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The How We Feel Project is a non-profit working to help everyone better understand their own emotions.

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Ideas for Informal Classroom Assessments 

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Ideas for Informal Classroom Assessments 

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Chances are, you probably know where your students are academically. You have carefully planned out lessons and give regular assessments to make sure your students are on target. But do you assess SEL skills? If you're going to put effort into teaching SEL, you should also have ways to track the effectiveness of your efforts. By regularly assessing students' social and emotional learning, you can learn more about how you can best support them.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has come up with five core competencies of SEL: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. While it is important to teach students about each of these competencies, it is equally important to assess how students are developing them.

Use these smart strategies to assess SEL skills:

Assess Self-Awareness with Entrance Slips

You may be used to having students complete exit slips, but how about entrance slips? Hand students index cards when they come into class and have them write or draw about how they are feeling. Younger students can circle faces showing feelings that look like their own. Older students can write about why they are feeling the way that they are. Collect the entrance slips and review them privately to respect students' feelings and encourage vulnerability. This strategy helps you gain information about the emotions that are brought into your class while allowing you to assess students' self-awareness skills.

Assess Self-Management with Goal Trackers

It's pretty common for us to have students set academic goals. But how about SEL goals? Once students are aware of the social and emotional competencies they'd like to develop, encourage them to set an achievable goal. For example, a kindergartner might set a goal of asking a peer to play at least once a week or a ninth grader might set a goal of checking in with a friend who is having a hard time.

After the goals are set, encourage students to monitor their progress once a week. Again, this goal setting and monitoring can be done privately. Consider giving students a calendar to physically check off dates and make notes on their work. Notice not only how your students are progressing to their goals, but also how they are reflecting on their progress. Students who are having difficulty meeting their goals can be given extra one-on-one support.

Assess Social Awareness with Role Plays

Role plays can be a powerful SEL tool, as they avoid the intensity of discussing events that actually happened to students. You may already be using role plays as a way to teach students how to practice navigate challenging social situations. But you can also use role plays as an assessment tool. Social awareness hinges on the ability to empathize, or take the perspective of, others. Pair students up and have them play the role of two students having an argument. Ask students to each explain their perspective to their peer, then have students switch roles to take on each other's perspectives. When students do this, pay attention to their abilities to truly see both sides of a story. Note who does this naturally and who might have more difficulty.

Assess Relationship Skills at Recess

What better setting is there for practicing SEL skills than recess? During recess, take a "fly on the wall" perspective as you observe your students' relationship skills. Pay attention to how students listen to each other, cooperate, and navigate differences of opinion. Bring a clipboard with you to observe and assess how students are getting along with each other. It can be helpful to bring a class roster with you so you can make sure to collect data on each of your students. Try to do this once a month, noting how social dynamics and relationship skills change over time.

Assess Responsible Decision Making with Fiction Writing

As with role plays, fiction writing can help students practice making responsible decisions. Learn more about your students' decision-making skills by giving them a tricky social situation to write about. For example, students can write about a character whose friends are bullying a peer. Ask students to write a story about how the main character could show responsible decision making. Though the writing would be fictional, it is an effective way to assess students' abilities to distinguish and describe responsible decision making.

When you assess SEL skills, you can get important information about your students' development. But, even more importantly, you can truly learn how to help them more. Looking to do more formal assessments of SEL competencies? Check out CASEL's Measuring SEL site for additional ideas.
How do you assess SEL skills in the classroom? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, ways to integrate SEL throughout the day.

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If We're Teaching Social Emotional Skills, We Need to Assess Them

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Do you assess SEL skills? If you're going to put effort into teaching SEL, you should also have ways to track the effectiveness of your efforts.

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SEL and Literacy: A Natural Fit - Center for Responsive Schools

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The high pressure of standardized testing is often cited as a barrier for the implementation of SEL practices in schools due to the constraints of time. However, a cognitive-only approach to teaching—which essentially ignores collaboration, communication, and creative problem-solving—can elicit unin…

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Brightly | Helping Parents Grow Lifelong Readers

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Find great books for kids, reading strategies, age-specific book lists, exclusive author content, and more.

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As your SEL team works with teachers to align SEL and academic objectives, it's also important to consider how the content is delivered so that it supports the practice of social and emotional competencies. The guidance in this section should be considered alongside the Interactive Pedagogy section as part of the full integration of SEL into instruction.

How Do SEL and Academic Goals Align?

Each academic discipline has its own questions, processes, and proficiencies. Teachers consider what students should know and be able to do when planning their lessons. This emphasis- not merely on acquiring content knowledge, but on being able to do something with it- is reflected in academic standards for each content area and connects closely to SEL.
Common Core and SEL Alignment
As an example of Common Core and SEL alignment, within the Common Core math process standards, students are asked to "construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others." Social and emotional learning is naturally embedded as students:

Anticipate how their own arguments may be interpreted and received by taking on the perspectives of others. (Social awareness)

Think metacognitively and organize their own thoughts with given information. (Self-management)

Understand others' perspectives to effectively interpret their arguments. (Social awareness)

Listen actively to further explore the arguments of others. (Relationship skills)Adapted From: The Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin

Supporting Teachers in Aligning SEL with Academic Goals

After developing an understanding of how SEL standards support and sustain deep learning, the SEL team can collaborate with teachers to determine where SEL can be embedded in academic content standards. Pay special attention to:

Challenging or conceptually large ideas- Challenging concepts require a strategy, such as empowering students to cope with frustration or to collaborate effectively with a partner to achieve an objective.

Tasks or process goals- What are students going to need to be able to do? Social and emotional competencies can often support these objectives. For example, in science students may be tasked with planning and carrying out an investigation, which will require self-management skills such as planning and breaking large tasks down into manageable steps.

Goals that specifically involve interpreting decisions and relationships, either fictional or historical- Social studies and language arts goals often lend themselves to connections with SEL. For example, for the ELA goal that students "analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision," teachers could consider an SEL goal that deals with perspective-taking (such as "I can understand the perspective of another by what they say or do") or responsible decision-making.

Many schools and districts have found it helpful to create crosswalks between their academic content standards and SEL standards or goals to illuminate their interconnection.

Once teachers have determined places of alignment between SEL and academic standards, a Frame, Coach, Reflect model can help make these connections clear to students.

Frame: Learning requires thoughtful scaffolding (Darling-Hammond et al, 2017, and Hammond & Jackson, 2015). Teachers can provide this scaffolding for social and emotional competencies by framing the competencies students will use to reach their content learning goals.
Try it:
Coach: Teachers can help students develop social and emotional competencies by providing them opportunities to perform them in new and increasingly complex situations and providing specific feedback in the context of authentic application (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). In this context, the teacher acts as a coach.
Try it:
Reflect: Reflection is a crucial part of learning because it helps to build meta-cognition (Donovan & Bransford, 2005) and activate neural pathways (Darling-Hammond, 2018 in press). Reflection is critical in building students' self-awareness.
Try it:
Examples of Aligned SEL and Academic Objectives
Math Math

Academic Standard: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (CCSS.MATH.PRACTICE.MP1)

Connections to SEL: In order to persevere in solving a problem, students will need self-management to work through frustration.

Example of Aligned SEL Standard: Individual demonstrates a resilient attitude and growth mindset, even in the face of adversity and challenges. (Rhode Island Social Emotional Learning Standard 2D)

Potential SEL Objective: "I can appropriately handle my feelings" (Self-management)

Frame: Teacher says something like, "Some of the problems we will be working on today are very challenging. We need challenges to grow, but they can definitely be frustrating! Can anyone remind me what strategies we can use if we are feeling frustrated?" Wait for student responses (take a deep breath, check our self talk, remember our math strategies).

Coach: As students work, circulate and notice when students seem to be stuck. Ask them what strategy they will try to get unstuck.

Reflect: Ask students, "What was one strategy you used that helped you to persevere today?" Give students a few moments to respond in their journals or share with a partner.

English Language Arts

Academic Standard: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on how well purpose and audience have been addressed. (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.5)

Connections to SEL: Students will need responsible decision-making strategies to monitor their own engagement in brainstorming, writing, requesting feedback from a peer, revising, and editing. They will also need relationship skills to give and receive feedback with peers.

Example of Aligned SEL Standards: Monitor progress on achieving a short-term personal goal; Evaluate the application of communication and social skills in daily interactions with peers, teachers, and families. (Illinois State Social Emotional Learning Standards 1C.2b and 2C.5a)

Potential SEL Objective: "I can set goals and create a plan related to them" or " I can effectively give and receive feedback"

Frame: Teacher says something like, "Writers! Today you will be moving independently through your writing process. Many of you are ready for an exciting step: getting feedback from a colleague in the class. Think about a time that someone gave you feedback that was really helpful. What did they do?" (Allow for some discussion about what makes feedback effective and palatable). Ask, "What are some things you think will be important to do when giving feedback?" (e.g., "be specific," "say what worked for you and where you had challenges"). Consider role-playing a quick feedback with a student to model and/or using sentence frames.

Coach: Check in with students who are giving one another feedback to see if they are communicating effectively. Notice some positive "feedback moves" students are making that you can share with the class. If students are struggling to give effective feedback, remind them of their strategies.

Reflect: Ask students, "What was it like to give feedback? To receive it?" Allow students to share with a partner or journal independently.

Download Tool

Aligned SEL sample lesson plan

This tool helps teachers identify where within lesson plans SEL practices are already present, or where they might be included.

Download Tool

SEL Reflection Prompts

Sample reflection questions, aligned with the five core competencies of SEL, that support students' self-awareness and prioritizes their insights into their own strengths and challenges.

Diversity and Inclusion in Content Materials

Aligning SEL and academic goals includes a thoughtful consideration of the materials and texts we share. To develop self and social awareness, students from all backgrounds and walks of life need exposure to a variety of voices, cultures, and perspectives, and to understand their own personal contexts, including ethnic, family, community, and classroom cultures (Hammond and Jackson, 2015). Students also need to see themselves reflected in the scientists, mathematicians, musicians, and writers they study.

When choosing content materials, consider diversity within cultural or socio-economic groups as well. Avoid promoting what Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie describes as " single stories." According to Adiche, we promote single stories when we "show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become." By providing a variety of experiences within a variety of cultures, we equip students to respect the richness and diversity of the human experience.

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As your SEL team works with teachers to align SEL and academic objectives, it's also important to consider how the content is delivered so that it supports the practice of social and emotional competencies. The guidance in this section should be considered alongside the Interactive Pedagogy section as part of the full integration of SEL into instruction.

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Social and Emotional Learning - Aperture Education

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The Easiest,Fastest, Most Reliable, Strength-Based Social and Emotional Learning System Create transformation with DESSA SEL assessments:

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How mindfulness changes the emotional life of our brains | Richard J. Davidson | TEDxSanFrancisco

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How Emotions and Social Relationships Drive Learning

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How Emotions and Social Relationships Drive Learning

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How emotions and social relationships drive learning

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Linda Darling-Hammond, Christina Krone

Read this magazine as a course and get 2 hours credit as part of our certificate program. Members can use your coupon code [wlm_private "1 Year Subscription|3 Year Subscription|NPT Standard|Staff|NPT Premium|NPT Standard Monthly|2 Year Subscription"]soplji9hfer78q [/wlm_private] to get 100% off this course.

Throughout life, and to an extraordinary degree in young people, the brain develops differently based on opportunities to engage actively and safely with rich and meaningful environments, social relationships, and ideas. 1-3 The brain's plasticity, the very adaptability that allows us to adjust to the demands of our environments, therefore presents a critical opportunity and responsibility for education.

Brain science usually does not translate directly into educational policy or practice. But educational policies and practices that are consistent with how the brain develops are more likely to promote learning and development than those that undermine or are inconsistent with brain science. ⁴ In addition, an appreciation of how brain development varies across individuals and accommodates environmental demands can give educators insights into the types of supports and interventions that might prove most helpful for different children. ⁵⁻⁸

This brief explains the science behind how the brain develops, how that development relates to learning, and the settings and contexts that are conducive to learning and development. It explains how brain development requires social relationships, emotional experiences, and cognitive opportunities. And, it draws from this evidence to suggest basic principles for educational policymakers and practitioners.

Brain development supports learning, and vice versa

Brain development after birth does not just involve the brain getting bigger or stronger or increasing its number of connections. ⁹ Instead, brain development mainly involves the generation, pruning, and reorganization of neural connections to form brain networks that reflect a person's experiences and help him or her adapt to the world in which they live. 10,11 As a person engages with situations, problems, ideas, and social relationships, these experiences influence patterns of brain structure and function that undergird a person's changing skills and inclinations over time.

The developmental sculpting of the brain's networks through learning is akin to the process of growing a botanical garden. When given adequate opportunity, plants naturally grow through various developmentally appropriate phases, such as seed germination and cycles of budding and flowering. However, the particular characteristics of a garden reflect the age and types of the plants and a combination of geography, climate, soil quality, care, cultural context (such as preferences for rock gardens versus wildflowers), and the gardener's own choices. The garden is also affected by how it is laid out and used (for example, for picnicking under shade trees, growing vegetables, strolling along paths, or playing active sports). In this way, the local conditions, the gardener's skills and taste, the patterns of use, and time all shape the garden and affect its future growth and health.

Just as a garden grows differently in different climates and with different plants, styles of gardening, and use, a person's brain develops differently depending on age, predispositions, priorities, experiences, and environment. When given adequate opportunity, support, and encouragement, children naturally think, feel emotions, and engage with their social and physical worlds. And these patterns of thoughts, feelings, and engagement organize brain development over time and in age-specific ways, influencing growth, intelligence, and health into the future.

Genes and Epigenetics: An emotionally safe, cognitively stimulating environment contributes to brain development

In 1990, a major multinational scientific project was launched to document the full genetic makeup of humans. The Human Genome Project ¹² resulted in a startling discovery: humans have far fewer genes than had been predicted, ¹³ and fewer than many simpler organisms, including many plants. How could the most intelligent and flexible creatures on the planet have so few uniquely human genes with which to specify abilities? The answer speaks squarely to the purpose of culture, childrearing, and education: our amazing intellectual potential appears to derive partly from the evolutionary loss of genetic information. 14,15 Our genes appear to underspecify our development, and that information deficit makes possible (and in fact necessary) our unparalleled proclivity for socially mediated learning. ¹⁶⁻¹⁸ For our genes to grow a fully functioning human, we must have adequate opportunity to interact with others and to learn. This learning extends across the settings a person lives in: family, community, and school.

While the components of the genetic code could be likened to a gardener's seeds and instruction manual, the epigenetic forces-the environmental forces from "above the genome"-provide the supports and triggers that open and close various pages of the manual, and even reorder, copy, and delete pages, telling the gardener whether, when, where, and how to plant various seeds given dynamic environmental conditions, and how to care for, arrange, prune, and fertilize plants at different stages, in accordance with the changing weather conditions and the desired uses and appearance of the garden.

Epigenetic forces are like the climate, the weather, and the gardener's actions. They are aspects of the person's social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and physiological contexts-the engaging and rigorous intellectual opportunities, warm and rich social relationships, and healthy physical and emotional environments in which a person lives. Together, these forces trigger and organize brain development and, therefore, a person's readiness and capacities to learn. Though healthy human environments can vary greatly in their specific characteristics and cultural features, when a person's world is seriously impoverished in any of these dimensions, brain development and the learning that depends on it are compromised. 3,19-21 When a person's world is enriched in these dimensions, brain development is facilitated and learning is enabled. ²²⁻²⁵

Except in the rare case of severe, life-threatening genetic disorders, all children have the genes essential for brain development and the propensity to learn. However, genes are not sufficient to build a person, and the genome itself is dynamic, changing in response to environmental cues. ²⁶ Continual, age-appropriate, and individualized contextual support provides the epigenetic forces that turn genes on and off, copy and arrange them, so that growth, development, thinking, and learning can occur. ²⁷⁻²⁹ Overall, though differences in individuals' intelligence are somewhat heritable in optimal learning environments, ³⁰ in sub-optimal environments, measures of environmental quality and learning opportunities overwhelmingly swamp the predictive power of genes. ³¹ Following the garden analogy, individuals may inherit "seeds" for various kinds of plants, but it is the gardening and environmental conditions that determine which seeds will grow, thrive, and thereby reveal their potential. Importantly, across the lifespan, targeted interventions and supports of the sorts that can be provided by schools and community organizations have been shown to improve neural and cognitive functioning and health, with long-term benefits for individuals. 21,23,32-35

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The quality of a person's relationships and social interactions shapes their development and health, both of the body and of the brain.

The brain development that supports learning depends on social experience.

Think of a hysterical baby up past bedtime, whose distraught parent lifts and hugs her, shushes, lays the little one's head where she can hear the parent's heartbeat, and sings her to sleep. In the minutes that follow, both the baby's and the parent's blood pressure lower, stress hormones normalize, and hormones involved in bonding and social affiliation increase. ³⁶ Over the course of these minutes, both the parent and the baby undergo physiological changes that influence not only immune functioning and digestion, but also brain structure, especially in regions associated with learning and memory, and in the adult, with executive functioning, which supports self-regulation and goal-directed behavior. ³⁷ Exposure to these socially triggered hormones opens a window of plasticity in the parent's brain development,38 and signals the infant's brain to grow. ³⁹⁻⁴¹

As the above example demonstrates, individuals co-regulate each other's physiology, ⁴²⁻⁴⁵ which means that the quality of a person's relationships and social interactions shapes their development and health, both of the body and of the brain. 37,46-49 For example, infants' prenatal brain development is impacted by maternal stress, which is in turn related to toddler behavior, and child temperament and learning. ⁵⁰⁻⁵²

The brains of children and adolescents who experience persistent adversity respond by strengthening circuits that promote aggressive and anxious tendencies at the expense of circuits for cognition, reasoning, and memory.53,54 The hormonal signaling molecules responsible for these shifts in neural development are toxic in large amounts, making individuals more likely to develop health problems, including mental health disorders such as addiction, anxiety, and depression, ⁵⁵⁻⁵⁹ and physical health problems, such as heart disease, obesity, and cancer. 60,61 Connections between social and physical maturation are also seen in less extreme conditions: toddlers with poor attachment to caregivers undergo puberty earlier, ⁴⁶ as do pre-teen girls whose co-habiting parents are socially aggressive to each other (for example, refusing to talk, threatening to leave). ⁶² Stress shortens the window of increased neural plasticity and growth in adolescence,63 and predicts earlier sexual maturity and worse psychosocial outcomes, ⁶⁴ with implications for risky decisions that influence educational outcomes. 65,66

As these examples illustrate, the brain functioning that supports learning depends on social experience. The way individuals experience relationships in the home, community, school, and workplace influences their biological development, and hence how they live and think. ⁶⁷⁻⁶⁹ Even in adults, close relationships are associated with hormone co-regulation, with implications for cognition, sleep quality, and health. 70,71 Though the brain is malleable and changed by experience across the lifespan, the most important periods are those in which the brain is most actively changing: the prenatal period through childhood, adolescence, the transition to parenthood, and old age.
Sensitive periods in brain development align with opportunities for learning and needed supports.
The development of the brain and the development of thinking run in parallel; each enables the other. Examining brain development at different stages provides insights into developmentally appropriate learning at each stage and the necessary supportive conditions.

Infancy: Newborn's brains are highly immature and malleable. They require extensive human interaction to develop. Infants come into the world with a set of neural reflexes that serve as primitive entry-points for regulating themselves in their environment (such as breathing, eating, and maintaining a steady body temperature) and for interacting with physical objects and other people (for example, through looking and eye contact, listening, grasping, mirroring, vocalizing, and cuddling). In engaging with their caregivers, infants notice patterns of actions, language use, and emotional expression that tune their brain development to the features of their specific environment.

Given their stage of brain development, infants thrive with stable routines, including living routines like feeding, bathing, and sleeping, and cultural routines like simple songs and interactive games. Infants need stable relationships with emotionally healthy, attentive caregivers; adequate nutrition and physical care; and plentiful exposure to language.

Healthy early care environments feature small ratios of children to adults so that interpersonal interactions are maximized. These interactions offer physical comfort and affectionate holding and hugging to support attachment and a sense of safety, as well as regular communication and responsive, back-and-forth interactions to support infants' development of language and sense-making in the relationships and settings they encounter. In addition to warm, sensitive relationships, these settings also offer regular feeding and good nutrition, sleep, and physical activities, such as sitting, rolling, crawling, and walking with adult oversight. ⁷²⁻⁷⁴

Early childhood: In early childhood, the brain regions that control sensory, motor, language, spatial, and visual functions are maturing. ⁷⁵⁻⁷⁷ This brain development coincides with children learning to coordinate their reflexes to form goal-directed actions, such as toddlers coordinating their gesturing and vocalizing to communicate with caregivers, or coordinating their posture, movement, and attention to learn to run, ride a wheeled toy, or read a book with an older person. In order to attain physical milestones, like walking and toileting, and social milestones, like talking and sharing joint attention, young children need predictably calm interactions with responsive and loving caregivers,78 and safe opportunities to explore and to share what they notice.

Young children are interested in learning with others about the world-real and imaginary. With conversations and other interactions, imitation, exploration, and self-paced practice, children build simple understandings of sights, sounds, and object properties, as well as of social rituals, language, emotions, and stories. ⁷⁹ Through active play and participation in daily activities, they notice patterns of cause and effect, gain agency and a sense of self, and begin to figure out how the world works. ⁸⁰ They learn to act alone and with others' help to satisfy their curiosities and achieve their goals. 81,82

Much of young children's learning happens through play. 83,84 Productive early childhood education settings offer rich environments with materials to manipulate-for example, a sand table, water table, blocks, playhouse area, art supplies, musical toys-and regular opportunities to investigate, move, and play with these materials. Adults in these settings encourage children to play and work together (for example, learning group games or setting up and cleaning up at snack time), as well as to pursue their individual interests.

Productive early childhood education settings provide regular routines-such as circle time, snack time, storybook time, inside and outside play time-that provide a balance of activities and learning opportunities. Songs, stories, and conversations in these settings model and support the development of language; music, dance, and games develop movement and a sense of timing and sequence; drawing, painting, playing, and building with manipulatives develop small motor and hand-eye coordination. All of these activities, along with affirmative and supportive interactions, build the brain's architecture in important ways and help students become ready for more symbolic learning that they can link to these concrete experiences. 83,85

Middle-late childhood: The physical, cognitive, and social achievements of early childhood form the foundation for concepts and skills that emerge when children begin to more formally represent their knowledge of the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional world and self. As children become able to think about what they and others are coming to understand, know, feel, and do, the association and planning areas of the brain involved in the integration of information gathered from different senses and sources are maturing. Children's learning involves gradually internalizing and reproducing the patterns, procedures, and beliefs they are exposed to at school, at home, and in the community. This exposure happens through social relationships, emotional experiences, and stories; opportunities for mathematical, spatial, and scientific reasoning; and opportunities to formalize ideas through spoken and written language and the arts.
Productive early childhood settings provide routines and activities, along with affirmative and supportive interactions, that build the brain's architecture in important ways.
Structured opportunities to teach and learn from others; to explore, discover, and invent; and to test out the predictive power of their reasoning and calculations, help children construct a sense of scholarly and personal agency. Developing capacities for managing goals, strategies, peer relationships, and feelings are supported by formal social activities like participating in sports teams and music ensembles, and also by informal opportunities for self-direction alone and in social settings, such as recess, free time, and helping out with household chores. 18,86-88

Supportive learning environments in middle childhood offer opportunities to engage in inquiries and projects that allow children to set goals, seek answers, evaluate evidence, and draw conclusions; continue to engage in concrete experiences of the world on which they can begin to build more abstract thinking; support productive collaboration with other children in undertaking these and other efforts; teach social and emotional skills such as awareness of and productive ways of articulating and managing feelings, while developing empathy and positive inter-personal relationships; and communicate ideas in multiple artistic, linguistic, and mathematical formats. 89,90

Early-middle adolescence: Adolescence is the most dramatic period of brain development after infancy. It is a fundamental period of environmentally (epigenetically) triggered social, emotional, and cognitive growth and plasticity, ⁹¹⁻⁹⁴ as well as of vulnerability to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. ⁹⁵ In the brain, maturation of the amygdala and reward-related structures leads to heightened sensitivity to social cues, such as eye gaze and presence of peers, as well as to social hierarchy, reputation, and physical appearance.96 The frontal lobes, involved in planning, decision-making, executive functioning, and higher order thinking, begin a protracted period of intense development (lasting into the mid-twenties) that increases the strength of connections to the amygdala and other neural regions involved in emotional reactivity, social sensitivity and reward. This brain development is associated with risk taking and emotion swings, ⁹⁷ but also enables new and initially fragile capacities for emotional regulation, long-term planning, and abstract thinking. ⁹⁸

Puberty-related hormonal changes launch a period of neural plasticity that also makes the brain more vulnerable to the effects of stress, social rejection, and sleep deprivation. ⁹⁹ These pubertal hormone surges influence brain and bodily maturation, friendships, and romantic attraction, ¹⁰⁰ and shift sleep patterns to later and longer. ¹⁰¹

Adolescents' optimal development is enabled by deeply exploring and expanding personal interests and technical skills through high-quality coursework, arts, sports, and other activities. Effective activities are designed to help adolescents build constructive, prosocial connections through community involvement, perspective-taking, and meaning-making. Adolescents' efficacy, agency, and sense of purpose thrive with safe, supported opportunities to explore possible social identities, tastes, interests, beliefs, and values; and to invest in tight relationships with family, peers, and trustworthy adults like teachers, mentors, spiritual leaders, and coaches. Adequate physical activity, social connection, nutrition, and sleep are particularly important in adolescence, as these buffer the effects of stress on the brain and improve well-being, emotion regulation, cognition, and decision-making.

