Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, Grades 4-12

Step-by-Step Lessons for Respect, Responsibility, and Results
Smokey Daniels - National Consultant and Author
Nancy H. Steineke - National Consultant and Author
Corwin Literacy
Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, Grades 4-12
August 2014 | 248 pages | Corwin
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ISBN: 9781483320311
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Description

NEWS FLASH:  A major meta-analysis of 213 studies showed an average 11 percent gain in academic performance for kids receiving explicit social-academic learning instruction.

Turns out this “soft stuff” about creating a culture of respect and rapport yields hard and fast gains, and that’s no surprise to collaboration “gurus” Harvey “Smokey” Daniels and Nancy Steineke. Now, these authors share a yearlong plan for helping you build powerful and binding peer-to-peer interactions. The added bonus:  Your kids will meet speaking and listening standards, while you score better on classroom-engagement rubrics.

Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction taps the instructional power of slides, full-color illustrations, and super succinct directions to teach both the language and the behaviors of working effectively with others. These 35 lessons take your kids on a carefully paced upward spiral of collaboration, with explicit coaching on how to speak, listen, argue, persuade—and get along. Here’s the best part: You model and your students practice these social skills with the content of your curriculum, not in disconnected add-on exercises.  

For each lesson, there are six to 25 slides that focus on one vital academic-social skill; step-by-step teaching tips are in the lie-flat planning book. The sequence looks mostly like this:

  • The first slides introduce the skill—like being a good partner or arguing both sides of a controversial topic—then explain its value.
  • The next slides help model the skill in action, using whatever curricular topic you happen to be teaching.
  • Now, kids’ active thinking is invited as you co-create strategies to enhance use of the target social-academic skill.
  • Additional slides help kids practice the skill using your curricular content as you monitor and support.
  •  Lessons end with a debriefing to solidify new understandings.

Any way you look at Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, it’s a win-win. Your students realize better engagement in curriculum topics, higher performance, and social skills to last a lifetime. That’s really college and career ready! And our schools become safer harbors, where students know one another, respect one another, and learn together.

Longtime collaborators themselves, HARVEY “SMOKEY” DANIELS and NANCY STEINEKE have written six books together and are regular co-presenters at all the major literacy conferences. Both are former public school teachers who now work as national consultants, helping schools and districts to create friendly, supportive, and collaborative climates for young people. 

For an author-led walk-through of Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, visit https://www.brainshark.com/corwinpress/teachingsocialskills.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

Part I. Social-Academic Skills: The Missing Link

  • Chapter 1. The Problem and the Opportunity
  • Social-Emotional Learning and Academic Engagement
  • What's Been Missing in School Reform
  • Why We Must Teach Social-Academic Skills Now
  • How to Address These Problems and Seize the Opportunities
  • All Social Skills Programs Are Not Alike
  • Our Theory of Action
  • Chapter 2. Theory and Research on Social-Academic Skills Training
  • Research Base
  • Recollections
  • Starting With a Partner
  • Building a Community of Acquaintance
  • Building a Community of Respect, Inclusion, and Gratefulness
  • Taking Personal Responsibility
  • Teaching Interpersonal Skills Explicitly
  • Stages of Learning Social Skills
  • Positive Interdependence
  • Reflection and Celebration
  • The Bottom Line
  • Chapter 3. How to Use This Resource
  • Overview
  • A Guide to the Slides
  • Structure of the Lessons
  • Order of the Lessons
  • The Tips
  • Assessment and Grading
  • Trouble-Shooting Questions

