In June 2019, the Ohio Board of Education adopted the Social and Emotional Learning Standards which were developed by Ohio teachers, school counselors, and educational personnel. The standards cover grades K-12 with Ohio's Early Learning and Development Standards already providing social and emotional learning guidelines for children ages birth to five. (See the INFOhio Early Learning Portal for resources to support these standards). The standards cover five competency areas important in developing social and emotional skills. These competencies are:
The Ohio Department of Education encourages the integration of these standards into regular classroom activities. They will not be assessed, and schools are able to choose the best approaches for teaching and monitoring for mastery. Implementing these standards in schools supports the development of skills such as identifying and managing emotions, setting goals, understanding and practicing empathy, and establishing positive relationships. These standards are a critical part of the Ohio Department of Education's Each Child, Our Future strategic plan which outlines four domains necessary for preparing Ohio's students for their postsecondary lives.
INFOhio partnered with Ohio Department of Education through the advisory and development process of the Social and Emotional Learning Standards. We believe that our resources and digital content can support the growth of Ohio students not only academically, but also mentally and emotionally. Using a variety of content, approaches, and media to teach social-emotional competencies will strengthen schools as they work to create the whole child. This blog series will highlight the resources available from INFOhio which can be used to support the Ohio Social and Emotional Learning Standards for Ohio schools.
As students advance in school and age, social-emotional learning can help them recognize, recover from, respond appropriately to adverse childhood experiences and situations that arise from these events and people. Adverse childhood experiences can lead to trauma which in turn affects the child's academic and emotional growth. Building relationships and connecting with others is an important step in building resilient children who can cope with pain from the past and in the present (O’Reilly, 2017).
INFOhio's digital resources are best for early learners with implicit instruction from teachers and other adults. The resources shared in this post should be previewed and tested before sharing them with children. When used jointly, the media from INFOhio will enhance learning and support social emotional well-being.
Over 140 pairs of fiction and nonfiction titles offer educators a variety of themes and subjects to explore, expanding the school and classroom library and providing alternative methods of content delivery. Books are one of the best ways to help students connect with others as they recognize their own lives in the stories they read. "Reading picturebooks prepares children for dealing with empathy and mind-reading in real life," according to Maria Nikolejeva in her article Picturebooks and Emotional Literacy in the December 2013 edition of The Reading Teacher. There are many titles in BookFlix that will help educators meet the social emotional learning standards for students in the 3rd grade. Below are just a few of the titles and the standards they support.
Competency A - Self-Awareness - A1: Demonstrate an awareness of personal emotions: Stick and Stone & Empathy: I Know How You Feel
Competency B - Self-Management - B3: Persevere through challenges and setbacks in school and life: The Tiny Seed & I Have Grit
Competency C - Social Awareness - C1: Recognize, identify and empathize with the feelings and perspective of others: A Sick Day for Amos McGee and Empathy: I Know How You Feel
Competency C - Social Awareness - C2: Demonstrate consideration for and contribute to the well-being of the school, community and world: Do Unto Otters & Back to School Safety
Competency C - Social Awareness - C3: Demonstrate an awareness and respect for human dignity, including the similarities and differences of all people, groups and cultures: Same, Same But Different, Leo the Late Bloomer & We are Alike, We are Different, Each Kindness, In the Month of Kislev, Seven Candles for Kwanzaa
Competency D - Relationship Skills - D2: Develop and maintain positive relationships: Crazy Hair Day & Let's Be Friends
Competency E - Responsible Decision-Making - E3: Consider the ethical and civic impact of decisions: Bink & Gollie & Conflict Resolution: When Friends Fight
You can browse BookFlix using the theme categories, or you can search using title, subject, and author search. A search for friendship results in 13 pairs of eBooks that can be used to support the standards. Each title has a lesson plan. Learn more about using BookFlix in the classroom in INFOhio Campus, our go-to spot for professional development.
Educator Tools is a repository for INFOhio's licensed and purchased content as well as training and support materials for that content. Educators can find eBooks and videos to support social and emotional learning. Using the Student Wellness & Success limiter under Content Area on the left, find specific titles to use with students in the classroom or on their own. Applying the grade level limiter will help narrow results to the content best for student.
INFOhio's discovery layer tool makes it possible to search almost all of our digital content from one search box. If schools are automated with INFOhio's Library Services Platform, the contents of the school library will be searched as well. Type in keywords from the standards to find resources that will support the Social and Emotional Learning Standards from EBSCO's databases as well as from World Book, the Digital Video Collection, and BookFlix.
In the Basic Sources tab, search for your keywords and limit your results on the left. Here is an example of a search that could yield beneficial results for students in third grade.
This article from Time for Kids is a good example of text that can accompany instruction for Competency A1: Demonstrate an awareness of personal emotions and A3: Demonstrate awareness of and willingness to seek help for self or others.
Many articles found in ISearch can be read aloud and offer support for students with vision impairment. You can learn more about this feature in the Explora for PreK-5 class in INFOhio Campus.
Search other key words from the standards as well, and use the limiters to find the best results for primary learners. You can learn more about using ISearch in INFOhio Campus.
INFOhio's collection of streaming videos also has content to support the Social and Emotional Learning Standards. Using key words to search for videos yields many results. Below are some examples:
Competency A -Self-Awareness - A4: Demonstrate a sense of personal responsibility, confidence, and advocacy; Competency B - Self-Management - Regulate Emotions and behaviors by using thinking strategies that are consistent with brain development; Competency C - Social-Awareness - C2: Demonstrate consideration for and contribute to the well-being of the school, community, and world
My School Classroom video series
My School Playground video series
Many of the DVC streaming videos have teachers guide and other instructional supports.
The INFOhio blog has several posts that share how INFOhio's resources can support social and emotional learning. Here are a few to consider as you begin to think about how you will implement the standards into your classroom.
Competency C - Social Awareness - C3: Demonstrate an awareness and respect for human dignity, including the similarities and differences of all people, groups, and cultures.
Diverse eBooks for Early Readers
Competency C - Social Awareness - C1: Recognize, identify, and empathize with the feelings and perspective of others
Using Connected Texts to Inspire Empathy
Competency D - Relationship Skills - D2: Develop and maintain positive relationships
Reading for Relationship Building: Texts that Transcend Trauma
Ending this post with a reference to the importance of relationships is a great way to finish. Using the resources from INFOhio will definitely boost the social and emotional well-being of the students in your class. But connecting with these kids and maintaining relationships will boost not only the five areas of competency, it will also lead to more engagement, deeper learning, and increased skills in all academic areas.
Share how #INFOhioWorks for you when using our free, digital content to support building resilient and empathetic citizens.
Emily Rozmus is a Senior Instructional Specialist at INFOhio. She has worked in education for over 25 years, first as a secondary English teacher and district librarian before starting at INFOhio in 2013. Emily has developed district growth plans, integrated technology, created instruction for information literacy, fostered teacher development, and worked on teams to implement curriculum. At INFOhio, she focuses on training educators to use INFOhio resources to improve early learning. She also works to share research and best practices for helping students be better readers of INFOhio's digital text.
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