Supportive educational settings for adolescents ensure that they continue to have strong relationships with adults who know them well-often through school advisory systems or teaching teams that can personalize instruction and supports for students in and out of school. Such settings engage students in investigations that allow them to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, to debate ideas and reflect on what they are learning, to attempt ambitious projects that interest them, and to receive feedback they can act on to improve their work. These opportunities help them develop a sense of agency, curiosity, habits for reflecting on their own thinking, and a growth mindset and self-regulation to support their ongoing learning. 89,102

Late adolescence-early adulthood: While in early adolescence the number of neural connections increases, the brain prunes the connections that are not being used during late adolescence, ¹⁰³ increasing the brain's efficiency. Which connections remain is determined by a person's thought patterns and engagement with their environment, including by education-related opportunities and social relationships.

Increases in neural "cross-talk" between regions further apart in the brain, especially those involved in higher-level cognition and cultural values, emotions, and beliefs, ¹⁰⁴ occur as short-distance connectivity decreases. ¹⁰⁵ Tighter communication across, as opposed to within, brain regions during this developmental period ¹⁰⁶ supports late adolescents' blossoming abilities to reason, infer, and reflect, through making connections and meaning of their skills, knowledge, and experiences. Opportunities to engage deeply with scholarly ideas, to apply their emerging skills to real-world problems, and to build strong, appropriate peer and adult relationships are crucial for identity development and for making decisions about committed relationships, lifestyle, and careers.

Productive educational settings in late adolescence and early adulthood continue to provide opportunities for young people to be well known by adults with whom they have strong relationships-advisors, mentors, and teachers-and to examine ideas from many perspectives, using symbolic thinking, logic, and metaphor, as well as other tools, to deeply explore meaning. Students should have opportunities to investigate and apply their learning in real-world contexts through projects, internships, externships, and exhibitions, with constructive feedback that allows them to develop ever more disciplined thinking and to tackle ever more advanced problems. They should also have many opportunities to follow their interests and passions in choosing topics and approaches, reflecting on their own strategies so they can guide their own learning over time. And they should be able to engage in personally enjoyable forms of physical activity that they can undertake on their own as well as in groups, and continue throughout life, beyond the education environment. ¹⁰⁷

Middle-later adulthood: Though the brain is considered to have reached maturity by middle adulthood, the adult brain undergoes age-related changes that reflect environmental, social, and educational factors., 2,108 New neurons continue to form in the brain during adulthood in response to new experiences, ¹⁰⁹⁻¹¹¹ but this growth can be inhibited by stress, 112,113 chronic sleep disruption, 114,115 or dietary deficiencies. 116,117 Physical and mental activity, as well as social relationships, support adults' brain functioning and help buffer against potential age-related cognitive declines. 118,119 Consistent with the biological evidence that relationships impact brain development and learning, increasing evidence points to the importance of teachers' mental health and social-emotional skills for students' success. 120,121

Productive educational opportunities for adults build on what we know about adult learning: they connect to learners' goals and provide them with new experiences that encompass problem-solving in real-life contexts. Adults typically move through four stages in the experiential learning cycle: engaging in concrete experience; observing and reflecting, often in discussion with peers; forming insights and generalizations; and testing implications of new concepts in new situations. ¹²² In line with these insights, effective professional development for teachers-that is, learning that changes teaching practices and student learning-engages teachers in active learning related to the content and students they teach; supports collaboration with colleagues, typically in job-embedded contexts; uses models and modeling of effective practice; provides coaching and expert support; and offers opportunities for feedback and reflection. ¹²³

Evidence also shows that teachers' own social-emotional skills and wellness can be enhanced by training in mindfulness-which develops a calm attentiveness and awareness of experiences, often through regulation of breathing and physical stance, as well as through visualization. Studies find that such training reduces teachers' stress and emotional distress, helps them regulate emotions, and develops greater social-emotional competence, self-efficacy and well-being, so that they can provide more effective emotional support for students. ¹²⁴⁻¹²⁷

All of the citations for this report are available online at http://as.pn/braindevtfootnotes

About the authors

Mary Helen Immordino-Yang is a member of the Council of Distinguished Scientists of the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development and a professor of education, psychology and neuroscience at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Emotions, Learning, and The Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience (W. W. Norton).

Linda Darling-Hammond is co-chair of the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development and president of the Learning Policy Institute. She is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and author of Powerful Learning: What we Know about Teaching for Understanding as well as Preparing Teachers for a Changing World: What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do (Jossey-Bass/Wiley).

Christina Krone is a doctoral student in urban education policy at the University of Southern California.

Figure 1: This material is adapted and printed with permission from National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. "Dynamic Mapping of Human Cortical Development During Childhood Through Early Adulthood" by Nitin Gogtay, Jay N. Giedd, Leslie Lusk, Kiralee M. Hayashi, Deanna Greenstein, A. Catherine Vaituzis, Tom F. Nugent, David H. Herman, Liv S. Clasen, Arthur W. Toga, Judith L. Rapoport, and Paul M. Thompson, 2004, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(21), pp. 8174-8179. Copyright 2004 by National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A.

Figure 2: This material is used and adapted with permission of SAGE Publications, Inc. "Embodied Brains, Social Minds, Cultural Meaning: Integrating Neuroscientific and Educational Research on Social-Affective Development" by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang and Rebecca Gotlieb, 2017, American Educational Research Journal, 54(1), pp. 344S - 367S [Supplemental material]. Data are from Immordino-Yang, McColl, Damasio & Damasio, 2009. ¹⁵⁷
The National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development
The Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development is engaging and energizing communities to re-envision what constitutes success in our schools. Scientific evidence demonstrates that social, emotional, and academic development are interconnected in the learning process. The Commission is drawing from research and promising practices to explore how to make all these dimensions of learning part of the fabric of every school. Building upon existing work in schools, communities, and states across the country, the Commission is working to identify specific action steps in research, practice, and policy that will help shape and sustain a new era of education that reflects what we know about how learning happens.

The Commission's members are leaders from education, research, policy, business, and the military, and the full Commission team includes a Council of Distinguished Scientists, a Council of Distinguished Educators, a Youth Commission, a Parent Advisory Panel, Partners Collaborative, and a Funders Collaborative.

Learn more about the Commission, see our full list of Commission members, sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Twitter at @AspenSEAD, and email us with questions at
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This has been an excerpt from The Neuropsychotherapist Volume 7 Issue 1 - for the complete article and more interesting content, please subscribe to our website.

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The Brain Basis for Integrated Social, Emotional, and Academic Development

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How emotions and social relationships drive learning Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Linda Darling-Hammond, Christina Krone Read this magazine as a course and get 2 hours credit as part of our certificate program. Members can use your coupon code [wlm_private "1 Year Subscription|3 Year Subscription|NPT Standard|Staff|NPT Premium|NPT Standard Monthly|2 Year Subscription"]soplji9hfer78q [/wlm_private] to get 100% off this course.

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Daily Advisory: Building Social, Emotional & Academic Skills

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The Literacy How Reading Wheel depicts the essential components of comprehensive literacy instruction. In addition to those identified by the National Reading Panel, it positions oral language -speaking and listening-at the core of the wheel as the foundation for learning to read.

Our model also includes spelling (with phonics), syntax, morphology (with vocabulary), and written expression (with text comprehension). It expands the concept of fluency to encompass all aspects of literacy development. Fluent, or automatic, performance in both discrete (e.g., word recognition) and complex (e.g., comprehension, composition) literacy skills is essential to be a proficient reader and writer. We help teachers and administrators build their knowledge in this content, then apply it in the classroom.

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Literacy How Reading Wheel - Literacy How

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The Literacy How Reading Wheel depicts the essential components of comprehensive literacy instruction. In addition to those identified by the National Reading Panel, it positions oral language -speaking and listening-at the core of the wheel as the foundation for learning to read.

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Olympia Della Flora: Creative ways to get kids to thrive in school | TED Talk

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To get young kids to thrive in school, we need to do more than teach them how to read and write -- we need to teach them how to manage their emotions, says educator Olympia Della Flora. In this practical talk, she shares creative tactics she used to help struggling, sometimes disruptive students --…

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A review of three types of SEL assessment, with suggestions for ways to collect and report student growth to families.

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Foster knowledge, skills, and attitudes across five areas of social and emotional competence;

Establish equitable learning environments and coordinate practices across four key settings that support students' social, emotional, and academic development.

Download more information on the framework (available in and Spanish).

Use our reflection protocol to facilitate a discussion on implementation efforts in your school, district, or other setting.

Read more about the 2020 update to our framework, which highlighted the potential of SEL in promoting educational equity and excellence.

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Communities

Communities. Community partners often provide safe and developmentally rich settings for learning and development, have deep understanding of community needs and assets, are seen as trusted partners by families and students, and have connections to additional supports and services that school and families need. Community programs also offer opportunities for young people to practice their social and emotional skills in settings that are both personally relevant and can open opportunities for their future. To integrate SEL efforts across the school day and out-of-school time, school staff and community partners should align on common language and coordinate strategies and communication around SEL-related efforts and initiatives.
Learn more: CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL - Community Partnerships

Families & Caregivers

Families & Caregivers. When schools and families form authentic partnerships, they can build strong connections that reinforce students' social and emotional development. Families and caregivers are children's first teachers, and bring deep expertise about their development, experiences, culture, and learning needs. These insights and perspectives are critical to informing, supporting, and sustaining SEL efforts. Research suggests that evidence-based SEL programs are more effective when they extend into the home, and families are far more likely to form partnerships with schools when their schools' norms, values, and cultural representations reflect their own experiences. Schools need inclusive decision-making processes that ensure that families-particularly those from historically marginalized groups-are part of planning, implementing, and continuously improving SEL.

Schools can also create other avenues for family partnership that may include creating ongoing two-way communication with families, helping caregivers understand child development, helping teachers understand family backgrounds and cultures, providing opportunities for families to volunteer in schools, extending learning activities and discussions into homes, and coordinating family services with community partners. These efforts should engage families in understanding, experiencing, informing, and supporting the social and emotional development of their students.
Learn more: CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL - Family Partnerships

Schools

Schools. Effectively integrating SEL schoolwide involves ongoing planning, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement by all members of the school community. SEL efforts both contribute to and depend upon a school climate where all students and adults feel respected, supported, and engaged.

Because the school setting includes many contexts-classrooms, hallways, cafeteria, playground, bus-fostering a healthy school climate and culture requires active engagement from all adults and students. A strong school culture is rooted in students' sense of belonging, with evidence that suggests that it plays a crucial role in students' engagement. SEL also offers an opportunity to enhance existing systems of student support by integrating SEL goals and practices with universal, targeted, and intensive academic and behavioral supports. By coordinating and building upon SEL practices and programs, schools can create an environment that infuses SEL into every part of students' educational experience and promotes positive social, emotional, and academic outcomes for all students.
Learn more: CASEL Guide to Schoolwide SEL

Classrooms

Classrooms. Research has shown that social and emotional competence can be enhanced using a variety of classroom-based approaches such as: (a) explicit instruction through which social and emotional skills and attitudes are taught and practiced in developmentally, contextually, and culturally responsive ways; (b) teaching practices such as cooperative learning and project-based learning; and (c) integration of SEL and academic curriculum such as language arts, math, science, social studies, health, and performing arts. High-quality SEL instruction has four elements represented by the acronym SAFE: Sequenced - following a coordinated set of training approaches to foster the development of competencies; Active - emphasizing active forms of learning to help students practice and master new skills; Focused - implementing curriculum that intentionally emphasizes the development of SEL competencies; and Explicit - defining and targeting specific skills, attitudes, and knowledge.

SEL instruction is carried out most effectively in nurturing, safe environments characterized by positive, caring relationships among students and teachers. To facilitate age-appropriate and culturally responsive instruction, adults must understand and appreciate the unique strengths and needs of each student and support students' identities. When adults incorporate students' personal experiences and cultural backgrounds and seek their input, they create an inclusive classroom environment where students are partners in the educational process, elevating their own agency. Strong relationships between adults and students can facilitate co-learning, foster student and adult growth, and generate collaborative solutions to shared concerns.
Learn more: CASEL Guide to Effective SEL Programs

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness: The abilities to understand one's own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior across contexts. This includes capacities to recognize one's strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose.

Such as:

Integrating personal and social identities

Identifying personal, cultural, and linguistic assets

Identifying one's emotions

Demonstrating honesty and integrity

Linking feelings, values, and thoughts

Examining prejudices and biases

Experiencing self-efficacy

Having a growth mindset

Developing interests and a sense of purpose

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Self-Management

Self-management: The abilities to manage one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations and to achieve goals and aspirations. This includes the capacities to delay gratification, manage stress, and feel motivation and agency to accomplish personal and collective goals.

Such as:

Managing one's emotions

Identifying and using stress management strategies

Exhibiting self-discipline and self-motivation

Setting personal and collective goals

Using planning and organizational skills

Showing the courage to take initiative

Demonstrating personal and collective agency

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Social Awareness

Social awareness: The abilities to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. This includes the capacities to feel compassion for others, understand broader historical and social norms for behavior in different settings, and recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.

Such as:

Taking others' perspectives

Recognizing strengths in others

Demonstrating empathy and compassion

Showing concern for the feelings of others

Understanding and expressing gratitude

Identifying diverse social norms, including unjust ones

Recognizing situational demands and opportunities

Understanding the influences of organizations and systems on behavior

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Responsible Decision-Making

Responsible decision-making: The abilities to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations. This includes the capacities to consider ethical standards and safety concerns, and to evaluate the benefits and consequences of various actions for personal, social, and collective well-being.

Such as:

Demonstrating curiosity and open-mindedness

Learning how to make a reasoned judgment after analyzing information, data, and facts

Identifying solutions for personal and social problems

Anticipating and evaluating the consequences of one's actions

Recognizing how critical thinking skills are useful both inside and outside of school

Reflecting on one's role to promote personal, family, and community well-being

Evaluating personal, interpersonal, community, and institutional impacts

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Relationship Skills

Relationship skills: The abilities to establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships and to effectively navigate settings with diverse individuals and groups. This includes the capacities to communicate clearly, listen actively, cooperate, work collaboratively to problem solve and negotiate conflict constructively, navigate settings with differing social and cultural demands and opportunities, provide leadership, and seek or offer help when needed.

Such as:

Communicating effectively

Developing positive relationships

Demonstrating cultural competency

Practicing teamwork and collaborative problem-solving

Resolving conflicts constructively

Resisting negative social pressure

Showing leadership in groups

Seeking or offering support and help when needed

Standing up for the rights of others

Check out this video from PBS Learning Media for more information.

Social & Emotional Learning

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.

SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.

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Our SEL framework, known to many as the "CASEL wheel," helps cultivate skills and environments that advance students' learning and development.

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I am so excited to introduce myself. My name is Joe Burns, and I am a new member of the Capstone curriculum team. Prior to joining Capstone, I spent 10 years teaching in public education ranging from kindergarten through fourth grade. I pride myself on being able to find unique, engaging, and authentic ways to present concepts to students. I have a passion for emotional intelligence and celebrating the diversity of school communities.

SEL Content Areas

Since starting at Capstone, I have been compiling resources that supplement your school's SEL program or serve as useful discussion pieces as students reenter the school environment. In our current educational landscape, emotional intelligence is at the forefront of all our minds. Providing students with the tools to become empathetic, resilient, thoughtful members of society will require explicit instruction and quality resources to support it.

I hope the picture books I have identified below can fill a few gaps and provide a fun, but elegant, way to approach these topics. I feel strongly about continuing to support SEL, social justice, and representation within literature for our youngest students. Please feel free to connect with me with on any requests, suggestions, and especially celebrations @BurnsDoesBooks.

Self-Awareness & Reentering Anxieties

As most schools transition back to an in-person teaching model, anxiety surrounding reentry is rising across the country. The following books serve as a discussion piece to support the self-awareness and self-efficacy required to begin the year. These books range from identifying and accepting negative feelings, to issues of self-worth and socialization.

Donut Worry

Donut Worry is the perfect way to kick off the school year. Enjoy the tale of Donut and her anxiety of returning to school. Frustrated with the world telling her "Everything will be fine", Donut learns the core value of all positive mental health - IT'S OK TO NOT BE OK. I love Donut Worry; the juxtaposition of illustrations and photorealism is stunning. The story is heartfelt and focuses on the first step to great mental health and emotional intelligence: understanding that not everything is perfect and that is OK.

I would use this book at the start of the year to help students share about any anxieties as they re-enter school.

Additionally, it can be used to introduce the concept of emotional intelligence and segue into your SEL curriculum.

The Very Last Leaf

Take a trip through the eyes of a leaf at the top of his class. The Very Last Leaf is a delightful tale about the fear of failure. I love this story as it explores the difficulty that students of all abilities may encounter when they are asked to do something challenging, especially the high-flier students. As educators we can lose sight of how traumatizing it can be for strong students to meet their match.

Try this book in a small group or as part of a larger discussion piece about taking risks and building resilience.

Too Shy for Show-and-Tell

Join Sam the Giraffe as he attempts to overcome his fear and anxiety surrounding show and tell in Too Shy for Show-and-Tell. This book is easily adaptable to meet the needs of our current Covid landscape by helping to launch a discussion that explores the nerves associated with reopening schools and socialization.

Too Shy for Show-and-Tell can be utilized as a whole group read aloud as a way for students to explore their own self-worth.

After reading students could complete an all-about-me icebreaker celebrating their differences and strengths.

[Self Awareness-> Self-Confidence, Self-Worth, Standing up for yourself ]

[Feelings and Emotions -> I Feel Scared, What are Feelings and Emotions?]

Managing Expectations & Teamwork

Two of the most difficult conflicts I dealt with as an elementary teacher were issues of teamwork and disappointment. To effectively manage expectations, students must first learn about empathy and perspective. The resources I selected are aimed at helping students visualize the process of empathy and gain perspective on how others view their actions. Through these books, teachers can start a discussion about having an appropriate reaction to a perceived problem.

The Golden Acorn

The Golden Acorn is a charming story about a squirrel who learns to pump the brakes and realizes the importance of life beyond winning. This is a remarkable story, which can be a conversation starter about several components of emotional intelligence: teamwork, mindfulness, or just reflecting on how our own actions are perceived by and affect others.

Possible questions for discussion include:

Why is Squirrel so frustrated?

Is Squirrel acting like a good friend?

Why doesn't Squirrel win? What did she learn?

Awesome!

Explore the delight of the unexpected duo of Moose and Beaver in Despite being best friends, jealousy creeps in to threaten their friendship as Moose is praised by their animal peers.

I love this story to help students understand that everyone is worthy of being extraordinary. As a teacher I often noticed students feeling jealous and competitive when they weren't the subject of my praise.

Awesome! can be used as the cornerstone of any lesson to help students deal with the jealousy or envy that can occur when others are put in the spotlight.

The Perfect Birthday Recipe

A polished story that takes the reader through the steps of anxiety, disappointment, and acceptance as Beaver learns to value the effort and friendship of his peers. The Perfect Birthday Recipeis a great introduction to any lesson centered upon managing expectations.

This book could take the place of any social story within small groups or read aloud settings.

Students could be asked to practice their empathy skills by exploring the feelings of each character by asking them to make text connections.

[Relationships and friends -> Cooperation, Teamwork, Communication]

[Feelings and Emotions -> Self-Control, Manners]

Growth Mindset

At its core, growth mindset states that brains and talent are just the starting point, and real improvement is developed through dedication and hard work. As an educational trend, growth mindset has been around for a while and has seen ebbs and flows surrounding the implementation and purpose surrounding it.

In the post-Covid classroom, growth mindset will be the backbone to build resiliency within our youngest learners. Growth mindset can act as the foundation for setting goals, taking risks, and tracking growth. The books I selected support this tangible process of achieving goals.

Catkwondo

is a heartfelt tale about an adorable kitten who desperately wants to break a board at her martial arts class. To reach her goal, Kitten must be resilient, patient, and learn the value of practice.

I love this story as an alternative way to start the discussion around growth mindset.

In a whole group, lead a discussion about the value of failure and that true learning is achieved through mistakes.

Students learn how to set achievable goals, create an explicit plan, and track progress along the way.

Let it Grow

Let It Grow is a unique story about a tiny pumpkin seed. With time and patience, we can see the realization of its full potential. Students will realize that meeting goals takes time, and sometimes the journey is the most important part.

This book draws inspiration from the Windsor Pumpkin Regatta, which is a fantastic annual event held in Windsor, Maine, which could provide a variety of extension activities outside SEL.

[Self-Awareness ->Motivation, Self Confidence, Self-Discipline]

[Feelings and Emotions -> I feel Excited, I feel scared, I feel worried]

Mindfulness & Living in the Moment

Mindfulness is more than just a buzzword. It is something I always found useful for calming students and keeping them focused. Here are a couple of my favorite Capstone titles that support the introduction of this concept and aid in combating the unending onslaught of digital distractions by helping students stay present in the moment.

Selfie

Amidst the blitz of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube on our youngest generation, is a breath of fresh air. This story helps students understand that sometimes the best things are happening right in front of us, not behind a screen.

This story can also be a wonderful way to talk about digital literacy and digital citizenship for intermediate grades. After reading you could lead a discussion on internet safety and etiquette by providing students with authentic examples of the lasting impacts that a social media footprint can have as they get older.

Suggested Questions or Activities:

What are the dangers of social media addiction?

Create a set of guidelines to aid in digital safety.

Create a digital conduct contract.

Provide authentic examples of the impacts of social media, internet bullying, or lack of privacy.

Mindful Mr. Sloth

Sometimes you just need to slow down. In Mindful Mr. Sloth readers follow the story of an unlikely friendship as Sasha learns the virtues of slowing down and being mindful of her surroundings. You can start a conversation to help students gain perspective and learn how to reflect on their behavior and surroundings with questions like:

Did Sasha's behavior cause any problems?

How are Sasha and Mr. Sloth different?

What happened when Sasha learned to slow down?

How could slowing down help you during the school day?

