Strong Kids - Grades 6-8: A Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum (Strong Kids Curricula) - Softcover

Dianna Carrizales-Engelmann, Ph.D., is currently an instructor at the University of Oregon in Eugene specializing in performance assessment for teacher preparation. Over the course of her career in the field of education, Dr. Carrizales-Engelmann's has maintained a consistent focus in the development, research, and troubleshooting of educational assessments. Dr. Carrizales-Engelmann's assessment development experience includes state assessments, nationally standardized assessments, and classroom and curriculum-based assessments. In addition to her role in the field of educational assessment, Carrizales-Engelmann has had several years of policy-related experience related to education and assessment at the Oregon Department of Education.

Laura L. Feuerborn, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She received her PhD in school psychology, with an emphasis in social and emotional learning, from the University of Oregon. Since joining the faculty at the University of Washington in 2006, she has taught a wide range of graduate-level courses for educators in both general and special education. Her areas of teaching expertise include classroom management, systems of prevention and supports, collaborative consultation, and assessment and evaluation. Further, she developed and now leads a course that focuses expressly on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) for classroom teachers. She is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, has served as faculty advisor for the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and serves as a reviewer for several scholarly journals. Her research focuses on the science of implementing systems change. She is a lead author of the Staff Perceptions of Behavior and Discipline (SPBD), an assessment tool that helps leadership teams understand the perceptions and needs of school staff in the implementation of PBIS. Currently, she is developing a book that provides practical guidance to teams in securing staff commitment and managing staff resistance in the implementation of both PBIS and SEL. She has published over a dozen scholarly articles in the fields of SEL and PBIS, presented in over 30 national and international conferences, and collaborated with over 50 national and international agencies to facilitate the development of sustainable, multi-tiered systems of social, emotional, and behavioral supports.

Barbara A. Gueldner, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and Nationally Certified School Psychologist who works with children and families in Steamboat Springs, CO. She obtained her doctorate in school psychology from the University of Oregon and has worked in educational, medical, and community settings for 20 years. Dr. Gueldner specializes in promoting wellness and resilience through social and emotional learning (SEL) program development and implementation, parent education and support, integrating mental health care into primary care and schools, and early detection and intervention with developmental, behavioral, social, and emotional problems. She has published in the areas of SEL and general childhood mental health issues, co-authoring journal articles, book chapters, the first edition of Strong Kids and Strong Teens, and a book on implementing SEL in schools. Dr. Gueldner is involved in a variety of public outreach and educational initiatives in her community.

Oanh K. Tran, Ph.D., teaches in the Child Clinical/ School Psychology (CCSP) Program at California State University, East Bay (CSUEB). The CCSP program is approved by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Dr. Tran also practices as a school psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area and consults with school districts and mental health agencies. Dr. Tran's direct experience includes working with diverse and at-risk populations in public and nonpublic schools as well as residential, foster care, outpatient, and in-home settings. Her research and professional interests include psychoeducational assessments, special education, social and emotional learning, academic and behavioral consultation, response to intervention, positive behavioral supports, cognitive behavior therapy, and parent-training. She has presented locally and nationally and published articles, chapters, and prevention curricula in the area of children's mental health. Dr. Tran continues her research and mentoring of her graduate students in social-emotional development and learning for students in K–12.

Hill M. Walker Ph.D. is Director of Center on Human Development, College of Education, University of Oregon

Copyright ©2007 by The State of Oregon acting by and through the State Board of Higher Education on behalf of the University of Oregon. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Strong Kids—Grades 6–8 consists of 12 carefully sequenced lessons, designed for maximum impact on cognitive, affective, and social functioning within a relatively brief period of time. Each of these lessons is overviewed in this chapter. Read these descriptions carefully prior to preparing your first lesson so that you will understand the lesson sequencing and the big ideas behind Strong Kids—Grades 6–8.

LESSON 1: ABOUT STRONG KIDS: EMOTIONAL STRENGTH TRAINING

In the first lesson, About Strong Kids: Emotional Strength Training, students are introduced to the Strong Kids—Grades 6–8 curriculum. A general overview of the individual lessons and the overall curriculum is presented, providing students with information regarding what they can expect over the course of the instruction. Critical terms such as emotion, self–esteem, depression, and anxiety are defined for the first time, and general behavior expectations are outlined. Students are made aware of the importance of this type of curriculum so that they are able to understand why appropriate behaviors such as respect for others, confidentiality of shared information, and adequate lesson preparation are integral parts of the experience. If optional student assessments are administered as part of the curriculum, they should be given to students for completion during this first lesson.

