Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SYSTEMIC SEL
IMPLEMENTATION
03 Introduction
04 What is Systemic SEL?
05 The Role of the District
07 The Role of the School
10 The Role of the Classroom
12 The Role of the Community
14 Appendix
2
Introduction
Social emotional learning provides schools with a tangible, defined framework
through which equitable, positive, and supportive learning conditions can be
created to foster the development and growth of all children. From the home to
the classroom, all stakeholders in a child’s life and learning experience play a
critical role in fostering social emotional learning and creating an environment
where children can thrive.
1 Mahoney, J. L., Weissberg, R. P., Greenberg, M. T., Dusenbury, L., Jagers, R. J., Niemi, K., Schlinger, M., Schlund, J., Shriver, T. P., VanAusdal, K., & Yoder, N. (2020, October 8). Systemic
3
Social and Emotional Learning: Promoting Educational Success for All Preschool to High School Students. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/
amp0000701
In this white paper, we break down what SEL implementation can look like
at each ring of CASEL’s framework, exploring concepts and actionable
strategies that can help all stakeholders contribute to creating equitable,
positive, and supportive learning conditions.
2 Mahoney, J. L., Weissberg, R. P., Greenberg, M. T., Dusenbury, L., Jagers, R. J., Niemi, K., Schlinger, M., Schlund, J., Shriver, T. P., VanAusdal, K., & Yoder, N. (2020, October 8). Systemic
Social and Emotional Learning: Promoting Educational Success for All Preschool to High School Students. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/
amp0000701
4
Thus, SEL programming is most likely to be successful when school,
district, and state-level priorities are aligned.” 3
Schools leaders, districts, and state agencies may not directly interact with
children to facilitate social emotional learning experiences on a daily basis,
but their decision-making influences the capacity, resources, and priorities
inside of classrooms. Whether providing professional development for
educators, creating time and space for SEL, providing resources to allow
for explicit instruction and regular practice, putting tools in place to
evaluate student needs, coordinating communication to families, or
designing policies or guidelines that promote evidence-based social
emotional development - there are dozens of ways that education leaders
can impact - or hinder - social emotional learning.
3 Mahoney, J. L., Weissberg, R. P., Greenberg, M. T., Dusenbury, L., Jagers, R. J., Niemi, K., Schlinger, M., Schlund, J., Shriver, T. P., VanAusdal, K., & Yoder, N. (2020, October 8). Systemic
Social and Emotional Learning: Promoting Educational Success for All Preschool to High School Students. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/
amp0000701
5
“Our emotions saturate everything we do! While they’ve historically
been placed in opposition to ‘rational’ learning, we understand more
every day that they are, in fact, integral to learning. It only makes
sense that we give students (and ourselves) opportunities to scaffold
and build our feeling muscles so that they can support every other
aspect of healthy development."
-Dr. Chris Soto, Social Emotional Learning & Mental Health Coordinator
at Durham Public Schools, North Carolina
“Our expectation for SEL at Belle Plaine High School is to equip our
students with the social and emotional skills necessary to help them
get through the minor and major challenges in life.”
-Mindy Chevalier, Principal at Belle Plaine Jr/Sr High School
in Belle Plaine Public Schools, Minnesota
4 Move This World. 2022. Webinar: Evaluating & Selecting SEL Programs - Move This World. [online] Available at: <https://www.movethisworld.com/webinars-presentations/webinar-
evaluating-selecting-sel-programs/> [Accessed 16 February 2022].
6
In addition to facilitating processes that engage other stakeholders in SEL
decision-making, districts can coordinate community-wide resources to support
mental health. Beyond implementing SEL programming as a baseline level of
support for all students, Belle Plaine Public Schools in Minnesota is one of few
districts in the state to offer full time mental health therapists on site for
students, as well as community partnerships that offer more intensive off-site
mental health supports so they can refer students in crisis to the help they
need, right away. Designing tiers of support is one way of reminding the
community that daily, school wide social emotional practices are just the first
step in ensuring the mental, social, and emotional safety and wellbeing of
students. Belle Plaine High School Principal Mindy Chevalier explains, “Our
expectation for SEL at Belle Plaine High School is to equip our students with the
social and emotional skills necessary to help them get through the minor and
major challenges in life.” Beyond promoting child development, social emotional
learning gives schools the language and framework to build stronger
relationships, better understand the needs of students, and empower students
to advocate for themselves when they need additional mental health support. 5
Read more about district-wide support for SEL at Lancaster ISD in Texas and
Distinctive Schools in Illinois and Michigan.
