Social Emotional Learning
What is Social Emotional Learning?
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
Franklin Community Schools Basis it's SEL Framework from CASEL’s Five Core Competencies
Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior. This includes accurately assessing one’s strengths and limitations and possessing a well-grounded sense of confidence and optimism.
Self-management: The ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals.
Social awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
Relationship skills: The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. This includes communicating clearly, listening actively, cooperating, resisting inappropriate social pressure, negotiating conflict constructively, and seeking and offering help when needed.
Responsible decision-making: The ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the well-being of self and others.
Photo Credit: https://casel.org/what-is-sel/
What is Social Emotional Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved 2020, from https://casel.org/what-is-sel/
Why does SEL belong in schools?
Students spend most of their time in school, so to ignore their social-emotional learning needs for the 30+ hours a week they spend in classrooms would be a waste of precious developmental learning time. School is also the place where students encounter the bulk of their social interactions, challenges, and opportunities for personal growth. Certainly, schools and teachers have been providing way more than academic learning for decades. However, research shows that by providing consistent, purposeful, and robust SEL programs, students can benefit in multiple ways.
According to The Pennsylvania State University and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation research brief Social Emotional Learning in Elementary School, “extensive research shows that SEL programs can promote academic achievement and positive social behavior, and reduce conduct problems, substance abuse, and emotional distress. Benefits of SEL in the elementary years have been documented in reviews by independent research teams and through meta-analyses which demonstrate the immediate and long-term positive outcomes of well-designed, well-implemented SEL programming.”
An NPR report on SEL notes that “kids who act up a lot in school and at home — even very young kids — are more likely to have mental health problems and commit crimes years later as adults.” Thus, researchers have set out to create SEL programs that serve as emotional intelligence interventions, discovering that much like we teach academic subjects, emotional intelligence can also be taught.
Why do we need social-emotional learning more than ever?
Students who receive social-emotional interventions early and throughout their learning careers demonstrate impressive and measurable benefits later on in life. The research is hard to ignore: The development of social-emotional skills in kindergarten leads to the higher likelihood of obtaining a college degree, adult employment, and lessens one’s chance of substance abuse or getting into trouble with the law as an adult (Jones, Greenberg, & Crowley, 2015). A Teachers College Study showed that, on average, for every dollar invested in SEL, there is a return of eleven dollars — a return on investment most investors would envy. Further, SEL practices could be highly effective when it comes to closing the achievement gap, disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline by furnishing undeserved populations with the critical foundational skills necessary to succeed in higher education and the workplace. SEL also includes Restorative Justice programs that have been known to reduce suspensions and keep kids in school.
The lasting impact of SEL
Long-term, SEL improves our students’ attitudes toward learning and their self-efficacy. The mounting research is staggering and it all points to social-emotional learning as a key to bolstered graduation rates, increased enrollment in institutions of higher learning, greater capacity for workplace success, improved mental health, reduced crime, and overall healthier relationships and self-efficacy amongst citizens. In a 2017 follow-up study to a 2011 SEL study, it was found that the effects of SEL continue to benefit students even years after their learning. “In follow-up assessments, an average of 3.5 years after the last intervention, the academic performance of students exposed to SEL programs was an average 13 percentile points higher than their non-SEL peers, based on the eight studies that measured academics,” the study notes. “SEL continued to boost student well-being in the form of greater social and emotional competencies, prosocial behavior, and prosocial attitudes. Furthermore, SEL students showed lasting decreases in negative outcomes such as conduct problems, emotional distress, and drug use, compared to control groups.”
As the collective understanding of trauma-informed practice deepens, this necessitates a move toward classrooms that cover emotional intelligence, self-awareness, emotional regulation, interpersonal relationships, and positive decision-making. SEL is a powerful mechanism for instilling long-term social and emotional resilience and addressing student trauma.
