MODULE 6

We start this module by introducing the frameworks we’ll explore throughout our learning, starting with the New York State Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks, which show us how SEL can be integrated into instruction regardless of the learning environment. We also explore the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) model’s five areas of SEL competence and how they align with the New York State SEL Benchmarks. This session concludes by sharing three ways to integrate SEL into day-to-day instruction.

In this session, we consider the CASEL 5 social emotional learning (SEL) competencies through the lens of portability — the ability to take instructional practices or routines and shift them to another learning environment. We explore how to leverage the CASEL 5 competencies in portable, consistent, and achievable ways across the four key settings in which relationship-building occurs: in the classroom, in the school, at home, and in the community.

Our classrooms are our communities, and our students need to master the social emotional learning (SEL) competencies of social awareness and interpersonal skills in order to thrive in school and beyond. This session provides a refresher on the key components of social awareness and relationship skills. We explore community-building circles, including five foundational principles, easy steps to execute this practice in our classrooms, and how to redesign this practice when teaching across learning environments.

Helping students develop self-awareness leads them on the path towards self-direction, building key life skills for their development. This session looks at three student scenarios demonstrating how instruction and support can be delivered to help students develop their self-awareness and self-direction inside and outside the classroom and across learning environments. These scenarios give us ideas and strategies we can embed in our own instruction to help students on their path.

Responsible decision-making is another CASEL core competency students develop through social emotional learning (SEL). This session provides an overview of the skills and indicators of responsible decision-making competence. It details the cognitive process for making a decision and how we can teach these skills in the classroom across learning environments. The session includes a self-assessment for responsible decision-making to help students pinpoint areas of strengths and weaknesses related to this competency.

Social emotional learning (SEL) is not a stand-alone program. This session looks at ways we can integrate the principles of culturally responsive-sustaining education (CRSE) to design SEL experiences that are embedded in academics and portable across learning environments. We examine three strategies we can easily apply in our classrooms to make SEL more culturally responsive. The session concludes with two instructional practices — project-based learning and civic learning — that are great ways to authentically integrate SEL and CRSE to engage and empower students.

Our students are living in an increasingly digital world for which they need to develop specific navigational skills. This session introduces six core topics of digital citizenship and makes the connection between these topics and social emotional learning (SEL) through three guiding principles. We also explore how to discuss and teach digital citizenship by grade level and how we can model healthy online engagement in our classrooms.

Taking care of ourselves isn’t just good for our well-being; it also provides us an opportunity to show our students what managing emotions, setting personal goals, and investing in healthy relationships look like in difficult circumstances. This session allows us to consider how we can practice social emotional wellness for ourselves in ways that also positively model that behavior for our students. We review portable strategies for building resilience and additional resources we can leverage to support skill development.