SEL LEarning Goal 5:

Responsible and Ethical Decision-Making

Subgoal 5A: Develop, Implement, and model responsible and ethical decision-making skills across settings

Definition: Identify and analyze problems; Think of solutions; explore potential consequences

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Grade Bands Pre K to 6

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How to use this module…

Please print out a copy of this module to add to the others you have already done so that you can write on the pages when there is a reflection or activity to do.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) & SEL

ALL of the SEL skills, strategies, ideas, activities to do with students can be adjusted, adapted, and accommodated so that ALL students can ACCESS and PARTICIPATE in Social- Emotional Learning Goals and Competencies.

Through:

Multiple Means of Engagement

Multiple Means of Representation

Multiple Means of Action and Expression

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Let’s Review the New SEL Definition

CASEL’s (The Collaborative for Social Emotional Learning) New Definition describes SEL as: “Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”

“We’ve updated our definition and framework to pay close attention to how SEL affirms the identities, strengths and experiences of all children, including those who have been marginalized in our education systems.”

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CASEL: https://casel.org/what-is-sel/

A Closer Look at Responsible and Ethical Decision-Making

Responsible and Ethical Decision-Making Includes...

• Identifying problems
• Analyzing situations
• Solving problems
• Evaluating
• Reflecting
• Ethical responsibility “I can be responsible.”

SEL Learning Goal 5: Responsible and Ethical Decision-Making

MVSD Benchmark Skills and Strategies: Pre-K-K

Subgoal 5A: Develop, implement, and model responsible and ethical decision-making skills across settings Definition: Identify and analyze problems; think of solutions; explore potential consequences (strategies in red from MVSD SEL Curriculum)

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What Should Danny Do?

What choices will you make for Danny? An interactive video story where students can choose what Danny should do and see the positive or negative consequences that happen based on the choices you make for Danny.

Responsible Decision-Making Resources

Children’s Library Lady has some awesome children’s book resources based on this SEL Learning Goal- Browse here

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Strangers, Acquaintance, or Friend…

What’s the Difference?

The National Crime Prevention Council has some important teaching

points for parents and teachers to use when teaching children about

strangers and safe strangers:

Who is a stranger?

• Anyone your family does not know well- children typically think that strangers look scary, like the bad guys in cartoons or on TV shows
• This is NOT TRUE and dangerous for children to think this way about strangers
• Explain to children that no one can tell if a stranger is nice or not nice just by seeing what he/she looks like.
• HOWEVER, there may be a time when helpful, safe stranger can help them if they are lost- such as a police officer, a firefighter, etc. so be sure to show children who helpful safe strangers are in the community and what these people usually look like (ex: usually wear a uniform).

Source for this slide: http://archive.ncpc.org/topics/violent-crime-and-personal-safety/strangers.html

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Safe Strangers

The National Crime Prevention gives tips to teach children about SAFE STRANGERS: strangers that can help them if they need it

• Share safe stranger examples in the community- use real pics with students - police officer, firefighters
• School safe strangers- teachers, principal, etc…
• Parents… be sure to point out these safe strangers and safe buildings (police station, fire house) in the community when you are out; Explain that whenever possible, if they are out in the community, they should go to a public place to ask for help- in a store, the customer service desk a safe stranger there can help them- be sure to show children where that is in the stores you bring them to
• Teachers can reinforce this through real life pics and role play and through teaching concepts of public vs private.

Source: The National Crime Prevention Archive

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Resources for Teaching Children How To Recognize Dangerous Situations

The National Crime Prevention also has some tips on teaching children about safe and unsafe situations

• Help them recognize the warning signs of unsafe or dangerous behaviors and then practice by role playing scenarios (ex: when an adult asks them to keep a secret; when a stranger asks them for help; tells them to disobey their parents or do something without permission) or when an adult makes them feel uncomfortable in any way
• Reinforce that a stranger should never ask a child for help but if one does, teach them to find a trusted adult right away and tell what happened.

Resources for Teaching Children How To Handle Dangerous Situations

The National Crime Prevention also has some tips on teaching children how to handle dangerous situations:

• Teach them: “No! Go! Tell! Yell!
• Tell them they need to say “NO!”, run away, yell as loud as they can, and tell a trusted adult what happened right away.
• Teach children it is ok to say NO! to an adult and yell to keep themselves safe in dangerous situations even if it is indoors
• Role play these scenarios with children so they will confident in what to do if something ever happens

Scenarios to Role Play

The following are scenarios to role play with children from National Crime Prevention:

• A nice-looking stranger approaches your child in the park and asks for help finding the stranger's lost dog.
• A woman who lives in your neighborhood but that the child has never spoken to invites your child into her house for a snack.
• A stranger asks if your child wants a ride home from school.
• Your child thinks he or she is being followed.
• An adult your child knows says or does something that makes him or her feel bad or uncomfortable.
• While your child is walking home from a friend’s house, a car pulls over and a stranger asks for directions.