[Self-Awareness -> Self Confidence, Self-Worth, Body Imagine]

Inclusivity & Diversity

Capstone believes in inclusive representation and celebrating diverse storytelling in children's books. We believe that our differences make us special. Within the classroom it can be difficult to find a variety of appropriate resources to help build empathy and perspective-taking, essential skills for living in a diverse world. The resources I selected are perfect for helping kids notice and celebrate what makes us all different.

First Day of Unicorn School

A quirky, fun time, First Day of Unicorn School explores what can happen when you accept yourself and celebrate what makes you different and special.

This is a delightful book to start conversations about inclusion and self-efficacy.

A follow-up activity to this book could include having students play games like two truths and a lie, or interview classmates to find out interesting hidden facts.

My Footprints

Launch yourself into an emotional journey of self-discovery by Bao Phi. In My Footprints, Thuy struggles with her identity as a Vietnamese American child with two moms. This book is a great addition to any classroom. These days, however, it is increasingly important to provide students with the skills necessary to reflect on respect and inclusion. My Footprints can serve as a great conversation starter for empathy and inclusion.

Consider some of the following questions:

Why does Thuy feel different?

Why do you think Thuy mimics the footprints of the animals she encounters?

Have you ever felt left out or different?

What could you do to help one of your friends feel included or valued?

Hello, Mandarin Duck!

Hello, Mandarin Duck! is a colorful story that takes readers along on the adventure of a Mandarin duck. Through the collaboration of a diverse community, the duck meets many new friends and completes his journey to find a new home. This book reverently observes diversity within a community, as well as teamwork and inclusivity.

Hello, Mandarin Duck! offers many extensions for a classroom teacher to help students define difficult concepts like culture and community.

Consider having students compare each character that is introduced and make connections between the characters in the story and themselves.

PebbleGo Health Articles

[Self-Awareness ->Self-Concept, Manners]

[Relationships and friends -> Empathy, Cooperation, Making new Friends, Acceptance]

Classroom Management & Common Behaviors

Little Boost Series

In the wake of the pandemic, simply reentering the classroom could pose a challenge for many younger students. The Little Boost series is a great collection of stories to help remind students about classroom rules. Each story tackles common behaviors through lovable and relatable characters. All of the stories are a great way to help guide discussion on proper classroom etiquette but check out some of my favorites below.

These books can serve as a great way to begin building your classroom rules or social contract, or simply be used as social stories as needed to help remediate individual issues.

Name Your Emotions Series

is a series containing eight different emotions. These books provide more explicit representations of how students can recognize and name the emotion.

All of the titles provide great examples and vivid images to help students visually identify how they are feeling.

These can easily provide further context for any Social Emotional Program, but also offer their own spin on coping mechanisms and strategies to help alleviate intense feelings.

Health and My Body Series

Good health and academic success go hand in hand. Whether to support curriculum or satisfy curious students, the Health and My Body series provides essential information around children's health with kid-friendly text.

Life is full of surprises and challenges, and it's not always fair. How you respond to those surprises and challenges is what's important. In Keep Trying! readers learn how to bounce back from problems by taking charge of their decisions and actions.

Sometimes you feel happy. Sometimes you feel sad. Sometimes you don't know how you feel. You feel lots of different things all day long. Manage Your Emotions helps readers talk about their feelings and learn how to deal with them.

helps readers understand how stress can be caused by lots of different things. A big test. A fight with a friend. A new experience. But no matter what causes the stress, what's important is how you deal with it.

In , readers learn about the importance of slowing down and taking time to notice what's going on around them. Being present in the moment can help you be more focused, patient, and self-aware. So readers are encouraged to take a deep breath, smile, and learn more about mindfulness.

Teasing. Spreading rumors. Leaving someone out on purpose. These are types of bullying, and bullying is never OK. Bullying shows readers they have the power to stop bullying by using respect and kindness, and that's an important power to have.

Communication Skills explains how communication is the sharing of information and while that sounds easy, that's not always the case. Did you know your body language and the tone of your voice are just as important as what you are saying? Learn to communicate with confidence in every situation.

Looking for more Social Emotional Learning ideas? Check out our SEL Guide and browse our SEL Activities.

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Favorite Picture Books to Teach Social Emotional Learning

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Providing students with the tools to become empathetic, resilient, thoughtful members of society requires explicit instruction and quality resources to support it. Capstone has great books to support your school’s social emotional learning program and are useful discussion prompts with students. Che…

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View all evidence-based SEL programs in the CASEL Program Guide.

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Social and Emotional Learning - Aperture Education

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Create transformation with DESSA SEL assessments:

When We Start With Strengths, We End Up Stronger

Our CASEL-aligned social and emotional learning system provides you with industry-leading SEL tools:

SEL Assessment

Gain confidence through the data gleaned through the industry's most well-researched and
nationally-normed SEL universal screener and assessment - the DESSA.

Reporting & Insights

Understand critical social and emotional data through intuitive, real-time reporting at the individual, classroom, school, and district level.

Strategies

Support student social and emotional growth with a strength-based approach through hundreds of strategies for educators and students K-12.

Who We Serve

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Aperture Education SEL Solutions

Strength-based, nationally-normed SEL universal screeners, assessments, strategies, and reporting for students K-12, plus educator SEL and professional development.

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Social and Emotional Learning - Aperture Education - Social and Emotional Learning - Aperture Education

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Create transformation with DESSA SEL assessments: Our CASEL-aligned social and emotional learning system provides you with industry-leading SEL tools: Gain confidence through the data gleaned through the industry's most well-researched andnationally-normed SEL universal screener and assessment - the DESSA. Understand critical social and emotional data through intuitive, real-time reporting at the individual, classroom, school, and district level.

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Three Principles for Using SEL in the Classroom

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Three Principles for Using SEL in the Classroom

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On the first day of school, Benita Moyers' students study the amygdala and have a detailed discussion about the fight-or-flight response in the brain.

It may seem like an ambitious topic for first graders, but Moyers is convinced that when students practice mindfulness-and have a basic understanding of how they can control their sometimes wayward brains-their behavior and performance improves.

The lesson is one of the ways that Moyers, who teaches at Mt. Carmel Elementary School, in Huntsville, Ala., increases students' awareness of valuable life skills.

Moyers isn't alone. Research and anecdotal evidence about the value of social and emotional learning (SEL) has nudged the approach to the forefront of education, and increasingly teachers are finding ways to incorporate it in subjects ranging from third-grade math to high school physics.

"[SEL] leads to stronger relationships, a sense of belonging, and a more supportive learning environment, setting the stage for academic learning."

That attention to students' mental health is particularly important now, experts say, as students adjust to the academic and emotional upheaval of the pandemic.

"SEL has been a part of learning for a long time, but it wasn't something we applied too often in the classroom," says Tara Lisciandro, a teacher at Matawan Regional High School, in Monmouth County, New Jersey.

"With COVID having the effects that it has, SEL is a necessity for students and teachers in the classroom today," Lisciandro adds. She teamed up with Moyers to teach an SEL course for NEA and teaches similar classes for private and public educational communities.

Claire Schu, of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), agrees. "It leads to stronger relationships, a sense of belonging, and a more supportive learning environment, setting the stage for academic learning," she says. "There are a lot of opportunities for students to practice and reflect on social and emotional skills during lessons."

CASEL defines SEL as building skills to develop healthy identities; manage emotions; achieve personal and collective goals; feel and show empathy for others; establish and maintain supportive relationships; and make responsible and caring decisions.

And a CASEL survey found that most teachers believe SEL boosts academic performance and prepares students for college, careers, and civic engagement.

The organization has identified three essential components for integrating SEL into academics and offers helpful examples for how they can be put to use in classrooms:

1. Fosteringacademic mindsets

Helping students adapt a growth mindset is key to this process, Schu says. The goal, she explains, is for students to understand "who they are as learners so they can improve with effort and new strategies, and [that they] know struggle is part of the process." Students should feel they belong, that they can succeed, and that their work has value, she adds.

To accomplish this, try to communicate high expectations for students by asking them about their thinking, sharing exemplary work, using specific feedback to drive improvement, and communicating that mistakes are an important part of learning. "How teachers communicate the meaning of setbacks, struggle, and failure is critical to students' mindsets," the CASEL guidance notes.

SEL can help foster learning. One objective of the Common Core, for example, is for students to be able to "construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others." To include SEL in this learning, help students anticipate how others will hear their arguments and teach active listening skills, so they can understand other perspectives. Both of these approaches involve social awareness and relationship skills, which are key SEL goals.

SEL is particularly helpful in explaining challenging ideas and tasks, or in lessons that involve understanding decisions or relationships-such as why characters in history or fiction may have acted a certain way.

3. Usinginteractiveinstructionalpractices and structures to promote SEL

Class discussions and group learning can enhance SEL understanding and competence. Try some of these activities to introduce SEL skill-building into your practice:

Journal writing. Ask students to write down a response to a prompt that uses an SEL skill, such as: When did you see someone empathize or understand the feelings of another person this week? Or, what is one thing your team can do differently next time to achieve your goals?

Class meetings. Encourage participation, and focus on solving problems and creating a positive climate, with everyone contributing.

Collaborative problem-solving.Have students work together on a project, puzzle, or problem. If appropriate to the grade level, examine the process that worked best for decision-making and problem-solving.

Goals and progress. Encourage students to set goals for the day, week, quarter, or year. Focus on successes and setbacks, the reasons for them, and the value of the process more than the outcome.

4. Emotional intelligence. Take time to explain the emotions that you or a student are feeling. Name the feelings and explain why they are valuable and how they can be channeled.
Want to know more about SEL?
Visit the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) at casel.org. Sign up for NEA's courses on using SEL in the classroom, at nea.org/SEL.

Read our cover story, " A Back to School Like No Other " find out how NEA members are addressing mental health needs this fall.

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Three Principles for Using SEL in the Classroom | NEA

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On the first day of school, Benita Moyers' students study the amygdala and have a detailed discussion about the fight-or-flight response in the brain. It may seem like an ambitious topic for first graders, but Moyers is convinced that when students practice mindfulness-and have a basic understanding of how they can control their sometimes wayward brains-their behavior and performance improves.

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Teaching and Learning from the Heart in Troubled Times

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Teaching and Learning from the Heart in Troubled Times

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Learn ways to embrace curiosity and celebrate questions

Sign up or log in to save your favorite stories and lessons, create custom collections, and share with others.

Celebrate questions even when we do not have answers.

Whatever you learn, remember: the learning must make you more, not less, human.

Questions connect us to one another, while answers separate us. Questions open us, while answers close us. There is quest in question.

This essay speaks to the core of our innermost emotions-what defines humanism and, more critically, us as humans. What compels us to move forward in troubled times, to hold fast to the firm assurance of hope for the promise of a better tomorrow while caught in the strife of today? My students, in the School of Education and Human Sciences, are asked to reflect deeply and introspectively on Ariel's essay as we ponder education and our roles in shaping understanding around the principles of cultural diversity, equity, and inclusion toward collective advancement. For together, we are stronger and able to realize the promise of a better future.

Dr. Cheryl Wright, University Lecturer, University of Kansas

Use "Learning and Teaching from the Heart in Troubled Times" in Your Classroom

Ariel's work as an author and educator focuses on the mechanics of moral change and education. He describes in his book, Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom, that moral education must entail more than just a "transactional exchange of information." Moral education, he writes, "is the only way a student can become a witness." Ariel's essay encourages students to consider how to bear witness in our world amid the suffering and injustices taking place. He also offers ways to balance moral ferocity with self-awareness.

These lessons, available for elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, explore the impacts of curiosity on learning. Through various activities, students will consider ways to celebrate questions as well as develop empathy and moral courage in their lives. * Please note that elementary and middle school students will engage with specific quotes from the essay and high school students will read and engage with the full essay.

What Students will Uncover

The significance of balancing moral ferocity with self-awareness

Lessons Include the Following:

Overview and background of authors Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger and Elie Wiesel

Learning activities with discussion questions and writing prompts

Activities connecting to the UN SDGs

Companion texts and secondary resources

Updates to current news and events

Connections to National Curriculum Standards and Frameworks

Translations en Español

Back to the Top

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Learning and Teaching from the Heart in Troubled Times

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Learn ways to embrace curiosity and celebrate questions Sign up or log in to save your favorite stories and lessons, create custom collections, and share with others. Celebrate questions even when we do not have answers. Whatever you learn, remember: the learning must make you more, not less, human.

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Young people today are dealing with a lot of difficult situations. Depression, anxiety, bullying, drug and alcohol use are major problems among teens. Advances in technology have amplified the issues for many adolescents, leaving schools and youth-serving organizations to address these problems and help kids navigate a tough world.

But it's difficult for schools and youth-serving organizations to address these types of issues when they can't see or monitor them.

The Developmental Asset Profile (DAP) was created for that reason. It is a reliable and valid assessment of the strengths, supports, and social-emotional factors that are essential for young people's success in school and life. It grows out of years of research with millions of young people and is based on Search Institute's framework of Developmental Assets.

Search Institute has been focusing on measuring concerns and needs of young people for more than 60 years. We have learned a lot about what young people need in their lives to help young people learn, grow, and thrive.

A Social-Emotional Assessment Tool

Data show the value of a social-emotional assessment tool. The DAP has been helping organizations and partnerships understand the social-emotional strengths of youth since 2005. To date, nearly a million young people between the ages of 8 and 18 have taken the DAP, making it one of the most widely used instruments in the world for measuring the strengths and supports that influence a youth's success in school and in life. Multiple studies have demonstrated that the DAP measures the important SEL skills (found in the internal assets) in valid and reliable ways. It has been listed in the CASEL* compendium as a valid social-emotional assessment tool.

What are Developmental Assets?

The DAP is built on the Developmental Assets® Framework, which is a set of 40 positive supports, opportunities, and relationship qualities young people need across all aspects of their lives (called "external assets") and personal skills, social emotional strengths, self-perceptions, and values they need to make good choices, take responsibility for their actions, and be independent (called "internal assets").

Our research tells us that when young people have few assets, they are more likely to engage in a wide array of high-risk behaviors.

Likewise, when youth have more assets, they are:

More likely to thrive now and in the future;

Less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors;

More likely to be resilient in the face of challenges.

What You'll Receive when you use the DAP

When you measure young people's Developmental Assets, you are able to use the report to see powerful information on your youth, emphasizing the strengths and supports they have and need. The DAP shows youth perspectives across several parts of their lives: personal, peers, family, school, and community. This allows you to see the SEL competencies that are strong (or lacking) in young people you work with.

By using the DAP survey, you will:

Discover the social-emotional strengths and supports that young people have;

Listen to the perspectives of young people themselves;

See your work in the context of young people's own strengths as well as the supports they have (or don't have) in their families, schools, organizations, and community;

Gain a road map to guide you in proactive and focused planning to increase positive outcomes.

Do they feel surrounded by people who love, care for, appreciate, and accept them?

Do they feel valued, valuable, and safe?

Do they feel that they have been provided with clear rules, consistent consequences for breaking rules, and encouragement to always do their best?

Do they have opportunities outside of school to learn and develop new skills and interests with other youth and adults?

Do they understand the lasting importance of learning and believe in their own abilities?

Are they developing strong guiding values that will help them make healthy life choices, including responsibility, empathy, and self-control?

Do they have the skills to interact effectively with others, to make difficult decisions, and to cope with new situations?

Do they believe in their own self-worth and feel that they have control over the things that happen to them?

Survey Details

Recommended Users: Youth programs, schools, juvenile justice, mental health, communities, and family services settings. Qualified clinicians, school counselors, mental health practitioners, and social workers can also use the DAP for individual assessments.

Validated as a pre- and post-measure to measure change over time? Yes

Number of items on survey: 58 Item Likert Scale questions

Administered: Online (Paper option available)

Time to Complete: 10 minutes

Minimum youth needed for report: 30

Assessments for each participating youth

Thorough user guide for planning your survey administration

In-depth aggregate reports to guide your data utilization

Language options for English, Spanish and several others (please contact us for options)

Measures of social-emotional skills

Access to the online survey

Survey administration support

Sub-reports based on a specific cohort of youth, determined by you

Raw data at the individualized level

Individually scored data file

Aggregate report(s) of multiple sites

Data planning consult on-site or via phone

Data presentation

Professional Development workshops

Technical Assistance, Consulting, Workshops, or Presentations

Site report $250 (each site report includes up to 100 surveys)

Aggregate report of multiple sites - $250 (does not include surveys)

Each additional survey (beyond the included 100) $2.00

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The Developmental Assets Profile-Social-Emotional Assessment - Search Institute

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Young people today are dealing with a lot of difficult situations. Depression, anxiety, bullying, drug and alcohol use are major problems among teens. Advances in technology have amplified the issues for many adolescents, leaving schools and youth-serving organizations to address these problems and help kids navigate a tough world.

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School Library Journal: Multicultural Book List

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School Library Journal: Multicultural Book List

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School Library Journal has proudly partnered with We Are Kid Lit Collective to share and promote the group's annual summer reading recommendations. These 18 beginning readers and chapter books are just right for kids starting to read on their own. A PDF of the full list is also available for download.

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Centervention® provides online social emotional learning interventions to help students in grades K-8 improve social, emotional, and behavioral skills.

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If you're an athlete or someone who enjoys physical activity, try one of these mindful movements as your chill out activity .

Cobra - releases pressure in the spine.

Dolphin - stretches the upper back and shoulders, hamstrings, calves and foot arches at the same time.

Frog - improves strength of connective tissue around the ankles and knees, which makes it a great warm-up movement prior to lower-body exercises.

Supported Backbends - they very lightly stretch tight spots, while giving athletes a chance for deep relaxation, which speeds up recovery.

Fish

Bridge

Reclined Big Toe - strengthens the knees and can target the IT band (a common tight spot in runners) and can relieve backaches and sciatic pain. Using a band/strap makes it accessible for everyone.

Boat Pose - increases abdominal and hip flexor strength.

Bow Pose - stretches the front of the body, improves posture and strengthens the back muscles.

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Relaxing Mindfulness Activities for Teens | Change to Chill

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Get DIY stress relief & mindfulness activities you can do on your own or in groups. Try them all - from coloring pages, to exercises, meditations & more!

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State Resource Center: SEL Assessment As the field of social and emotional learning has evolved, a variety of helpful and important ways to assess

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In a vibrant, multicultural society, representing the richness of students' lives in a class or school library takes a conscious effort. Including writers and fictional characters with a variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and life circumstances is a way to increase the chances that students will find, to use the metaphor that Rudine Sims Bishop popularized, both windows and mirrors in the library-books that reflect their lives, and ones that give them insight into the lives and experiences of people who aren't like them.

No book shelf is going to represent the fullness of this nation. From the descendants of people who arrived here more than 15,000 years ago to the newest immigrants, we're simply too much. But the inclusive set of books below-many of which were recommended by multiple teachers-span all grade and Lexile levels up to 1140L, and include award winners and best sellers, books that have stood the test of time and newer options. We hope they reflect human diversity in the broadest sense, addressing race and ethnicity, religion, sexual identity, socioeconomic status, and other special circumstances.

Grades pre-K to 2

Deena Misses Her Mom
Deena is a formerly well-behaved girl who has been lashing out in school ever since her mom was sent to jail. Deena's story-sensitively illustrated by Leslie Jindalay Pyo-was written by high school students Jonae Haynesworth, Jesse Holmes, Layonnie Jones, and Kahliya Ruffin to reflect the lives of the children they were tutoring in Washington, DC. Parental imprisonment is a shockingly common occurrence in America: More than 5 million children in the U.S. have had at least one parent in jail.

Grades 3 to 5

Grades 6 to 8

The Arrival
A sepia-toned marvel, The Arrival conveys in images-there is no dialogue-a man's journey from his troubled home country to a new one. Artist Shaun Tan places the reader in the immigrant's shoes by using an invented alphabet on the signs in the strange new world he enters-the language is as impenetrable to the reader as it is to the protagonist.

Ghost
A National Book Award finalist, Jason Reynolds's Ghost is the story of an African American middle school runner with the talent to qualify for the Junior Olympics-if he can learn to control his temper. Money is tight and his father is in jail, and Ghost has been having a lot of what he calls "altercations." This is the first in a series of books about the members of a track team.

George
George is a transgender fourth grader who wants to try out for the lead role in the school production of Charlotte's Web so that her mother will see her as a girl. Alex Gino presents George's struggles with both bullying and the painful reassurance that she will "turn into a fine young man." George won a Stonewall Book Award-and made the American Library Association's 10 Most Challenged Books list in 2016 and 2017.

Grades 9 to 12

Bless Me, Ultima
A classic of Latino literature, Rudolfo Anaya's coming-of-age tale is an exploration of faith-Antonio, the young protagonist, makes his First Communion in the Catholic Church but also finds a spiritual guide in Ultima, an elderly curandera, or healer, who helps him explore indigenous traditions of New Mexico.

The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas's debut novel was a sensation when it was published in 2017, remaining on The New York Times best-seller list for 50 weeks. It centers on the killing of an unarmed black teen by a white police officer, a shooting witnessed by 16-year-old Starr, whose days are split between her black neighborhood and mostly white suburban school. The killing of her friend Khalil drives those two worlds farther apart than ever.

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22 Diverse Book Choices for All Grade Levels

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Suggestions from teachers who are working to offer students at every grade level book choices that represent their lives.

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Choose Love programs include Growth Mindset, Neuroscience, Mindfulness, Positive Psychology, Post-Traumatic Growth, Emotional Intelligence, and more for a solution that is both preventative and proactive. Choose Love is aligned with the new Character and Social Emotional Development Standards (CSED) which include BOTH Character.org and CASEL.

We can make our world better by Choosing Love.

Learn More

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Choose Love Movement - Promoting Hope, Healing & Connection

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We create safer and more loving communities through groundbreaking social and emotional learning (SEL) and character development programs.

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COMMUNICATE
Some conflicts start because people misunderstand each other. Talking things out and explaining might take care of it.

NEGOTIATE
When two or more people decide to work out a conflict themselves, they might follow a set of steps. The steps help them work out the conflict or negotiate.

MEDIATE
Sometimes people want to work out a problem but have trouble negotiating. They might ask someone to help them. That person is called a mediator. He or she mediates the conflict by helping the people work it out. The mediator does not tell the people what to do; he or she helps them decide for themselves.

ARBITRATE
Sometimes a mediator does solve people's problems. Then he or she isn't called a mediator. He or she is called an arbitrator. When people ask an arbitrator to help them, they must agree to do whatever the arbitrator suggests.

LITIGATE
When people can't work out their conflict themselves, they may go to a court and have a trial. They hire lawyers and go before a judge. A judge is like an arbitrator. The lawyers try to convince the judge that their client is right. The judge decides who is right according to the law and decides what solution there should be.

LEGISLATE
To legislate is to make something the law or a rule. Some kinds of conflicts cause people to try to change laws or rules so the problem won't happen again.

Return to the Many Ways to Resolve Conflict lesson plan.

Excerpted from Elementary Perspectives: Teaching Concepts of Peace and Conflict by William J. Kreidler

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COMMUNICATE Some conflicts start because people misunderstand each other. Talking things out and explaining might take care of it. NEGOTIATE When two or more people decide to work out a conflict themselves, they might follow a set of steps. The steps help them work out the conflict or negotiate.

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Measuring social, emotional, and academic competencies

The RAND Education Assessment Finder is a web-based tool that provides information about assessments of K-12 students' interpersonal, intrapersonal, and higher-order cognitive competencies. Practitioners, researchers, and policymakers can use it to explore what assessments are available, what they are designed to measure, how they are administered, what demands they place on students and teachers, and what kinds of uses their scores support.

Use the Assessment Finder to Search for Measures

Use the Assessment Finder

To get started, click the "Search for Measures" button below.
Search for Measures
Manuals

User Instructions (PDF)

This downloadable resource provides step-by-step instructions for how to navigate the tool, including example use cases.

Practitioner Guide

Jointly developed with members of the Assessment Work Group, this document provides practical guidance for practitioners who are interested in using student assessments of interpersonal, intrapersonal, and higher-order cognitive competencies to guide their practice.