Download our full, free toolkit to support Evaluating & Selecting SEL Programs
7
professional development for educators or informational sessions for families,
there are endless ways that schools can expand - or limit - the impact of SEL on
students. Principal Chevalier explains, “With SEL you get out of it what you put
into it. Our goal is to educate on why SEL is important to all students. Even if
you have good coping skills you can always strengthen them and add more tools
to your SEL toolkit. You may also learn something to help a friend or family
member.”
One of the biggest areas of concern for principals is ease of use for teachers,
cautioned against adding additional workload to teachers’ already-full plates.
But principals and school leaders also have an enormous opportunity to alleviate
that concern and thoughtfully incorporate SEL practices into their school in
ways that benefit educators as well as students. Principal Cherish Pipkins from
Rolling Hills Elementary in Lancaster ISD, Texas, explains, “The biggest challenge
for implementing SEL is finding time for it to fit. Educators balance academic
demands, administrative tasks, assessment data, parent communication and
more. At the onset, an SEL program can feel like one more thing. Our campus
decided that we could not continue to expect change without change. Thus,
Move This World is included in the daily routine of every classroom immediately
after announcements.”
Schools can improve the impact of SEL by integrating it into existing frameworks
of support, like PBIS, MTSS, or Zones of Regulation. Amie Hohenstein is the
Student Support Specialist and Chemical Health Counselor at Belle Plaine High
School and explains that “Belle Plaine Jr./Sr. High School prioritizes SEL for all
students by scheduling Move This World right into our daily schedule, twice
daily! In addition we integrate SEL into classroom lessons, into our positive
behavior intervention system and into student leadership opportunities.”
School support staff, like counselors and social workers, are able to better
8
leverage their expertise to support students when social emotional learning is
integrated throughout a school community. Alex Armor, the counselor at
Mangum Elementary School in Durham Public Schools, North Carolina, explains,
“At Mangum, we prioritize SEL by making sure every single student gets the time
and space in their busy school day to pause, reflect and express their thoughts
and feelings in a safe environment where they can be heard and supported. That
time is between 7:45am and 7:55am during our daily move this world practice!
Starting each day with a comforting, familiar, and emotion focused routine
prepares students to do their very best at school.” This regular, school-wide
practice allows teachers to check in with students and better identify students
who may need more focused support from a counselor before behavioral
incidents occur.
Read more about how Napier Elementary School from Metro Nashville Public
Schools in Tennessee has created a community of resilience with SEL.
Download our free white paper Building Equitable, Safe, and Supportive Schools:
Trauma and Culturally Sensitive Practices for Guidance to create a more
equitable, supportive, and safe school culture. 9
The Role of the Classroom
The classroom is where our students spend most of their time at school, and the
practices and procedures in classrooms have the biggest impact on students’
academic performance as well as feelings of safety and belonging. From the
relationships that are formed in classrooms to the ways students approach
learning, educators design how their classroom operates, and social emotional
learning should provide educators with more strategic and specific ways to
support students. Elementary school teacher Jaclyn Kowalchuk from Aiken
County Public School in South Carolina practices SEL in her classroom every
morning to start the day. She explains, “We use the Emogers (emotion managers)
and wording from Move this world when a child is too excited, angry or upset. I
say "take a breath, count to 10" or "tighten and release" or "get a drink of water".
We talk about when to look for help, especially on the playground. When I am
proud of them for their achievements I say ‘do you want a smile, hug or a fist
bump?’” (Breathe 5 Times, Count to 10, Tighten and Release, Drink a Glass of
Water, and Give A Smile, A Hug, or A Fist Bump are Move This World Emogers,
emotion managers that students learn and practice throughout SEL
programming.)
Educators also integrate SEL into academic content areas to help students apply
skills like perspective-taking in history, empathy in ELA, and problem-solving in
science. Being able to explicitly name these kinds of skills and provide additional
opportunities for students to practice them in non-academic settings helps
improve academic performance. Learning is social, yet any teacher knows that
students do not simply start collaborating because they’ve been placed in a
group together and given a project.
10
Collaboration takes time and requires many SEL skills like active listening,
communication, goal-setting, and more. Meghan Camacho is a teacher at CICS
West Belden from Distinctive Schools in Illinois and explains how SEL skills show
up throughout the school day, “We the SEL skills taught every morning to start
our day, during conflicts at recess, when reminding ourselves how partner and
group work times should look and sound like, how we handle disagreements or
discussions at home, and how we can share our feelings with one another/with
staff/with parents/etc. and when we have big feelings to work through.”
Read more about how keeping classrooms connected during remote learning
with SEL in this classroom spotlight: Teacher from Mariana Bracetti Academy
Connects Her Classroom with SEL.