Part II. Lessons for Building Social-Academic Skills

  • Chapter 4. Getting Acquainted
  • Lesson 1. Forming Partners
  • Lesson 2. Interviewing Your Partner
  • Lesson 3. Home Court Advantage
  • Lesson 4. Friendliness and Support
  • Lesson 5. Classroom Climate Posters
  • Chapter 5. Building Collaboration Skills
  • Lesson 6. Quiet Signal
  • Lesson 7. Using Quiet Voices
  • Lesson 8. Asking Follow-Up Questions
  • Lesson 9. Think-Pair-Share
  • Lesson 10. Good Partner Traits
  • Chapter 6. Advanced Partner Work
  • Lesson 11. Active Listening
  • Lesson 12. Extending Conversation
  • Lesson 13. Expanding Acquaintance With an Appointment Clock
  • Lesson 14. Mingle Jigsaw
  • Chapter 7. Moving Into Small Groups
  • Lesson 15. Group Membership Grid Interviews
  • Lesson 16. Sharing the Air
  • Lesson 17. Saving the Last Word
  • Lesson 18. Write-Arounds
  • Lesson 19. Gallery Walk
  • Chapter 8. Ongoing Discussion Groups
  • Lesson 20. Establishing Group Ground Rules
  • Lesson 21. Overcoming Off-Task Triggers
  • Lesson 22. Goal Setting for Group Improvement
  • Lesson 23. Reinforcing Collaboration With Table Cards
  • Lesson 24. Compliment Cards
  • Chapter 9. Arguing Agreeably
  • Lesson 25. Text Nuggets: Finding Evidence
  • Lesson 26. Human Continuum
  • Lesson 27. Where Do You Stand?
  • Lesson 28. Hearing Everyone's Ideas First
  • Lesson 29. Arguing Both Sides
  • Lesson 30. Civilized Disagreement
  • Chapter 10. Small-Group Projects
  • Lesson 31. Developing an Assessment Rubric
  • Lesson 32. Planning Group Projects
  • Lesson 33. Keeping Individual Project Logs
  • Lesson 34. Midcourse Corrections
  • Lesson 35. Being an Attentive Audience Member

Resources

  • Appointment Clock
  • Membership Grid
  • Group Meeting Procedures
  • Thin-Crust Cheese Pizza Rubric
  • Project Rubric
  • Group Work Plan Form
  • Individual Group Member Work Plan Form

References and Further Readings

References and Further Readings

Index

Index

About the Artist

About the Artist

Resources

Additional materials

Description

NEWS FLASH:  A major meta-analysis of 213 studies showed an average 11 percent gain in academic performance for kids receiving explicit social-academic learning instruction.

Turns out this “soft stuff” about creating a culture of respect and rapport yields hard and fast gains, and that’s no surprise to collaboration “gurus” Harvey “Smokey” Daniels and Nancy Steineke. Now, these authors share a yearlong plan for helping you build powerful and binding peer-to-peer interactions. The added bonus:  Your kids will meet speaking and listening standards, while you score better on classroom-engagement rubrics.

Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction taps the instructional power of slides, full-color illustrations, and super succinct directions to teach both the language and the behaviors of working effectively with others. These 35 lessons take your kids on a carefully paced upward spiral of collaboration, with explicit coaching on how to speak, listen, argue, persuade—and get along. Here’s the best part: You model and your students practice these social skills with the content of your curriculum, not in disconnected add-on exercises.  

For each lesson, there are six to 25 slides that focus on one vital academic-social skill; step-by-step teaching tips are in the lie-flat planning book. The sequence looks mostly like this:

  • The first slides introduce the skill—like being a good partner or arguing both sides of a controversial topic—then explain its value.
  • The next slides help model the skill in action, using whatever curricular topic you happen to be teaching.
  • Now, kids’ active thinking is invited as you co-create strategies to enhance use of the target social-academic skill.
  • Additional slides help kids practice the skill using your curricular content as you monitor and support.
  •  Lessons end with a debriefing to solidify new understandings.

Any way you look at Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, it’s a win-win. Your students realize better engagement in curriculum topics, higher performance, and social skills to last a lifetime. That’s really college and career ready! And our schools become safer harbors, where students know one another, respect one another, and learn together.

Longtime collaborators themselves, HARVEY “SMOKEY” DANIELS and NANCY STEINEKE have written six books together and are regular co-presenters at all the major literacy conferences. Both are former public school teachers who now work as national consultants, helping schools and districts to create friendly, supportive, and collaborative climates for young people. 

