• Social-Emotional Learning

    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 green 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. 

    In order to monitor that our UTK-6th grade students are learning the SEL skills promoted through Second Step and Kelso’s Choice, social-emotional assessments created by SELweb will be piloted in six elementary schools (Monte Vista Elementary, Sunnydale Elementary, Sierra Elementary, Mariposa Elementary, Miller Elementary and Lincoln Elementary). It will also be administered to students attending The Leadership Academy and RISE.  The assessment will be administered in the Fall, then again in the Spring to monitor SEL growth.  The assessment directly assesses skills in the areas of Emotional Recognition, Social Perspective-Taking, Social Problem-Solving, and Self Control.  The results of these assessments will inform school staff about areas of need school-wide as well as skills that need to be reinforced at a classroom level and in small groups. 

    The assessment will take between 30-45 minutes and will be completed on the students’ chromebooks.  The assessment is a direct assessment of SEL skills, so it provides tasks and scenarios for the students to complete to demonstrate their proficiency in the areas measured. We are excited about using the SELweb data in order to improve our students' social-emotional skills.  

     

    Websites and Video Resources

    Please refer to the websites and short videos below for more information about Second Step SEL curriculum, Kelso’s Choice Conflict Management Program, and the SELweb UTK-6th grade assessments.  If you have questions, please contact Alesha Cayce, Director of Student Equity, Access, and Outcomes at 661-723-0351 ext. 57204.  


     

     

    The Collaborative of Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)

    Second Step Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum

    Kelso's Choice Conflict Resolution Program 

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    SELweb videos

    For a brief overview of SELweb, please refer to this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Op7q-deRI&t=1s

     

    You can view the following video to learn about the SELweb Early Elementary assessment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tMfl0zQZXk

     

    For information about a direct assessment in comparison to a teacher survey or self-survey, refer to this video link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDjOZmZiY_U

     

    For information regarding what SELweb assesses and why, watch this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS_ajDyxTT0