A Look at Strength-Based Tier 2 Interventions

Supervising student groups for anger or stress management or related behavior problems can have mixed results. Participating students often feel stigmatized or resentful. Consider the situation from their perspective. A lot of time is spent “fixing” kids but not enough time inspiring them.

In our social and emotional and character development work, we’ve learned that inspiration must precede remediation. Skills we want to build are best built up in a positive climate of contribution and purpose.

Rather than frame Tier 2 interventions (whether behavioral or academic) in a remediation, deficit-focused context, connect the service to strength-based action and positive inspiration. Below are three examples, with some helpful resources.

Newspaper Club

Take a group of middle or high school students with behavioral issues, who otherwise would be referred to a “clinical” group, and tell them that they are going to form a newspaper club. They’re going to go out and report on the “real story” of what’s happening in the school. But before they can do that, they need to be prepared.

Ask them, “What are some different roles that people have in making a newspaper? What skills do these people need?” In the resulting conversation, students generate all the skills that would be taught in a remediating context (e.g., listening, clear communication, responsibility about making and keeping appointments, confidence, problem-solving, being assertive, not aggressive). Now, though, students are incentivized to learn these skills because they will lead to some positive action. Students become inspired, rather than deflated.

Groups like this run in the same time frame as a clinical group would run—one class period per week, for six to 10 weeks. Students are expected to do some group-related work in between meetings.

The first two to three sessions focus on skill building; the next two to four are devoted to gathering stories and discussing the experiences with the group; and in the final two to three sessions, the selected stories are edited and shared. Throughout all these stages, the group leader has ample opportunities to give students feedback on their social and emotional learning skills and guidance toward how to improve them.

Student Leadership Group

A variation on the Newspaper Club is forming Student Empowerment and Leadership Groups that provide opportunities for community service for students who are disconnected from school and are seen in a negative light by their peers because of misbehavior.

This approach has been used primarily with girls, who are approached individually and invited to join the group, being told that they were chosen because of their leadership potential. By emphasizing the potential of the girls, as well as the value of their decisions and goals, these groups promote self-confidence and self-awareness.

Ideally, the students referred to and invited into the group are of various backgrounds and dispositions (e.g., all of the girls invited shouldn’t have problems with aggression). The group-initiated community service projects derive from discussions around important school-related and/or community- or global-related problem(s) perceived by the students. The group then brainstorms the most effective way of addressing the problem(s), and with the group leaders’ guidance, they set out a plan for carrying out the project.

Initially, students are asked about the skills they need to work together on a community service project of some kind. They generate a list similar to that of the Newspaper Club, skills that would be covered in a remediation-oriented group.

Typically, the group begins with teamwork skills and establishing norms and trust. Problem-solving and decision-making skills are introduced and mobilized with the problem of determining their group community service project. In many cases, schools and communities will have authentic options from which students can choose, such as assisting in a fund-raiser, creating an information booth, setting up buddy/tutoring connections, helping the disadvantaged, or working with local environmental groups. Goal-setting and planning come into play, along with emotion management.

As they move closer to implementing something in the community, skills of assertiveness and communication are emphasized. Regularly keeping reflection journals allows students to better see their progress, raise questions, and make suggestions to improve the process.

These groups typically run for eight to 12 weeks or for 16 to 24 weeks. In the former case, four to five weeks are spent in skill-building and the rest in planning and carrying out the community project. In the latter instance, the first eight to 12 weeks are skills-focused, and the remainder is devoted to planning, implementing, and debriefing about the community project.

Video Critique Club

A related approach, especially effective with students who are uncooperative, oppositional, or antisocial, is the Video Critique Club. Here, public service announcements and related prosocial videos are shown with the expectation that they will be criticized. Then, the group is challenged to make a better video with the same prosocial message (e.g., anti-bullying; dangers of gangs; cautions about smoking, vaping, alcohol- and drug-impaired driving).

The Outline of a Social Problem-Solving Approach to Analyzing Commercials and Ads is used to unpack the PSAs. The Outline of the Video Critique Club, on that same site, guides the wider analytic and improvement process.

While these ideas are ready for your use, please don’t lose the major point: Converting remediation sessions into strength-based, positive, inspiring contexts will enhance students’ engagement, cooperation, and learning. Take on the challenge, and you won’t be disappointed!