For an author-led walk-through of Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, visit https://www.brainshark.com/corwinpress/teachingsocialskills.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

Part I. Social-Academic Skills: The Missing Link

  • Chapter 1. The Problem and the Opportunity
  • Social-Emotional Learning and Academic Engagement
  • What's Been Missing in School Reform
  • Why We Must Teach Social-Academic Skills Now
  • How to Address These Problems and Seize the Opportunities
  • All Social Skills Programs Are Not Alike
  • Our Theory of Action
  • Chapter 2. Theory and Research on Social-Academic Skills Training
  • Research Base
  • Recollections
  • Starting With a Partner
  • Building a Community of Acquaintance
  • Building a Community of Respect, Inclusion, and Gratefulness
  • Taking Personal Responsibility
  • Teaching Interpersonal Skills Explicitly
  • Stages of Learning Social Skills
  • Positive Interdependence
  • Reflection and Celebration
  • The Bottom Line
  • Chapter 3. How to Use This Resource
  • Overview
  • A Guide to the Slides
  • Structure of the Lessons
  • Order of the Lessons
  • The Tips
  • Assessment and Grading
  • Trouble-Shooting Questions

Part II. Lessons for Building Social-Academic Skills

  • Chapter 4. Getting Acquainted
  • Lesson 1. Forming Partners
  • Lesson 2. Interviewing Your Partner
  • Lesson 3. Home Court Advantage
  • Lesson 4. Friendliness and Support
  • Lesson 5. Classroom Climate Posters
  • Chapter 5. Building Collaboration Skills
  • Lesson 6. Quiet Signal
  • Lesson 7. Using Quiet Voices
  • Lesson 8. Asking Follow-Up Questions
  • Lesson 9. Think-Pair-Share
  • Lesson 10. Good Partner Traits
  • Chapter 6. Advanced Partner Work
  • Lesson 11. Active Listening
  • Lesson 12. Extending Conversation
  • Lesson 13. Expanding Acquaintance With an Appointment Clock
  • Lesson 14. Mingle Jigsaw
  • Chapter 7. Moving Into Small Groups
  • Lesson 15. Group Membership Grid Interviews
  • Lesson 16. Sharing the Air
  • Lesson 17. Saving the Last Word
  • Lesson 18. Write-Arounds
  • Lesson 19. Gallery Walk
  • Chapter 8. Ongoing Discussion Groups
  • Lesson 20. Establishing Group Ground Rules
  • Lesson 21. Overcoming Off-Task Triggers
  • Lesson 22. Goal Setting for Group Improvement
  • Lesson 23. Reinforcing Collaboration With Table Cards
  • Lesson 24. Compliment Cards
  • Chapter 9. Arguing Agreeably
  • Lesson 25. Text Nuggets: Finding Evidence
  • Lesson 26. Human Continuum
  • Lesson 27. Where Do You Stand?
  • Lesson 28. Hearing Everyone's Ideas First
  • Lesson 29. Arguing Both Sides
  • Lesson 30. Civilized Disagreement
  • Chapter 10. Small-Group Projects
  • Lesson 31. Developing an Assessment Rubric
  • Lesson 32. Planning Group Projects
  • Lesson 33. Keeping Individual Project Logs
  • Lesson 34. Midcourse Corrections
  • Lesson 35. Being an Attentive Audience Member

Resources

  • Appointment Clock
  • Membership Grid
  • Group Meeting Procedures
  • Thin-Crust Cheese Pizza Rubric
  • Project Rubric
  • Group Work Plan Form
  • Individual Group Member Work Plan Form

References and Further Readings

References and Further Readings

Index

Index

About the Artist

About the Artist

Resources

Additional materials

SAGE Publishing Logo

Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, Grades 4-12

Step-by-Step Lessons for Respect, Responsibility, and Results

Smokey Daniels , Nancy H. Steineke
Cancel Print

August 2014 | 248 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Spiral 01/02/2026 9781483350950 $40.95
Lifetime 01/02/2026 9781483320311 $37.00

NEWS FLASH:  A major meta-analysis of 213 studies showed an average 11 percent gain in academic performance for kids receiving explicit social-academic learning instruction.

