Kelso Elementary is a small rural school in Oregon with roughly 360 students. Despite a robust PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) program, we have struggled with common behavioral issues (playground disputes, bullying, disorderly transition times). Many of our students seemed to have a lack of connection with the greater school population and had close bonds with only a couple of adults in the building. Challenged with class sizes in the upper 30s in the intermediate grades, we decided to teach our PBIS lessons in small, mixed-age "family groups." Our staff created a structure for manageable groups (with fewer than 20 students), and we opted to teach lessons during times with the most specialists (counselors, ELL teachers, part-time assistants, etc.) in the building, so that each adult could have a group.
The first step was to take class lists, pull two or three students, and disperse them to a group led by a staff member who was not their classroom teacher. We decided to roll the groups over each year, exiting 5th graders and adding in kindergarteners, so that the students and teachers would have several years to build relationships. When making the lists, we strategically broke up cliques and siblings in order to give students the opportunity to interact with different sets of peers.
With the groups in place, our PBIS team met to create a set of monthly lessons. We tied the lessons to our school's monthly themes, which addressed the positive-behavior objectives we were working toward (e.g., stamina, friendship, problem solving). We selected materials, videos, and texts that were applicable across grade levels. Then we had each family group create an "identity" by reflecting on what they wanted to represent and coming up with a group name and crest.
The lessons generally required some type of collaborative task that ended with a finished product for display in the hallway or other visible area of the school. For example, we had students work in mixed-age pairs (with older kids assisting younger kids) to problem-solve a challenging situation, such as when a friend was hurting someone's feelings or when someone was being excluded in a game at recess, and present their idea. We also provided opportunities for groups to periodically eat lunch and have recess together, altering our lunch and recess schedule to make this possible.
The end result has been very promising! We found that students quickly took ownership for their groups and cultivated friendships outside of their classroom. Staff appreciated the opportunity to work with an age group outside the scope of their daily work. They looked forward to having the same small group each year and built strong relationships with students. They also took more accountability for students outside of their own classrooms.
Through our PBIS data, we saw decreases in bus and playground referrals, improved hallway and lunchroom behavior, and an overall culture shift in our school. We also tracked our progress by gathering input from students, staff, and parents. We met regularly with students to ask what they wanted to work on as a school community, and we surveyed parents every semester to elicit their concerns and ideas. The parents' responses often referenced the family groups as a great way for students to connect with new peers and adults. A parent member on our PBIS team also helped us get a better sense of the positive changes families were seeing at home.
The biggest challenge we found with this process was helping students locate their group leaders for the initial meetings. We set up cones in the gym decorated with a symbol and a color for each adult. The students received a name tag with their symbol and their group leader's name. Some students still took a while to find their groups in the first couple of sessions, but the process became quicker once students recognized their adult and family group members. Our other challenge was finding space, because only classroom teachers had a dedicated area. For education assistants and specialists leading groups, we had to be creative in using spaces like the library, the music room, and even hallways.
As we moved into the second year of the program, we refined our approach, adjusting the frequency and duration of each lesson and revisiting which themes we wanted to keep in rotation and those in which we felt the school reached mastery. We also had veteran staff mentor new staff on the benefits and best practices we discovered in the process. The team at Kelso Elementary has been very pleased with the way family groups have helped build community in our school, and we hope that other schools can benefit from a similar model.
