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Notes for the Facilitator

This PowerPoint presentation �is fully customizable, so you can add your school or �district’s information. Just make a copy and edit away to customize for your grade level.

Slide 2: Add your school name to the title slide.
Slide 8: Customize the presenter notes with your school’s name, implementation schedule, and plan.
Slide 18: Add the name of your school’s Second Step^® coordinator to the notes.

As written, the presentation takes about 10–15 minutes �to complete.
Notes are provided for each slide. The text to say aloud �is presented in bold type. Facilitator notes are in �plain type.
Prepare to share the “What is Second Step Elementary” informational flyer with families in print or electronic form.

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Social-Emotional Learning at Our School

Open House Introduction

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What Is Social-Emotional Learning?

Social-emotional learning (SEL) �helps people:

Understand and manage their emotions
Set and achieve positive goals
Have and show empathy for others
Establish and maintain positive relationships
Make responsible decisions

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By a show of hands, how many people here have heard the term "social-emotional learning" before?

Social-emotional learning, or SEL, helps people understand and manage their emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Imagine the way our kids could be better students and better people if they master these skills.

You may have heard of SEL before tonight thanks to the organization CASEL, which is the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. They helped identify the five core competencies that make up SEL:

Self-management
Responsible decision-making
Relationship skills
Social awareness
Self-awareness

These competencies can be taught in many ways, and we know that elementary students can learn and improve on skills in these areas. We’ll be dedicating time and effort to teaching and reinforcing social-emotional skills with your children this year.

Facilitator note: If you have extra time, consider doing a self-reflection activity with this slide. Here’s the script:

These skills really come into play for everyone, every day. Think about your day so far. Go all the way back to first thing this morning. Now, look at these skill areas again. Can you think of any situations in which you used these skills already today? (Give time for reflection.) For example: How did your family’s morning routine go? Have you been in traffic today? Did you need any of these skills to manage yourself in those situations? It can help us to relate to our children when we consider our own use of skills in these areas.

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Why SEL Matters

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The Goal of SEL in Schools

SEL in schools supports whole-child development.¹ When implemented schoolwide, SEL can help create a positive school climate where students and adults can thrive together, improving social-emotional competence and academic achievement.²

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Research Links Evidence-Based SEL �to Positive Outcomes¹

Student Gains in . . .

Social-emotional skills
Improved attitudes about self, others, and school
Prosocial classroom behavior
11 percentile-point gain in overall academic achievement

Reduced Risk of . . .

Conduct issues
Emotional distress

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2017 Meta-Analysis: Lasting SEL Effects²

A separate study found that SEL interventions are associated with lasting positive effects. Months or years after SEL exposure, students experienced increased levels of academic success and lower risks of adverse outcomes.

Research has found that the social-emotional skills we just discussed are not only valuable in and of themselves—they also support students’ success in other important areas.

A landmark study in 2011, along with a follow-up 2017 study, show that students do better in school when they participate in evidence-based classroom SEL programs.

Take a moment to review the outcomes from the 2011 study shown on the slide.

These meta-analyses put numbers to what many people in education already believed was true: that students benefit from participating in school-based social emotional learning programs.

Another study from 2017 found that participation in an evidence-based SEL program led to lasting positive effects on students’ academic and social outcomes months or years later. Students experienced these benefits regardless of race, socioeconomic background, or school location.

There’s ongoing research to examine a wider range of outcomes, including the effects of SEL on civic engagement and sociopolitical consciousness.

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Social-Emotional Skills in Adulthood: �Career & Community

Complex problem-solving
Critical thinking
Creativity
People management
Coordinating with others

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The top 10 skills identified by the World Economic Forum all involve social and emotional competence³

Social-emotional skills can help adults be successful contributors to the communities in which they belong

Emotional Intelligence
Judgment and decision-making
Service orientation
Negotiation
Cognitive flexibility

Facilitator note: This slide can be helpful for those wanting to know what employers are saying.

Social-emotional skills help students be successful in childhood; they’re also skills that help us continue to be successful as adults in our professional and personal lives.

As shown by the top 10 career skills identified by the World Economic Forum in 2020, social-emotional skills are prioritized in the workplace. We can probably all look at this list and relate these skills to our own experiences in the workplace.

These same social-emotional skills can help adults become happy, healthy, and active members of their families and communities.