LESSONS 2 AND 3: UNDERSTANDING YOUR EMOTIONS

The second and third lessons, Understanding Your Emotions (1 and 2), are intended to improve the emotional vocabulary, awareness, and resiliency of students. Being able to understand and recognize one' s emotions is an important skill to all individuals during all stages of their lives because people experience emotions at school, home, work, and play. Being able to recognize one' s emotions and react in a positive way, even when the feeling is not a good one, will allow students to create and sustain positive relationships in school and throughout their lives.

In Understanding Your Emotions 1, students learn to identify different types of feelings and distinguish feelings as being comfortable and uncomfortable. They learn to recognize what situation might cause them to feel a certain way. The goal of this lesson is to apply the skills learned to different situations at different times and in different settings. In Understanding Your Emotions 2, the feelings identification skills are extended to include how one might express different feelings. Students learn that, although it is okay to have any feeling, there are appropriate and inappropriate ways of showing or expressing feelings. Given a way of expressing a feeling, students identify the way as "okay" or "not okay. "Students then have the opportunity to apply their new skills in application exercises, making it more likely that they will be able to generalize the new skills to other situations.

LESSON 4: DEALING WITH ANGER

The fourth lesson, Dealing with Anger, teaches students that everyone experiences anger in his or her life. Many students, however, are not able to appropriately understand and effectively deal with their anger. Misunderstanding anger, and an inability to appropriately manage it, can often manifest itself in inappropriate behaviors such as arguments and fights, depression, and severe frustration, each of which can have unfortunate consequences.

This lesson teaches students to understand their anger through a multistep Anger Model and teaches four skills for helping them manage their anger. Anger is introduced as one of many normal emotions that serve a purpose in helping people to understand and adapt to the world. It is important that students understand two basic concepts: 1) that anger is a normal emotion, and 2) that anger serves the important function of protection and motivation in our lives. We also seek to make an important distinction for students between anger as a normal, healthy emotion and aggression, a chosen behavior that is often inappropriate.

Students are taught to understand anger using the six–step, sequential Anger Model to improve their ability to recognize what anger looks like in action. In this lesson, students learn that anger does not "just happen." It is triggered by predictable events and progresses through a series of steps within which individuals can play an active role. Students are taught to understand their active roles in the anger process and the fact that they are not helpless "victims" of their anger, but are active in choosing how to respond to anger.

LESSON 5: UNDERSTANDING OTHER PEOPLE' S EMOTIONS

Children with antisocial tendencies often experience what is called hostile attribution in which they misperceive others' emotions as anger. This misperception can lead to aggression and violence. Students who practice empathy skills are more able to see a variety of emotions other than anger. By learning to look for physical cues (called clues in this lesson), they may be more likely to discern the true feelings of others.

Lesson 5 first explains key concepts and then moves into identifying clues about what emotions other people are feeling. Once students are able to model the correct identification of clues, the lesson progresses to a role play in which students experience how people may perceive the same situation differently. They are asked to take the perspectives of others in order to gain a greater understanding of empathy. Finally, the homework handout provides opportunities for students to apply these skills to their own life experiences.

LESSONS 6 AND 7: CLEAR THINKING

Individuals who are depressed and anxious are very likely to develop or have previously developed patterns of unrealistic, distorted, and otherwise maladaptive cognitions or thoughts. The Clear Thinking lessons, Lessons 6 and 7, are designed to help students to recognize positive and negative thought patterns and how they contribute to their moods, choices, and actions in positive and negative ways. The lesson is divided into two parts, Clear Thinking 1 and Clear Thinking 2. Clear Thinking 1 teaches students strategies helpful in recognizing negative and maladaptive thought patterns by providing descriptions of some of the more common thinking errors that individuals employ. When possible, the thought patterns such as "binocular vision, "dark glasses,"and "black–and–white thinking,"are depicted both as visual icons and in simplified language to facilitate comprehension and retention. Clear Thinking 2 uses the information provided in Clear Thinking 1 to teach students techniques for applying strategies to dispel negative thoughts as they occur in any common situations they may face. Practice exercises and vignettes are used for discussion.

LESSON 8: THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING

Lesson 8, The Power of Positive Thinking, provides students with strategies to offset negative thought patterns that can surface as a result of any given daily interaction. For students prone to negative thinking, pessimistic feelings are redirected through exercises, examples, and situations designed to encourage a focus on the larger picture and to foster optimistic thinking. The new (broader) focus reduces the students' tendency to attribute negative events to themselves by presenting other possibilities to their perceived failures. Similarly, looking at when, where, or to whom to attribute ownership or blame also encourages students to accept credit for their successes.

The Power of Positive Thinking lesson is designed to arm all students, not just those who may be prone to pessimism and spirals of negativity, with a way to think about daily events optimistically so that reasonable attributions can be made. The method includes training students to spot the situations in which attribution can be an internal success, an external failure, or simply an opportunity to learn.

