Free guide for PBIS teams
Using RoseThread Connect in a PBIS School
Your school already teaches its expectations. RoseThread Connect is designed to teach the skills behind them, inside the content students are already learning. This short guide shows how your expectations line up with the five skills in CASEL's Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) framework, and how a team can pick the right activity for the expectation it is teaching this month.
Expectations tell students what. Skills help them do it.
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) gives a school a small set of positively stated expectations, such as Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be Safe, and a plan to teach, model, and acknowledge them. That is the "what."
Many students need help with the "how." Being respectful during a heated discussion takes perspective-taking and the ability to disagree kindly. Being responsible on a long project takes planning and managing frustration. Those are social and emotional skills, and they can be taught on purpose.
CASEL describes the same relationship: schoolwide expectations name the behaviors, and SEL competencies give students the understanding and skills to meet them (CASEL, Connecting Schoolwide SEL With Other School Based Frameworks).
How your expectations line up with the five skills
Most schools use some version of the three expectations below. If yours are worded differently, such as Be Kind or Be Ready, find the closest row. Self-Awareness sits under all of them: CASEL describes it as understanding your own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior.
Seeing another point of view, reading the room, listening before responding, disagreeing without putting someone down, and working well with a partner.
Setting a goal, planning the steps, sticking with hard work, managing stress, and thinking through the effects of a choice before making it.
Calming down before acting, pausing before posting, choosing safe options under pressure, and knowing how to ask for help or stand up for someone.
Noticing feelings, strengths, and values. A quick check in at the start of class, or a reflection on what helped today, supports every expectation on your matrix.
These pairings are a starting point for your team's discussion, not a rule. Many expectations draw on more than one skill.
A monthly rhythm for your PBIS team
Keep it light. This fits inside a regular Tier 1 team meeting.
Pick the expectation
Choose the expectation your school is focusing on this month, or the one your behavior data points to.
Find the skill
Use the match above to choose one or two skills that sit underneath it.
Find the activity
Type your expectation in the planner below, or open RoseThread Connect, use the filters, and pick the skill.
Teach and Reflect
Teachers run the activity that week, use the expectation's name out loud, and acknowledge students who show the skill, then close with one quick reflection question.
One sentence teachers can say: "Our school expectation this month is Be Respectful. Today we're practicing one skill behind it: understanding someone else's point of view."
Free tool: PBIS ticket maker
Need tickets that thank students for your expectations? Use the free PBIS Ticket Maker to add your school name, expectations, colors, and logo, then print.
Where RoseThread Connect fits, and where it does not
What it is
- Universal Tier 1 instruction for every student
- Short activities inside the content teachers already teach
- Shared language for the skills behind your expectations
- Supports for English learners and students with diverse learning needs, including those with IEPs
What it is not
- Not a replacement for your PBIS system, matrix, or acknowledgment plan
- Not a behavior tracking or referral tool; it collects no behavior data
- Not a screener, diagnosis, or student risk score
- Not a Tier 2 or Tier 3 intervention
Why an MTSS and PBIS leader built this
RoseThread Learning was started by a former MTSS District Coordinator who led PBIS across 11 schools, every one of which earned California PBIS recognition, and who now teaches high school. Doctoral research with California high school teachers pointed to the same need: a practical way to teach the skills behind the expectations, inside the content.
Facilitator slides: PBIS and SEL alignment
A simple 20 minute staff meeting for a PBIS team lead, coach, or administrator. Project the slides, follow the speaker notes, and finish with every teacher planning the month on the planner below.
Teaching the skills behind our expectations
PBIS and Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), one plan.
Expectations say what.
Skills teach how.
- Our expectations describe the behavior we want.
- The skills underneath are what students practice to get there.
- Same expectation, same skill, same words, in every class.
Our expectation: ______________
Example: Be Respectful means practicing social awareness (seeing another point of view) and relationship skills (listening and working through disagreement).
The skills underneath
Keep the ratio positive: 5 to 1
At least 5 specific positives for every correction.
"Thank you for listening to your partner all the way through. That's respect."
One activity a week
- Name it. "Our expectation is Be Respectful. Today we practice social awareness."
- Show it once with your own example.
- Practice it inside your content.
- Reflect on it, then acknowledge it with our schoolwide system.
Plan your month
- Open the planner below on this page.
- Pick your subject, then type our expectation.
- Check the activities you will use and download your card.
Same words.
Every class. Every week.
One activity a week, 4 positives for every correction, and we look back together next month.
Teach your content.
Intentionally build human skills.
Facilitator agenda (20 minutes)
| Minutes | What happens | Slides |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | Welcome and why: expectations say what, skills teach how. | 1 to 2 |
| 3 to 8 | Name this month's expectation and the skills underneath it. | 3 to 4 |
| 8 to 11 | One habit (5 to 1) and one activity a week. | 5 to 6 |
| 11 to 19 | Hands on: everyone plans the month with the planner. | 7 |
| 19 to 20 | Commit and set the look back date. | 8 to 9 |
Plan your month
Choose your subject if you like, then type your school's expectation for the month, in your own words. The planner finds the skills underneath it and the RoseThread Connect activities that practice them, then fills in your planning card.
RoseThread Connect · PBIS monthly planning card
No student names on this card.
Sources and further reading
CASEL. (2018). Connecting schoolwide SEL with other school based frameworks. schoolguide.casel.org
CASEL. What is the CASEL framework? casel.org
Center on PBIS. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. pbis.org
Center on PBIS. (2025). Supporting and responding to students’ social, emotional, and behavioral needs. Center on PBIS guide (PDF)
Villeda, S. T., Shuster, B. C., Magill, L., & Carter, E. W. (2016). Behavior specific praise in the classroom. Tennessee Behavior Supports Project, Vanderbilt University, citing Myers, Simonsen, & Sugai (2011). vkc.vumc.org
Want the five skills in more depth? Take the free SEL With Intention course, or see all professional learning.
RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL or the Center on PBIS.