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Template for Updating Your SEL Teaching Plan
As you and your teaching team or you alone begin your journey with part 1 of this book, I hope you remember that the practices you find in the following chapters shouldn’t be rigid—some may only have a season in your classroom. Therefore, ground yourself in the fundamental concepts; assume the steps in the uplifted framework with desire and openness to cocreate intellectual safety with your colleagues and students.
CHAPTER 4
KEY CHAPTER TASKS
• Identify the different kinds of emotional intelligence skills . • Help students label and understand their emotions . • Help students find appropriate emotional regulation strategies . • Teach responsible decision-making skills to students . • Help students understand other people’s emotions .
Steps 1–3 of the Equity and SEL Integration Framework are designed to give educators the needed insight, knowledge, and perspective to effectively activate SEL in themselves and in their lessons. Although I consider step 1 universal for all (we all need emotional intelligence), steps 2 and 3 are designed to help you assess your beliefs and improve your knowledge of students based on your teaching context. Step 4 enables us to use what we know about students to help them develop or enhance their emotional intelligence skills. Emotional intelligence is the ability to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions while also being able to handle others’ emotions judiciously and empathetically. Teachers can help students improve their emotional intelligence by having them do some of the same self-work available to educators in chapter 1 (page 15). To recap, emotional intelligence develops when we understand emotions and learn to label and regulate them—which is what we are trying to teach students through the CASEL 5 competencies for improving their personal and social competence. Remember, these are the basics and the critical first steps for learners to become self-aware, manage their emotional state, prepare for learning, and equip themselves for other life events. Also remember, SEL is not meant to replace professional trauma-informed therapy, nor should SEL skills be taught or utilized independent of curriculum (Cohen,