Turns out this “soft stuff” about creating a culture of respect and rapport yields hard and fast gains, and that’s no surprise to collaboration “gurus” Harvey “Smokey” Daniels and Nancy Steineke. Now, these authors share a yearlong plan for helping you build powerful and binding peer-to-peer interactions. The added bonus:  Your kids will meet speaking and listening standards, while you score better on classroom-engagement rubrics.

Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction taps the instructional power of slides, full-color illustrations, and super succinct directions to teach both the language and the behaviors of working effectively with others. These 35 lessons take your kids on a carefully paced upward spiral of collaboration, with explicit coaching on how to speak, listen, argue, persuade—and get along. Here’s the best part: You model and your students practice these social skills with the content of your curriculum, not in disconnected add-on exercises.  

For each lesson, there are six to 25 slides that focus on one vital academic-social skill; step-by-step teaching tips are in the lie-flat planning book. The sequence looks mostly like this:

  • The first slides introduce the skill—like being a good partner or arguing both sides of a controversial topic—then explain its value.
  • The next slides help model the skill in action, using whatever curricular topic you happen to be teaching.
  • Now, kids’ active thinking is invited as you co-create strategies to enhance use of the target social-academic skill.
  • Additional slides help kids practice the skill using your curricular content as you monitor and support.
  •  Lessons end with a debriefing to solidify new understandings.

Any way you look at Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, it’s a win-win. Your students realize better engagement in curriculum topics, higher performance, and social skills to last a lifetime. That’s really college and career ready! And our schools become safer harbors, where students know one another, respect one another, and learn together.

Longtime collaborators themselves, HARVEY “SMOKEY” DANIELS and NANCY STEINEKE have written six books together and are regular co-presenters at all the major literacy conferences. Both are former public school teachers who now work as national consultants, helping schools and districts to create friendly, supportive, and collaborative climates for young people. 

For an author-led walk-through of Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction, visit https://www.brainshark.com/corwinpress/teachingsocialskills.


Table Of Contents:

  • Acknowledgments
  • Part I. Social-Academic Skills: The Missing Link
  • Chapter 1. The Problem and the Opportunity
  • Social-Emotional Learning and Academic Engagement
  • What's Been Missing in School Reform
  • Why We Must Teach Social-Academic Skills Now
  • How to Address These Problems and Seize the Opportunities
  • All Social Skills Programs Are Not Alike
  • Our Theory of Action
  • Chapter 2. Theory and Research on Social-Academic Skills Training
  • Research Base
  • Recollections
  • Starting With a Partner
  • Building a Community of Acquaintance
  • Building a Community of Respect, Inclusion, and Gratefulness
  • Taking Personal Responsibility
  • Teaching Interpersonal Skills Explicitly
  • Stages of Learning Social Skills
  • Positive Interdependence
  • Reflection and Celebration
  • The Bottom Line
  • Chapter 3. How to Use This Resource
  • Overview
  • A Guide to the Slides
  • Structure of the Lessons
  • Order of the Lessons
  • The Tips
  • Assessment and Grading
  • Trouble-Shooting Questions
  • Part II. Lessons for Building Social-Academic Skills
  • Chapter 4. Getting Acquainted
  • Lesson 1. Forming Partners
  • Lesson 2. Interviewing Your Partner
  • Lesson 3. Home Court Advantage
  • Lesson 4. Friendliness and Support
  • Lesson 5. Classroom Climate Posters
  • Chapter 5. Building Collaboration Skills
  • Lesson 6. Quiet Signal
  • Lesson 7. Using Quiet Voices
  • Lesson 8. Asking Follow-Up Questions
  • Lesson 9. Think-Pair-Share
  • Lesson 10. Good Partner Traits
  • Chapter 6. Advanced Partner Work
  • Lesson 11. Active Listening
  • Lesson 12. Extending Conversation
  • Lesson 13. Expanding Acquaintance With an Appointment Clock
  • Lesson 14. Mingle Jigsaw
  • Chapter 7. Moving Into Small Groups
  • Lesson 15. Group Membership Grid Interviews
  • Lesson 16. Sharing the Air
  • Lesson 17. Saving the Last Word
  • Lesson 18. Write-Arounds
  • Lesson 19. Gallery Walk
  • Chapter 8. Ongoing Discussion Groups
  • Lesson 20. Establishing Group Ground Rules
  • Lesson 21. Overcoming Off-Task Triggers
  • Lesson 22. Goal Setting for Group Improvement
  • Lesson 23. Reinforcing Collaboration With Table Cards
  • Lesson 24. Compliment Cards
  • Chapter 9. Arguing Agreeably
  • Lesson 25. Text Nuggets: Finding Evidence
  • Lesson 26. Human Continuum
  • Lesson 27. Where Do You Stand?
  • Lesson 28. Hearing Everyone's Ideas First
  • Lesson 29. Arguing Both Sides
  • Lesson 30. Civilized Disagreement
  • Chapter 10. Small-Group Projects
  • Lesson 31. Developing an Assessment Rubric
  • Lesson 32. Planning Group Projects
  • Lesson 33. Keeping Individual Project Logs
  • Lesson 34. Midcourse Corrections
  • Lesson 35. Being an Attentive Audience Member
  • Resources
  • Appointment Clock
  • Membership Grid
  • Group Meeting Procedures
  • Thin-Crust Cheese Pizza Rubric
  • Project Rubric
  • Group Work Plan Form
  • Individual Group Member Work Plan Form
  • References and Further Readings
  • Index
  • About the Artist