About the Assessment Finder

Note: The assessment finder is no longer being updated, effective October 2020.

Competency Categories

The assessments reviewed cover a broad range of social, emotional, and academic competencies that go by a variety of names. Several frameworks have been developed to organize these competencies. The team organized the competencies based on a framework described in a 2012 National Research Council Report which specified three broad categories. In addition, we classified each measure using a taxonomy developed by Stephanie Jones and colleagues at the EASEL Lab at Harvard University that includes competency names drawn from all of the major frameworks, and initial searches in the Assessment Finder include all measures that have the same classification.

CASEL AWG and the RAND Education Assessment Finder

The RAND Education Assessment Finder is complemented by the SEL Assessment Guide, developed by the SEL Assessment Work Group (AWG). Both tools both help practitioners learn about measures of social and emotional learning, but they differ in several important ways. The RAND Education Assessment Finder includes measures of interpersonal (i.e., social), intrapersonal (i.e., emotional), and higher-order cognitive competencies, whereas the AWG SEL Assessment Guide includes only the first two of those three categories. In addition, the RAND Education Assessment Finder is intended to provide information about a wide range of measures that have been developed for research purposes as well as for use in practice, including information on the validity and reliability evidence associated with each measure. The SEL Assessment Guide, in comparison, is narrowed to just those measures currently being administered in schools and districts, and it focuses on how the measures can be used instructionally by practitioners.

Additional Resources

Project Partners

Funding for This Project

This work was conducted by RAND Education and Labor, a division of the RAND Corporation. Funding to support the work has been provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, The Raikes Foundation, the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, and the Overdeck Family Foundation. These foundations are part of the Funders' Collaborative for Innovative Measurement (FCIM), a group of 15 private foundations and one federal agency partner, which was created during White House meetings held in 2015 to explore areas for coordination, collaboration, and information sharing that will advance the state of and appropriate usage of interpersonal and intrapersonal measures by educators, policymakers and researchers.

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The RAND Education Assessment Finder is a web-based tool that provides information about assessments of K-12 students' interpersonal, intrapersonal, and higher-order cognitive competencies. Practitioners, researchers, and policymakers can learn more about the project, its partners, and how to use the tool.

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Lee & Low Grant for Increasing Multicultural Texts

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Lee & Low Grant for Increasing Multicultural Texts

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Did you recently win a grant for diverse, culturally responsive books? Are you currently in the process of applying for a grant and would like to use Lee & Low Books as a resource or vendor for multicultural literature?
Literacy funding is one of the biggest barriers to getting books to students in need. Whether you are looking to jump-start your library or sustain your school's literacy initiatives and move forward into an equitable, culturally responsive classroom, we are here to help!

Lee & Low Books has an expert Educator Team to help you place your wish-list books onto shelves and into students' hands.

We are here to help whichever stage you are in:

curating the books for your specific program or students

providing descriptions about the books, creators, and supplemental resources available

selecting and purchasing the books when the grant is funded

We will build a curated collection of books with you:
Grant-writing resources for educators Popular Grants for Literacy Initiatives Crowdfunding

aligned to the grant's mission

based on your budget parameters

committed to your readers' needs and interests

highlighting a wide range of diverse characters and historical figures by award-winning authors and illustrators from diverse backgrounds

Please note that Lee & Low Books does not award grants.

If you need assistance in your acquisition of books that will make a difference in your school, library, or classroom, we'd love to connect with you at grantsupport@leeandlow.com.

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Did you recently win a grant for diverse, culturally responsive books? Are you currently in the process of applying for a grant and would like to use Lee & Low Books as a resource or vendor for multicultural literature?

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews of popular EdTech apps, and resources for protecting student privacy.

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Friendship and community are beautiful things. The most important aspects of my life involve my friends and family. I'd even go as far as saying my life is my friends. I value friendships and relationships with people more than anything else. I am always striving to be the best friend I can be, and will do anything for them.

Just yesterday actually, I received a call in the evening from one of my friends. He is a taxi driver in my community and he had a car accident. As soon as I heard the news I told him that if he needed me I would be there immediately. I would close up my Chai Stall early and support him however I could. My business is important, but these friendships matter most. After all, money isn't the main reason I have chosen to enter this business.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. What does friendship mean to you? How important are friendships to you? How are you a good friend to others in your daily life?

I have loved making friends with all sorts of people. People from the village and people from the city, young people and older people, people from all walks of life, from politics to business and even to education. People who work and people who are at home looking after their families. I love connecting with them all and I really enjoy sharing stories.

This was the main reason I started a chai business of all things: to create a space for people to connect and build friendships. Chai is something that almost everyone drinks here in India, and my little cups of chai are something that almost everyone can afford. This chai brings people together in our community, and getting to know someone over a cup of chai is a very rewarding and relaxing process.

Having something in common such as a love for chai has helped me connect with people - especially new people I have just met. Do you think it is important to connect with people? How do you connect with new people? Do you find it difficult? Why or why not? How can we all form deeper, more meaningful connections with each other?

About 80% of people who come to my stand are working on construction for the surrounding area. Another 15% drive taxis. The remaining 5% are various other friends and people who live or work or pass through the area.

a) How many people from each category above come to the stall if I sell 200 cups in a day?

b) What if I sell 400?

c) What if I sold two cups to each of those people from (b)?

I don't have a set up with tables and chairs or anything of that sort. But I have pulled together a couple of stools and repurposed a few containers that my customers in the community can sit on. They aren't in clusters or tables as you'd see in a restaurant or café. All the seats are together so that all my customers can sit together and get to know one another. I'm always thinking about how the space around my chai stand can be best used to build a community here. If it rains, I make sure to put up a sheet so that my customers can still stay here and connect with one another without getting wet.

A couple of days ago the rocks that my cart stands upon had been moved around after some construction work and the ground was uneven. I saw quickly that a few customers were struggling to stand on the uneven surface so I immediately called my friends from across the street, who are construction workers, to help me out. We quickly cleared the ground to make an even surface that would be most comfortable for my customers. I want to create an environment where my customers feel welcome, comfortable, and happy. A community.

Six months ago the average person who came to my chai stand stayed for about 10 minutes.

a) Three months ago, the average person who came stayed for 15 minutes. What is the increase in the percentage of time spent by the average person?

b) Nowadays the average person who comes stays for 20 minutes. What is the increase in the percentage of time spent by the average person?

What does this information tell you? Why do you think my customers spent more time at the chai stand? Is it a positive step?

What are some of the creative things you could do to help people make connections and build friendships in your community?

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Shantanu Builds Community Story 1 | Being Better Together

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Just yesterday actually, I received a call in the evening from one of my friends. He is a taxi driver in my community and he had a car accident. As soon as I heard the news I told him that if he needed me I would be there immediately.

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WNDB Grants for Increasing Diverse Books

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WNDB Grants for Increasing Diverse Books

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WNDB strives to create a world in which all children can see themselves in the pages of a book. To reach this goal, we've created programs to celebrate diverse books, to mentor diverse writers and illustrators, to support diverse publishing professionals, and to provide books to classrooms nationwide.

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Social-Emotional Learning Programs | Second Step

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Discover Second Step, an evidence-based social-emotional learning curriculum that fosters students’ emotional intelligence, empathy, and problem-solving skills.

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"I believe in the power of Facing History."

-Durias D., Facing History Alum

"I went to a Facing History workshop and it opened my eyes."

-Tareeq R., Educator

Facing History & Ourselves
uses lessons of history
to challenge teachers
and their students
to stand up to bigotry and hate.

Facing History & Ourselves is more than our name. It is an active and continuous process that calls on each of us to connect the choices of the past to those we face today. To build a more just and equitable future, we must face our history in all its complexity, Are you ready to face history with us?

Learn how you can experience Facing History

Facing History has thousands of research-based resources and professional learning events to support Social Studies and English Language Arts education.

Not in the United States?

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And hopefully, they will always remember what happened to us and make sure that it won't happen again.

Sonia Weitz, Holocaust survivor and poet

Sign up to download the PDF version of our textbook, Holocaust and Human Behavior.

Facing History students are 94% more likely than their peers to report that their class motivated them to learn.

92% of Facing History teachers agree that Facing History helps their students stand up for what they believe even when others disagree.

91% of elective teachers agree or strongly agree that their Facing History course promoted their students' abilities to ground reading, writing, and speaking in evidence from text.

Demand for our work is greater than ever. Make a 100% tax-deductible donation today and you'll help us reach even more teachers and students around the world, giving them the tools to stand up to bigotry and hate.

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Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.

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SELF was developed as a Tier 2 intervention taught in the general education setting to promote social-emotional development for primary grade children at early risk for emotional and/or behavioral difficulties. It differs from other targeted interventions by (a) including a universal component and (b) integrating social-emotional learning with literacy instruction to strengthen language important to social-emotional learning and promote self-regulation.

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SELF | Social-Emotional Learning Foundations

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Fit the curriculum into your daily lesson plans

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The science of relationships and community.

All humans are hardwired to connect. Just as we need food, shelter and clothing, human beings also need strong and meaningful relationships to thrive.

Restorative practices is a field within the social sciences that studies how to strengthen relationships between individuals as well as social connections within communities.

Though newer to the social sciences, restorative practices has deep roots within indigenous communities throughout the world.

The IIRP Graduate School is devoted to scholarship and research, graduate education, professional development, world conferences and innovative civil society projects around the world.

Learn more

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The science of relationships and community. All humans are hardwired to connect. Just as we need food, shelter and clothing, human beings also need strong and meaningful relationships to thrive. Restorative practices is a field within the social scie...

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*See Size of the Problem video in Video section!

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This belief is the core of our work at YCEI. We conduct research and offer trainings that support people of all ages in developing emotional intelligence skills. We do this work because the well-being and sustainability of our society depends on each of us using our emotions wisely.

As a self-supporting unit within the Yale School of Medicine's Child Study Center, our research and training is funded primarily through foundation and federal grants, corporate support, training revenue, and philanthropists. Our research is conducted in collaboration with experts in education, psychology, policy, and technology.

Our goal is to design effective approaches for supporting school communities in understanding the value of emotions, teaching the skills of emotional intelligence, and building and sustaining positive emotional climates in homes, schools, and workplaces.

We provide training to educational leaders, teachers, and school staff to support the systemic implementation of SEL (social and emotional learning) and foster those skills in all stakeholders in these communities, including in families and out-of-school time. We test and refine each element of our work, with the goal of leveraging emotions to create healthier and more equitable, innovative, and compassionate communities.

Through both science and practice, we determine how emotional intelligence can make a difference in the lives of children and adults. Our Center's research in "basic" science has included the role of self-awareness in teacher decision making, the benefits of emotion regulation skills for creativity and adolescent coping, and connections among school climate, teacher engagement, and student academic performance.

We also have tested the impact of RULER. RULER, an acronym for the five skills of emotional intelligence (recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating) is the evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning developed at our Center. Evaluation research shows that RULER fosters a range of behaviors and shifts in school climate that are essential to positive youth development.

Research on the impact of RULER also informs educational practice and policy by demonstrating that emotional intelligence can improve leader, educator, and student outcomes in schools serving pre-K - 12 students. Together, our research deepens our understanding of the benefits of a range of complex feelings across human development and informs both the design and implementation of RULER.

Other specific outcomes among students and adults include:

Development of emotion skills

Fewer attention and learning problems

Greater social and leadership skills

Less anxiety and depression

Less stress and burnout

Better performance in school

Creating Emotionally Intelligent School Communities

In partnership with families and communities, schools play a critical role in supporting the social and emotional development of youth. This goes beyond teaching a set of skills by embedding social and emotional learning (SEL) into every aspect of daily school life. More than 20 years of research shows that SEL helps students achieve more academically and make better decisions.

RULER is a systemic approach to SEL developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. The Center works with both district-level and preK-12 school-level teams to help them understand the value of emotions, build the skills of emotional intelligence, and create and maintain positive emotional climates with RULER.

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Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (YCEI)

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This belief is the core of our work at YCEI. We conduct research and offer trainings that support people of all ages in developing emotional intelligence skills. We do this work because the well-being and sustainability of our society depends on each of us using our emotions wisely.

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Guiding Questions for Educators: Promote Equity using SEL in your School - Casel Schoolguide

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When social and emotional learning (SEL) is implemented with a culturally responsive lens, educators can use SEL to cultivate equitable learning opportunities, responsive relationships, and inclusive practices. This resource features reflection questions for school-level educators to explore the CAS…

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Teach Kids to Manage Big Feelings Through Effective Social Emotional Learning

Over 80% of U.S. public schools reported in 2022 on the negative impact of the pandemic on child well-being and self-regulation. Kids are:

Struggling to manage their feelings and mental health

More disruptive in the classroom

Needing additional social, emotional, and behavioral support

(source: National Center for Education Statistics)

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The Zones of Regulation is a complete social-emotional learning curriculum, created to teach children self-regulation and emotional control.

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Social-Emotional Learning Content for DIstricts

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Combine SEL content with your existing lesson plan or build a new content plan with Newsela's Social-Emotional learning content text sets.

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Free Printable Gratitude Journal for Kids - Lemon and Kiwi Designs

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The Best 3 Minute Gratitude Journal For Kids delivered to your home or if you want to print it out yourselves, simply click the button below to download all our free gratitude printables for kids:

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What is it?

The Pugh Matrix was developed by Stuart Pugh who was a professor and head of the design division at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

It is also called a variety of names including Pugh method, Pugh analysis, decision matrix method, decision matrix, decision grid, selection grid, selection matrix, problem matrix, problem selection matrix, problem selection grid, solution matrix, criteria rating form, criteria-based matrix, opportunity analysis.

As a decision making model, it is obviously used to choose between a list of alternatives.

The most important criteria in the decision are chosen, and the alternatives are compared using these criteria.

There are variations and how to use the criteria and we will look at those later on.

Who uses it?

Is typically used in teams can just as easily be used by individuals. An interesting variation in team decision-making is for each individual to create his own pew matrix and then as a team the Pugh matrices are compared.

What for?

Typically, a Pugh matrix is used to evaluate various alternatives against a baseline. For example, a company has five alternative processes to the one it's using, and it wants to know if any of the five is better or not.

It is also used when only one solution is possible, only one product can be brought to market, has only sufficient financing for one solution or where the optimal alternative is required, and you are deciding on the basis of multiple criteria.

It can also be used where there are many alternatives, none of which are quite suitable. The Pugh matrix can be used to choose the best aspects of the various concepts to produce a hybrid, which hopefully will be better than the alternatives used initially.

A Pugh matrix example

Let's say we're deciding between four alternatives, A, B, C, D. We already have a system in place and want to know if one of these four systems would be better for us.

We decide what our criteria are. We pick the four most important, the ones that absolutely must be included. Let's call them 1,2,3 and 4. (These can be price, time, ease of production, man-hours, whatever is most important. In companies, for example, they may get the customer/client involved here to ensure their satisfaction with the end result).

Let's draw our Pugh matrix. We put the alternatives across the top, and we are going to assess these with respect to the criteria, which we draw in on the left.

Our baseline is the system we have in place at the moment, so we score this a nought against our criteria. Our diagram will look like this.

Now consider option A. In relation to criteria 1, do we consider that it is better, the same as, or worse than the baseline? If it's better we give it a +1, if it's the same we give it a 0, and if it's worse we give it a -1. Let's say it's +1.

In terms of criteria 2, it's the same as the baseline. For criteria 3 it's better, and for criteria 4 its worse.

Our chart now looks like this.

We assess each of the alternatives B, C and D in the same way, filling in all the blanks.

So now we know the number of pluses, the number of minuses and the total score for each alternative, allowing us to make a more rational or objective decision. In this case it's obviously D, with three pluses and no minuses.

Weighting

We can also give each criterion a weighting. For example, if our first criteria is a 2, and the second criteria is twice as important we give that a four. The third criteria is somewhere in between, so it's a three. And the last criteria is probably the most important so that it gets a five. (It was funny writing that!!)

Our chart now looks like this.

Criteria 1 has a weighting of two. So all the numbers to the right of it are multiplied by two. Criteria four has a weighting of 5, so it's results are multiplied by five, etc.

Our Pugh matrix example now looks like this:

In our case the end result is the same, but depending on the number of criteria and the variables, the weighting you use can cause very different end results.

A further variation

Instead of the three-point scale we have used here, it it possible to use a five-point scale. For example:

+2 - much better than

+1 - better than

0 - equal to

-1 - worse than

-2 - much worse than

This can even be a 7 point scale, but anything finer may just complicate things unnecessarily.

Other rational decision models

See here for more rational decision making models

Like this page?

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The Pugh Matrix was developed by Stuart Pugh who was a professor and head of the design division at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. It is also called a variety of names including Pugh method, Pugh analysis, decision matrix method, decision matrix, decision grid, selection grid, selection matrix, problem matrix, problem selection matrix, problem selection grid, solution matrix, criteria rating form, criteria-based matrix, opportunity analysis.

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7 Ways to Teach Kids to Manage Their Own Conflicts

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Strengthening students' capacity to evaluate their problems and consider a number of solutions leads to better, less impulsive conflict resolution.

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Dr. Daniel Siegel | Introduction to the head brain: parts and functions

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Each school year, your classroom library helps support a whole new group of kids to develop a deeper love for reading. It's the heart of your classroom. However, when your students are checking books in and out, disorganization takes over way too easily-paper sign-in sheets aren't cutting it anymore.

At Booksource, we're dedicated to helping educators. Not only do we curate amazing book collections designed to meet the needs of all students, we also have a free online tool to organize them! If you don't already have a account, you're going to want to and get started.

There are so many reasons Booksource Classroom will make your life easier: from keeping track of inventory to increasing student engagement and more. Here are some tips for organizing your own classroom library and making the most of your account!

1. Invest in a barcode scanner

There are several ways to import books to your Booksource Classroom account including scanning ISBNs with our Mobile App, importing from Microsoft Excel and manually adding titles. The easiest way to importbooks and make student checkout as smooth as possible is to get a barcode scanner. Set up the scanner near your checkout station, and students will love to use it when selecting their next read!

2. Label your bins and/or shelves

Choosing how to arrange the books in your library can set the tone for your entire classroom. You'll want to keep things looking clean and inviting, keeping in mind student needs like step stools. Make it as easy as possible for kids to find titles that will interest them. We suggest arranging by genre, theme or mood as opposed to level, which can discourage some of your less seasoned readers.
Download printable bin labels

Color code or put these categories on physical labels (like these) and use them when importing titles to your Booksource Classroom account. You can create custom location tags to keep track of each title and ensure students know where it belongs.

3. Track the condition of your books

We all know that some of our most popular titles are well-loved-and it shows. It's key to recognize when a book is past its prime and, if possible, replace it with a new copy or even a fresh read. Booksource Classroom allows you to create custom tags that can help you and your students track when a book's condition might require it to be retired.

4. Customize your title information

We understand that every classroom library is different, so Booksource Classroom contains customizable fields. When you add a description for each of your books in the Annotation field, you can help yourself differentiate among titles. This also helps to pair the right book with the right reader, who may discover that description when they check out a book.

You can also require students to leave a rating and review when they return a book. Their review will then come to you for approval before being made visible to all students. Your kids will love seeing what their friends are reading!

5. Build your library with Booksource titles

Booksource Classroom was built to work best with the books we offer and recommend.

We have spent decades reading and cultivating custom lists of books that fit every classroom need imaginable, from fiction to STEM, fresh new reads to classroom-proven favorites, read alouds to independent reading. Our warehouses are stocked with book collections carefully curated by our experts and waiting to be shipped to eager young readers!
Find quality book collections for your classroom

When you import Booksource books to your Booksource Classroom account, you can be sure that you're getting the best quality literature as well as extensive information for each title. You won't have to manually edit fields like Title Details, Genre or Interest Level. Plus, all your books will be considered when you perform an analysis using our LibraryLens feature (read more about that below). You'll even be able to import titles using your Booksource invoice to make setup quick and easy for future additions to your library.

6. Find new titles with LibraryLens

One of the favorite features of our Booksource Classroom users is LibraryLens. It automatically evaluates the books in your classroom library, identifies gaps and suggests the right titles to fill those gaps. This means you can perform a digital audit for categories like year published, diversity, genre and subject matter.

How to Analyze Your Classroom Library for Diversity

LibraryLens will then recommend new titles based on what is already in your library to enhance your classroom! Building an inclusive classroom library takes time, thought and effort. It's important to regularly evaluate the books you offer and remove outdated titles and books that feature stereotypical representations. It's also important to incorporate recently published titles and introduce a wider variety of experiences and perspectives whenever possible. This tool will make that process much faster.

More Resources

An educator shares how she uses Booksource Classroom to allow students to view and checkout books to read and enjoy at home.

During this webinar for K-12 educators, you will learn how to improve your classroom library by assessing your current goals, evaluating and refreshing your selection of titles and reorganizing your space to better reflect your students!

During this 60-minute webinar, educators new to classroom libraries will learn the basics of surrounding students with amazing books! Topics covered include frequently asked classroom library questions, tips for selecting the right titles, where to look for funding and ideas for setting up and organizing books.

Inclusive Classroom Library Checklist

What if you haven't created your free Booksource Classroom account yet and would like to complete a classroom library audit? You can download and print our Inclusive Classroom Library Checklist for an easy non-digital way to evaluate your classroom library for gaps in representation and identify the types of books you need to add.

We currently have thousands of students using our system to discover books they love! Knowing which titles are the most popular among that many students can help you discover which books you'll want to make sure are a part of your classroom library. This list will help.

What methods do you use to organize your classroom library? Do you have favorite bins or storage tools? Tell us in the comments below!

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6 Essential Tips for Organizing Your Classroom Library

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Each school year, your classroom library helps support a whole new group of kids to develop a deeper love for reading. It's the heart of your classroom. However, when your students are checking books in and out, disorganization takes over way too easily-paper sign-in sheets aren't cutting it anymore.

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This is a body scan for children. If you're a parent, you might choose to do this with your child, or feel free to use the audio as part of bedtime or at any other time of the day.

1) Lie down on your back. Let your legs and your arms relax and fall to the sides. Settle yourself in a comfort-able position and close your eyes.

2) Start by taking two or three gentle, large breaths. Pay attention to how that feels. Your belly rises and falls. Air moves in and out of your body. If you like, place a hand on your belly and feel it move with each breath.

3) Now we're going to pay attention to the other parts of the body. Start with your feet. They might feel warm or cold, wet or dry, relaxed or restless. It's also okay if you feel nothing at all. If you can, relax your feet now. If that's hard to do, that's fine. Take a moment and notice how that feels too.

4) For these few minutes, let yourself be still. There's nothing to do. Pay attention as best you can. You might feel a blanket or socks on your feet, or you might feel them pressing against the bed or the floor. When your mind gets busy, gently bring your attention back to your feet again.

5) Now move your attention to your lower legs, noticing whatever is there. Do they feel heavy, light, warm, cold, or something else? Let go of frustration and trying to do anything. Just do your best and give yourself a few moments of rest.
Next, move your attention next to your knees and relax them. Feel the front, back, and sides of your knees.

6) After a few more breaths, move your attention to your upper legs. Whatever you feel, or don't feel, is fine. Notice your legs and let them relax. If you feel restless or wiggly, that's okay too. That happens.

7) Now move your attention to your belly. It always moves when you breathe, rising and falling, like waves on the sea. You might feel something on the inside, like full or hungry. You might notice the touch of your clothing or a blanket. You might even feel emotions in your belly, like happy or sad or upset.

If you feel that it's hard to focus, that's normal. Gently practice coming back again and again to how your chest feels when you breathe.

8) Next, bring your attention to your chest. Notice it rising and falling as you breathe. If you feel that it's hard to focus, that's normal. Gently practice coming back again and again to how your chest feels when you breathe.

