This 30-week SEL curriculum for grades K-6 provides a standards-based program to teaching social and emotional learning through a literacy-based approach. We employ the activities of thinking, reading, speaking, and writing in each lesson, which allows students to master and apply the content through multiple access points. CASEL’s five (5) competencies provide the framework for each grade level’s books and lesson plans.

The Focus on Social and Emotional Learning program is intended for flexible implementation across 30 weeks of instruction in the school year.

CASEL’s five (5) competencies provide the framework for each grade level’s books and lesson plans. Each competency is “kicked off” with an introductory lesson plan that showcases the concept and hooks the student into learning more about it.

Each of the competencies is then broken down into CASEL’s suggested four to six (4-6) subcategories of skills and knowledge for student learning. In each of these subcategories, one (1) weekly lesson plan has been provided. For each lesson plan, one to two (1-2) age-appropriate fiction and/or nonfiction books have been provided to serve as the literacy anchor for the SEL skill.

The lessons are 20-30 minutes in length. They have a modular design in “chunks” that can be pulled apart and implemented flexibly according to the needs of the students and teacher.