Tag Archives: Social and Emotional Learning

Watch the Webinar: SEL on Your Shelf: Using Books to Build SEL Skills

Thank you to all who joined us for our most recent webinar, SEL on your Shelf: Using Books to Build SEL Skills featuring guidance on how to select the right book to teach Social and Emotional Learning skills, competencies, and values that will guide our students through academic, social, and emotional development and challenges.

If you missed it live (or just want to watch it again), you can access the webinar below, or here on YouTube. Keep reading for links to resources and booklists shared during the webinar and feel free to reach out for more information and/or a Professional Development certificate.

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Upcoming Webinar: SEL on your Shelf: Using Books to Build SEL Skills

How do we select the right book to teach Social and Emotional Learning skills, competencies, and values that will guide our students through academic, social, and emotional development and challenges? How can we be strategic in building a collection of books and read-alouds that explore your school’s SEL framework? How can we build classroom community with SEL texts that align to our students’ needs and interests?

Join us for a critical webinar on Wednesday, August 17th, 2022 at 4:00 PM ET about using children’s books to teach about critical SEL skills just in time for the upcoming school year.

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NEW RESOURCE: A Toolkit for Building a Diverse SEL Library

How do we select the right book to teach SEL skills, competencies, and values that will guide our students through academic, social, and emotional development and challenges? While no one text can or should do it all, how can we be strategic in building a collection of books and read-alouds that explore your school’s SEL framework?  

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Social-Emotional Learning & Diverse Books: One Cannot Exist Without the Other

In this blog post, Katie Potter, Senior Literacy Specialist at Lee & Low Books, offers guidance on curating a social-emotional learning library and reinforces the necessary role that diverse books play in building an SEL collection. This blog post first appeared on  the Center Of Responsive Schools’ Two Sides of the Same Coin

As teachers, we know how difficult it is to explain and define emotions in concrete terms. A situation arises and we grapple with how best to approach it with the students. What are the right words to say that will resonate with them after a disagreement? How do we explain empathy or resolve a student conflict in a way that young people will understand? It can be a challenge to act quickly and make a meaningful impact when there is minimal time to prepare.

This is where books can come into play. By allowing the characters and engaging storyline to do the heavy lifting, books can take the onus off of teachers, presenting to children both the problem and the solution in a safe way that will reverberate with them.

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Social and Emotional Learning Books for Middle School and High School

Social and Emotional Learning

Social and Emotional Learning is the process in which people of all ages recognize and manage emotions, make appropriate decisions, behave ethically and responsibly, develop and maintain positive relationships, and avoid negative behaviors.

Social and Emotional Learning strategies are important, but books that show characters demonstrating these strategies further emphasize the need for these positive actions inside and outside of the classroom.

Check out our social and emotional learning books roundup for middle school and high school below and find more social and emotional learning titles in our Social and Emotional Learning Diverse Reading List.

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Our Favorite Social Justice Books for Elementary School

Social Justice Books for Elementary School

While the term “social justice” may seem overly complex or political to adults, young people are deeply attuned to concepts of equality and fairness and how these play out within their homes, classrooms, and communities. Increasingly, elementary schools are including units on social activism, social justice, or social change. Teaching about historical figures and fictional characters who have stood up for peace, equity, and justice provides rich opportunities for social and emotional learning and helps to prepare students to become global citizens who can advocate for important causes and enact change in their communities.  Continue reading

Social and Emotional Learning Books for Elementary School

Social and Emotional Learning is the process in which people of all ages recognize and manage emotions, make appropriate decisions, behave ethically and responsibly, develop and maintain positive relationships, and avoid negative behaviors.

Social and Emotional Learning strategies are important, but books that show characters demonstrating these strategies further emphasize the need for these positive actions inside and outside of the classroom.

Check out our social and emotional learning books roundup for elementary school below and find more social and emotional learning titles in our Social and Emotional Learning Diverse Reading List.

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Diverse Books for Social Emotional Learning in Grades 2 and 3

SEL in second and third grades

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a hot topic, but it’s certainly not new. Skills like empathy, cultivating and maintaining positive relationships, recognizing and managing emotions, problem solving, approaching tasks with grit and perseverance, and taking on others’ perspectives have always, and will always, be crucial to kids’ success. Research shared by CASEL reports that SEL programs lead to “immediate improvements in mental health, social skills, and academic achievement,” and “up to 18 years later, students exposed to SEL in school continue to do better than their peers on a number of indicators: positive social behaviors and attitudes, skills such as empathy and teamwork, and academics.” SEL is certainly worthy of time and attention from those who support children’s development.

Books are valuable tools for guiding conversations about SEL topics. Children can examine and learn from characters’ actions and experiences and relate them to their own. Of course, book selection is key. When kids see both themselves and others in diverse books, it says, “You matter. Reflect on your experiences.” and “Others matter. Listen and learn.” Therein lies the heart of SEL.

 As students grow and change, so do their social emotional learning needs. Linking diverse books to SEL goals and challenges across different ages is a powerful way to support students as they navigate each developmental stage. This blog series explores how diverse books can be used to support social emotional learning at different grade levels. Continue reading

Diverse Books for Social Emotional Learning in Grade 1

Social and Emotional Learning in Grade 1

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a hot topic, but it’s certainly not new. Skills like empathy, cultivating and maintaining positive relationships, recognizing and managing emotions, problem solving, approaching tasks with grit and perseverance, and taking on others’ perspectives have always, and will always, be crucial to kids’ success. Research shared by CASEL reports that SEL programs lead to “immediate improvements in mental health, social skills, and academic achievement,” and “up to 18 years later, students exposed to SEL in school continue to do better than their peers on a number of indicators: positive social behaviors and attitudes, skills such as empathy and teamwork, and academics.” SEL is certainly worthy of time and attention from those who support children’s development.

Books are valuable tools for guiding conversations about SEL topics. Children can examine and learn from characters’ actions and experiences and relate them to their own. Of course, book selection is key. When kids see both themselves and others in diverse books, it says, “You matter. Reflect on your experiences.” and “Others matter. Listen and learn.” Therein lies the heart of SEL. 

As students grow and change, so do their social emotional learning needs. Linking diverse books to SEL goals and challenges across different ages is a powerful way to support students as they navigate each developmental stage. This blog series, written by educator Lindsay Barrett, explores how diverse books can be used to support social emotional learning at different grade levels. Continue reading