9) Now turn your attention to your hands. There is no need to move them or do anything with them. They may be touching the bed, or the floor, or somewhere on your body. Relax them if you can, and if not, simply paying attention to your hands for another moment.

10) Move your attention up into your arms. Maybe notice if you can find a moment of stillness inside you, like the pause at the end of each breath.

11) Next, move your attention around to your back. How does it feel against the bed or the floor? Notice how it rocks with each breath. When your mind gets busy or angry or scared, you can always come back to how your body feels in this way for a moment.

12) Now move attention to your neck and shoulders, letting go and relaxing them. If your mind wanders, that's fine. No one can pay attention all the time. Just keep returning to noticing your body whenever you find yourself thinking of something else.

13) And now feel your face and head. What expression do you have right now? What would it feel like to smile? What else do you notice in your face, your head, and in your mind?

14) Finally, spend a few moments, paying attention to your whole body. If it is easier, continue to pay attention to your breath. If it's time for sleep, let that happen, remaining still and continuing to pay attention to your breath or feelings in your body. And if it's time to wake up, open your eyes and sit for a few moments before deciding when to move again.

Reprinted with permission: New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Copyright © 2015 by Mark Bertin, from Mindful Parenting for ADHD

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This is a body scan for children. If you're a parent, you might choose to do this with your child, or feel free to use the audio as part of bedtime or at any other time of the day. 1) Lie down on your back.

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An ACE score is a tally of different types of abuse, neglect, and other hallmarks of a rough childhood. According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, the rougher your childhood, the higher your score is likely to be and the higher your risk for later health problems. You can take the test below:

So, you've got your score. Now what?

First, remember that the ACE score isn't a crystal ball; it's just meant as guidance. It tells you about one type of risk factor among many. It doesn't directly take into account your diet or genes, or whether you smoke or drink excessively - to name just a few of the other major influences on health.

To learn more, check the CDC's ACE Study website. You'll find, among other things, a list of studies that explore the ways adverse childhood experiences have been linked to a variety of adult conditions, ranging from increased headaches to depression to heart disease.

Remember this, too: ACE scores don't tally the positive experiences in early life that can help build resilience and protect a child from the effects of trauma. Having a grandparent who loves you, a teacher who understands and believes in you, or a trusted friend you can confide in may mitigate the long-term effects of early trauma, psychologists say.

"There are people with high ACE scores who do remarkably well," says Jack Shonkoff, a pediatrician and director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.

Resilience, he says, builds throughout life, and close relationships are key. Recent research also suggests that for adults, "trauma informed" therapy - which can center on art, yoga or mindfulness training - can help.

How best to find and help kids who are experiencing abuse and neglect right now?

Child psychologist Hilit Kletter, of Stanford University's School of Medicine, says that to spot these children, she looks for visible signs of stress to understand what might have happened to them and how best to intervene. Some kids have nightmares or recurring thoughts of a stressful event, she says, or may re-enact the trauma through play. Or the child may seem distracted or withdrawn.

"This will come out at school," Kletter says. "Teachers will tell parents [their child] seems to be in a daze in the classroom, not paying attention."

Kletter says reactions to trauma are sometimes misdiagnosed as symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, because kids dealing with adverse experiences may be impulsive - acting out with anger or other strong emotions.

"It's something that's very common in trauma: difficulty in regulating emotions and behavior," she explains. "That's why a lot of these kids get in trouble with the classroom."

Shonkoff's research center at Harvard tests interventions that can build resilience in kids who are growing up with adverse experiences - not just problems in the family, such as those the ACE study investigated, but also trauma stemming from poverty, for example, or from the chronic stress of racial or gender discrimination.

To bolster parents, the Harvard team is testing interventions right now that use video coaching to show moms and dads how to engage their babbling infants, using sounds and facial expressions in a style Shonkoff calls serve and return.

Shonkoff says these early interactions - a kind of conversation - have been shown to help children with later learning and literacy. Even more important, they boost kids' resilience, by helping them build secure attachments with caring adults. Research suggests that just one caring, safe relationship early in life gives any child a much better shot at growing up healthy.

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Take The ACE Quiz - And Learn What It Does And Doesn't Mean

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First developed in the 1990s, the 10 questions of the Adverse Childhood Experiences test are designed to take a rough measure of a difficult childhood. Finding out your score is easy. Now what?

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Talking About Feelings

If you work with ESL students (English as a Second Language students), then one of your primary mandates is to help them communicate well in English. There are many different categories of words that can help with this, but learning to talk about feelings and emotions is perhaps one of the most significant things that children can master in order to make themselves known and understood. After all, when you can describe a feeling or understand what someone else is feeling, you can solicit and grant empathy, express your inner self, and deal better with challenges the world presents. This lesson reviews some good vocabulary words for feelings and emotions and then offers games and activities for teaching students these words.

Feelings Vocabulary

This section looks at specific vocabulary words that can help students talk about feelings and emotions. Let's look at the basic names of feelings first.

Now let's look at phrases involving talking and asking about feelings:

I feel / I am feeling...

It seems like you are feeling...

How do you feel about that?

That makes me feel...

I'm just a little...

I am very...

Now, finally, let's take a look at some adverbs used to augment feelings:

Activities for Feelings & Emotions

This section offers some activities and games that can help students put the above vocabulary lists to good use.

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esl feelings & emotions vocabulary: games & activities - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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ESL Feelings & Emotions Vocabulary: Games & Activities - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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If you work with ESL students (English as a Second Language students), then one of your primary mandates is to help them communicate well in English. There are many different categories of words that can help with this, but learning to talk about feelings and emotions is perhaps one of the most significant things that children can master in order to make themselves known and understood.

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Picture Books About Self-Management & Self-Control

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Picture Books About Self-Management & Self-Control

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Picture Books about Self-Management and Self-Control

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These picture books on self-management illustrate characters regulating their emotions, thoughts and behaviours in different situations.

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This year, more than ever, our students will need social/emotional support from trusted teachers and adults in their lives. Providing the necessary tools to help students validate their feelings, self-regulate their emotions, and understand how to release anxiety is a must! One way to do this is by creating a Calm Down Corner in your classroom or suggesting that parents create one at home. Calm Down Corners are designated locations that students feel secure in. Students can use a variety of tools, like sensory bottles and stress balls, to regain control of their emotions.

Here are 20 tips and tools to include in your Calm Down Corner!
Just so you know, we may get a small share of the sales made through the Amazon affiliate links on this page.
1. Provide plenty of options so that students can choose what will help them feel calm.

Yoga pose suggestions, sensory items, books, and prompts for various coping strategies are all great options for a Calm Down Corner.

2. Create a Worry Wiper.

Purchase a mini paper shredder and provide students the chance to shred their worries while spending time in the Calm Down Corner!

3. Provide visuals to help students self-regulate their feelings.

Hang up posters that show anger, sadness, happiness, and calmness. Such visuals will assist students in figuring out their current mood. Then, provide visuals with strategies for calming down, like drawing or taking a drink of water. Check out the blog He's Extraordinary for more information on visuals.

4. Include sensory bottles in your corner.

Via: @ cardigans_in_kindergarten

Check out some DIY sensory bottle ideas. Tell students that as the glitter settles, their anger (or other emotion) does as well.

5. Place a fun, oversized sand timer in your Calm Down Corner for the kids to track the amount of time spent cooling down.

Via: @ happycamperclassroom

6. Organize any calm down tools neatly in a caddy.

Via: @ missbruce_elementary

Dollar Tree is fully stocked with affordable caddies! It's important that students enter an organized Calm Down Corner. Entering a chaotic one could encourage their own chaotic behaviors instead of helping calm.

7. Share breathing techniques within the calm down corner.

Via: @ ms.brevards.bruins

Here are some breathing exercises to try out with your students.

8. Include emotion dice in your corner to foster conversation and develop emotional understandings.

Via: @ thesocialemotionalteacher

You can make these dice from paper or purchase them from !

9. Provide cozy seating so that students feel as comfortable as possible in the Calm Down Corner.

Via: @ littleprimarylearners

For flexible seating ideas, click !

10. Structure the Calm Down Corner time with a clear schedule.

Showing students a sample schedule that they can make their own keeps them accountable for using the Calm Down Corner appropriately. Most students won't need more than 10-15 minutes in the corner, but of course, this could differ based on needs.

11. Download Stop, Breathe, & Think on a classroom iPad

It may not always be the right time for electronics when students are out of sorts, but some students really find success using breathing apps like to find calmness. For more calming apps for the classroom, click .

12. Create workbook or separate calming worksheets that students can work on when in need of finding peace.

Via: @ thecounselingteacherbrandy

You can certainly create your own workbooks filled with puzzles, coloring, and brain teasers, but you might also consider purchasing some from The Counseling Teacher Brandy in her TpT store.

13. Small bubbles tubes might just do the trick for some students.

Via: @ teachingwithmissle

Blowing bubbles is a great calming activity for many students - and adults!

14. Provide mindfulness books for your students to browse through.

Some great options include:

15. Often times, students just need a private place to unwind and feel safe.

Via: longafterthebellrings

16. Teach students how to use a breathing ball.

Cheap breathing balls are available on Amazon . As students breathe in, the ball expands. As they breathe out the ball closes. Repeat as necessary!

17. Create a unique Calm Down Cave!

Via: teachingwithhappiness

This cave was developed inside of a classroom closet to feel extra cave-y, but it's the resources in this set-up that are really mind blowing! There are emotional visuals and an affirmation station included in this Calm Down Corner!

18. Develop a virtual calm down corner for students working from home.

Via: @wanderlustteacher.nc

Some parents/guardians may choose to create their own Calm Down Corners at home, but teachers can also provide virtual options. The virtual option may be in the form of a Bitmoji Classroom , or it could simply be a running list of calm down options/links in a word document.

19. Create a digital Calm Down Corner in Google Slides!

Via: @ thebalancedteacher

For more information on how to use this resource, visit @ thebalancedteacher on IG for a video walkthrough. You can download this resource from TpT.

20. Stress balls are a useful addition to any calm down corner.

Stress balls are used to channel energy into squeezing something squishy. This safe manner of releasing anxiety is an effective tool for many students and adults too. Grab a large pack of stress balls for $10 .

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20 Inspiring Calm Down Corner Options for Your Classroom

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Teachers are creating Calm Down Corners in their classrooms for students who need a separate space and special tools to recenter.

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Helping Students to Create Independent Reading Goals — THE CLASSROOM NOOK

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Love podcasts? Check out tis post in the form of a podcast episode on The Classroom Commute

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Novels and short stories are filled with emotions. The characters in them experience the ups and downs of the human condition, often in dramatic fashion. And as we read along, we feel things, too-about the characters and ourselves. For these reasons, literature offers a gateway to social-emotional learning (SEL) in your classroom.

Teaching social and emotional skills can improve students' mental health, reduce anxiety and depression, thwart bullying, and improve academic performance and in-class behavior.

When students analyze the emotions of the characters they are reading about, they not only gain a greater understanding of the text but also a greater understanding of their own feelings.

Asking SEL-based questions at different stages of the reading process can be an effective and time-efficient strategy for building your students' social and emotional intelligence.

The table below compares traditional literature response questions with SEL-based questions for the book Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo.

Why does Opal name the dog Winn-Dixie?

How does Opal's posture and voice change when she is talking to Winn-Dixie?

How old was Opal when her mother left?

How does Opal feel about her mother leaving? How does she show her emotions about this?

How does Opal realize Winn-Dixie is missing?

In what ways does Opal control her impulses?

Why is Otis put in jail?

When Opal faces a stressful situation, how does she deal with it?

Asking SEL Questions

Here's a process you can follow to integrate SEL questions into your literature units:

Before Reading

After students have selected a story or novel, have them preview the text by skimming the first few pages. Focus one or more of your prereading questions on emotions, and encourage students to cite evidence for each of their answers. Here are some examples:

Based on the cover, what emotion do you think the characters will feel most strongly during the story? Happiness? Sadness? Fear? Hurt? Love? Anger?

What did you learn about the emotional state of the characters by skimming the first few pages?

During Reading

Periodically, have students pause their reading and reflect out loud or in writing about the emotions of the characters.

Can you identify the emotion(s) that the main character is feeling?

What event or events led him or her to feel this way?

How is the emotion similar to or different from what the character was feeling earlier in the story?

How does the main character express emotions? Are the emotions expressed in a healthy and productive way?

After a few reflection sessions focused on how the characters are feeling, ask students to reflect on their own emotions.

Pause your students' reading and ask:

How are you feeling about what is happening in the story? Why do you think that you are feeling that emotion?

How would you feel if you were in the same situation as the main character? Why?

How have your emotions changed during the course of the story?

If you are reading out loud, you could also present quick directives about the six primary emotions: Raise your hand if you are feeling happy right now. Now raise your hand if you are feeling sad. Continue the activity with the remaining emotions: fear, anger, hurt, and love. Afterward, provide students time to elaborate on the emotions they feel.

After Reading

When your students finish the story, present writing prompts that encourage them to reflect on the characters' emotional development as well as their own. Here are some possible prompts:

How did the main character's emotion change throughout the story? Cite evidence to track the development.

What emotions did you feel upon completion of the story? Why do you feel this way?

Do you think other readers feel different emotions about the conclusion of the story? How so?

Asking SEL questions throughout the reading process should illuminate the connection between actions and emotions-in both real life and in fiction. It is our hope that literature pushes the gate open for deeper social-emotional learning in your classroom.
By Tom McSheehy, MSW, LSW, author of the In Focus series

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Blog post: Developing Social-Emotional Skills Through Literature

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Novels and short stories are filled with emotions. The characters in them experience the ups and downs of the human condition, often in dramatic fashion. And as we read along, we feel things, too-about the characters and ourselves. For these reasons, literature offers a gateway to social-emotional learning (SEL) in your classroom.

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1. To eat mindfully, get three pieces of some snack food (for example, nuts or raisins). Look at this food as something new you have never seen, even if you have eaten it a thousand times. Before you begin to eat, notice what is around you in the room, and what thoughts and feelings you have. Notice your breathing as you inhale and exhale a few times.

2. Set two pieces of the food aside, and take the third in your hand. Look at what you are about to eat. Think about how it got to you, from a field or store all the way to your hand. How do you feel knowing that you are going to eat? What do you notice in your mind?

3. Use your five senses. Notice what the piece looks like. Roll it around in your hand. What does it feel like? Hold it to your nose. What does it smell like? Place it near your ear. Can you hear anything? If you move it between your fingers, does it make a sound?

4. Feel the piece with your lips, and notice the taste it has left on them. Put it into your mouth without chewing it. What do you notice starting to take place in your mouth? Close your eyes, and let the piece roll around on your tongue. Put it between your teeth and feel it there without biting into it yet. Notice any saliva that is present. Pay attention to the change in its texture after it has been in your mouth for a bit.
5. Bite into the piece, noticing and tastes you experience. Slowly chew it for as long as you can. Right before you swallow, notice what it feels like to want to swallow this food. When you are ready, go ahead and swallow.

Notes: When you notice yourself getting distracted by your thoughts or feelings, take a moment to notice the distraction and refocus on the food. Repeat this process with the remaining two pieces of food.

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What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Teens (MBSR-T) Program. - Stressed Teens

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Stressed Teens disseminates the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Teens Program (MBSR-T) in educational, clinical, and community settings We teach mindfulness-based interventions and provides skills for those in their pre-teen years through latter adolescence and even for young adults. Stressed Teens can improve a teen's functioning and quality of living socially, physically, and psychologically.

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Wordwall - Create better lessons quicker

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Arrastra y suelta los elementos en la columna de categoría correspondiente.. , .Cree un recurso de enseñanza interactiva en un minuto.

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Teaching Point of View Through Reader's Theatre

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Teaching Point of View Through Reader's Theatre

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When you teach reading for fluency and expression, have you considered looking for plays to interest your students? Reader's theater is an exciting approach to motivate struggling readers because they can portray a character in a play. In today's post, I'll explain how you can help your students transform into someone or something new so that they can strengthen the ability to identify points of view. First I'll start with how you can use a level M fairy tale from Story World Real World. Then I'll describe how you can use a level N high-interest, low-level play from the SuperScripts series.

Select a traditional tale, or choose a new fiction book to read to the class. Next, give students time to read through the entire story. Discuss the roles of each character in the script. This is a perfect opportunity to teach point of view by assigning roles to students to show them how to analyze actions and speech in a story. One way to introduce analyzing is to ask students to create a web of ideas or character traits that pertain to their assigned roles.

For example, if you use the level M narrative text of Cinderella in your guided reading lesson, assign the following parts to students before they read: Cinderella, the prince, the stepmother, stepsisters, fairy godmother, the coachmen, guests at the ball. Ask students to work together to map out the character traits of their role. Some adjectives that they list could include kind, thoughtful, selfish, stingy, bully, conceited, sweet, bossy, shy, pushy, etc.

To teach the concept of point of view, have students write a new plot twist to the story told from a selected character's perspective. Give students a prompt, such as Imagine the fairy godmother is telling the story, and her magic does not work. What would she do? You can also have students create a new ending to the story by asking them to think about what would have happened if the prince caught Cinderella before she ran away from the ball.

Another idea that you can use to practice reading with kids and teach point of view is changing the story by adding a new character. You could ask kids questions the following questions: What if two princes were searching for a wife? Would they be competing with each other for Cinderella? Or would one of them have chosen someone else at the ball?

Assign an animal role to be the narrator and let the student reading those parts tell the story. For example, the mice could say how shocked they were to become horses and describe the experiences when students are retelling the story. When you require creativity in your classroom activities, there are no right or wrong answers. Reluctant learners are more likely to join in the discussions and contribute some fantastic ideas when you create a comfortable learning environment and use time effectively. If time allows, you could develop props and backgrounds to enhance the performance of the story.

For older students, there are eight stories in a series called SuperScripts that are written in play format targeting reluctant readers. These scripts are written for third through twelfth-grade students who are reading up to level P. In King Kevin, a character named Josh is a new student in a high school. While a new friend named Michael shows Josh around, they encounter a group of bullies led by Tyrone.

This group enjoys intimidating other students. King Kevin has a group of friends who regard him as the leader of all the groups in the school. Tyrone's group of bullies challenge Kevin for the chance to be the top in the school, so they steal money and an iPod from Josh. Since Josh tells Kevin that Tyrone's gang plans to fight him, Kevin stands up for Josh and asks him to join his group.

To use this play to teach point of view, introduce the level N text by having a discussion about bragging and bullying. Explain to students that it's wrong for someone to bully another person or steal from them. Assign parts and read the play through the first time. Then ask the students to describe their characters. Ask them why a school may have a group or gang that tries to control other students. Spend some time discussing options to solve the problem of bullying.

On the second day, have the group reread the play. This time, ask students to pay attention to the flow of the words, focus on where their part comes in, and add expression to the script. If there are troublesome words, practice the correct pronunciation. Repeated readings and practice will help your students become confident with the parts in the play as well as improve reading comprehension and fluency. After the group has mastered the text of the story, they may want to add movement or action. Students may also have suggestions to make props to act out this story.

It would be best if the group practiced the script for a few days before performing the work in front of others. They could show the play for their classroom or another class, but older students should be able to practice reading with expression in small guided reading groups without a lot of teacher intervention.

If there are students who do not want to portray a character with a speaking part, be sure to create other opportunities for them to practice learning about point of view. You can assign the student the role of director or costume designer. Regardless of students' roles, it's important to emphasize that everyone should think about the point of view when they help because every contribution is essential for the final performance. If they don't believe you, point out movie credits at the end of a movie to show the vast number of roles that are listed to make a film.

Reader's theater is a valuable tool that can create a climate of teamwork within your classroom. Always keep the primary objective of making reader's theater fun as you're lesson planning because this method of teaching should be a motivational tool. When you actively involve students in the learning, they will remember the experience long after they read text on pages of a book.

Be sure to return to our blog soon for new ideas and tips for teaching reading skills and literacy strategies!
Rhonda was a Title 1 Reading Specialist in Botetourt County Public Schools, Virginia. She now substitutes and visits schools and libraries to lead writing workshops, story time, and parent workshops. She is also an author of children's books and several titles in our Kaleidoscope Collection and Zoozoo Animal World series. If you like what you read here, you can enjoy more by Rhonda on our blog.

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Teaching Point of View with Reader's Theater

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By Rhonda McDonald, Reading Specialist, Guest Blogger When you teach reading for fluency and expression, have you considered looking for plays to interest your students? Reader's theater is an exciting approach to motivate struggling readers because they can portray a character in a play.

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Large-scale remote learning is settling into what is, for now, the new normal. We're hearing from educators who want actionable resources to support their ongoing professional development, especially as they explore and deliver new ways of teaching and engaging. We've pulled a first batch together here and will be adding more in the weeks ahead. Our "Learn - Listen - Lead" routine will help you turn research into results for your students and your colleagues.

Download: Science of Reading Primer, Part One

Download: Science of Reading Primer, Part Two

Download: Science of Reading: Making the shift eBook

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Large-scale remote learning is settling into what is, for now, the new normal. We're hearing from educators who want actionable resources to support their ongoing professional development, especially as they explore and deliver new ways of teaching and engaging. We've pulled a first batch together here and will be adding more in the weeks ahead.

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How Growth Mindset Can Benefit Students Struggling with Reading

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How Growth Mindset Can Benefit Students Struggling with Reading

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How Growth Mindset Can Benefit Students Struggling with Reading | Lexia Learning

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When was the last time you completed a monumental task? Maybe you ran a marathon, started a new job, or learned to play a musical...

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Request free mailed brochure
Introduction
The Architecture of the Brain
The Geography of Thought
The Cerebral Cortex
The Inner Brain
Making Connections
Some Key Neurotransmitters at Work
Neurological Disorders
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

The brain is the most complex part of the human body. This three-pound organ is the seat of intelligence, interpreter of the senses, initiator of body movement, and controller of behavior. Lying in its bony shell and washed by protective fluid, the brain is the source of all the qualities that define our humanity. The brain is the crown jewel of the human body.

For centuries, scientists and philosophers have been fascinated by the brain, but until recently they viewed the brain as nearly incomprehensible. Now, however, the brain is beginning to relinquish its secrets. Scientists have learned more about the brain in the last 10 years than in all previous centuries because of the accelerating pace of research in neurological and behavioral science and the development of new research techniques. As a result, Congress named the 1990s the Decade of the Brain. At the forefront of research on the brain and other elements of the nervous system is the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (), which conducts and supports scientific studies in the United States and around the world.

This fact sheet is a basic introduction to the human brain. It may help you understand how the healthy brain works, how to keep it healthy, and what happens when the brain is diseased or dysfunctional.

The brain is like a committee of experts. All the parts of the brain work together, but each part has its own special properties. The brain can be divided into three basic units: the forebrain, the midbrain, and the hindbrain.

The hindbrain includes the upper part of the spinal cord, the brain stem, and a wrinkled ball of tissue called the cerebellum ( 1). The hindbrain controls the body's vital functions such as respiration and heart rate. The cerebellum coordinates movement and is involved in learned rote movements. When you play the piano or hit a tennis ball you are activating the cerebellum. The uppermost part of the brainstem is the midbrain, which controls some reflex actions and is part of the circuit involved in the control of eye movements and other voluntary movements. The forebrain is the largest and most highly developed part of the human brain: it consists primarily of the cerebrum ( 2) and the structures hidden beneath it ( see "The Inner Brain").

When people see pictures of the brain it is usually the cerebrum that they notice. The cerebrum sits at the topmost part of the brain and is the source of intellectual activities. It holds your memories, allows you to plan, enables you to imagine and think. It allows you to recognize friends, read books, and play games.

The cerebrum is split into two halves (hemispheres) by a deep fissure. Despite the split, the two cerebral hemispheres communicate with each other through a thick tract of nerve fibers that lies at the base of this fissure. Although the two hemispheres seem to be mirror images of each other, they are different. For instance, the ability to form words seems to lie primarily in the left hemisphere, while the right hemisphere seems to control many abstract reasoning skills.