Source: http://archive.ncpc.org/topics/violent-crime-and-personal-safety/strangers.html

Other Resources on Child Safety

Browse through these resources to gain other ideas on how you can reinforce teaching your students about safety:

• From Family Education: Teaching Your Child About Strangers Follow a simple rule: “Never, ever go anywhere with a stranger (or for that matter, with a relative or friend) unless the people he/she knows and trusts best—that is, you or another of his/her caregivers—says it's okay.”
• TIP 1: Pattie Fitzgerald, founder of a child-safety organization called Safely Ever After, Inc. suggests the use of the phrase “Tricky People” vs Stranger Danger when teaching children about strangers

She defines tricky people as “ grown-ups—both familiar and unknown—who try to trick children into breaking the rules of safety.”

The Importance of of Role Play to Practice What to Say and Do

• The more children can practice role playing stranger situations, the greater chance that if something happens, they will remember what to do and say.
• “Betsy Brown Braun, a child-development and behavior specialist and author of Just Tell Me What to Say. Pose questions like:

“What if a grown-up offered you candy?”

“What if a grown-up asked you to help him find a lost puppy?”

See how she answers, then explain, “Just like you don’t pet a dog you don’t know, you don’t talk to people you don’t know when you’re not with me or Daddy or another adult you trust.” - Betsy Braun link to purchase her book

Tip 2- Plan Ahead

• For young children, the author suggests that safety rules are learned best through muscle memory- physically acting out and practicing scenarios to help them “stick.”
• *Sometimes, a child may need to go to a stranger for help so the author suggests you tell them this: “if you ever get separated from me in public, first, look for and go to an employee (a cashier in a store, for example). If that’s not possible, look for another mom with children.”

Tip 3: Teach Them to Trust Their Instincts

• Braun calls this: “the uh-oh feeling”- teach children this for strangers and people they do know because many cases of abuse happen with people they know.
• The author shares an example from a 2nd grade teacher who uses this language:

“If you start feeling weird in your stomach, you should listen to it. Get away from whoever is making you feel that way and tell an adult you trust right away.”

• Another tip, keep a family list of rules such as “We don’t keep secrets in this family. If someone tells you to keep a secret, tell an adult.” You can create a Class Rules List with similar rules for the classroom.
• Take a look at this resource: Stranger Safety Tips for Kids and Parents
• Important- BE AWARE: Attitudes toward stranger vary throughout different parts of the country and in different cultures- this same teacher says that “in Northern California, children won’t be too friendly to people they don’t know- but in a rural area like North Carolina, “children are expected to be well-mannered and obey adults, even if they do not know them.” read the article: https://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/advice/practical-ways-to-talk-to-kids-about-strangers/

Using Puppets to Teach Children About Safe and Unsafe Situations

Read this article and meet Rosie- a 3 foot child puppet that is used to teach children about safe and unsafe situations.

This article shares info about the 15 session course that is a very effective and interactive way to teach young children about safe and unsafe situations.

Consider this type of interactive safety education that can be a very effective way to teach young children.

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Source: https://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/nov/23/puppet_teaches_preschoolers_importance_touching_ru/

Protect Yourself Rules

Video Story: Not Everyone is Nice

Helping Children Learn Caution with Strangers

Share the video story and stop the video at different times to discuss the choices Kathy was planning to make that were unsafe and that some people can look nice but they may not be nice people.

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SEL Learning Goal 5: Responsible and Ethical Decision-Making

MVSD Benchmark Skills and Strategies: Gr 1 & 2

Subgoal 5A: Develop, implement, and model responsible and ethical decision-making skills across settings Definition: Identify and analyze problems; think of solutions; explore potential consequences (strategies in red from MVSD SEL Curriculum)

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What is a responsible choice?

Share this short interactive video with students and have a class discussion on what Jordan’s responsible choice should be and brainstorm what can happen if he doesn’t make a responsible choice (consequences).

Learning Mindful Choices to Help Solve Problems

How Should Jayden Respond?

Let’s see how Jayden learns mindfulness to help him make better choices. When we get mad and make a bad choice, there can be consequences we don’t like.