Recent Product Reviews:

"Collaboration and cooperation do not emerge magically. We must explicitly teach kids the social strategies of collaborative behavior: to listen attentively, ask follow up questions, and disagree agreeably. Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction does exactly that. Through a series of engaging slides, lessons, and activities, kids learn and practice important SEL strategies that will lead to more learning, greater achievement, and an inviting and fun classroom environment where kids work collaboratively, independently and develop a sense of agency. . . . Teachers need it and will love it, but more importantly, so will kids!”
STEPHANIE HARVEY, Coauthor of The Comprehension Toolkit
“Teaching the Social Skills of Academic Interaction recognizes the importance of establishing an emotionally healthy classroom---a classroom where students have been taught to manage their emotions, to build relationships, and to work effectively with one another. The easy-to-use lessons in this book connect with students by giving them more responsibility, more control, and more choice. As Daniels and Steineke say, the best classrooms are those in which students are treated like the people they want to become. This book helps teachers to build those classrooms. I highly recommend it.”
KELLY GALLAGHER, Author of Write Like This
"Harvey 'Smokey' Daniels and Nancy Steineke write with humor and common sense about the challenges of bringing a diversity of students into harmony each school year. . . . This book holds the research and the tools to change the way classrooms operate. With 35 lessons (one for each week of school) and the systematic guidance of thoughtful, smart colleagues to explain the importance and likely obstacles to each lesson, teachers will learn to guide student groups in productive, dynamic ways.”
PENNY KITTLE, Author of Book Love
“Do you cringe when it’s time for small-group work? Do you find that work time gets too unruly when students have a chance to discuss with partners? If so, you need this book. Smokey and Nancy, the king and queen of conversation, guide teachers in setting up systems and structures that allow for purposeful talk to happen in the classroom. Teachers pondering how to prepare students for the CCSS speaking and listening standards and, more importantly, as effective communicators for the world outside of school will truly appreciate all this book has to offer.”
CRIS TOVANI, Author of So What Do They Really Know?
“Group work no longer begins and ends in the classroom—it’s a reality—a life skill. My favorite part about the book is that it works with whatever content you’re teaching. The lessons are focused on the students’ interactions while the content of the work is reflective of what is happening in the classroom. So it’s not ‘another’ thing to do on your already long list of things to teach. Clever and creative, this is a valuable resource for teachers of all disciplines.”
AIMEE BUCKNER, Author of Notebook Know-How

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