For some as-yet-unknown reason, nearly all of the signals from the brain to the body and vice-versa cross over on their way to and from the brain. This means that the right cerebral hemisphere primarily controls the left side of the body and the left hemisphere primarily controls the right side. When one side of the brain is damaged, the opposite side of the body is affected. For example, a stroke in the right hemisphere of the brain can leave the left arm and leg paralyzed.

The Forebrain The Midbrain The Hindbrain

Each cerebral hemisphere can be divided into sections, or lobes, each of which specializes in different functions. To understand each lobe and its specialty we will take a tour of the cerebral hemispheres, starting with the two frontal lobes ( 3), which lie directly behind the forehead. When you plan a schedule, imagine the future, or use reasoned arguments, these two lobes do much of the work. One of the ways the frontal lobes seem to do these things is by acting as short-term storage sites, allowing one idea to be kept in mind while other ideas are considered. In the rearmost portion of each frontal lobe is a motor area ( 4), which helps control voluntary movement. A nearby place on the left frontal lobe called Broca's area ( 5) allows thoughts to be transformed into words.

When you enjoy a good meal-the taste, aroma, and texture of the food-two sections behind the frontal lobes called the parietal lobes ( 6) are at work. The forward parts of these lobes, just behind the motor areas, are the primary sensory areas ( 7). These areas receive information about temperature, taste, touch, and movement from the rest of the body. Reading and arithmetic are also functions in the repertoire of each parietal lobe.

As you look at the words and pictures on this page, two areas at the back of the brain are at work. These lobes, called the occipital lobes ( 8), process images from the eyes and link that information with images stored in memory. Damage to the occipital lobes can cause blindness.

The last lobes on our tour of the cerebral hemispheres are the temporal lobes ( 9), which lie in front of the visual areas and nest under the parietal and frontal lobes. Whether you appreciate symphonies or rock music, your brain responds through the activity of these lobes. At the top of each temporal lobe is an area responsible for receiving information from the ears. The underside of each temporal lobe plays a crucial role in forming and retrieving memories, including those associated with music. Other parts of this lobe seem to integrate memories and sensations of taste, sound, sight, and touch.

Coating the surface of the cerebrum and the cerebellum is a vital layer of tissue the thickness of a stack of two or three dimes. It is called the cortex, from the Latin word for bark. Most of the actual information processing in the brain takes place in the cerebral cortex. When people talk about "gray matter" in the brain they are talking about this thin rind. The cortex is gray because nerves in this area lack the insulation that makes most other parts of the brain appear to be white. The folds in the brain add to its surface area and therefore increase the amount of gray matter and the quantity of information that can be processed.

Deep within the brain, hidden from view, lie structures that are the gatekeepers between the spinal cord and the cerebral hemispheres. These structures not only determine our emotional state, they also modify our perceptions and responses depending on that state, and allow us to initiate movements that you make without thinking about them. Like the lobes in the cerebral hemispheres, the structures described below come in pairs: each is duplicated in the opposite half of the brain.

The hypothalamus ( 10), about the size of a pearl, directs a multitude of important functions. It wakes you up in the morning, and gets the adrenaline flowing during a test or job interview. The hypothalamus is also an important emotional center, controlling the molecules that make you feel exhilarated, angry, or unhappy. Near the hypothalamus lies the thalamus ( 11), a major clearinghouse for information going to and from the spinal cord and the cerebrum.

An arching tract of nerve cells leads from the hypothalamus and the thalamus to the hippocampus ( 12). This tiny nub acts as a memory indexer-sending memories out to the appropriate part of the cerebral hemisphere for long-term storage and retrieving them when necessary. The basal ganglia (not shown) are clusters of nerve cells surrounding the thalamus. They are responsible for initiating and integrating movements. Parkinson's disease, which results in tremors, rigidity, and a stiff, shuffling walk, is a disease of nerve cells that lead into the basal ganglia.
Image 5
The brain and the rest of the nervous system are composed of many different types of cells, but the primary functional unit is a cell called the neuron. All sensations, movements, thoughts, memories, and feelings are the result of signals that pass through neurons. Neurons consist of three parts. The cell body ( 13) contains the nucleus, where most of the molecules that the neuron needs to survive and function are manufactured. Dendrites ( 14) extend out from the cell body like the branches of a tree and receive messages from other nerve cells. Signals then pass from the dendrites through the cell body and may travel away from the cell body down an axon ( 15) to another neuron, a muscle cell, or cells in some other organ. The neuron is usually surrounded by many support cells. Some types of cells wrap around the axon to form an insulating sheath ( 16). This sheath can include a fatty molecule called myelin, which provides insulation for the axon and helps nerve signals travel faster and farther. Axons may be very short, such as those that carry signals from one cell in the cortex to another cell less than a hair's width away. Or axons may be very long, such as those that carry messages from the brain all the way down the spinal cord.
Image 6
Scientists have learned a great deal about neurons by studying the synapse-the place where a signal passes from the neuron to another cell. When the signal reaches the end of the axon it stimulates the release of tiny sacs ( 17). These sacs release chemicals known as neurotransmitters ( 18) into the synapse ( 19). The neurotransmitters cross the synapse and attach to receptors ( 20) on the neighboring cell. These receptors can change the properties of the receiving cell. If the receiving cell is also a neuron, the signal can continue the transmission to the next cell.
Image 7
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that brain cells use to talk to each other. Some neurotransmitters make cells more active (called excitatory) while others block or dampen a cell's activity (called inhibitory).

Acetylcholine is an excitatory neurotransmitter because it generally makes cells more excitable. It governs muscle contractions and causes glands to secrete hormones. Alzheimer's disease, which initially affects memory formation, is associated with a shortage of acetylcholine.

Glutamate is a major excitatory neurotransmitter. Too much glutamate can kill or damage neurons and has been linked to disorders including Parkinson's disease, stroke, seizures, and increased sensitivity to pain.

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that helps control muscle activity and is an important part of the visual system. Drugs that increase GABA levels in the brain are used to treat epileptic seizures and tremors in patients with Huntington's disease.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that constricts blood vessels and brings on sleep. It is also involved in temperature regulation. Low levels of serotonin may cause sleep problems and depression, while too much serotonin can lead to seizures.

Dopamine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter involved in mood and the control of complex movements. The loss of dopamine activity in some portions of the brain leads to the muscular rigidity of Parkinson's disease. Many medications used to treat behavioral disorders work by modifying the action of dopamine in the brain.

The brain is one of the hardest working organs in the body. When the brain is healthy it functions quickly and automatically. But when problems occur, the results can be devastating. Some 100 million Americans suffer from devastating brain disorders at some point in their lives. The supports research on more than 600 neurological diseases. Some of the major types of disorders include: neurogenetic diseases (such as Huntington's disease and muscular dystrophy), developmental disorders (such as cerebral palsy), degenerative diseases of adult life (such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease), metabolic diseases (such as Gaucher's disease), cerebrovascular diseases (such as stroke and vascular dementia), trauma (such as spinal cord and head injury), convulsive disorders (such as epilepsy), infectious diseases (such as AIDS dementia), and brain tumors. Knowing more about the brain can lead to the development of new treatments for diseases and disorders of the nervous system and improve many areas of human health.

Since its creation by Congress in 1950, the has grown to become the leading supporter of neurological research in the United States. Most research funded by the NINDS is conducted by scientists in public and private institutions such as universities, medical schools, and hospitals. Government scientists also conduct a wide array of neurological research in the more than 20 laboratories and branches of the NINDS itself. This research ranges from studies on the structure and function of single brain cells to tests of new diagnostic tools and treatments for those with neurological disorders.

For information on other neurological disorders or research programs funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, contact the Institute's Brain Resources and Information Network () at:

Prepared by:
Office of Communications and Public Liaison
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD 20892

health-related material is provided for information purposes only and does not necessarily represent endorsement by or an official position of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke or any other Federal agency. Advice on the treatment or care of an individual patient should be obtained through consultation with a physician who has examined that patient or is familiar with that patient's medical history.

All NINDS-prepared information is in the public domain and may be freely copied. Credit to the or the is appreciated.

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Request free mailed brochure Introduction The Architecture of the Brain The Geography of Thought The Cerebral Cortex The Inner Brain Making Connections Some Key Neurotransmitters at Work Neurological Disorders The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke The brain is the most complex part of the human body.

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Social and Emotional Learning Past Present Future

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Social and Emotional Learning Past Present Future

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New CDC data illuminate youth mental health threats during the COVID-19 pandemic

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New CDC data illuminate youth mental health threats during the COVID-19 pandemic

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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New CDC analyses, published today, shine additional light on the mental health of U.S. high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a disproportionate level of threats that some students experienced.

According to the new data, in 2021, more than a third (37%) of high school students reported they experienced poor mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 44% reported they persistently felt sad or hopeless during the past year. The new analyses also describe some of the severe challenges youth encountered during the pandemic:

More than half (55%) reported they experienced emotional abuse by a parent or other adult in the home, including swearing at, insulting, or putting down the student.

11% experienced physical abuse by a parent or other adult in the home, including hitting, beating, kicking, or physically hurting the student.

More than a quarter (29%) reported a parent or other adult in their home lost a job.

Before the pandemic, mental health was getting worse among high school students, according to prior CDC data.

"These data echo a cry for help," said CDC Acting Principal Deputy Director Debra Houry, M.D., M.P.H. "The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students' mental wellbeing. Our research shows that surrounding youth with the proper support can reverse these trends and help our youth now and in the future."

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth and female youth reported greater levels of poor mental health; emotional abuse by a parent or caregiver; and having attempted suicide than their counterparts.

In addition, over a third (36%) of students said they experienced racism before or during the COVID-19 pandemic. The highest levels were reported among Asian students (64%) and Black students and students of multiple races (both 55%). The survey cannot determine the extent to which events during the pandemic contributed to reported racism. However, experiences of racism among youth have been linked to poor mental health, academic performance, and lifelong health risk behaviors.
School connectedness provided critical protection for students during COVID-19
Findings also highlight that a sense of being cared for, supported, and belonging at school - called "school connectedness" - had an important effect on students during a time of severe disruption. Youth who felt connected to adults and peers at school were significantly less likely than those who did not to report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness (35% vs. 53%); that they seriously considered attempting suicide (14% vs. 26%); or attempted suicide (6% vs. 12%). However, fewer than half (47%) of youth reported feeling close to people at school during the pandemic.

"School connectedness is a key to addressing youth adversities at all times - especially during times of severe disruptions," said Kathleen A. Ethier, PhD, Director of CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health. "Students need our support now more than ever, whether by making sure that their schools are inclusive and safe or by providing opportunities to engage in their communities and be mentored by supportive adults."
We all have a role to play to help youth recover from challenges during COVID-19
Youth with poor mental health may struggle with school and grades, decision making, and their health. Mental health problems in youth are also often associated with other health and behavioral risks such as increased risk of drug use, experiencing violence, and higher risk sexual behaviors.

Schools are crucial partners in supporting the health and wellbeing of students. In addition to education, they provide opportunities for academic, social, mental health, and physical health services that can help protect against negative outcomes. Schools are facing unprecedented disruptions during the pandemic, however, and cannot address these complex challenges alone.

"In the face of adversity, support from schools, families, and communities protects adolescents from potentially devastating consequences," said Jonathan Mermin, M.D., director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC's lead Center for monitoring and addressing school-based health. "These data tell us what works. So, what will it take for our schools and communities to help youth withstand the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond?"
More Information
These data, released as an MMWR Surveillance Supplement, come from the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES), CDC's first nationally representative survey of public- and private-school high school students to assess the well-being of U.S. youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funded through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, CDC fielded the survey during January - June 2021.
CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health on mental health among students: For more information from CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, visit www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/mental-health/index.htm.

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New CDC analyses, published today, shine additional light on the mental health of U.S. high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a disproportionate level of threats that some students experienced.

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CT.gov - Connecticut's Official State Website

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Overview

Social-emotional development contributes to academic and career success by helping students understand and respect themselves and others, acquire effective interpersonal skills, understand safety and resilience skills, and develop into contributing members of society. Improving student academic and behavior outcomes requires ensuring all students have access to the most effective instructional, behavioral practices and interventions. School need to create an environment ensuring that all students feel emotional and physically safe. The integration of SEL is a vital component in K-12 education and it contributes to whole-child success.

Connecticut's definition of SEL: The process through which children and adults achieve emotional intelligence through the competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making (Public Act 19-166).

CSDE Announces New Partnership to Launch Statewide K-12 Social-Emotional Learning Assessment System

The Connecticut SEL State Survey Scan

In fall 2021, the CSDE conducted a landscape scan of SEL activities across Connecticut in partnership with the Region 2 Comprehensive Center. The purpose of this landscape scan is to provide the CSDE with information regarding activities and trends related to SEL for K-12 students across the state. This landscape scan aims to provide a snapshot of the great work that is already taking place and emerging concerns and trends in the field. Additionally, the CSDE hopes the scan will be the first step in providing a systematic collection of data to supplement, not replace, efforts. The CSDE will share the de-identified data results with the Social and Emotional Learning and School Climate Advisory Collaborative, Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS) SEL subcommittee, and districts.

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Social-emotional development contributes to academic and career success by helping students understand and respect themselves and others, acquire effective interpersonal skills, understand safety and resilience skills, and develop into contributing members of society. Improving student academic and behavior outcomes requires ensuring all students have access to the most effective instructional, behavioral practices and interventions.

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Nashville, TN SEL I Can statements (PK-12).pdf

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Social and Emotional Problems Related to Dyslexia - International Dyslexia Association

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Social and Emotional Problems Related to Dyslexia - International Dyslexia Association

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Dyslexia can have significant effects on emotional well-being. Samuel T. Orton, M.D. was one of the first researchers to describe the emotional aspects of dyslexia. His research on preschoolers with dyslexia revealed that most were happy and well adjusted, yet emotional problems began to develop when early reading instruction was not effective.

Over the years, students with dyslexia may develop increasing frustration if the reading skills of their classmates begin to surpass their own. Access to effective Structured Literacy teaching will help these students, but they may still experience social and emotional problems. Understanding these issues will assist parents and teachers in supporting students to develop a healthy sense of emotional well-being that will serve these students well as they continue their work to become skilled readers and spellers.

Why is dyslexia discouraging and frustrating?

The frustration that individuals with dyslexia experience often stems from their inability to succeed, no matter how hard they try. Parents and teachers see a bright, enthusiastic child who is not learning to read and write. Since dyslexia, almost by definition, is unexpected, students with dyslexia will make many mistakes that may be interpreted as careless. Time and again, these students and their parents hear, "They're such a bright child; if only they would try harder." Ironically, no one knows exactly how hard the individual with dyslexia is trying.

It can be painful and frustrating to struggle with basic reading and writing skills and to be unable to achieve in the eyes of their teachers, classmates, and parents. These experiences may result in students feeling chronically inadequate. A sense of failure and inferiority may generalize beyond the classroom and may last into adulthood. At times, it can even lead successful adults to mistrust their own capabilities.

What might the person with dyslexia feel or experience?

Anxiety

Anxiety is the most frequent emotional symptom reported by both children and adults with dyslexia. Anxiety is a normal, adaptive human response intended to protect us from danger. It often results in the typical reactions of fight, flight, or freeze when encountering an adverse situation. When a person develops anxiety, these responses increase to the point of interfering with day-to-day functioning. Children who are anxious become fearful because of their constant frustration and confusion in school. The anticipation of possible failure when asked to read or spell, which may apply to many new situations, can provoke anxiety and fear.

Anxiety causes human beings to avoid whatever frightens them. The child with dyslexia is no exception. However, many teachers and parents misinterpret this avoidance behavior as laziness. In fact, when a student with dyslexia is hesitant to participate in certain school activities, such as reading out loud or completing homework, it is likely the result of anxiety and confusion rather than apathy or unwillingness to work. It is important to note that individuals who experience long-term anxiety are at a higher risk of developing depression.

Anger

Many of the emotional problems caused by dyslexia occur out of frustration with school or social situations. Social scientists have frequently observed that frustration produces anger. This can be clearly seen in many children with dyslexia. Anger is also a common manifestation of anxiety and depression.

The obvious target of the child's anger could be schools and teachers. However, it is also common for the child with dyslexia to vent anger on family members. Often, children sit on their anger during school to the point of being extremely passive. Once they are in the safe environment of home, these very powerful feelings often erupt. Ironically, it is the safety of home that allows them to vent their anger, however, this becomes very frustrating and confusing to a parent who is desperately trying to help their child and may worry that they are doing something wrong.

As youngsters reach adolescence, society expects them to become independent. The adolescent with dyslexia may use their anger to break away from those people on whom they have learned to be dependent. Because of these factors, it can be difficult for parents to help their teenager. At this point, a person outside the family may be better able to intervene and help.

Poor Self-Image

The experiences that children have during the first years of school can affect their self-image. If they succeed in school, they will develop positive feelings about themselves and believe that they can succeed in life. If, instead, they meet failure and frustration, they begin to feel that they are inferior to others, and that their effort makes very little difference. Instead of feeling powerful and productive, these individuals develop the idea that their environment controls them. They may feel powerless and incompetent.

Researchers have learned that when a student with good self-esteem succeeds, as would be the case with typical learners, they credit their own efforts for their success. When they fail, they tell themselves to try harder. However, individuals with a poor self-image are likely to attribute their success to luck. When a child with dyslexia fails, they may simply see themself as stupid.

Depression

Although most children with dyslexia are not depressed, they are at higher risk for intense feelings of sorrow and pain. Perhaps because of their low self-esteem, children with dyslexia are often afraid to turn their anger toward their environment and instead turn it toward themselves, which can result in depression.

Depressed children and adolescents often have different symptoms than do depressed adults. A child who misbehaves or becomes irritated may be covering up painful feelings. Even though the child may not seem obviously unhappy, both children and adults who are depressed tend to have three similar characteristics. Parents should be alert to the following characteristics:

First, they tend to have negative thoughts about themselves-a negative self-image.

Second, they are less likely to enjoy the positive experiences in life and may find it difficult to have fun.

Finally, they may have trouble imagining anything positive about the future and may foresee a life of continuing failure.

In some extreme cases, chronic feelings of hopelessness can lead some children to thoughts of suicide, so parents and teachers should be watchful and not hesitate to consult mental health professionals, including school counselors.
Social Problems
In addition to internal frustration, a child with any learning difference-including dyslexia and related conditions-may have problems with social relationships.

If individuals are physically or socially immature in comparison to their peers, it can compound the poor self-image resulting from academic difficulties and make it harder to be accepted by peers. This can lead to awkwardness and discomfort in social situations.

Dyslexia often affects the way students communicate, known technically as oral language functioning. Students with oral language challenges may have trouble finding the right words or may pause before answering direct questions. Students with broader language processing difficulties may also misinterpret teasing, sarcasm, and words with more than one meaning; in other words, they may have trouble understanding what others mean by what they say. These confusions put them at a disadvantage as they enter adolescence, when language becomes more central to their relationships with peers.

Just as students with dyslexia may have difficulty remembering a sequence of letters or words, they may also have difficulty remembering the order of events. This might create problems for children as they attempt to explain experiences or conflicts with other children. Students with sequencing and memory problems may relate a different sequence each time they describe an event, which may result in teachers and parents concluding that the child is confused or even lying. When playing sports, children may forget the sequence of plays.

Students with dyslexia may also perform erratically or inconsistently within tasks. For example, they might write a word correctly on the spelling test, but then misspell it when asked to write it in a sentence. They may spell the same word in different ways within a single paragraph. The complexity of sentence writing and simultaneous focus on content, grammar, punctuation, and spelling can be incredibly difficult for students with dyslexia, yet adults may erroneously assume that a child is simply careless, creating frustration for the adults and hopelessness for the child.

Family Problems
A child's dyslexia may affect the family in a variety of ways. One of the most obvious is sibling rivalry. A typically achieving child may feel jealous of a child with dyslexia who seems to receive the majority of the parents' attention, time, and money. Ironically, the child with dyslexia does not want this attention. This situation can create stress in relationships between siblings, often without the parents' knowledge.

Since dyslexia is usually inherited, this means that one or both parents may have had similar school problems. Whether parents have experienced dyslexia or not, they may deny the existence of dyslexia and believe that if their child would just buckle down, he or she could succeed. When faced with a child who is having learning difficulties, a parent who lived through similar experiences may relive their failures and frustrations through their child's school experience. This brings back powerful and terrifying emotions, which can have an impact on their relationship with the child and their ability to work with school personnel.

How can parents and teachers help?

Adults with dyslexia who have developed a sense of emotional well-being tend to have certain things in common. Early in the child's life, someone has been extremely supportive and encouraging. The individual has found an area in which he or she could succeed. Many successful individuals with dyslexia have also developed a commitment to helping others.

Teachers and parents who wish to offer consistent, ongoing encouragement and support can keep these elements in mind.

First, listening to a child's feelings is critical. While anxiety, anger, and depression may be daily companions for children with dyslexia, it may be difficult for them to express their emotions. Therefore, adults must help them learn to talk about what they are feeling.

Second, it's extremely important to provide a clear, simple explanation of dyslexia and describe the possible causes of the challenges that result. This will eliminate many misconceptions and help students understand that they are not "dumb," "bad," or "lazy."

Third, teachers and parents must reward effort, not just the product or the outcome. For the student with dyslexia, grades should be less important than progress.

Fourth, when confronting defiant or avoidant behavior, adults must not inadvertently discourage the child with dyslexia. Words such as "dumb" or "lazy" can seriously damage the child's self-image.

Finally, it is important to help students set realistic goals for themselves. Many students with dyslexia set perfectionistic and unattainable goals, or they may be unwilling to set any goals at all. By helping a child set and achieve attainable goals, teachers and parents can change the cycle of failure.

Most importantly, parents and teachers must help children recognize and rejoice in their successes. Many a child's self-esteem has been salvaged by prowess in athletics, art, or mechanics. Parents and teachers can encourage a child to be involved in activities that build on their strengths and can help cultivate abilities that are more subtle and less obvious. One way that students with dyslexia can develop their own self-image is by helping others. If they can contribute through volunteer work or by working with younger children or animals, for example, it can help them develop empathy and feel more positive about themselves at the same time.

Helping individuals with dyslexia feel better about themselves and deal effectively with their feelings is a complex task. Caring adults need to understand the cognitive and emotional issues that may result from dyslexia. They must then design strategies that will help the child find joy in personal relationships and success in academics and life.
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) thanks Michael Ryan, Ph.D., and Eric Tridas, M.D., for their assistance in the preparation of this fact sheet.

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Social and Emotional Problems Related to Dyslexia - International Dyslexia Association

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Consciously or not, students come to school with beliefs about who they are as learners. These beliefs are influenced by parents, peers, past classroom experiences, and the wider culture, and can either support or undermine school success (Farrington, C.A. et al, 2012).

Academic mindsets are beliefs or ways of perceiving oneself in relation to learning, and they lay the groundwork for deep academic, social and emotional learning.
These four academic mindsets have a positive impact on persistence and school performance (Farrington et al, 2012):

I belong in this academic community. Students who feel a sense of belonging in their schools and classrooms demonstrate higher levels of competencies such as self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation.

My ability and competence grow with my effort. As explained in Carol Dweck's groundbreaking work on the subject, a "growth mindset" leads to the belief that we can improve with effort and new strategies, and that struggle is part of the process. These beliefs encourage students to practice and develop the social and emotional skills to stay motivated, set goals, and reflect on progress. By contrast, students (and adults) who see intelligence as "fixed" view struggle as a sign of inferiority and something to be avoided or disguised. For more on the work of Carol Dweck, follow this link to Mindset Works.

I can succeed at this. Believing that one can be successful leads to increased effort and engagement, creating a positive feedback loop between hard work, mastery, and increased self-efficacy beliefs.

This work has value for me. Learners are naturally motivated when they find a task compelling or see connections between the learning and their personal aspirations.

