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Social Emotional LearningCurriculum
In order to ensure that positive psychology principles would be
systematically taught and practiced with students, a team of
about 100 District #54 staff members came together to create
an early childhood through eighth grade SEL curriculum. This
curriculum, aligned to the Illinois Learning Standards, is being
taught in every District #54 classroom. Prior to the curriculum
implementation, many best practices were being utilized but they
were inconsistently implemented across school sites. Achor’s
positive psychology research provided a common platform to
build upon. New lessons were designed that incorporated current
best practices, along with the principles from Achor’s “Happiness
Advantage” and “Big Potential.”
Weekly social-emotional learning lessons contain common
themes for supporting SEL across all grade levels. The lessons
are interactive and meaningfully connect to student lives. The
weekly lesson time is built into the school master schedule as
a way to prioritize this time. Staff collaboratively plan for the
lessons and weave the topics across the school day for authentic
application and reinforcement.
Every family in District #54 was provided a “Happiness Family
Guide” that outlined the SEL work into a story families could work
on, in conjunction with school staff, to support the needs of their
children. For the first time this year a universal screener was used
for every student in the district to help identify any student in need
of additional social-emotional support beyond the weekly lesson.
Proactive instruction to support social-emotional well-being now
parallels a similar focus on academic objectives. By year end, we
will be able to provide staff and parents a quantifiable snapshot of
each student’s progress in the area of SEL. Knowing each child
by name and need supported by a focus on positive psychology
will fuel student success in life.
Change for theBetterment of aSchool
CommunityandBeyond
The research based on positive psychology, and specifically the
work of author Shawn Achor, provides a strong basis for staff and
student success. District and school leaders will see immediate
opportunities to apply this work into current systems and
structures, which will positively impact the well-being of students,
staff and communities.
This work is having a profound impact on the lives of our most
valuable resource—our people. Positivity leads to success.
What better way to impact whole child success than to ensure
every school stakeholder is equipped with the tools to use
happiness and optimism to grow and reach their potential?
A happy organization is proving to be the greatest catalyst
of student success we have seen.
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Positive
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cont’d.