Retrieved from: https://blog.sharetolearn.com/leaders-link/social-emotional-learning-defined/
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SEL Curriculum FCS Currently Utilizes
Course Libraries (FREE)
Activities and Lessons
Everfi - grade K-12
EverFi - financial grades 9-12
Sanford Harmony - grade K-6
SEL Toolbox (includes multiples resources in one document)
SEL Online Lessons (include multiple topics, videos, websites in one google doc)
Searchable Google Document of FREE RESOURCES *HUGE LIST
Teach the Whole Child (activities inexpensive lesson plans on teachers pay)
Zones of Regulations - Resources and Ideas to Support Distance Learning
Phone Apps
Students
Calm App for kids
10 Anxiety, Relaxation and Mindfulness Apps (for kids)
Breathe Think Do the Sesame - iPhone and Android
Moshi Twilight (free 7 day trial $3.33/month)
Adults
For a list of more phone apps click HERE!
Games, Activities and IceBreakers
SELF AWARENESS ACTIVITIES
Identifying emotions
Exploring Identities
Accurate self-perception
Recognizing strengths
Self-confidence
Self-efficacy
Florida Dept. of Education - Self Awareness
Getting to Know Your Interests (middle and high school) (PDF)
Skills for the Workplace (middle and high school) (PDF)
Values - What's Important to You? (middle and high school) (PDF)
Selecting a Lifestyle (middle and high school) (PDF)
Brain Basic Lesson Plans (lessons 1-4)
Now That I Know My Brain (lessons 5-10)
SELF-MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
Impulse control
Stress management
Self-discipline
Self-motivation
Goal-setting
Organizational skills
Anxiety
Coping & Calming
Coping and Calming
Calming Exercise - elementary
4-7-8 Breathing Exercise video
Controlling Your Anger - YouTube channel
Lesson Plans (printables)
*Amazing @Home Lesson Plans & Coping Strategies by Evansville School Corporation
Coping Skills Folder of Resources (tons of activities and lessons)
Projects
Create Calming Tools and Projects (can create these as a family)
Fitness
10 Minute Stretch Break Videos (multiple videos)
Cosmic Kids - Yoga
Yoga Videos (for kids)
Physical Fitness - every weekday at 9am during the school closures.
Chair Yoga For Slowing Down (10 mins)
Head to toe relaxation - Middle School
Meditation
Loving Kindness Meditation (Dance Remix)
How To Meditate with Noise: A 3-Minute Practice for Anywhere - Follow GIF when practicing
Mindfulness
Mindfulness
Cosmic Kids - YouTube channel
Cosmic Kids Zenden - YouTube channel
SkillsStreaming - you can order material
Lesson Plans:
Deep Breathing - Mindfulness breathing is a simple practice that you can use any place, at any time! The primary goal is a simple calm, non-judging awareness, allowing thoughts and feelings to come and go without getting caught up in them.
Gratitude - ​The practice of gratitude focuses our attention on the good and the positive in our lives. This helps us appreciate the things that we tend to take for granted.
Positive Affirmations - Affirmations are short, powerful, yet simple statements designed to encourage us to achieve our goals. They are positive words said in present tense, and they are repeated often, with genuine feeling and personal connection to their meaning. Positive affirmations are designed to reframe and combat self-defeating thoughts, and support healthy cognitive patterns and gratitude.
Grounding Exercises - ¨Grounding¨ is a great exercise that reminds us to live in the “here-and-now”. It reduces feelings of stress and helps us calm down quickly.
Go Noodle to De-Stress - GoNoodle helps you get moving with short interactive activities. Desk-side movement can help us achieve more by keeping ourselves engaged and motivated throughout the day.
Self-Regulation
Self Regulation (games and activities)
PBS Kids - emotional & self awareness games and apps - make sure you filter these by age
Center for Developing Child - Harvard University
SOCIAL AWARENESS ACTIVITIES
Perspective-taking
Empathy
Appreciating diversity
Respect for others
RELATIONSHIP SKILL ACTIVITIES
Communication
Social engagement
Relationship-building
Teamwork
Florida Dept. of Education - Relationship Skills
Social Skills
SkillsStreaming - you can order materials
RESPONSIBLE DECISION MAKING ACTIVITIES
Identifying problems
Analyzing situations
Solving problems
Evaluating
Reflecting
Ethical responsibility
Florida Dept. of Education - Goal Setting & Decision Making
Informed Decision Making (middle and high school) (PDF)
Short & Long-Term Goal Setting (middle and high school) (PDF)