NEWCOMER TOOL KIT
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Social Emotional Skills Development<br />
Students learn social emotional skills in the classroom when teachers provide them with opportunities and<br />
strategies to learn and apply these skills (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011). Educators<br />
can build upon students’ individual identities and strengths as they seek to bolster students’ overall social emotional<br />
skills.<br />
Stavsky (2015) identified four frameworks to define skills, attitudes, and behaviors associated with long-term social<br />
emotional development. These frameworks promote five concepts central to social emotional development:<br />
1. Intrinsic motivation (initiative, persistence, self-direction)<br />
2. Critical thinking skills (problem solving, metacognitive skills, reasoning and judgment skills)<br />
3. Relational skills (communication, cooperation, empathy)<br />
4. Emotional self-regulation (impulse control, stress management, behavior)<br />
5. Self-concept (knowing one’s own strengths and limitations, belief in one’s ability to succeed, belief that<br />
competence grows with effort) (p. 7)<br />
Schools can actively develop students’ social emotional skills by doing the following:<br />
• Creating an environment where it is safe to express emotions<br />
• Being emotionally responsive and modeling empathy<br />
• Setting clear expectations and limits<br />
• Separating emotions from actions<br />
• Encouraging and reinforcing social skills such as greeting others and taking turns<br />
• Creating opportunities for children to solve problems (Center for the Study of Social Policy, n.d.).<br />
Social Emotional Development and Informal Social Interactions<br />
Newcomers’ social emotional development also depends on informal interactions between adults and students and<br />
between students and their peers (Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova, 2008). Educating newcomers on<br />
conflict resolution and problem-solving skills may increase the likelihood that pairs or groups of students will be<br />
able to resolve conflicts on their own. These skills may help relationships with their peers, who may converse with<br />
them in English or another language (Carhill-Poza, 2015). There is evidence to suggest that newcomers who engage<br />
in informal social interactions in English develop higher English languge proficiency(Carhill, Suárez-Orozco, &<br />
Paez, 2008). Basic skills that can help students resolve conflicts without adult intervention include the following:<br />
• Cooling off when upset<br />
• Speaking directly to each other<br />
• Speaking assertively, honestly, and kindly<br />
• Listening carefully to others and accurately paraphrasing their words<br />
• Proposing solutions and agreeing on a solution to try (Responsive Classroom, n.d.)<br />
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION • <strong>NEWCOMER</strong> <strong>TOOL</strong> <strong>KIT</strong> • CHAPTER 4 • 4<br />
No official endorsement by the Department of any product, commodity, service, enterprise, curriculum, or program of instruction<br />
mentioned in this publication is intended or should be inferred. For the reader’s convenience, the tool kit contains information about<br />
and from outside organizations, including URLs. Inclusion of such information does not constitute the Department’s endorsement.