Committing to Work on Individual, Relationship, and Community Topics

Overview

Circle Work is the largest component of Circle and focuses on supporting individual, relationship, and community growth. The suggested duration of Circle Work is 30-45 minutes. A check-in component occurs early on during Circle, which gives each student the opportunity to announce if they have Circle Work to share that day. Each student’s Circle Work may take between 3-10 minutes and there are usually between 3-10 different pieces of work to address during Circle. The purpose of Circle Work is to provide a variety of opportunities to encourage and support growth through prescribed content, as well as content generated by educator and students during Circle. The different types of Circle Work are:

• Individual Work - This work supports individual growth and development. Some individual work comes from Badge Work, the self-directed, competency-based curriculum that guides students through social-emotional learning (SEL) growth. During Circle, students may share their SEL progress or reflections with their group (called a Pride). Students can also share other topics, such as areas of interest or family-related events in hopes of establishing a connection with and support from other students. Re-commitments are also a part of individual work and involve a student recognizing when their actions are not aligned with the community’s commitments. The students acknowledge their impact on self and others and re-commit to actions that are aligned with the community.

• Relationship Work - This work supports maintenance and growth of interpersonal relationships. Relationship work is a public showing of commitment to healthy relationships as an essential part of a healthy community. This work may also involve students constructively addressing challenges in relationships.

• Community Work - This work relates to issues that impact the entire community or multiple relationships within the community. Community work connects these issues to underlying values and creates an opportunity for students to work through them and grow together. To perform community work, students or the facilitator will speak to Circle participants about an issue and its relevance to the community. After sharing, Circle participants may do an activity/exercise related to the issue or share what part of the issue resonated with them.

Students work on Badge Work - which is the individual Work they bring to Circle - during Compass Class, Pride Time, and on their own outside of school.