Lancaster School District

Lancaster School District is committed to meeting the needs of the whole child, including every student’s social-emotional learning skills.    Social emotional learning (SEL) teaches students to gain confidence, set goals, make better decisions, collaborate with others in work and play, and navigate the world more effectively.  These skills are essential to being successful in the school environment as well as important to thrive later in the work environment.  The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL)  is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to bring awareness to evidence-based SEL and promote these practices and initiatives.    

 

CASEL recognizes Second Step as an evidence-based social-emotional learning curriculum.  Lessons are taught weekly in classrooms throughout the district.  Second Step addresses building empathy, emotional recognition and management, problem solving, impulse control, calming down, communication skills, and assertiveness.  Lessons involve engaging short videos, skills-building exercises and discussion topics.  There is a different set of lessons for each grade level from universal transitional kindergarten (UTK) - 8th grade. 

 

Kelso’s Choice is another SEL program promoted in Lancaster School District.  It is a conflict resolution curriculum that is taught by school counselors through classroom lessons in elementary schools.  Kelso is a frog that teaches students the difference between big and small problems.  Big problems are managed by adults while small problems are handled by the students.  For small problems, students are encouraged to use one of nine different conflict resolution solutions, such as wait and cool off, ignore it, talk it out, tell them to stop, and others. 

 

Sown to Grow is an online platform designed to increase student self-awareness.  Benefits include improved academic performance, enhanced emotional check-ins, and a stronger sense of belonging.  Every week, students login to the platform and first, assess how they are feeling using an emoji.  Next, they answer the question of the week, for example, "What is something that happened recently that you are thanful for?  Why are you thankful for it?" The student then writes a reflection in response to the quesiton. By answering the weekly questions, students learn to recognize their emotions and how those emotions affect their work.  A student survey is completed at the beginning and end of the school year.  The survey is about 25 questions that are designed to help the students reflect on and self-assess their own social-emotional learning competencies.