(Farrington et al., 2012)

How Teachers Shape Academic Mindsets

Teachers have strong influence over academic mindsets through instructional practices and creating environments that shape students' motivation, engagement, and persistence (Allensworth et al., 2018)

Some of the ways that teachers can positively influence academic mindsets are addressed in the Supportive Classroom Environment activity, including creating a sense of belonging and emotional safety. In addition, teachers can:

Set high expectations - Teachers can help students construct narratives of success by nurturing a positive developmental relationship in which they support and challenge students (Cohen and Steele, 2002 et al in Farrington et al, 2012). A central way to do this is by setting high expectations.
Strategies that communicate high expectations for students:

Ask students to explain their thinking and provide evidence to engage students' meta-cognition and communication skills.

Allow for productive struggle; provide guidance and support for students when they engage with challenging material without jumping in with the answers. This builds self-efficacy, an important social and emotional competency.

Check for understanding regularly and adjust instruction so that all students are engaged.

Provide clear examples of high-quality work and express confidence that students can perform to that standard (Osher & Kendziora, 2010).

Use specific feedback to drive improvement (Hattie & Gan, 2011).

Express genuine interest in student thinking, and set and model clear norms for how the class will respond to mistakes.

Frame mistakes and struggle as an important part of learning - While we all struggle or fail sometimes, it is what we take these experiences to mean that determines how we feel about ourselves as learners (Kolb and Kolb, 2009). Do we view struggle as a sign of inadequacy, or an intrinsic part of the learning process? How teachers communicate the meaning of setbacks, struggle, and failure is critical to students' mindsets.
Strategies that frame mistakes and struggles as part of the learning process:

Provide opportunities for students to correct errors and revise work.

Talk to students about mistakes or struggles you've made, and provide opportunities for them to reflect on their own mistakes or struggles.

Prioritize learning that refrains from one right answer, and look for multiple ways to get to a solution or answer.

Use parent-teacher conferences as an opportunity to frame growth mindset and mistakes as part of the learning process.

Use culturally responsive teaching practices and challenge stereotype threat - Stereotype threat refers to "being at risk of confirming...a negative stereotype about one's social group" (Steele & Aronson, 1995 in Farrington et al., 2012). This can increase anxiety and make it more difficult to focus, leading to underperformance even when a student is prepared, especially for students who are from marginalized and/or stigmatized groups.
Strategies that support culturally responsive practices:

Have students complete brief writing exercises about what values are important to them and connect this to the learning (Cohen, Garcia, Purdue-Vaughns, Apfel, Brzustoski, 2009).

Make connections between instructional content and community and real-world issues.

Where developmentally appropriate, teach students directly about stereotype threat and discuss if/ how it has affected them. Ask students for thoughts on challenging stereotype threat in the classroom. Listen in a way that demonstrates curiosity and interest in the experiences of your students. This helps students develop the social and emotional skills to deal with acculturative stress (Aronson & Williams 2004; Johns & Schmader 2004).

Help students to reflect on their experiences with stereotype threat in a way that promotes agency while acknowledging the reality of their challenges.

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Consciously or not, students come to school with beliefs about who they are as learners. These beliefs are influenced by parents, peers, past classroom experiences, and the wider culture, and can either support or undermine school success (Farrington, C.A. et al, 2012).

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What is the SLANT Strategy and How does it Improve Student Achievement?

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It is important that a teacher studies a student's body language. It helps them gauge if students are attentive, interested, and understand the lesson being taught. Sitting slouched, fidgeting and doodling are sure signs that the student is inattentive. This adversely affects the process of learning.

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Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL by Jeffrey Benson

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Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL by Jeffrey Benson

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Foreword by Terrence J. Roberts, PhD.

A Letter to Readers

Acknowledgments

An Introduction to Social Comprehension and Strategies to Prepare You for the Work Ahead
Chapter 1: Exploring Our Identities
Lesson: Affirming Our Identities: Identity Webs
We introduce the elements of our own identities (such as sister, athlete, bilingual, reader) and look for connections to or wonders about the identities of others.

Lesson: Placing Ourselves in the World: Stories of Our Names
Using a mentor text, we write the stories of how we got our names, how our names make us feel, and our experiences with our names.

Lesson: Journeying into Our Family Histories: "Where I'm From" Poems
We use the structure of a "Where I'm From" poem to share our family histories, storied objects, and moments.

Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible
Chapter 2: Listening with Love
Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible
Chapter 3: Being Candid
Lesson: Seeing Our Own Bias: Drawing Activity
We learn about how bias works, and we use an activity to help us see some of our own bias and brainstorm how we can confront it.

Lesson: Understanding Microaggressions: Poem Analysis
We analyze examples of microaggressions to understand what they are and how they affect people, and we look for microaggressions in our own lives.

Lesson: Refusing to Let Others' Biases Define Us: Identity Statements
We assert who we are with confidence. We recall labels others have tried to put on us, reject those labels, and choose how we define who we are.

Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible
Chapter 4: Becoming Better Informed
Lesson: Understanding How Our Identity Affects Us: Our News
We identify what is happening in our world-personal events, news stories, media-and consider how our identity shapes what we give our attention to.

Lesson: Moving Beyond Our Initial Thinking: Mini-Inquiries
We use a mini-inquiry to learn more about a topic and examine how new information changes our perspective.

Synthesis: Making Thinking Visible
Chapter 5: Finding Humanity in Ourselves and in Others
Lesson: Broadening Our Ideas About Who We Are Responsible To and For: Our Universe of Obligation
We consider who we feel responsibility to and why. We also consider how that responsibility can change in certain situations.

Lesson: Understanding Others' Perspectives: Intent Versus Impact
We work to understand two sides of a divisive issue by listening to both perspectives.
Chapter 6: Facing Crisis Together
Suggested Resource Stacks

References and Inspiration

This book is based on the idea that we can develop skills and habits to help us comprehend social issues and participate in relevant, transparent conversations. Social comprehension, like academic comprehension, is how we make meaning from and mediate our relationship with the world. We understand that the meaning making, or socialization, is learned, not inherited. Each chapter in this book includes lessons and/or practical help for students to learn and engage in a targeted social comprehension concept. Our thinking will change often as we practice being more socially literate citizens of the world, so we allow for and model the same for our students as we construct comprehension and cultivate our empathy together. The "At First I Thought . . . Now I Think" journal page in this introduction gives you and your students a tool to reflect on how the experiences in the lessons are affecting your outlook. In the work of social comprehension, we want to be as transparent as possible and make our thinking visible.

The final chapter of the book addresses how we, as educators, can continually refine our own approach to this work. If we are going to be on the front lines of helping children make sense of the news they bring to school and the curriculum the world keeps handing them, we must have a strong foundation of social comprehension in place. If we can commit to approaching this work as the lead learner, teaching with curiosity and modeling vulnerability rather than rigid certainty, we can build habitats of trust where kids (and adults) participate in a learning discussion, and where expression, identity, and social literacy matter.

- Introduction

A sense of urgency for pedagogy rooted in empathy and humanity is palpable in communities around the world. But how can teachers actualize such instruction and make it accessible to students? Where is the professional development teachers yearn for to facilitate important, and at times, challenging conversations? Being the Change is the resource every educator needs right now! Against a socio-politically charged backdrop where tensions run high, Sara is a beacon of light who offers practical, compassionate guidance that makes it possible to do the work of social comprehension. The journey to accomplishing this isn't linear; it is messy, tangled, circuitous. But Sara provides a pathway for teachers and our students. She offers a sustained, clear voice that reminds us of why this work is necessary and how it can look in our classrooms. Being the Change is invaluable to all educators as we work to empower our students as change-makers who positively influence the world.

- Sonja Cherry-Paul

****

Sara Ahmed is the ultimate upstander; she cares enough to confront. Her gentle and wise voice is a model for how to be in this tumultuous age. She shares text sets that ask big questions and resist simplistic answers. She invites teachers and students to address tensions in today's classrooms and examine bias in their thinking. Being the Change offers practical tools for building a classroom community that is inclusive, candid, and caring. This book is a treasure.

- Penny Kittle

****

What an incredibly powerful, practical, beautiful book. As I read I could not help but think how this book has the potential to radically change conversations in classrooms (and larger communities) around compassion, listening, empathy, and knowing. It is books like these that heal. It is hope and possibility and humanity within these covers.

Perhaps the greatest compliment I could give is that as I read, the teacher in me itched to get out of this room and into the presence of kids- to experience these lessons in real time, to hear children's stories, to dig into this work because for the first time I feel capable. This book is a roadmap with an entry point all of us can access and guidance through the most challenging places we could go. I don't feel afraid of what could happen, I feel energized about what Sara has taught me I can help happen.

I could not help but think of the million and one ways I could use Sara's thinking and teaching, to engage in this work whole heartedly from the moment children step through the doors.

- Kristi Mraz

****

In her book, Being the Change, Sara K. Ahmed offers us not only the roadmap of how to create and maintain components of meaningful social change within our instruction but also the necessary tools for us to navigate the hard conversations we invite in and those we have not had the courage to have...yet. By centering her book on developing the identity of the very children we teach, she gives us invaluable tools to navigate the hard topics that are constantly surrounding our learning community. While she writes in her book that there is no magical formula for making the world a better place, within the pages of this book and in her willingness to help us grow not just as educators but as human beings with her impactful lesson ideas, she has given us something near magic. A resource to be used in every school, this book will leave a trail of change for a better world in its wake if we let it.

- Pernille Ripp

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Being the Change is based on the idea that people can develop skills and habits to serve them in the comprehension of social issues. Sara K. Ahmed identifies

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Learning to Measure the Size of a Problem

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Life Vest Inside - Kindness Boomerang - "One Day"

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Scaffolding Discussion Skills with a Socratic Circle

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Scaffolding Discussion Skills with a Socratic Circle

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Scaffolding Discussion Skills With a Socratic Circle

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STAR // 30 Second Breathing Exercise. SUPER SHORT & SIMPLE!

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Bubble Bounce! Mindfulness for Children (Mindful Looking)

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Integrating SEL Through Academic Content

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Integrating SEL Through Academic Content

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Integrating SEL Through Academic Content

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Building Emotional Literacy in Preschoolers

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Building Emotional Literacy in Preschoolers

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Building Emotional Literacy in Preschoolers

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5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning Success

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5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning Success

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5 Keys to Social and Emotional Learning Success

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Hi everyone! This post has been a LONG time coming. The more I learn about reading and the brain, the more hungry I get for even more information! I keep hearing experts say "reading is rocket science". I completely agree! Understanding the "science of reading" has transformed the way I teach.

This post is part of a series that I'm doing about dyslexia. Make sure you check out the other posts about dyslexia here. This post doesn't quite dive into dyslexia, but it sure does set the stage! This is all about how our brain reads. I find this all SO fascinating!

Before I go any further, I have to say a little disclaimer: I am not a brain scientist. I do not have a PHD or anything like that. This comes from several years of reading articles and books, taking online classes and other pd workshops on the topic. I am slightly obsessed with the topic of dyslexia, but I don't feel like I can call myself an expert. I do feel like it is SO important to share the knowledge that I do have.

After reading this post and m y other posts about dyslexia, I encourage you to keep learning and start making adjustments to your teaching so you can meet the needs of students with dyslexia (which happen to be 1 in 5.) I'm STILL making these adjustments, learning, and trying to meet the needs of these students. It's not easy, but I feel like it's so important to at least get this dialogue started (or continue it if you've already started) so we can make positive changes together. Okay, my little speech is over and now to the good stuff! 🙂

Since this blog post is SO long and has so much information, I've made a little "key" to help organize all this.

I think it's best to start with this little nugget:

I first heard this when I went to a hear Dr. Louisa Moats speak. She's amazing! To read an interview with her, click here. The first time I heard this was from Dr. Louisa Moats, it totally woke me up! I had never really realized this or even thought about it! Now that I have been teaching reading for so long, it makes a lot of sense. Reading is an incredibly complex skill!

So if the brain is not "wired to read", how do we do it?

When we speak and listen, we don't need to break apart the individual phonemes that make up words. In fact, we aren't really aware of them at first. We say words as bigger parts.

When we learn to read and write, we must first figure out that all of our words are made up of smaller phonemes, or sounds. Instead of hearing and saying a word as a whole, we must break it apart into much smaller sounds.

We rely on our language modules in our brains to convert this print into the linguistic code (phonetic code) we have created. We can't do this until we have that ability to break apart words into their individual phonemes. "70-80% of American children learn how to transform printed symbols into a phonetic code without much difficulty." (Shaywitz, 2003) Think about that. Are you thinking about the remaining 20-30%?

You may have seen this Scarborough rope before. Basically, it's showing you what it takes to be a truly "skilled" readers. Many of our dyslexic students have the language comprehension, but the skills involved in the word recognition part is a roadblock. For this post, we will be focusing on that bottom part of this "rope."

This is the same information, just another way to look at it:

Since reading skills are tied to these language skills, it is important to look at all of them. I will come back to this slide later, when I talk more about reading instruction.

The Process of Learning To Read

Before we jump to the brain, let's look a little more at the skills involved in the learning to read.

Students need to learn how to decode and then develop word recognition before they can read for meaning. However, you can still develop language comprehension from an early age that will later help them when they have the tools to read the actual words.

Breaking it down, here is how a child learns to read.

Phonological awareness comes easier to some kids than others. Many children develop it without any real instruction by the time they need to learn to read. Others need a little boost in the form of fun nursery rhymes, games that play with words, and minimal instruction. Still, there are many who need intensive instruction with phonemic awareness before beginning to learn to read.

To read more about phonological awareness, click HERE.

The alphabet principal is the idea that those lines and circles actually carry meaning when they are linked together. Words are made up of letters and letters represent sounds. To read about I teach the alphabet using a research-based approach, click here.

Applying decoding skills and developing word recognition is faster for some and slower for others. For many children, it can be incredible difficult. To read more about phonics, click here.

After students are able to decode words, they can start committing them to memory. To store a new word into long-term memory, the reader needs to link the sequence of letters to the pronunciation and meaning. The average reader needs to see a word 4-14 times before they can read it with automaticity. (Dyslexic readers need to see it 40+ times!) The more a reader is exposed to words, the quicker they are committing these words to memory. To read more about h ow we learn words, click here.

According to research, teaching students to sound out words actually "sparks more optimal brain circuitry than instructing them to memorize the word." Isn't that interesting?! (You can read more from this article HERE.) You will see below where in the brain this all happens.

I won't be getting into comprehension in this post very much (because this is already too long), but obviously that is the end goal. It's the whole reason why we teach phonics. Phonemic awareness and alphabetic principal leads to breaking the phonetic code which leads to automatic word retrieval which leads to fluency which allows the reader to truly gain access to the text and, hopefully, read for meaning.

Of course there are those students who can word call like crazy but can't comprehend. That's because that skill happens as a result of activation in a different part of the brain.

To read about how I teach comprehension, click here.

What is Happening in the Brain While we Read?

Now, onto what is happening in our brains when we are reading. Above is the process t hat we can see. As teachers, we see this happening every year with our students. They start out sounding out words, and as they year goes on, they become more and more fluent. By the end of first grade, most kids are reading 40-80 words/minute.

So, how does this happen? Why do some kids still struggle after loads of practice and quality instruction? The answers are all there, thanks to fMRI's (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.) Scientists can now literally see what is happening in our brains when we read and what is happening in the brains of struggling readers. I'm going to try to break it down as best I can. Keep in mind, science was not my subject in school at all. I also have no background in brain anything. 😉

Brain clip art: copyright Away With The Pixels

Reading is supported by a network of regions in the LEFT hemisphere.

Remember when I mentioned that reading is not a natural skill that we are born to do? There are no parts of the brain that are innately dedicated to learning to read. Instead there are parts of the brain that are used for spoken language and object recognition, which we use for reading. (Dehaene &Cohen, 2007)

Brain Systems Most Active While Reading

Through fMRI's, scientists have found that there are four main brain systems that are active while reading.

This information is from Sally Shaywitz book: Overcoming Dyslexia

Two of these pathways for reading are in the posterior system (back of the brain):

Think about our beginning readers. They are relying on this because they have not had enough exposure to automatically identify every word. (You'll learn more about this in a sec.) Our new readers need multiple opportunities to practice this skill.

1. They need to know the letters and the sounds they represent with automaticity. If they don't have these sounds down, it will slow them down with this process. Simply knowing the letters and letter combinations isn't enough. We need to give students plenty of practice to master this skill and develop automaticity.

2. They need to have phonemic awareness (they must be able to pull those sounds apart and blend the individual sounds together with relative ease.)

3. Systematic, explicit phonics and morphology instruction helps students make the connections they need to turn print into meaning.

This is the part of the brain that we hope is getting busy as our students finish first grade and entering second grade, right?! This made a few things pop in my head when I read over this.

It does start with phonics. Repetitive exposures to sounding out those words (reading and spelling) DOES usually lead to eventually recognizing the word with automaticity later.

Phonics is a tool that gets us to that goal of automaticity.

Back to that research I mentioned above. They found in the study that when teaching two groups using different methods (teaching phonics vs. whole word memorizing,) that the brain showed more activation on the left with the phonics method and more on the right with the whole word method. Strong activation on the left was the "hallmark" for skilled readers, which also happens to be lacking in struggling readers.

I recently went to an excellent teacher training by PDX Reading Specialist, Barbara Steinberg. She pointed out that our brains can only hold so many words to be memorized. So what we are actually doing is memorizing word parts more often. These parts are what we retrieve so quickly and link together to make more words. This points more to the importance of teaching phonics and morphology.

The third pathway is in the front of the brain in the Broca's area. The frontal system is responsible for phonological processing and semantic processing (word analysis). (Willis, 2008)

The Broca's area helps a person vocalize words and start to analyzing phonemes.

Neuro-typical readers rely on the left side of the brain for reading. Students with dyslexia rely more on the right side of the brain, resulting in reading that is slower and more labored.

With dyslexia, there is a neurobiological reason for why students struggle with reading. My next blog post is all about how a dyslexic brain reads. Here's a hint- there are different levels of activation in various parts of the brain that I've mentioned.

The Language Processes of Skilled Readers

This brings us back to the yellow slides. When these brain systems all work together, it seems like reading is seamless. Let's review the types of language processing that need to occur to be a skilled reader.

These are the major components of the structure of our language:

These pieces all work together to create meaningful communication (whether it be oral or written).

We all know how important this is! I've had students who seem to have great phonemic awareness but they cannot remember a word! They sound out words every time.

This slide above is to help with all the vocab I'm throwing at you...

These next slides show the higher level language skills. It's important to start focusing on these even with our beginning readers. The frontal lobe is responsible for comprehension. Have you ever had a student that is a slow reader and bad speller BUT has awesome comprehension. Here's why: The frontal systems are working like crazy. They are bright kids and they get it. Their brains are just not using the same pathways that would make their reading fluent. This is why we want to make sure that, although our remedial instruction is at their reading level, they are still exposed to TONS of literature at their intellectual level. Read-alouds and audio books are great for this. Have you ever had a struggling reader who is the first one to raise his/her hand with a thoughtful comment or question about your read-aloud? Yep. They need that and we need to make sure we are engaging their brains and helping them grow their vocabulary and higher-order thinking skills. (I promise- more about this in future posts!)

What Does This Mean for Educators?

Click here to read a post about an instructional approach called Structured Literacy.

Other Blog Posts about Dyslexia

Acknowledgements

I highly recommend reading Sally Shaywitz's book called O vercoming Dyslexia.

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Reading and the Brain - Sarah's Teaching Snippets

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Reading is a complex skill. Our brains are wired to speak, but not to read and write. Various parts of the brain work together in order to read.

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Life can be overwhelming, anxiety invoking, and stressful. Sometimes we all need a healthy escape. This Virtual Calming Room was inspired by School Counselors and School Social Workers across the United States to help students locate tools and strategies to positively manage their emotions.

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A healthy escape using anxiety reduction and relaxation techniques to provide healthy outlets for stressful times.

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Human functional brain mapping as we presently know it began when the experimental strategies of cognitive psychology were combined with modern brain-imaging techniques (first positron emission tomography and then functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine how brain function supports mental activities. This marriage of disciplines and techniques galvanized the field of cognitive neuroscience, which has rapidly expanded to include a broad range of the social sciences in addition to basic scientists interested in the neurophysiology, cell biology and genetics of the imaging signals. Although much of this work has transpired over the past couple of decades, its roots can be traced back more than a century.

Introduction

Over the past 30 years the field of cognitive neuroscience has emerged as an important growth area in neuroscience. Cognitive neuroscience combines the experimental strategies of cognitive psychology with various techniques to actually examine how brain function supports mental activities. Leading this research in normal humans are the techniques of functional brain imaging: positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) along with electroencephalography (EEG), electrocorticography (ECoG), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and, most recently, optical imaging with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).

It is easy to conclude that much of the work leading to the emergence of functional brain imaging in particular and cognitive neuroscience in general has transpired over the past decade or so because of much recent prominence at scientific meetings and in the scientific literature. Additionally, it has received substantial media attention probably related to the human fascination with brain-mind questions. In truth, crucial work has been occurring for more than a century.

To place current work in perspective, I present a brief historical overview ( Figure 1) of some of the concepts, events and personalities that have shaped functional brain imaging as we know it today. I call upon not only published accounts of many events and discoveries but also recollections shared with me by those who have lived through the remarkable events of the past several decades. Such views serve to not only breathe life into the science but also carry the caveat that they are necessarily colored by one's own involvement.

I focus on human brain imaging with PET and fMRI recognizing that other techniques, particularly electrical (e.g. EEG, MEG and ECoG), also have and will continue to have an important role. I begin with a discussion of the physiology of brain imaging with PET and fMRI.

References

1. Measurement of local blood flow by the exchange on an inert diffusible substance.

: 228-236

2. Correlation between regional cerebral blood flow and oxidative metabolism. In vivo studies in man.

: 523-526

3. Rapid changes in cortical oxygen associated with motor and cognitive function in man.

in: Harper A.M. Blood Flow and Metabolism in the Brain. Churchill Livingstone, 1975: 14.8-14.9

4. Historical background of PET.

in: Diksic M. Reba R.C. Radiopharmaceuticals and Brain Pathology Studied with PET and SPECT. CRC Press, 1991: 2-7

5. The [ ¹⁴ C]deoxyglucose method for the measurement of local cerebral glucose utilization: theory, procedure, and normal values in the conscious and anesthetized albino rat.

: 897-916

6. Images of body and brain.

in: Garwin L. Lincoln T. A Century of Nature - Twenty-One Discoveries that Changed Science and the World. University of Chicago Press, 2003: 189-195

7. A brief history of human functional brain mapping.

in: Toga A. Mazziotta J. Brain Mapping: The Systems. Academic Press, 2000: 33-75

8. W. H. Freeman and Company, 1994

9. Cacioppo J.T. Social Neuroscience: People Thinking About People. MIT Press, 2006

10. Cacioppo J.T. Foundations of Social Neuroscience. MIT Press, 2002

11. Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

University of Chicago Press, 1996

Article Info

Publication History

Identification

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2008.11.001

ScienceDirect
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Physiology

The signals obtained with PET and fMRI are based on changes in blood flow, oxygen consumption and glucose utilization that relate in a surprisingly precise way to the cellular activity of the brain, including astrocytes and neurons. The details of these relationships are presented, discussed and debated elsewhere [,

, , , , ]. Here, some basic facts necessary to understand the history of functional brain imaging are briefly presented.

Despite this promising beginning, interest in the relationship between brain function and brain blood flow almost ceased during the first quarter of the 20th century. Undoubtedly, this was owing, in part, to a lack of tools sufficiently sophisticated to pursue this line of research. In addition, the work of Leonard Hill, Hunterian Professor of the Royal College of Surgeons in England, was probably influential []. His eminence as a physiologist overshadowed the inadequacy of his own experiments that wrongly led him to conclude no relationship existed between brain function and brain circulation.

