Explicit and Bilingual: Teaching Social Interactions at Lab School Paris

Why is it important to explicitly teach social interaction?

At school, we spend a great deal of time thinking about how children learn to read, write, solve problems, and communicate their ideas. At Lab School, we believe that learning how to interact successfully with others deserves the same intentional attention.

Children do not automatically know how to enter a game, join a conversation, recognize when someone is being left out, manage a disagreement, or make space for someone who communicates or plays differently. These are skills that develop over time and, like academic skills, they can be explicitly taught.

How do we move beyond saying “be kind” toward explicitly teaching social expectations?

It is easy for adults to tell children to “be kind,” “include everyone,” or “play nicely.” However, these expectations can be too abstract on their own. Instead, we want to help students understand what successful social interaction actually looks like, sounds like, and feels like.

How will we teach social interaction skills this year at Lab School?

Throughout the year, we will explicitly teach and reinforce skills such as:

• noticing when someone is alone, confused, or trying to join;

• inviting another student into a game, conversation, or group;

• knowing how to ask to join an activity;

• listening, taking turns, sharing space, and cooperating;

• recognizing basic social cues and respecting another person’s boundaries;

• handling small disagreements and misunderstandings;

• repairing an interaction when something goes wrong;

• asking an adult for help when a problem cannot be solved independently; and

• understanding and accepting that people communicate, learn, play, and interact in different ways.

An Explicit Teaching Formula for Social Skills

During our professional development sessions and weekly pedagogical meetings, we’ll coordinate to define the skills students across primary grade levels need to learn. Then we’ll plan lessons together using the formula below. This coordination takes place not only among teachers, but in collaboration with all adults at Lab School who interact with or supervise primary school students. 

1. Name the skill “Today we are learning how to invite someone into a game.”

2. Explain why it matters “This helps everyone feel included and safe.”

3. Model it Show students what to say and do.

4. Model a non-example Demonstrate what exclusion or an unsuccessful interaction might look like, without shaming or singling out a student.

5. Practice it Give students opportunities to role-play using sentence starters and guided practice.

6. Use it in real life Prompt and coach students as they apply the skill at the park, during lunch, in transitions, and during group work.

How will we make learning social interaction skills bilingual?

In a bilingual environment, explicitly teaching social interaction is especially important because communication does not always take place in a child’s strongest language. A student may misunderstand a question, a joke, a direction, a facial expression, or another child’s intention simply because they are still developing proficiency in French or English.

As a result, what may initially appear to be ignoring, excluding, interrupting, or being unkind can sometimes be a misunderstanding rooted in language rather than intention.

For this reason, we will teach and reinforce key social language in both French and English whenever possible. Students will learn useful phrases for entering a game, asking for clarification, expressing disagreement respectfully, inviting someone to participate, setting a boundary, and repairing a misunderstanding. Teachers may model the same type of interaction in both languages and provide sentence starters that students can use when they are unsure how to express themselves.

We also want students to develop an important habit: when something is unclear, check for understanding before assuming intention. Children can learn to ask, “What did you mean?” or “Can you say that another way?” rather than immediately assuming that the other student had harmful intentions.

In this way, explicitly teaching social interaction supports both social development and language development. It helps multilingual students build the language they need to participate confidently in the school community while also helping all students recognize that communication may look and sound different across languages and cultures.

How does teaching and learning social interaction continue beyond the classroom?

Some of the most important opportunities for social learning take place outside formal lessons. The park, lunch, transitions, group work, and other less-structured moments are often where children are navigating friendships, disagreements, group dynamics, and inclusion.

For this reason, our role extends beyond ensuring physical safety. Adults can actively observe social interactions, notice patterns of isolation or exclusion, and step in when appropriate. Skills introduced in the classroom can then be reinforced in authentic situations, with adults coaching students through challenges and helping them apply strategies independently over time.

Research on social and emotional learning is broad, and findings vary depending on the program, context, and how it is implemented. However, there is substantial evidence that deliberately teaching and practicing social and behavioral skills can help students develop strategies for communication, relationships, problem-solving, and participation in school.

At Lab School, we combine this research with an explicit-teaching approach: identifying the skill, modeling it, providing opportunities for practice, and coaching students as they apply it in authentic situations.

Our goal is not to eliminate every disagreement between children. Conflict, misunderstandings, and changing friendships are normal parts of growing up. Our goal is to give students the tools to navigate these experiences successfully.

How does research inform the Lab School approach to explicitly teaching social interaction skills?

Our approach is grounded in research about how children learn both academically and socially.

Educational researcher Steve Bissonnette’s work on the explicit teaching of behavior reminds us that positive behaviors should not simply be expected; they can be taught. Just as a teacher models a new academic strategy, gives students opportunities to practice, and provides feedback, we can explicitly teach children how to enter a game, resolve a disagreement, listen to another perspective, invite someone to join, or recognize when a peer needs space.

Our thinking is also influenced by psychologist Dr. Ross Greene, whose work begins with a powerful idea: “Kids do well if they can.” When a child struggles socially or behaviorally, rather than immediately asking, “Why won’t this child behave differently?” we can ask, “What skill might this child still be developing, and how can we help?”

A student who repeatedly interrupts a game may need help learning how to enter play. A child who becomes frustrated during a disagreement may need strategies for managing frustration and communicating what they need. A student who does not notice that someone is being excluded may need explicit opportunities to develop perspective-taking and social awareness.

This does not mean removing expectations or allowing inappropriate behavior - quite the opposite. We maintain clear expectations while also taking responsibility for teaching students the skills they need to meet them.

Our goal is not simply better behavior. It is to help children gradually develop the social understanding, independence, empathy, flexibility, and problem-solving skills they will carry with them far beyond the classroom.

Deirdre Keyes, Director of Lab School Primary