Social-Emotional Learning Lab: A Comprehensive SEL Resource Kit

Social-Emotional Learning Lab: A Comprehensive SEL Resource Kit (SEL Lab) provides students with concrete lessons to help them think rationally in the emotionally charged, stressful situations that children face every day. This valuable resource helps school counselors, psychologists, and social workers, as well as educators and after-school program providers by giving students the tools to develop the skills needed to deal with the stressors occurring in and out of school.

Counselors and educators use this important tool to help students achieve personally, socially, academically, and vocationally. This curriculum is designed to complement and enhance any program that addresses both self-awareness and social skills by focusing on self-control, cooperative skills for working within groups, problem-solving, decision-making, and everyday skill application. The SEL Lab can also function as a “stand-alone” in schools where there are no social-emotional programs being implemented.

The book includes an implementation manual, tutorials, a decision-making guide and more than 100 downloadable worksheets to assist instructors in the step-by-step process of initiating and implementing an SEL Lab in your setting. You will find all the forms, worksheets, games, and activity instructions you will need, available for photocopying, or you can download the Lab Kit materials. Note, the book is plastic coil-bound.

These materials are designed to prepare you for your work as a Social-Emotional Learning Lab Facilitator or Lab Coordinator for your school or after-school program. In setting up this program, you will have many roles, including teacher, problem-solver, and mentor to your students.

Who Should Take Advantage of the SEL Lab?

The following is a list of behaviors that suggest who should be considered. Students who:

• Behave inappropriately in social interactions with peers.
• Exhibit aggressive or violent behaviors.
• Exhibit low self-esteem.
• Are verbally abusive to others.
• Lack self-control.
• Take a long time to settle down or are unable to “process” following a “meltdown.”
• Are unable to problem-solve to prevent trouble.
• Have special needs, ADD/ADHD, or physical and other challenges.
• Have weak family support.
• Demonstrate an inability to work effectively and cooperatively with peers.
• Are new to the school.
• Need to fill out more than one problem-solving worksheet or reflection log.
• Have three or more incident reports in a marking period.