Introduction
7
Table I.3: SEL Competencies Skill
Description
Example
Understanding and recognizing one’s emotions
A student can identify situations that result in anxiety and the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that go along with feeling anxious.
Self-management
Managing to selfsoothe, and managing and monitoring one’s responses to a range of emotions
A student can use coping skills (such as journaling) to reduce anxiety prior to taking a test.
Social awareness
Recognizing others’ emotions and having empathy for different cultures and perspectives
A student can identify when others are feeling defensive by noticing their body language.
Relationship skills
Initiating and maintaining healthy relationships, including with diverse individuals or groups
When discussing a disagreement, a student mirrors another person’s experience in order to reach a solution.
Responsible decision making
Making safe, thoughtful, and constructive behavior choices and activities to achieve goals or outcomes
A student can plan and stick to study time during the week to feel prepared for an exam on Friday.
Source: Adapted from CASEL, 2020.
and academic performance (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011; Taylor, Oberle, Durlak, & Weissberg, 2017). After introducing and teaching prosocial skills, the teacher structures the classroom to provide a positive environment supporting use of those skills (CESE, 2020; Darch & Kame’enui, 2003; Harlacher, 2015; Simonsen, Fairbanks, Briesch, Myers, & Sugai, 2008). Part of this structure is active supervision and engagement on the teacher’s part in the form of regular prompts, reminding students to use skills during key moments, and providing feedback to reinforce students’ use of the prosocial skills. For example, imagine a teacher teaches students about perspective-taking as part of the SEL instruction targeting relationship skills in a seventh-grade classroom. Following teaching of perspective-taking in a brief lesson, the teacher can prompt
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Self-awareness