From academic achievement to employment success and civic engagement, the case for SEL as a priority in schools is strong. We’ve seen in recent years that it has become a greater priority for schools across the country. Let’s talk briefly about the foundations of a strong schoolwide SEL implementation and then we’ll look at the research-based curriculum we’ve chosen to use at our school: the Second Step® program. What constitutes a strong schoolwide implementation?

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Welcome to Second Step^® Elementary

The Second Step^® Elementary digital program is the SEL program we’ll use this year.

It’s research-based and made for elementary students.

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As a ___(school/district)___, we’ve decided to address kids’ social-emotional learning by teaching Second Step^® Elementary, a research-based SEL program with a decades-long track record in schools. The K–8 Second Step^® program is created by Committee for Children, a nonprofit based in Seattle, Washington. It's currently used in approximately 30,000 schools and 7 countries around the world.

We'll be using the Second Step^® Elementary digital program, a web-based program designed specifically for students in Kindergarten through Grade 5.

Facilitator Notes:

Insert information about your school’s implementation schedule and plans here. Below is an optional template for presenting the scheduling information.
If you’re using a printed version of the Family Open House flyer “What is Second Step Elementary?” distribute it now.

At our school, we’re planning to teach Second Step^® lessons each week on _____(day of week)______. It will be taught by your child’s ____________ (regular classroom teacher, team teachers, etc.).

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Weekly Lessons

Lessons per grade: 20 lessons

Teaching time: 15–30 minutes

Includes: Songs, videos, handouts, discussions, Brain Builder activities, daily practice activities

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Second Step^® Skills and Concepts

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Problem-Solving

Growth Mindset & Goal-Setting

Empathy & Kindness

Emotion Management

Unit 1

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 4

Each unit is composed of 5 lessons per grade

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Unit 1: Growth Mindset & Goal-Setting

Students learn how to:

Pay attention and manage distractions
Develop a growth mindset
Apply goal-setting strategies to their social and academic lives

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Grade 2, Lesson 1

Unit 1 teaches students growth mindset strategies and gives them practice applying a growth mindset through goal-setting activities and achievement.

A growth mindset is an important skill to establish early in the school year to help students keep going through challenges, welcome mistakes, identify and achieve goals, and gain confidence as they learn.

Students also learn that their brains grow and change when they tackle new challenges, try hard, and practice their skills.

In Kindergarten through Grade 2, students develop skills needed to pay attention and avoid distractions and learn about the importance of practice and effort when learning something new. Grade 3 introduces the brain science behind learning, practice, and planning. With this foundation, Grades 4 and 5 shift to focus on the goal-setting process.

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Unit 2: Emotion Management

Students learn how to:

Identify and label their own and others’ emotions
Use emotion-management strategies to calm strong feelings, including stress management for older students

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Grade 5, Lesson 6

The second unit is all about emotion management . . .

In this unit, students learn and practice ways to identify emotions and calm strong feelings. They build their emotion vocabularies, practice identifying their own and others’ emotions, and recognize the importance of labeling and managing emotions.

From Kindergarten through Grade 3, students develop emotion-related vocabulary and practice emotion-management strategies, like slow breathing, asking for help, or taking a break. By Grade 4, students focus on more complex ideas, like the role of emotion management in their lives and relationships, and Grade 4 introduces rethinking as a new way to manage emotions. In Grade 5, students begin to identify unique stressors in their own lives and plan for them in advance with new strategies.

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Unit 3: Empathy & Kindness

Students learn how to:

Recognize kindness and do kind acts for others
Have empathy for others and take others’ perspectives
Recognize kind acts and empathy as important elements in building and maintaining relationships

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Grade 1, Lesson 13

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Unit 4: Problem-Solving

Students learn how to:

Identify and state a problem
Recognize if a problem is an accident
Use the STEP problem-solving process:

S: Say the problem

T: Think of solutions

E: Explore the outcomes

P: Pick a solution

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Grade 3, Lesson 16

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Support SEL at Home

You can support your child’s social-emotional development at home.

Follow along throughout the year as each unit progresses.
You’ll receive weekly communications from your child’s teacher to help you reinforce Second Step language, skills, and goals at home.

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Additional Resources

Reach out to your student’s Second Step^® teacher to access more social-emotional learning resources, including book lists.

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References

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, �K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: �A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, �82(1), 405–432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
Taylor, R. D., Oberle, E., Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2017). Promoting positive youth development through school-based social and emotional learning interventions: A meta-analysis of follow-up effects. Child Development, 88(4), 1156–1171. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12864
World Economic Forum. (2020). The Future of Jobs Report. Geneva: World Economic Forum. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2020.pdf

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Thank You!

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