Building SEL Skills into Your Lesson Plans (Quick Reference Guide)

This laminated guide distills the lesson planning and delivery process to explain how social and emotional learning (SEL) should be considered at each step.

Social and emotional skills help students focus, renew their efforts when they encounter challenges, share with and learn from their peers, ask questions and seek resources, and see themselves as contributors to their classroom communities. Including SEL in lesson plans allows teachers to explicitly and intentionally prompt, model, and praise students at every juncture of the lesson, building and guiding these skills to meet academic goals.

Jeffrey Benson, author of Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL, discusses how social and emotional skills fit in lesson plans, including how they help students understand lesson goals; access prior learning; and practice, explore, and experiment. He also covers how SEL skills can be used in direct instruction, formal assessment, and as lessons close.

This guide includes preparation questions, classroom practices, and sample prompts to help teachers of all grades and content areas get started as they build social and emotional skills into lesson plans.

8.5" x 11" 3-panel foldout guide (6 pages), laminated for extra durability and 3-hole-punched for binder storage.