class, where students learn Habits of Success and develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The school has developed an HCC curriculum for grades nine through 12 and hired two full-time teachers for HCC, but Summit’s academic teachers also use some of these activities to build SEL skills and deepen their relationships with their students. Cady Ching, a biology and AP environmental science teacher at Summit, incorporates opening activities into all of her classes: “In my freshman classes, we do them every class period.”
Here are some of the opening, group sharing, and closing activities that teachers use at Summit:
1. Mindfulness: The benefits of mindfulness range from improved working memory to stress reduction. Here are two ways Aukeem Ballard, an HCC teacher, facilitates mindfulness:
2. Name the emotion you’re bringing to class: Have each student call out the emotion they’re feeling. This helps each student know how they and other students are feeling, what different emotions look like, and how to better interact with their peers based on how they’re feeling.
3. Write down, rip up, and throw away your stress: Have your students write down their expectations and insecurities, rip them up, and throw them away. This emotional check-in takes about three minutes. By acknowledging how your students are feeling at the start of each class, you’ll acknowledge their barriers to learning and create a safe space for your students to overcome them.
4. Growth mindset vs. fixed mindset share-out: Have your students share moments when they have demonstrated a growth and fixed mindset.
5. Quote of the day: Introduce a quote relevant to what your students are learning or to a shared experience—for example, an act of violence in the community. You can facilitate a whole-class discussion, group students into pairs, or have each student share a one-word response to the quote. This gives students the space to reflect on their beliefs and experiences and whether they agree or disagree with the quote and other students’ opinions, and it gives them insight into their peers’ perspectives and feelings.
6. Where we came from: Collect baby pictures from your students. Project one baby picture at the start of class, have your students guess who it is, and then have the featured student share something about their childhood.
7. Starting positive: Have each student tape a sheet of paper to their back and then walk around and write positive qualities about their peers on their backs.
8. Motivational moment: Have two students start the class with a three- to five-minute presentation—and come up with two or three discussion questions—based on their interests. The presentation must be related to the course content in a real-world context. “Many students include a video for visuals and increased engagement, but it’s optional,” says Ching. Have the rest of the class partner up to discuss their questions for one minute and then give them the opportunity to share out to the whole class. This exercise gives your students insight into their peers’ interests.