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Consequences- Good and Bad

Let’s watch this lesson watch and learn about good and bad consequences:

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Choices and Consequences

Teachers Pay Teachers has free activities and resources to support teaching these concepts:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Choices-and-Consequences-Activity-Pack-3546784?st=75d0fec9d7539df0d00a41de7508156e

Wheel of Awesome: Description; This has been the best classroom behaviour management tool I've been able to implement into my classroom. You can simply use a paperclip and a pen as the spinning device to help randomly generate a reward incentive/consequence. You have a couple of options on how you may want to use this.(template)

1) As A Class

You can laminate and post both at the front of the classroom. At the start of each week/month/academic year, decide together with the entire class what are the 4 rewards and 4 consequences. After you've established classroom rules, this resource helps students to feel involved in decision-making processes. If you laminate the papers, you can use dry erase markers to use the same page time and time again.

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2) Individually

You can have students insert a copy of "Wheel Page" into his/her main notebook. As a quick classroom or homework exercise, let the student write down their choices. Approve or adjust them the next day and then fully implement them into your classroom management strategies.

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Choices and Consequences Resources

Making Good Choices Activity

Story: Tayla Teal Takes Turns

Scholastic Article has some helpful tips for parents and teachers can modify to use in the classroom: Ages and Stages: Making Choices Pre-K to 2

Share video story with children: My Magical Choices

Fun Decision-Making Games and Activities

for Kids

Responsible Decision Making Writing and/or Discussion Starter Prompts

This list of writing prompts is from Connect with Kids Network. It is leveled as Elementary age, however, some prompts seem a bit higher comprehension level so re-word and modify the writing prompts to suit grades 1 and 2:

Intro: “The following questions are designed to prompt students to write responses relating to the SEL core component of responsible decision making.”

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Responsible Decision-Making Writing and/or Class Discussion Starters

SEL Learning Goal 5: Responsible and Ethical Decision-Making

MVSD Benchmark Skills and Strategies: Gr 3 & 4

Subgoal 5A: Develop, implement, and model responsible and ethical decision-making skills across settings Definition: Identify and analyze problems; think of solutions; explore potential consequences (strategies in red from MVSD SEL Curriculum)

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Making Tough Choices

“Every choice you make leads to something good or not so good.”- Kid President- He shares 4 choices for making choices: Impulsive, Do nothing, Follower, Be Thoughtful and his recommendations…

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“Focus on being someone worth following.”

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“The choices we make, make our life. Your life is an awesome one. Make the kind of choices that are worthy of that awesome life.”

-Kid President-

Social Problems Solving- Steps to Supporting

Students to Find Solutions

The Pathway to Success offers 5 steps to help students learn social problem solving skills:

1. Teach kids to communicate their feelings. (“I feel ______ when _____.”)
2. Discuss and model empathy. (learning how to put yourself in another person’s shoes- “How might they feel?”)
3. Model problem-solving skills.
4. Use social scenarios to practice (free social problem solving cards from Teachers Pay Teachers)
5. Allow kids top figure it out.

To read more details for each of these steps, go here.

Source: https://www.thepathway2success.com/teaching-social-problem-solving-with-a-free-activity/

Tool for Developing Students’ Problem Solving Skills

A Guide and Teach Activity

Modify as need for grades 3 & 4- this tool is recommended for ages 5-`12

This tool will help strengthen a child’s foundational skills around problem solving.

The tool is used in two different ways:

1. For educational purposes - By using example scenarios or past problems to work through how to solve the problem.

2. To help solve real problems your child is currently dealing with.

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Source for slides 32-35:: https://www.playattune.com/post/free-tool-how-to-develop-your-childs-problem-solving-skills

Question 4: "What can help you to cool down or feel better? Here are some ideas."

Question 5: "Understand your goal."

Question 6: "Brainstorm one or more possible solutions to solve problem."

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Step 7: Applying a Solution- Which solution will you try?

More Than One Solution???

Teachers Pay Teachers offers FREE Social Problem Solving Task Cards for elementary age children.

This is a great way to have students brainstorm different possible outcomes to a problem they are posed with solving. Check it out here…

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More Than One Solution Worksheet- Write the problem from the task card and with your group brainstorm at least 2 possible solutions

Problem: ___________________________________________________________

Solution1 : __________________________________________________________

Solution 2: __________________________________________________________

Problem: ______________________________________________

Solution 1: ________________________________________

Solution 2: ________________________________________

Problem: _________________________________________

Solution 1: ________________________________________

Solution 2: ________________________________________

Possible Solutions to Social Problems

Read this article from Socially Skilled Kids for ideas on teaching students how to think about potential solutions to problems that they may encounter with others:

• Take a look at some inexpensive resources such as Sizing the Problem that may be helpful to use when helping students understand the size of the problem.
• Read examples and share with students for practice
• Learn methods to teach students when solving problems such as Trial and Error, Brainstorming, and Flexible Thinking

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SEL Learning Goal 5: Responsible and Ethical Decision-Making

MVSD Benchmark Skills and Strategies: Gr 5 & 6

Subgoal 5A: Develop, implement, and model responsible and ethical decision-making skills across settings Definition: Identify and analyze problems; think of solutions; explore potential consequences (strategies in red from MVSD SEL Curriculum)

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Moral Dilemma Scenarios- What to do?

