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SEL FORWARD

Social and Emotional Learning Towards Meaningful Social Contribution

GOALS

The overarching model of this curriculum is to:

First, ENGAGE students with their senses by contextualizing the activities relating it to their daily life experiences. It is at this stage that we begin to develop students' self-awareness that will serve as the foundation for future learning.

Second, students will be able to SAY through explanations of values that are exhibited by them and by others. It is at this stage that we extend the focus of self-awareness outward as students make inferences on how their actions affect others and vice versa through reflective learning. The goal is to build upon the students values as they develop self-management skills.

Third, after we’ve laid the foundation of self-awareness, students will begin to SEE through familiarization of civic activities in their communities and be able to recognize their potential roles in making meaningful social contributions.

Only then, will students be able to DO a social project where they will perform the skill of identifying a social issue, analyze the problem, create and implement solutions as well as make recommendations .

ORGANIZATION

Ultimately, the goal of this curriculum is to address the need for students to become aware of their surroundings, analyze social issues and participate in events that are meaningful to them and their community. It is the aim of this curriculum that students learn, engage themselves and experience what it takes for an individual to be an active participant of the society through a meaningful social action project. However, in order for students to successfully engage in any meaningful social action, learners must first be familiar with the social issues around them. Familiarity comes with understanding historical contexts of a social issue as well as successes and challenges of efforts made to alleviate the problem. Moreover, relating these issues to the learners provides context to the significance of their involvement.

To better ensure that students are analyzing issues with a broad perspective, learners must establish deep understanding of their values and beliefs and be able to manage these values among other people's values that may be different from their own. The ability to understand and be self aware can help establish these values that all together forms one’s self-knowledge which is what grounds the curriculum to its ultimate goal of developing students who engage in meaningful social action as active participants of their community.

Thus, this curriculum will be organized in four different stages/themes based on the overarching model that is applied to all grade levels (see Goals). The first stage is contextualizing how their senses both of external phenomena and internal feelings relate to them as individuals. The second stage helps students identify their values in order to know what they find important for themselves, their relationships, and the world as a whole. The third stage will familiarize students with the governance systems that they are a part of in the classroom, the school, their town and beyond. Students will recognize how they are helped or hurt by these existing structures, how these structures are in alignment or out of alignment with their values, and what tools are at their disposal to influence these governance processes. Finally, the last stage will be a performance-based learning and assessment where students will be identifying a problem, analyzing the situation and creating solutions while making use of their prior knowledge gained from previous stages. Students will record their experiences about the teamwork process and then reflect as a final step about how their own behavior affected the process and outcomes.

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