Download our free toolkit with SEL Resources for Supporting Mental Health to
find classroom resources that promote SEL and integrate SEL into academic
content areas.
11
The Role of the Community
Learning and development doesn’t end when a child leaves the school building
at the end of the day. The lessons, strategies, and ideas that were cultivated at
school go home with students, and they should be empowered to apply skills
authentically throughout their lives. This is the basic principle of homework -
providing students with structured practice at home in order to build on the
lessons learned at school and deepen understanding. SEL programs should
provide resources, tools, and support to strengthen SEL throughout the
community and at home.
There are many barriers to family engagement, and schools are likely aware of
the specific barriers that impact their community. These same barriers likely
apply to SEL, too - families may speak different languages, caretakers may work
hours that make it difficult to communicate with the school regularly, limited
use of email, limited access to WiFi at home, and more are all ways that families
may disengage from SEL practices they can implement at home to support their
child’s learning.
“We see our students using their SEL tools in other areas of
their life, for example breathing techniques before contests,
games, or performances.”
-Mindy Chevalier, Principal at Belle Plaine Jr/Sr High School
in Belle Plaine Public Schools, Minnesota
12
Families don’t need to be child psychologists to raise children, and they are
likely depending on the school to support academic learning and growth. By
better understanding the relationship between SEL and brain development,
families can become key partners in supporting and promoting the social and
emotional development of students by using a common language, tools, and
resources that reflect how students discuss and practice SEL at school.
Explore free SEL podcasts from the Move This World Audio Network that
deepen understanding of SEL and allow for authentic, participatory practice for
families.
Download our free Family Engagement SEL Toolkit to design initiatives that
engage families in SEL.
13
Appendix
Our SEL Starter Kits are designed to provide administrators, educators, and
families with a selection of free resources to promote SEL at every stage of
development. Move This World’s SEL programs are rooted in creative expression
and movement, and you’ll find examples of this approach to SEL in the exercises
included in our free SEL Starter Kits.
14
SEL STARTER KIT
Early Elementary (PreK-2)
developmentally appropriate for students at each Calm Down & Click here for English
grade level and aligned to CASEL (Collaborative for Mindfulness Click here for Spanish
How to Use:
Share this video with educators to use in the classroom with students! Simply press play and follow along.
We encourage educators to participate with students!
Share this video with parents to use at home. Provide them with resources from the Family Engagement
Toolkit so they can better understand the skills that students are practicing in this participatory lesson.
Encourage educators and families to interact with this video again and invite students to reflect on how their
feelings change each day.
SEL STARTER KIT
Late Elementary (Grades 3-5)
appropriate for students at each grade level and Click here for English
aligned to CASEL (Collaborative for Academic,
My Current Click here for Spanish
How to Use:
Share this video with educators to use in the classroom with students! Simply press play and follow along.
We encourage educators to participate with students!
Share this video with parents to use at home. Provide them with resources from the Family Engagement
Toolkit so they can better understand the skills that students are practicing in this participatory lesson.
Encourage educators and families to interact with this video again and invite students to reflect on how their
feelings change each day.
SEL STARTER KIT
Middle School (Grades 6-8)
appropriate for students at each grade level and Social around them and practice
social skills.
aligned to CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Connection
Click here for English
Social and Emotional Learning) core SEL
BINGO Click here for Spanish
competencies:
Self-Awareness
Self-Management FAMILY This toolkit includes
information to help families
Social Awareness RESOURCE: understand what SEL is, as
Relationship Skills well as ideas for practicing
Family SEL at home.
Responsible Decision Making
Engagement Click here for English
Click here for Spanish
Our full Middle School curriculum guide is included Toolkit
in this starter kit!
Sample Video From Our Middle School Curriculum
Label Fabels
Watch Here
How to Use:
Share this video with educators to use in the classroom with students! Simply press play and follow along.
We encourage educators to participate with students!
Share this video with parents to use at home. Provide them with resources from the Family Engagement
Toolkit so they can better understand the skills that students are practicing in this participatory lesson.
Encourage educators and families to interact with this video again and invite students to reflect on how their
feelings change each day.
SEL STARTER KIT
High School (Grades 9-12)
Re-Tweeting
Watch Here
How to Use:
Share this video with educators to use in the classroom with students! Simply press play and follow along.
We encourage educators to participate with students!
Share this video with parents to use at home. Provide them with resources from the Family Engagement
Toolkit so they can better understand the skills that students are practicing in this participatory lesson.
Encourage educators and families to interact with this video again and invite students to reflect on how their
feelings change each day.
SEL STARTER KIT
Professional Development for Educators
Overview Video
Watch Here