Ready to Connect & Thrive?
Solving the Student Advisory Challenge
The Critical Need for Student Advisory
In 1989, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development emphasized a critical finding: students thrive academically and personally when their schools are intentionally structured to foster strong personal connections between students and staff. Research has since shown that these connections significantly boost academic success and personal growth.
One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through a well-designed Student Advisory program. These programs are essential in creating meaningful relationships that help students feel valued, supported, and equipped for future success. Implementing such a program is not just beneficial—it is vital for fostering a school environment where all students can thrive.
But over the past decades schools have found that implementing an effective Advisory is far from easy - especially in elementary and middle schools. The good news is that there is an evidence-based program that the Reynolds Center TLC is proud to help bring to classrooms across the country.
Ready-to-Go Solution
Connect & Thrive: Story-Powered Circles for Elementary Student Success was designed in collaboration between the mental health and social and emotional experts at Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) and FableVision/Reynolds TLC.
Connect & Thrive: Story-Powered Circles offers a unique blend of the PEAR approach to student advisories - also known as “circles” - and the globally-acclaimed storybooks by RC-TLC’s founder Peter H. Reynolds, who is beloved in classrooms and libraries as a #1 New York Times best-selling author/illustrator. As part of the Connect & Thrive program, Peter’s books (The Dot, Playing from the Heart, The Word Collector, Say Something) are paired with key student development areas, such as resilience, mental health, belonging, and youth voice, all of which play a critical role in overcoming, growing and thriving through adversity.
Now elementary educators can enjoy this same framework, but custom-tailored for earlier grades levels.
Connect & Thrive: Story-Powered Circles is perfect for busy teachers who will enjoy how little preparation time is needed to roll out the program, and students will find these Story-Powered Circles engaging as they integrate the award-winning picture books of New York Times #1 best-selling author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds.
Currently, the Connect & Thrive: Story-Powered Circles program offers fifteen days of activities using Peter’s books: The Dot; Playing From the Heart; The Word Collector; Our Table.
Anchored in PEAR’s Clover Model of youth development, the program provides hands-on extension activities to support your school’s SEL framework. The Clover Model - also known as a Developmental Process Theory (DPT) - supports four domains of development: active engagement, assertiveness, belonging, and reflection. Essentially, the Clover Model helps us consider the impact of physical, cognitive, and social development on the ways young people learn, behave, and interact with others, and how to align with their natural development to help build the social-emotional competencies they need to thrive.
Connect & Thrive: Story-Powered Circles makes delivering these critical components of human development easy, seamless and fun.
To learn more about bringing the Connect & Thrive: Story-Powered Circles program to your school or district - and/or PD programs to support Connect & Thrive at RC-TLC’s new TLC Studios, just email us at info@reynoldstlc.org or fill in the contact form. We are excited to connect - and start the conversation.
If you’re ready to buy the program, click the button below.