LESSON 9: SOLVING PEOPLE PROBLEMS

The ninth lesson, Solving People Problems, is designed to promote awareness of useful strategies for resolving conflict between and among peers. Interpersonal conflict provides one of the most fertile breeding grounds for depression, anxiety, and negative thinking. Thus, learning appropriate and effective ways to resolve these conflicts may be a strong preventive factor for deterring emotional problems as well as social problems.

As conflicts may occur daily and can be a source of stress and frustration for students, step–by–step outlines for resolving conflicts are presented. This lesson details the use of a problem–solving model for managing day–to–day conflicts with peers and presents techniques for its use and application. The lesson is predominantly organized to address conflicts with peers; however, application of various strategies such as deal–making, compromising, discussion, and brainstorming are presented in situations that involve hierarchical relationships as well. Students will learn from this lesson that conflict is often a natural part of social interaction and that, with the tools to address conflict, more social interactions can be approached with confidence. Practice exercises and role–play situations are also used as examples and teaching tools.

LESSON 10: LETTING GO OF STRESS

Using appropriate techniques to manage stress is an important strategy to promote emotional resilience and prevent physical and emotional problems. In Lesson 10, Letting Go of Stress, it is understood that prepubescence and adolescence can be a very stressful time in a person' s life. We have all experienced this predictable transformation in our bodies, minds, and social interactions. Therefore, we all have a bit of insight into the many stressors that can be involved in the day–to–day life of a preteen or adolescent.

This lesson provides the foundation for teaching students about stress and relaxation. Through the lesson and activities, the students will learn how to identify stress in their lives. An opportunity is provided for students to learn a few relaxation techniques that have been proven to be effective with many people as well as to generate their own ways of coping with stress. The homework assignment allows students to apply the discussed techniques.

Students begin to learn about themselves and how to deal with stress in an effective and healthy manner. Stress is a fact of every person's life. The sooner students learn how to identify it and deal with this aspect of being human, the better their chances are for a healthy existence. Learning how to let go of stress is an integral skill in the development of a strong and resilient kid.

LESSON 11: BEHAVIOR CHANGE: SETTING GOALS AND STAYING ACTIVE

Lesson 11, Behavior Change, is subtitled Setting Goals and Staying Active. Throughout life, people are asked to achieve many goals. Frequently, they are not taught the steps that are necessary to achieve these goals. Research supports the idea that students who are able to set and achieve goals independently perform better than those students who are told what goals to achieve. This evidence also confirms that learning how to engage more consistently in appropriate positive activities can help to reduce symptoms of depression.

The six steps outlined in this lesson are all necessary in order for students to attain their goals as well as to identify their values in the different domains of their lives. Learning these steps and having immediate success by implementing them is crucial to the success of this lesson. If students set a short–term goal first and are successful in the goal–attainment process, then they will be more likely to use the process again in other applications. These steps are beneficial for students' academic achievement, and research indicates that when individuals set realistic and attainable goals they begin taking control of their lives, which leads to an increase in the amount of positive activities they engage in.

Students who are engaged in positive activities where they contribute and feel a sense of community are less likely to suffer from depression. Studies also indicate that a reduced level of activity can lead to low self–esteem and, in turn, hinder an individual' s sense of accomplishment and worth. This lesson teaches students the skills necessary to set realistic short– and long–term goals, to identify the key steps in attaining their goals, and to apply the procedures to their own lives by increasing the amount of positive activities they are engaged in. Developing skills for increasing positive activities through setting and attaining positive goals is of critical importance in sustaining positive mental health.

LESSON 12: FINISHING UP!

The title of the final lesson, Finishing UP!, has a double meaning. It implies that this lesson is the final one in the curriculum, but it also shows how we are striving to end on a positive or upbeat note, celebrating the accomplishments that have been made through involvement with the Strong Kids—Grades 6–8 curriculum. This lesson provides the opportunity for students to review key points and terms from the lessons presented throughout the term. Issues of confidentiality are revisited, and information for handling more critical emotional issues (utilizing appropriate resources) is covered. The Finishing UP! lesson also provides an opportunity for teachers to assess students using follow–up measures that can be compared with the information gained from the optional preassessments that may be administered at the time the first lesson is presented.

BOOSTER LESSON

The appendix contains a supplemental or "booster"lesson for Strong Kids—Grades 6–8. The idea of a booster session is to help students who have already completed Strong Kids—Grades 6—8 to maintain the skills they have acquired and to strengthen the other positive changes that may have occurred through their participation in the curriculum. The booster activities are designed to be a review of the skills and strategies already covered in Strong Kids—Grades 6–8. Research on SEL interventions has indicated that the addition of a booster or review lesson several weeks to a few months followi...