Safe & Caring Schools Grades 6–8

Book Description

Book with CD-ROM

The Safe & Caring Schools^® teacher activity guides support the standards from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) for the infusion of social and emotional learning into the classroom. Those key competencies are: Awareness of Self and Others, Positive Attitudes and Values, Responsible Decision Making, and Social Interaction Skills. In addition, the material correlates with standards for social studies, language arts, health, and other areas of the curriculum.

Safe & Caring Schools helps you provide social and emotional learning (SEL) in classrooms to improve student dynamics, school climate, and academic achievement. A 2007 research report, “The Effects of Social and Emotional Learning on the Behavior and Academic Performance of School Children,” shows that students who were exposed to SEL were better behaved, had less anxiety, and had more positive attitudes than those who were not part of SEL. In addition, even though incorporating SEL activities required time in the school day, it did not negatively affect students’ academic performance; in fact, their scores on standardized tests increased 11 percentile points.

Safe & Caring Schools offers:

• Easy-to-use lesson plans with more than 100 activities per teacher guide
• Nine flexible themes to use monthly or as individual, stand-alone lessons throughout the year
• Character-based teaching and learning on such topics as integrity, respect, responsibility, honesty, persistence, accountability, bullying prevention, and anger and conflict management
• Classroom-tested reproducible activity sheets for positive reinforcement, available in teacher guides and on included CD-ROMs
• Literature-based activities that pair suggested books with every lesson to integrate learning across the curriculum
• Helpful tips for organizing a schoolwide program
• Group-graded materials (PreK–K, Grades 1–2, Grades 3–5, Grades 6–8) and large, bold posters that reinforce key concepts of the program

Safe & Caring Schools has been successfully used in middle schools during advisory time and classroom meetings. The guide provide specific, easy-to-use activities that allow students to have conversations, learn through inquiry, and feel empowered to change through self-monitoring of their creative thinking. Students use creative ways, including art, drama, writing, music, and reading, to express themselves and reflect on their experiences. Key concepts:
 

• Me and my school community—what I need at school, cool rules, and respecting differences
• Discovering our feelings—character building, dealing with anger, stress, and attitude makes a difference
• My support system—friendship factors, stress stoppers, peer pressure, and people who care about me
• Respect yourself and others—the language of respect, blaming, compassion, and private space
• Bullying—being cool enough to care, bully survey, courage to be a positive bystander, and how to handle bullies
• Teaming up for success—accountability, leadership, verbal and nonverbal communication, and cooperation
• Conflict resolution—keeping my cool, problem solving steps, and team spirit
• The power to choose—targeting good choices, learning from my choices, thinking before acting, and making a difference at school
• Follow your dreams—positive role models, using my gifts and talents, self-discipline, and setting goals

“We’ve seen significant change in the attitude and the behavior of students. The students embrace the idea of a safe and caring school. It’s easier for us to discipline children when we have this philosophy of the whole school as a safe and caring place. Our suspension rate has dropped, and the daily infraction rate has dropped significantly.”—Principal
 

Part of the Safe & Caring Schools Series - Item 3403