New Early Childhood Strategy Pages and Resources in Goalbook Toolkit
We are excited to announce new Early Learning Strategy Pages and teaching resources to support teachers in the areas of Social Emotional Learning and Speaking & Listening.
Building SEL and Expressive Language Into the Routine
The newest ECE strategy pages and resources help teachers establish classroom environments that explicitly foster social-emotional learning through direct expressive language instruction and social modeling. These resources offer teachers perspective on how to integrate these critical skills into the students’ everyday routines.
The Photo Flashcards of Social Scenarios Strategy Page offers teachers strategies, tips on best practice, and printable flashcards that address appropriate social interactions that students will encounter throughout their day. Ensuring that SEL is a part of a daily ECE routine is critical to students’ future success. Long-term academic and emotional outcomes are largely determined by the foundations around SEL that are built in early learning environments.
“An early childhood environment in which the children express healthy emotions, regulate them, and understand the emotion of self and others, creates a successful school experience.”
-Bassett, Denham, & Zinsser, 2012
Equip Students with SEL Skills Through Modeling
The key to establishing a foundation that sets children up for success is the use of concrete modeling of actions and behaviors that students can practice often. One of the scenarios that is included in the Social Scenarios flashcard set depicts two toddlers sitting at a table and exchanging toys. It is meant to serve as the illustration of a social story about sharing. In any early learning environment, there are always opportunities for students to engage in sharing whether it is a student-centered or teacher directed activity. Explicit instruction on HOW to share is important for all students as is taking it to the next level and sharing with students about WHY sharing is important to them on an emotional level.
All too often ECE lessons around sharing don’t touch on the critical elements of communicating how you feel about sharing. Young children need to be reassured that it is ok to politely communicate that they are still using something and will let their peer use it as soon as they are done. They should also be able to express to a student how it made them feel when the other student decided not to share with them. Using the social Scenario Flashcards allows ECE educators to simulate these situations at a time when students aren’t actively engaged in a conflict.
The collection of typical social situations allows educators to set up scenarios that have the potential to result in conflict and have students engage in dialogue about the best course of action. Equipping them with the language to navigate difficult situations is critical in early childhood and these flash cards allow educators to take a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach.
Our aim with these pages and resources is to help teachers cultivate the most impactful social-emotional learning experiences in their classrooms and allow them to maximize every opportunity to build their students’ communication skills.
Strategy Pages and Resources:
Social Emotional Learning:
Speaking and Listening:
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