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Aligned SEL sample lesson plan
This tool helps teachers identify where within lesson plans SEL practices are already present, or where they might be included.
As your SEL team works with teachers to align SEL and academic objectives, it’s also important to consider how the content is delivered so that it supports the practice of social and emotional competencies. The guidance in this section should be considered alongside the Interactive Pedagogy section as part of the full integration of SEL into instruction.
Each academic discipline has its own questions, processes, and proficiencies. Teachers consider what students should know and be able to do when planning their lessons. This emphasis– not merely on acquiring content knowledge, but on being able to do something with it– is reflected in academic standards for each content area and connects closely to SEL.
Common Core and SEL Alignment
As an example of Common Core and SEL alignment, within the Common Core math process standards, students are asked to “construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.” Social and emotional learning is naturally embedded as students:
After developing an understanding of how SEL standards support and sustain deep learning, the SEL team can collaborate with teachers to determine where SEL can be embedded in academic content standards. Pay special attention to:
Many schools and districts have found it helpful to create crosswalks between their academic content standards and SEL standards or goals to illuminate their interconnection.
Once teachers have determined places of alignment between SEL and academic standards, a Frame, Coach, Reflect model can help make these connections clear to students.
Frame: Learning requires thoughtful scaffolding (Darling-Hammond et al, 2017, and Hammond & Jackson, 2015). Teachers can provide this scaffolding for social and emotional competencies by framing the competencies students will use to reach their content learning goals.
Try it:
Ask students what competencies they will need to achieve their academic goals and why.
Ask students to consider challenges that might occur during the learning and how they might overcome them.
Coach: Teachers can help students develop social and emotional competencies by providing them opportunities to perform them in new and increasingly complex situations and providing specific feedback in the context of authentic application (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). In this context, the teacher acts as a coach.
Try it:
Model social and emotional competencies in all interactions.
Guide students through problem-solving and conflict-resolution strategies when individuals and groups struggle to collaborate.
Reflect: Reflection is a crucial part of learning because it helps to build meta-cognition (Donovan & Bransford, 2005) and activate neural pathways (Darling-Hammond, 2018 in press). Reflection is critical in building students’ self-awareness.
Try it:
Provide feedback on what you saw in terms of student’s social and emotional competencies during an activity.
Reserve time for students to reflect collectively and individually after activities.
Math
Math
English Language Arts
This tool helps teachers identify where within lesson plans SEL practices are already present, or where they might be included.
Aligning SEL and academic goals includes a thoughtful consideration of the materials and texts we share. To develop self and social awareness, students from all backgrounds and walks of life need exposure to a variety of voices, cultures, and perspectives, and to understand their own personal contexts, including ethnic, family, community, and classroom cultures (Hammond and Jackson, 2015). Students also need to see themselves reflected in the scientists, mathematicians, musicians, and writers they study.
When choosing content materials, consider diversity within cultural or socio-economic groups as well. Avoid promoting what Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes as “single stories.” According to Adiche, we promote single stories when we “show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” By providing a variety of experiences within a variety of cultures, we equip students to respect the richness and diversity of the human experience.
Additional Resources:
Classroom Library Questionnaire
Instructional Strategies that Support the Whole Child in Three Teacher Evaluation Frameworks
Transforming Education’s SEL Integration Case Study Compilation
Dana Center Resource for Integrating SEL and CCSS Math
C3 Framework for Social Studies
Why We Can’t Have Social and Emotional Learning Without Equity