READING DIVERSE BOOKS HELPS STUDENTS BUILD SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SKILLS

“In order to be effective, SEL must be equitable. In other words, it must be supportive, affirming, and beneficial for students of all cultures, backgrounds, and identities.”

Wallace Foundation

Each week we explore inclusive books and lessons that align with specific competencies using the CASEL Five. Last week we explored books and lessons that focus on SELF-AWARENESS. This week we look at books and activities that highlight: SOCIAL-AWARENESS–the ability to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and contexts. This includes the capacities to feel compassion for others, understand broader historical and social norms for behavior in different settings, and recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.

These engaging books and activities inspire the following skills:

  • Taking others’ perspectives
  • Recognizing strengths in others
  • Demonstrating empathy and compassion
  • Showing concern for the feelings of others
  • Understanding and expressing gratitude
  • Identifying diverse social norms, including unjust ones
  • Recognizing situational demands and opportunities
  • Understanding the influences of organizations and systems on behavior
Thirteen-year-old Eddie needs to do a community service project in preparation for his bar mitzvah. Against his better judgment, he ends up with a volunteering gig at Silver Brook Pavilion retirement home, where the residents call him “Eddie Whatever” rather than worry about remembering his last name. These old folks soon upend all Eddie’s assumptions about the boringness of the elderly. There’s a dramatic courtship unfolding, long-hidden secret identities, a rumor of a vengeful ghost, and a thief on the loose.

When suspicion falls on Eddie, he teams up with his fellow volunteer (and crush), Tessa, to solve the mysteries of Silver Brook.

Eddie Whatever: Free Teaching Guide

After her brother’s death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school—especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her family’s own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her peers.

Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an after-school mime class, Lucy discovers that while grief can take many shapes and sadness may feel infinite, love is just as powerful.

AfterMath: Free Teaching Guide

Cover: A New Classmate: All Kinds of Languages
Romelie’s family communicates in English and American Sign Language, but what languages do her friends and neighbors use? Young readers will love exploring different languages in this entertaining, illustrated story.

A New Classmate: Free Activity from Read for a Better World

Drive Social-Emotional Learning with Books from Lerner

Browse all SEL books or explore books by category at lernerbooks.com/SEL.

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