Summary – The Positive impact of social & emotional learning kindergarten to eighth grade students

12-page PDF report which, “summarizes results from three large-scale reviews of research on the impact of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on elementary and middle-school students — that is, programs that seek to promote various aocial and emotional skills. Collectively the three reviews included 317 studies and involved 324,303 children. SEL programs yielded multiple benefits in each review and were effective in both school and after-school settings and for students with and without behavioral and emotional problems. They were also effective across the K-8 grade range and for racially and ethnically diverse students from urban, rural, and suburban settings. SEL programs improved students’ social-emotional skills, attitudes about self and others, connection to school, positive social behavior, and academic performance; they also reduced students’ conduct problems and emotional distress. Comparing results from these reviews to findings obtained in reviews of interventions by other research teams suggests that SEL programs are among the most successful youth-development programs offered to school-age youth. Furthermore, school staff (e.g., teachers, student support staff) carried out SEL programs effectively, indicating that they can be incorporated into routine educational practice. In addition, SEL programming improved students’ academic performance by 11 to 17 percentile points across the three reviews, indicating that they offer students a practical educational benefit. Given these positive findings, we recommend that federal, state, and local policies and practices encourage the broad implementation of well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs during and after school.”

Positive impact of social and emotional learning kindergarten to eighth grade students, The

51-page PDF technical report which, “summarizes results from three large-scale reviews of research on the impact of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on elementary and middle-school students — that is, programs that seek to promote various aocial and emotional skills. Collectively the three reviews included 317 studies and involved 324,303 children. SEL programs yielded multiple benefits in each review and were effective in both school and after-school settings and for students with and without behavioral and emotional problems. They were also effective across the K-8 grade range and for racially and ethnically diverse students from urban, rural, and suburban settings. SEL programs improved students’ social-emotional skills, attitudes about self and others, connection to school, positive social behavior, and academic performance; they also reduced students’ conduct problems and emotional distress. Comparing results from these reviews to findings obtained in reviews of interventions by other research teams suggests that SEL programs are among the most successful youth-development programs offered to school-age youth. Furthermore, school staff (e.g., teachers, student support staff) carried out SEL programs effectively, indicating that they can be incorporated into routine educational practice. In addition, SEL programming improved students’ academic performance by 11 to 17 percentile points across the three reviews, indicating that they offer students a practical educational benefit. Given these positive findings, we recommend that federal, state, and local policies and practices encourage the broad implementation of well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs during and after school.”

PeaceKidz manual

101-page Word document created by PeacekidZ, “a program that aims to develop children’s ability to understand, analyze and resolve conflicts in their everyday lives. PeacekidZ teaches children the three R’s of conflict resolution: recognize, respect, resolve.” “Through each year of PeaceKidZ, each group of SAIS student teachers builds a curriculum detailing the lessons and activities they taught during the course of the nine-week program. They then compile these into a final document. The Conflict Management Toolkit will assemble and offer these curricula as a resource for other universities and outreach programs that are interested in developing similar programs. We will also provide a bibliography with more detailed books and resources on teaching. Currently, the manual from the first year of PeaceKidZ and a bibliography of the materials SAIS students consult to design the program are available for download.”

Restorative justice in the school setting: A whole school approach

12-page PDF paper promoting the teaching of restorative justice in schools. “Restorative justice is a philosophy and a set of practices that embraces the right blend between a high degree of discipline that encompasses clear expectations, limits and consequences and a high degree of support and nurturance.”

Restorative justice programs in schools

Web-site created by the Marist Youth Care organization with information about restorative justice programs. “Marist Youth Care is a not for profit agency dealing with at risk young people. We draw our energy and motivation from the call of the gospel to assist socially disadvantaged people to take their rightful place in the community,” from the Marist Youth Care website.

Opening the door to nonviolence: Peace education manual for primary school children

Electronic version of the second edition of a teacher’s guide for teaching peace education to primary school students. “Part I is designed as a training in affirmation, cooperation and communication. Part II deals with the healing of trauma; Part III is about bias and prejudices. Part IV introduces peaceful problem solving and nonviolent conflict resolving and Part V is about peaceful living. There are 20 chapters/sessions in the book, each session developed through step-by-step activities.”

Conflict resolution protocol for elementary classrooms, A

4-page PDF excerpt from the book, “The First Six Weeks of School” which discusses teaching conflict resolution, “a basic belief underlying The Responsive Classroom® approach to teaching is that how children learn to treat one another is as important as what they learn in reading, writing, and arithmetic. We believe that social skills such as cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and selfcontrol are essential to children’s academic and social success and we emphasize the teaching of these skills, along with academics, throughout the school day. There are many strategies we use to teach these social skills at the elementary level (K-6), one of which is teaching a protocol for conflict resolution.”

Conflict resolution: Citizenship education for young people with special needs

27-page PDF document which aims to, “develop positive models for dealing with conflict and to practise appropriate responses to deal with conflict.” Includes examples of use of universal access symbols to increase retention and understanding when working with low literacy participants and students in special education classrooms.