“Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills can help us build communities that foster courageous conversations across difference so that our students can confront injustice, hate, and inequity.” —Dena Simmons, Ed.D. (2019) Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence
Embedded Social-Emotional Learning The embedded social-emotional learning in Rising Voices forms a link between social-emotional learning, literary texts, and life. Under the “Build Social-Emotional Awareness” heading in the “Extend Literacy” section of every Teaching Card, the teacher is offered a suggestion to tie the reading to something children can consider about their own lives and the world around them. For example, in the Teaching Card for Looking Like Me , the teaching prompt says that the character “shows that he has nice thoughts about himself. He is as kind to himself as he would be to people he cares about.” Children are then
invited to turn and talk with a partner to discuss “What are things you can say if you want to be kind to yourself?” This focus on self-perception and self-confidence targets the core competency of self-awareness. Once children have had the opportunity to discuss among themselves, a few children should share their thinking with the class. Social-emotional learning must be taught with a lens on equity. While working with diverse groups of children in the classroom, it is important to understand how culture and personal experience can have an effect on a student’s understanding of social-emotional skills. By reading culturally responsive texts and discussing them in context, children will be given a safe space to explore the core competencies of social-emotional learning. This practice also allows children the opportunity to apply these core competencies to their own lives inside and outside of the classroom. “Social and emotional skills matter for many areas of development, including learning, health, and general well-being. Furthermore, recent research has demonstrated that high-quality, evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs produce positive outcomes for students, including reduced stress and improved behavior, attitudes, and academic performance.” —Stephanie Jones, Katherine Brush, et al. (2017) Harvard Graduate School of Education
Teacher’s Guide • 15
Teacher’s Guide Sampler 9
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