There was no serious challenge to Leonard Hill's views until a remarkable clinical study of a patient Walter K. was reported by John Fulton in the 1928 issue of the journal Brain []. During the course of his evaluation and treatment for a vascular malformation lying over his visual cortex, Walter K. remarked to his physicians that a noise (i.e. bruit) that he perceived in the back of his head increased in intensity when he was using his eyes. He said that he had often noticed this during the proceeding several years but had 'never thought much of it'. As Fulton commented, 'It was not difficult to convince ourselves that when the patient suddenly began to use his eyes after a prolonged period of rest in a dark room, there was a prompt and noticeable increase in the intensity of his bruit. Activity of his other sense organs, moreover, had no effect upon his bruit.' The conclusion drawn from this remarkable case was that blood flow to visual cortices was sensitive to the attention paid to objects in the environment.

It was not until the close of World War II that Seymour Kety and his colleagues (University of Pennsylvania and National Institutes of Health) opened the next chapter in studies of brain circulation and metabolism. Kety developed the first quantitative method for measuring whole-brain blood flow and metabolism in humans [

]. Because their measurements were confined to the whole brain they were not suitable for 'brain mapping'. However, their introduction of an in vivo tissue autoradiographic measurement of regional blood flow in laboratory animals [

,

] provided the first glimpse of quantitative regional changes in blood flow in the brain related directly to brain function. Derivatives of this technique many years later became important for the measurement of blood flow in humans when PET provided a means of quantifying the spatial distribution of radiotracers in tissue without the need for invasive autoradiography (see later).

Following on the heels of the work by Kety and colleagues, David Ingvar (University of Lund, Sweden), Neils Lassen (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and their Scandinavian colleagues introduced methods applicable to humans that permitted regional blood-flow measurements to be made using scintillation detectors arrayed like a helmet over the head. They demonstrated conclusively that brain blood flow changed regionally in normal human subjects during task performance (for a summary of their early work see Ref. []).

Metabolism

Conventional wisdom was seriously challenged by much more substantial quantitative data from PET [, ]. These data ( Figure 2a ), derided at the time by the established figures in the field as untrue because they violated conventional wisdom, demonstrated conclusively that functionally induced increases in blood flow in normal humans were not accompanied by changes of similar magnitude in oxygen consumption. The increase in glucose utilization also increased significantly more than would have been predicted by the increase in oxygen consumption. Although the degree to which oxygen consumption increases has varied across experiments [, , , , ], it has always been significantly less than that predicted by the increase in either the blood flow or the glucose utilization when these variables are measured reliably by validated methods. The resulting fall in deoxyhemoglobin, which was known from much earlier work to be paramagnetic [] ( Box 1), was to have clear implications for the interpretation of fMRI based on deoxyhemoglobin as an in vivo MRI contrast agent (see later).

Deoxygenated hemoglobin

Deoxygenated hemoglobin as found in veins disrupts a magnetic field whereas oxygenated hemoglobin as found in arteries does not. This results from the fact that deoxygenated hemoglobin behaves like a little magnet when in a magnet field owing to the presence of exposed iron in the hemoglobin molecule. The presence of oxygen 'neutralizes' the effect of the iron such that oxygenated blood can be present in a magnetic field without disrupting it. Because of this property, deoxyhemoglobin is referred to as paramagnetic. Its presence in larges veins in the resting state make the veins stand out as dark lines (i.e. signal dropout; Figure 2 b).

Instrumentation

X-ray computed tomography

In 1971 Godfrey Hounsfield introduced X-ray computed tomography (or CT as it is now called) at Atkinson Morley's Hospital in London. In creating CT, Hounsfield had arrived at a practical solution to the problem of creating three-dimensional transaxial tomographic images of an intact object from data obtained by passing highly focused X-ray beams through the object and recording their attenuation. Hounsfield's invention received enormous attention and quite literally changed the way in which we looked at the human brain. Gone, also, were difficult to interpret, unpleasant and sometimes dangerous clinical techniques such as pneumoencephalography ( Box 2). CT was, however, an anatomical tool. Function was to be the province of PET and MRI.

Pneumoencephalography

A technique used by neurologists and neurosurgeons until the advent of X-ray CT to localize mass lesions such as tumors and blood clots in an around the brain. The technique consisted of removing spinal fluid and replacing it with air, which would rise in the remaining spinal fluid like air bubbles in water into the brain ventricles and over its surface when the patient was in an upright position. The patient was then manipulated in space while strapped into a specially mounted chair facilitating the movement of the air bubbles. X-rays were taken in various positions enabling clinicians to 'outline' the contours of the brain. Great skill was required to interpret these X-rays and, for the patient, this was most unpleasant because of the attendant severe headaches.

Positron emission tomography

PET derives its name and its fundamental properties from a group of radionuclides ( ¹⁵O, ¹¹C, ¹⁸F and ¹³N), whose properties include short half-lives ( ¹⁵O = 2 min, ¹³N = 10 min, ¹¹C = 20 min and ¹⁸ F = 110 min), a unique decay scheme involving the emission of positrons and chemical properties whose relevance to studies in biology and medicine arises from the fact that carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are the building blocks of most biological molecules and fluorine can be substituted for hydrogen in some molecules (for a review of PET fundamentals see Ref. []).

Metabolism versus blood flow

Work on the neural correlates of human behaviors with PET began with studies of brain glucose metabolism and the tracer ¹⁸F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG). This was an extension of the autoradiographic deoxyglucose technique ( Box 3) developed by Sokoloff and his colleagues (National Institutes of Health) for studies in laboratory animals [

The [ ¹⁴ C]deoxyglucose method for the measurement of local cerebral glucose utilization: theory, procedure, and normal values in the conscious and anesthetized albino rat.

]. Sokoloff had demonstrated the sensitivity of this technique to functional changes in neuronal activity in a wide-ranging group of animal experiments (for an excellent early summary see Ref. [

Metabolic Probes of Central Nervous System Activity in Experiment Animals and Man.

]).

Tissue autoradiography

This involves the systemic administration of a radiolabeled compound of interest. When the compound has reached the organ of interest the animal is sacrificed and the organ is removed, sliced and placed on X-ray film enabling researchers to assess the distribution of the radiolabeled compound. In the case of C ¹⁴-deoxyglucose (DG), an analog of the primary fuel of the brain, glucose, it enters the brain where it is taken up by cells in proportion to their metabolism. On entry into the cell it is phosphorylated. Once this has occurred the DG is trapped in the cell because its further metabolism is blocked because of its structure and exit from the cell is blocked because it is phosphorylated. Exquisite maps of brain metabolism in animals resulted from the extensive use of this technique in neuroscience research. This technique was extended to PET using deoxyglucose labeled with fluorine [

Focal physiological uncoupling of cerebral blood flow and oxidative metabolism during somatosensory stimulation in human subjects.

] rather than carbon [

].

With FDG PET, 30-40 min was used typically for image acquisition. Because of this long data-acquisition time, functional brain mapping as we know it today would not have developed. Needed were speed of data acquisition and measurement repeatability to assess brain function. Because of this, blood flow became the technique of choice with PET because it could be measured quickly (<1 min) using an easily produced radiopharmaceutical (H ₂ ¹⁵ O) whose short half life (123 s) enabled repeat (up to 12) measurements in the same subject.

Magnet resonance imaging

Finally, another technology emerged contemporaneously with PET and CT. This was MRI. MRI is based upon yet another set of physical principles associated with the behavior of atoms in water (often described by their nuclei or protons) in a magnetic field. When placed in a strong magnet field, these protons behave like tiny bar magnets by lining up in parallel with the magnet field. When these protons are disturbed from their equilibrium state by radio frequency pulses, a voltage is induced in a receiver coil that can be characterized by its change in magnitude over time. Because these time-dependent changes in voltage are a function of the local environment of the protons, many important deductions can be made about the tissue being examined.

Although clinical imaging with MRI flourished after its introduction, there also existed in the scientific community the knowledge that MRI could also tell us much about tissue chemistry, perfusion and metabolism. This view was the result of many years of basic NMR research indicating that intrinsic signals from tissue in addition to signals from exogenously administered MRI contrast agents could be used to extract such information. Functional brain imaging with MRI was able to tap this knowledge base with remarkable results. It was an interesting convergence of research in MRI techniques, studies of the magnetic properties of deoxyhemoglobin and research on circulatory and metabolic correlates of changes in brain activity (see earlier) that led to the development of this approach.

The emergence of functional MRI

This study caused much excitement, especially in the MRI community, which was anxious to join the rapidly expanding cognitive neuroscience revolution. What this study demonstrated clearly was that, within one imaging modality, superb anatomical images and physiology relevant to brain function could be combined. The primary limitation of the approach was the need to administer a contrast agent, which is something that could only be done a limited number of times. However, physiology ( Figure 2 a) and the ingenuity of the MRI researchers came to the rescue. The answer came from the property of deoxyhemoglobin in a magnetic field.

In 1982, Keith Thulborn took the story one step further while seeking to exploit the difference in magnetic susceptibility of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin for the measurement of brain oxygen consumption with MRI []. In this often overlooked work he clearly demonstrated the feasibility of measuring the state of oxygenation of blood in vivo with MRI, another crucial step on the road to fMRI BOLD imaging as we know it.

Experiments performed by Sieji Ogawa and colleagues (AT&T Bell Laboratories) were a crucial next step in establishing the basis of fMRI BOLD imaging. In their experiments, the concentration of deoxygenated blood in the brains of living rodents was manipulated by alternately breathing his animals on room air and 100% oxygen. On room air, detailed anatomy of venules and veins were easily visible throughout the rat brain as dark structures ( Figure 2b). This was owing to the loss of MRI signal in the presence of deoxyhemoglobin ( Box 1). On 100% oxygen, the venous structures disappeared. Ogawa labeled his finding 'blood oxygen level dependent contrast' or BOLD contrast [] and noted that 'BOLD contrast adds an additional feature to magnetic resonance imaging and complements other techniques that are attempting to provide positron emission tomography-like measurements related to regional neural activity' [].

The potential of BOLD fMRI was soon realized ( Figure 2 c) with publications from three groups in 1992 [, , ]. The events leading up to these publications (particularly from the group at the Massachusetts General Hospital led by Ken Kwong [] and the group that represented the combined resources Sieji Ogawa and David Tank from the AT&T Bell Laboratories and Kamil Ugirbil, Ravi Menon and their colleagues at the University of Minnesota []) provide insight into how the research actually unfolded. Space here does not permit a detailed recounting of these fascinating events. Interested readers might wish to read a more detailed account, based on my interviews with the key participants [].

However, the success of the human brain imaging was the product not only of relevant physiology that could be imaged and the scanning devices that could accomplish this but also of the behavioral paradigms that approached human behavior in a principled and quantitative manner while accommodating the constraints of the imaging environment and strategies to process the resulting data. I turn to these important issues next.

Image processing

Stereotaxy

As PET images of task-induced changes in regional blood flow started to accumulate, an old problem resurfaced. How do you objectively relate functional imaging data to brain anatomy? This problem was neither new to functional brain imaging with PET nor previously unexplored.

Image averaging

The initial use of stereotaxy in PET functional brain imaging was to determine the location of activity changes. This approach worked nicely for robust responses that could be appreciated in individual difference images ( Figure 2 a). However, other early experiments yielded data in which the responses were not robust, were varied from subject to subject in location and were easily confused by what was being termed image 'noise'. These data were proving to be problematic and generated much concern. Most worrisome was the observation that, after conversion of a response focus from an individual difference image into stereotaxic space, there remained considerable variability in the location of the responses across individuals.

In response to these problems and concerns, an effort was mounted at Washington University to obtain averages of difference images across subjects in a standard stereotaxic space. The wisdom of this effort was not universally embraced by members of the laboratory. The skeptics maintained that individual variability was simply too great to accommodate averaging. The skeptics predicted that averaged images would be just 'mush'.

When the first set of averaged blood-flow images from a group of five subjects receiving somatosensory stimulation of one hand came up on the monitor, it was obvious to everyone present that they were neither unrecognizable nor 'mush'. Noise was dramatically reduced and responses were crisp and clear []. Skepticism vanished instantly. The processing of functional brain images had taken an important step forward. From PET on to fMRI, averaging in one form or another both across and within individuals, is a key element in the processing of functional image data.

Statistical analysis

With the aforementioned strategies in hand (i.e. stereotaxic normalization, image averaging), investigators using PET were suddenly confronted with yet another challenge: images containing enormous amounts of data. The specter of unacceptably high false discovery rates loomed large without an obvious remedy. One obvious approach would have been to place independently determined regions of interest within difference images to test specific hypotheses about how the task under investigation was instantiated in the brain (i.e. traditional hypothesis testing). One important drawback to this approach was that it assumed the very knowledge that was being sought, namely, how the brain is organized. What was needed was a hypothesis-generating approach.

The behavioral agenda

The study of human cognition with PET was aided greatly by the involvement of cognitive psychologists in the 1980s whose experimental designs for dissecting human behaviors using information-processing theories fit extremely well with emerging functional brain-imaging strategies [

]. It might have been the combination of cognitive psychology and systems neuroscience with brain imaging that lifted this work from a state of indifference and obscurity in the neuroscience community in the 1970s to its current role of prominence.

This strategy was based on a concept introduced by the Dutch physiologist Franciscus C. Donders in 1868 (reprinted in Ref. []). Donders proposed a general method to measure thought processes based on a simple logic. He subtracted the time needed to respond to a light (say, by pressing a key) from the time needed to respond to a particular color of light. He found that discriminating color required ∼50 ms. In this way, Donders isolated and measured a mental process for the first time by subtracting a control state (i.e. responding to a light) from a task state (i.e. discriminating the color of the light). This strategy was first fully implemented in an early series of papers on single-word processing [, ] ( Figure 3). Since then, it has been exploited with exponentially increasing sophistication in the functional imaging world.

The present

It is easy to be optimistic about the human brain-mapping agenda. Its growth, particularly since the advent of fMRI BOLD imaging, has been dramatic. However, challenges do arise because of the immense diversity of this agenda.

Neuroscientists interested in brain function from a cellular and molecular perspective now are obliged to understand not only the concepts and strategies of cognitive psychology but also a wide array of behavioral disciplines covered under the rubric of social neuroscience [

,

]. At the same time, behavioral scientists interested in relating their work to the brain are confronted by a rapidly increasing body of knowledge concerning the biological correlates of functional neuroimaging signals. Understanding this work depends on complex concepts not only from neurophysiology [

, ] but also from theoretical neuroscience [, ], cell biology [] and even genetics []. The complexity of all of this increases when issues related to disease are introduced as they are with increasing frequency. It is easy to understand, then, how researchers at all levels occasionally feel a sense of unease in dealing comprehensively with this agenda. Under such circumstances, it is tempting to retreat into the narrow confines of one's own area of expertise; a pathway, however, that will ultimately limit the potential of one's work.

As we look to the future, changes clearly appear on the horizon. It might be too strong to suggest that we are facing a paradigm shift [

], but certainly some reorientation is taking place in terms of how we understand brain function. Although this reorientation has received substantial stimulation from imaging work with PET and fMRI, it has its roots in more than a century of discussions on the nature of brain functions.

Since the 19th century, and possibly longer, two perspectives on brain functions have existed (an excellent introduction is to be found in chapter 1 of Ref. [

]). One view posits that the brain is primarily driven by external inputs; the other holds that the brain operates on its own, intrinsically, with sensory information interacting with rather than determining its operation. Although neither view is today dominant, the former clearly has motivated the majority of research at all levels of neuroscience including that in cognitive neuroscience. This is not entirely surprising given the enormous success of experiments measuring brain responses to controlled stimuli.

From a cost-based perspective, however, intrinsic activity seems to be far more important than evoked activity in terms of overall brain function. Studies of the actual changes in energy consumption associated with evoked changes in brain activity have revealed that the additional energy required for such brain responses represents an extremely small percent (∼1.0%) of the ongoing energy consumption (for a review, see Ref. []). Furthermore, converging data indicate that 60-80% of the ongoing energy consumption reflects work associated with the input and output of neurons (for a review, see Ref. []). From this perspective it seems fair to conclude that a large fraction of the functional activity of the brain is unaccounted for [

]. What do we know about the organization of this activity from an imaging perspective?

PET provided an initial clue in the form of highly organized activity decreases during the performance of most goal-directed behaviors. This led to the concept of an organized default mode of intrinsic brain function [] and the identification of a unique network of brain areas that typified this organization (i.e. the default mode network of the brain; Figure 4a ; for a recent review of its functional importance see Ref. []). More recently, it was discovered by Biswal and colleagues [] that the 'noise' in the fMRI BOLD signal in the frequency range below 0.1 Hz reflects spontaneous fluctuating neuronal activity (for a recent review, see Ref. []). This activity exhibits striking patterns of coherence within known brain networks in the absence of observable behaviors ( Figure 4 c). Future work in functional brain imaging using this approach is most exciting to anticipate.

Finally, a too often overlooked feature of brain-imaging signals is the presence of aerobic glycolysis ( Figure 2a). Aerobic glycolysis is present in the resting state [, ] and, when looked for, is observed to increase locally with increases in activity [, , ] ( Figure 2 a). The many unique contributions of glycolysis to such things as protein phosphorylation; membrane, DNA and RNA synthesis; and the brain's redox state are routinely overlooked when its importance is assessed solely on the basis of the amount of energy it provides (only 2 ATP versus 30 ATP for oxidative phosphorylation). As we seek to enrich our understanding of brain-imaging signals in the context of such important processes as learning, memory and development, understanding the role of glycolysis independent of its role in oxidative phosphorylation probably will be most informative.

Acknowledgements

My work has been generously supported by the National Institutes of Health (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, www.ninds.nih.gov; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, www.nhlbi.nih.gov; and National Institute of Mental Health, www.nimh.nih.gov) for nearly 40 years. In addition, I have received support from the Charles A. Dana Foundation ( www.dana.org), the James S. McDonnell Foundation ( www.jsmf.org), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ( www.macfound.org) and the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington ( www.mir.wustl.edu) for which I am most grateful.

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Human functional brain mapping as we presently know it began when the experimental strategies of cognitive psychology were combined with modern brain-imaging techniques (first positron emission tomography and then functional magnetic resonance imaging) to examine how brain function supports mental activities.

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Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett, Ph. D.

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Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett, Ph. D.

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Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive a book by Marc Brackett

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The mental well-being of children and adults is shockingly poor. Marc Brackett, author of Permission to Feel, knows why. And he knows what we can do. We have a crisis on our hands, and its victims are our children. Marc Brackett is a professor in Yale University’s Child Study Center and founding dir…

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CSDE Announced New Partnership to Launch Statewide K12 Social Emotional Learning Assessment System

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CSDE Announced New Partnership to Launch Statewide K12 Social Emotional Learning Assessment System

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CT.gov - Connecticut's Official State Website

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Press Releases

CSDE Announces New Partnership to Launch Statewide K-12 Social-Emotional Learning Assessment System

Universal Screener Provides Data to Strengthen Social -Emotional Skills, Informs Instruction for Students Who Need Additional Support

(HARTFORD) - In honor of national Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Day today, the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) announced it is entering into a partnership with Aperture Education to provide a statewide SEL assessment for K-12 schools. Starting in the fall of 2021 and after a thorough procurement process, CSDE will make Aperture's research-backed social-emotional learning assessments, the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) System and the DESSA-mini, available to all Connecticut districts at no cost.

"Reinforcing a strong, statewide system of supports around SEL and mental health is how we will most effectively address the unprecedented level of trauma, anxiety, and uncertainty that both students and school staff have experienced over the past year. Outside the context of the pandemic, we know the integration of SEL is a key component in PK-12 education and contributes to whole-child success in school, life, and career," said Acting Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker. "As we continue to advance this important work together, adding DESSA as part of a coordinated approach to providing SEL supports will allow us to build upon existing efforts already underway in districts across the state."

The DESSA system is a strength-based assessment of behaviors related to social-emotional well-being that helps in identifying interventions and supports, including documenting progress over time and outcomes. Additionally, there is a supplemental assessment to target specific areas of need for individual students based on results of the primary assessment. The Aperture System consists of two SEL Assessments:

1. The DESSA-mini is an 8-item universal screener that can be completed in 60 seconds and provides a snapshot of each student's overall social and emotional competence.

2. The DESSA is a follow-up assessment typically completed for students found to be in need of additional SEL instruction on the DESSA-mini. It takes 5 minutes and provides a more detailed understanding of each student's unique social-emotional strengths and opportunities for growth in areas such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

These assessments are relatively quick to complete, provide school staff with the data to understand students' current social -emotional skills, and inform SEL instruction for students who need additional support.

"Connecticut is showing tremendous leadership in ensuring equitable access to social and emotional learning in its schools and we are honored to partner with the CSDE on this initiative," said Jessica Adamson, CEO of Aperture Education. "By providing schools with reliable, actionable SEL data, we can help them identify the best ways to support every students' well-being which will help them set students up for success both in school, and in life. We are looking forward to collaborating with districts across the state to help them support the whole child."

DESSA system is already being piloted in the state in the districts of Windham, Middletown, and Naugatuck. A Connecticut Director of Pupil Services and Special Education had this to say about the system:

"After researching a number of assessments our leadership team elected to use the DESSA as our Universal Screen in grades K - 6. It is a teacher friendly tool that can be completed quickly to provide immediate individual, classroom and school level data, and the online platform has a variety of excellent visuals, graphs, and reports. Use of this assessment provides comprehensive actionable data that facilitates appropriate core instruction and tiered intervention in the SEL domains."

CSDE has made it a priority to strengthen its SEL supports that set the stage for all future learning and contribute to a positive school climate and better academic outcomes. This partnership is just one example of how CSDE is leading the way in providing SEL support, resources, and guidance.

The DESSA will be available to 100 districts in two cohorts for the 2021/22 school year, and nearly 200 districts for the 2022/23 school year. The partnership includes training, access to reporting features, hundreds of growth strategies and interventions, and technical assistance. To learn more, visit apertureed.com/ct.
About Aperture Education
Aperture Education empowers over 3,000 schools and out-of-school-time programs across North America to measure, strengthen, and support social and emotional competence in K-12 youth and educators. This system enables education leaders to make strategic, data-based decisions about SEL within their organizations. The Aperture system includes the DESSA suite of strength-based assessments, CASEL™-aligned intervention strategies, and robust reporting, all in one easy-to-use digital platform. Aperture has supported more than one million students in their social and emotional growth and continues to develop innovative solutions to bring the whole child into focus. To learn more, visit www.ApertureEd.com.

Twitter: CT State Department of Education Twitter

Facebook: CT State Department of Education Facebook

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CSDE Announces New Partnership to Launch Statewide K12 Social Emotional Learning Assessment System

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Universal Screener Provides Data to Strengthen Social -Emotional Skills, Informs Instruction for Students Who Need Additional Support (HARTFORD) - In honor of national Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Day today, the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) announced it is entering into a partnership with Aperture Education to provide a statewide SEL assessment for K-12 schools.

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Restorative Practices at School by Becky McCammon

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Restorative Practices at School by Becky McCammon

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Explore the impact of restorative practices through interactive prompts and exercises designed to examine your role as a teacher or educator and as...

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Welcome to the world of New York Times bestselling author Dr. Ross Greene and Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS)! Dr. Greene is a clinical psychologist, and he's been working with children and families for over 30 years. His influential work is widely known throughout the world.

This website was launched to celebrate the release of Dr. Greene's newest book, Raising Human Beings. While he's already a household name in families of behaviorally challenging kids, in this much-anticipated book he extends his work to all kids and all families. The book was released in August, 2016!

If you're unfamiliar with Dr. Greene and CPS, you're going to learn a lot on this website. And there are links to other websites to help you learn even more.

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Welcome to the world of New York Times bestselling author Dr. Ross Greene and Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS)! Dr. Greene is a clinical psychologist, and he's been working with children and families for over 30 years. His influential work is widely known throughout the world.