Advisory Programs
By Tara Flippo, Youth Programs Director
The Browne Center is excited to see our new book Social Emotional Learning in Action being implemented as an advisory curriculum. Because of this application, I have been seeking out resources on advisories for middle schoolers. What are schools doing, frequency & duration of meetings, and resources to help educators plan for meetings/classes?
One resource is from Responsive Classroom:
An Advisory program is a critical component of the middle school concept, supporting students’ academic and social-emotional growth. The overarching objective of an Advisory program is to support students in building positive, meaningful relationships with one or more caring adults at school and a small group of peers. Additional objectives include:
- Empowering students to create relevant connections to the school at large and to students who share similar interests (sports teams, clubs, and so on)
- Strengthening the community of learners
- Improving academic performance by helping students develop an academic mindset
- Communicating about the life of the school
In addition to these overarching objectives, a school, teacher team, or individual teacher may have specific purposes they hope to achieve through Advisory. These specific purposes might include providing extra practice in academics, working on a schoolwide service project, addressing a schoolwide climate issue such as bullying, and more. Over the course of the year, depending on what’s going on at school or in the wider community, these purposes may change.
It is important for an educator and school administrator clarify the purpose of advisory in your school to pair the right resources/curriculum with your needs. Responsive Classroom suggests seven different reasons a school may implement an advisory program.
- Build Student-to-Student Affiliation
- Energize and Re-engage
- Reflect and Recalibrate
- Theme-Based
- Academic Readiness
- Advisor-Advisee Relationships
- Communication and Social Skills Development
What is your school wanting to achieve during advisory? Please get in touch to see if SELA might be a good fit for you.