Good Character has a library of social dilemmas that students face all the time. Take a look at this one: Dilemma 4: Cliques and Bullying: Julia

Read the dilemma to your students and have a discussion after. Use the set of questions to start the dialogue.

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IDEA: Start a Dilemma of the Day in the classroom! Use this resource with your students to work through social dilemmas and potential solutions- whole group or small groups with different dilemmas.

Learning to Make Decisions- 3 Activities

Grade Level: 4-6

FROM: https://dese.mo.gov/sites/default/files/PS3A_Grade_4-6_L1.pdf

Purpose: This series of three (3) lessons focus on:

• students’ awareness of what is important to them
• what influences their decision-making
• the importance of compromise AND
• standing-up for what is personally important

The more students learn about themselves, the higher their self-esteem and the more likely they are to make safe and healthy choices.

Lesson 1: What Influences Your Decisions?

Lesson 2: What would you do?

Lesson 3: Decision Making: It Is Up To Me!

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Source: https://dese.mo.gov/

Dilemmas and Influences on Your Decisions

Take a look at this resource from: Inc.com

Stephanie Frank, the author, shares 3 steps that you can use with students (adapt it for this age group) that can help them when having to make difficult personal decisions:

1. Make a list of your values- (read details here)
2. Decide on your top 3 values (read details here)
3. Measure your decision against your top 3 values (read details here)

After, guide students using this exercise as they write about a personal experience where they made a decision, and what or who influenced the decision- was it a value they hold that influenced their decision?

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Survival Activities

This resource, from https://www.crystalspringsfoundation.org/ provides Survival Scenario Games for students in grades 6-8. View lesson plans and details here.

Crystal Springs Preserve is a foundation that supports environmental education.

Activity 1: Lost at Sea is all about survival skills and listing the items of importance needed in order to survive.

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Stuck in the Snow Survival Scenario (grades 5-12) from Teachers Pay Teachers is a free resource to use.

Description: This is a short passage that describes a survival scenario for a small groups to discuss and problem-solve. There are no right or wrong answers. The scenario is meant to encourage team building skills through discussing ideas, debate differing opinions, and creating a team plan.

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Survival Island Activity- FREE from TPT

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Backpacking and Hiking Survival Skills Group Activity to practice teamwork skills (grade Levels: 4th-7th)

Source: https://fyi.extension.wisc.edu/wi4hpublications/files/2015/10/survival.pdf

5 Key Reasons to Teach Students HOW to Analyze Different Perspectives

This resource is from Literacy in Focus and has some helpful reasons of why it is important to teach students HOW to look critically and deeply into why different perspective matter. Click on each link to take a deeper look into each area listed below.

Critical Thinking

Problem Solving

Tolerance

Flexibility

Empathy

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Perspective Taking Exercises

These scenario exercises on taking the perspective from another person’s point of view is an effective way for students to practice this skill.

Suggestion-

• Cut out these scenarios into strips.
• Break the class into small groups and have each group choose a scenario from a hat.
• The small group can discuss the scenario, state whose perspective are they taking, and answer the question on the scenario.
• Groups can share their scenario and their answers with the large group.

Source: https://riverviewschool.org/content/parent-news/resources/social-emotional/1-zones-of-regulation/perspective-taking-scenarios.pdf

Multiple Perspectives Recording Sheet

Benchmark: I can recognize there may be more than one perspective.

This FREE graphic organizer on Multiple Perspectives is from Teachers Pay Teachers and can be used with the example on the next slide or when working with students on recording different perspectives.

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Social Issues: Civil Rights: Multiple Accounts Point of View

Suggestion for this activity: Roles: Officer Spenler and Winston- a protestor

• After reading the Civil Rights Scenario as a large group, have the class break into 4 groups- within each group, the team decides which team members will represent Officer Spenler’s point of view and which team members will represent the Winston’s point of view
• Ask for a volunteer from each group to read that person’s viewpoint.
• Complete the questions on the activity sheet based on the perspective of the person your group represents.
• Share out with the rest of the class and have a discussion.

Source:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/Social-Issues-Multiple-Accounts-Point-Of-View-SOCIAL-JUSTICE-RL-56-RI-56-1172500

Reflection

You have reached the end of SEL Goal 5: Responsible and Ethical Decision-Making Subgoal 5A: Develop, implement, and model responsible and ethical decision-making skills across settings. Please take a moment to scroll back through the slides and reflect on a new learning or a strategy you think you can will be able to embed into a lesson or activity to do with students.

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Up Next: Subgoal 5B: Engage in a reflective process to evaluate decision outcomes.