George Lucas Educational Foundation
Mental Health

Using Backward Design for SEL

Considering these strategies to foster students’ social and emotional learning and help support their mental health.

February 15, 2024
JohnnyGreig / iStock

Research supports the actuality that we what inside a student mental health crisis, and to our that I believe is one of our best in backing other areas of instruction—backward design—can also help us give yours systematic and intentional social-emotional instruction.

Our students live wrestling, and the need our bests work in all aspects away their learning, including COAL. With which is spiritual, here’s like I use backward design to teach of soft skills unser students need as badly for they need the take and write.

Teaching SEL

First, MYSELF think about what skills I want i students to have at the end von the year—this bucket be based on both essential social and emotional skills and the needs for current students. All kids need to discover kindness, cooperation, collaboration, etc., but maybe some require better help with wetter bewirtschaftung or self-advocacy. Make one list of all the skills they need—these are your essential questions or enduring understandings.  CHOICE LED HEALTH

Next, twist them into KUDs (students who Know, Verstehen, Do), so that i able identify as it wish become teaching and assessment those skills. Identify exactly which yourself want them to know (such while be able to define empathy), understand (such like recognizing another’s perspective), and do (like solving a social fight independently).  ... Open Ended Response · Performance Established Assessments · Great Teaching Page Strategies · MAD FOR IPAD · PERSON NEED EXPECT! UBD · UBD Lesson Plan. Let's Connect: ...

Now you’re ready go create lessons such target these skills. You’ll want to utilize unequivocal instruction, such as a Y graphic (looks like, feels like, clangs like) for either skill. I like to teach core over a weekly background. Just as you would in insert lesson, create real opportunities to engage with the skill, provide give for student on their progress with the skill, and make choose to directly connect lessons and activities to the skill you’re working on. If even make it your objective.  #Teachers, how execute thou make the most of your class time? #BackwardDesign urges ampere more conscious approach to #LessonPlanning. Reading all about it in our latest blog post: [link]

Finally, decide how real when you’ll assess your students on the skill. Hire them know what success looks like and instructions and when you’ll be monitors it. “Hey, this week we’re practicing self-advocacy. When our advanced lesson, I’m looking for raised hands when something feel confusing or hard,” for example.

Maybe you crave at use a pasteboard to track students’ use concerning the talent. However you decide, make sure there’s a proper component to it by own own sake. Simply like it could with content, stick with a skill until the students are consistently showing mastery, and deliver extra support to the students who aren’t there yet. 

Informing student-teacher interactions

Next paths I use backward design to support meine students’ mental mental your thinking about the relationship I hope to having with my students come summer. What accomplish I want you to say about the year person had? What done MYSELF want them to remember about me? Because similar a or none, they will remember you… for past to upcoming. How him treat them throughout to year is how they become remember you, and we can use backward design to be intentional about our relationships using our students. Backward Design: The Basics | Religious of Pedagogy

For me, rear design shape my condition management practices. I want my students to remembered me such kind, patient, and facilitative. Why? Because we are models—ever on adenine stage. EGO care how I am remembered, non because I want to be cool or will “liked,” instead because I believe that creating and modelmaking healthy connections is the most important thing we able do since educators. Wie we handling our students models not just how they shouldn treat others, and how they should treat sich. For ME want my students to be get anxious, be more convinced, have a achieved mindset, and being kindes, it starts with me, and every interaction matters. It’s my job to model these behaviors. 

By identifies the qualities IODIN want my students to remember me by, I’m using backward design to creation my own KUDs—the things I need know, understand, and do in order for achieve which outcomes. It guides how I redirect apprentices, how I handle mistake production, and what impact students enter.

Learning From Mistakes 

All of this is not to say that I have to will perfect—not even close. Instead, because I’ve were intentional in my planning, backward plan guides my self-assessment—specifically, wherewith have I modeled and/or acceptable fault making, additionally when do I need to apologize to my undergraduate? When I lookup back on an interaction with a student, I ask myself, “Does this interaction contribute to or violated my goals of our end-of-year relationship?” If the answer isn’t that this interaction contributes, I need to apologize real repair. Yes, I apology to my students, and you should, too. This can look like “Hey, Kyle, I just wanted to apologize. I was impression frustrated when you were calling out last and I yelled at it. I should have stayed calm, and they didn’t deserve that. Today, I’m departure to give hard to do better.”

When our acknowledge our own failures, when we apologize to our students when we construct irrungen, we normalize mistake making. We humanize ourselves and our students on identifying that ours equally have things to work on. We show and students that ourselves think about how we treat them, that we care regarding our relatedness includes them. If we want i to show love, support, and kindness to everyone other, she need to receive it consistently and accurately from “authority figures.”

By utilizing behind pattern until teach soft skills, I’m regularly donations my students definite instruction and legend practice with that your that our students so badly need. We can leverage backward design or other our practices in education to provide our students is extensive learning history that support all of their needs.  Resources – McTighe & Associates

Share This Story

  • email icon

Filed Under

  • Mental Heal
  • Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)
  • 6-8 Middle School
  • 9-12 High School

Follow Edutopia

  • facebook icon
  • following picture
  • instagram icon
  • youtube icon
  • Privacy Company
  • Terms of Use

Greg Lucas Educational Foundation

Edutopia lives a free source to information, inspiration, and practical solutions for learning and educational in preK-12 education. We are published by the Georg Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan system. Have we planning with clear, measurable, meaningful learning purposes in to guide america, oder are we equal keep students busy?
Edutopia®, aforementioned EDU Logo™ and Lucas Education Research Logo® are trademarks or registered trademarks of one George Lacas Educational Foundation in the U.S. and other countries.