Whole Child and Social Emotional Practices
Social-emotional learning (SEL) is an umbrella term that refers to the wide array of skills and mindsets that are vital for success in school and beyond. These skills and mindsets include, but are not limited to, self-awareness, relationship building, goal setting, conflict resolution, and community building. This work is a component of a whole child approach, honoring the humanity of educators and students alike, and creating environments of belonging and connection. ANet supports educators with their own SEL journey as well as helps to ensure academic conditions are built in a way that allows students to thrive. The resources below are a starting point for building a toolkit of holistic and equitable student support. To dig deeper, reach out to your ANet coach.
Whole Child Learning Resources
Put District-Level Structures in Place
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Framework with several activities for creating and maintaining a successful SEL foundation across a district.
Tips for Implementation: If you’re new to SEL work, try the questionnaire to evaluate needs in your district and get paired with recommended activities.
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Compilation of resources to support system leaders with implementing integrated SEL structures.
Tips for Implementation: When implementing the “Plan, Do, Study, Act” framework, make sure you are including staff, families and especially students in the process.
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Whole Child Learning Resources
Put School-Level Structures in Place
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An action guide for school leadership teams that includes research, equity connections, guiding questions, vignettes, and suggested action steps.
Tips for Implementation: Leaders, when designing Professional Learning experiences, refer to this guide for headlines of research and equity implications to ground the vision.
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Framework with several activities for creating and maintaining a successful SEL foundation within a school.
Tips for Implementation: Leaders, make sure you are mindful of creating inclusive spaces for staff and students to design and implement SEL and whole child practices systematically.
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Toolkit including a presentation, resources, and mini-modules designed to support educators with their own well-being.
Tips for Implementation: In a PLC, try exploring one mini-module per session allowing a space for teachers to reflect, discuss, and practice with each high-leverage element.
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Whole Child Learning Resources
Develop a Holistic Mindset
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Short article to help reground in the facts of SEL.
Tips for Implementation: This article could be used as pre-work to a PLC, or the opening of a staff conference or professional learning session. Ask staff to share their thinking around SEL and use this article as a place to discuss widely held misconceptions.
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Report drawing on two years of conversations, meetings, and site visits across the country including detailed recommendations for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.
Tips for Implementation: Try using this paper as a book study for learning about the “why” and “how” of whole child practices. After each chapter, discuss the implications for students. The Recommendations & Executive Summary can lead to deeper discussions around the intersection of policy and instruction.
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Protocol that helps educators reflect on times when students can be shut down due to time constraints.
Tips for Implementation: Try using this protocol before looking at student work to help participants think expansively about student experiences.
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3-minute animated video reinforcing how and why to focus on positive behaviors, with clear examples.
Tips for Implementation: This quick video can be used as a Welcoming Ritual or Warm Opener as a way for participants to reflect on not only student strengths but also on their own strengths.
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Framework with videos, case studies, and tools to support the creation of a whole child-centered environment.
Tips for Implementation: The graphic provided here can serve as an anchor for the work; it is a great example of the intersections within a whole child approach.
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Whitepaper outlining a fully integrated approach to academic and social-emotional development in response to COVID-19.
Tips for Implementation: Share this paper with your Whole Child Team or your staff as an anchor into the Why of focusing on SEL alongside academics.
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Whole Child Learning Resources
Explore Universal Design for Learning
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Framework to improve teaching and learning based on the science of how humans learn.
Tips for Implementation: Use these guidelines as you analyze lesson plans or student work. Ask yourself: “How do our lesson plans value students’ humanity? Does the student work exemplify expert learners who are motivated, knowledgeable, and strategic? How did the design of the lesson or unit lead to these examples of student work?”
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1-hour webinar challenging educator mindsets and systems that stifle Black and Brown learners.
Tips for Implementation: Use this webinar alongside the UDL Guidelines and Whole Child Framework to shift mindsets and reflect on how and when your school system is stifling Black and Brown learners.
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Whole Child Learning Resources
Plan and Teach with Intention
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Videos and profiles of three schools currently implementing SEL practices.
Tips for Implementation: Review these examples prior to analyzing data as a reminder of how SEL can be integrated alongside academics, and how student humanity and identity is at the heart of making academic shifts.
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Disclaimer: Many of these links take you to external organizations. It is your responsibility to ensure you comply with any copyright or permissions restrictions before using these materials.
Designing for EVERY Student
Our role as educators is to support each other toward accomplishing educational equity. Asking and answering the question “why does equitable instruction in math/literacy and all content areas matter to me/my students?” is important to build a vision of excellence and actively advance instruction toward that vision. These definitions are designed to support in that work.
To engage in building a vision of equity with your team, explore our Equitable Instruction Infographic and Equitable Instruction Definitions to learn more.
Educational Equity
A guarantee that educators engage ALL students with meaningful support that they need to reach and exceed a common standard through high-quality instruction.
Institutional Equity
Leadership, practices and culture that guarantee educators engage ALL students with meaningful support they need to meet and exceed a common standard through high-quality instruction.
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