Social Emotional Learning: Responsible Decision Making
Social-Emotional Learning may just seem like the latest educational buzz phrase, but it's an essential component of any curriculum. Teachers tasked with incorporating more SEL into their day often feel frustrated by the lack of time and support. This is the fourth in a comprehensive blog series with practical ideas on how to easily build your students' skills without finding an extra hour in your school day.
Author, educator, and whole-life coach Nicole D. Collier continues things off this week by teaching us more about relationship skills, what this means to our students, and how we can nurture this skill.
What
Responsible decision-making means being compassionate and thoughtful in our choices. When we make decisions responsibly, we use curiosity and open-mindedness to gather information. We also use our imagination to weigh the potential impact of our behaviors.
So What
Each day, students are bombarded with choices and dilemmas of varying magnitude. Whether on social media or in real life, acting thoughtlessly or carelessly can cause unintended harm. Negative consequences can range from impeded personal progress to actual danger for self and others. Pausing to consider options, to inspect them prior to taking action, is paramount.
Responsible decision-makers care about the consequences of their actions. Rather than rushing headlong into an activity and starting a chain of harmful or undesired events, they think first. They are expert detectives – seeking out clues that help them solve the puzzles they encounter in daily life.
Whether it’s asking questions or trying out thought experiments, responsible decision-makers take time to better understand an issue or point of view, and consider the pros and cons. They evaluate potential harm and benefits for all concerned. In short, they look before they leap. As a result, they increase their chances of personal and professional success, and also make positive contributions to their environment.
Now What
Sample Themes or Topics about Responsible Decision-Making
| Mindfulness Cause & Effect | Curiosity Empathy & Compassion | Leadership Bravery & Courage |
Activity – Weighing the Pros and Cons
Pair students to discuss a dilemma. Encourage them to select a topic they find relevant to their personal lives. Have them draw a T-chart with columns labeled Pros and Cons. At the top of the paper, they can write the dilemma along with a potential solution. Partners should brainstorm and list the pros and cons of their decision. If time permits, turn the paper over and repeat the exercise. Students may use the same dilemma with a new decision, or think through a new dilemma and choice. Debrief with the whole class.
- Option: Complete this activity as a whole group.
- Option: Use a character’s dilemma from a shared reading.
Quick Start Questions (Choose one):
- Adults often ask kids to “be more responsible.” What does being more responsible mean to you?
- Have you ever made the wrong choice about something? What was the negative impact on others? What would you do differently next time?
- What’s the best decision you’ve made so far this week? What made it a good one?
Books to Nurture Responsible Decision Making
Early Readers
For weeks, Snake has looked forward to sculpting the most spectacular clay pot in art class. But when his pot breaks and his teacher confuses Snake’s pot with Turtle’s, Snake takes home Turtle’s masterpiece to show his family and pretends that he made it. Now, Snake will have to craft a way to repair a broken pot and a broken friendship.
Stacey and her friends can’t wait for lunchtime on Friday, also known as TacoPizza FryDay!
But when Stacey discovers that some of her classmates can't afford to eat lunch, she loses her appetite. She knows she has to do something . . . but what can a kid do?
Plenty, as it turns out! With the help of their community, Stacey and her friends devise a plan to make their voices heard.
Middle Grade
It's August 1999. For twelve-year-old Michael Rosario, life at Fox Run Apartments in Red Knot, Delaware, is as ordinary as ever—except for the looming Y2K crisis and his overwhelming crush on his fifteen-year-old babysitter, Gibby. But when a disoriented teenage boy named Ridge appears out of nowhere, Michael discovers there is more to life than stockpiling supplies and pining over Gibby.
When Ridge reveals that he’s the world’s first time traveler, Michael and Gibby are stunned but curious. As Ridge immerses himself in 1999, Michael discovers that his new friend has a book that outlines the events of the next twenty years, and his curiosity morphs into something else: focused determination. Michael wants—no, needs—to get his hands on that book. How else can he prepare for the future? But how far is he willing to go to get it?
Lily, Maddie, and Sasha have always been the perfect friendship trio. But this year, everything is changing. Maddie and Sasha made the elite soccer team, and Lily feels that they’re always leaving her behind. And everyone seems to have secrets now: Maddie, and Sasha, and Lily’s sister, and even Lily herself.
Lily’s classmate Will wishes he had some secrets. After all, his life is already out there for the whole world to hear about, thanks to his dad’s super-popular parenting podcast. And Will hates it, but telling his dad that is harder than the hardest climbing wall at Philly Rocks. Until his dad finally crosses a line, and Will’s not sure he can forgive him.
Lily Xiao can’t wait to go to Camp Rock Out this summer! And she can’t wait to do it with her cousin, Vivian, who’s just moved from Taiwan.
But as the two cousins work their way through seventh grade, Vivian struggles more and more with her schoolwork, which is all taught in English. If Vivian can’t get her grades up, her parents won’t let her go to rock camp.
Determined to help, Lily embarks on a mission to push their school to provide more support for English-as-a-Second-Language learners like Vivian. But her first-generation immigrant family is nervous about Lily challenging the status quo.
Tacoma Jones loves working at her family’s roadside diner, the Brake Fast, pouring coffee and serving eggs and muffins to truckers all day long. But tonight, she is finally going to break out her collection of cookbooks and prepare the best dinner the state of Washington has ever seen.
But her excitement is dampened when she learns that today is one of Dad’s bad days, when his depression makes it hard for him to get out of bed.
Teen
Belén Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff: to experience love or maybe have a boyfriend or at least just lose her virginity. But nothing is normal in East Oakland. Her father left her family. She’s at risk of not graduating. And Leti, her super-Catholic, nerdy-ass best friend, is pregnant—by the boyfriend she hasn’t told her parents about, because he’s Black, and her parents are racist.
These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team—even though he can’t help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident.
When Jaxon's former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his dream of playing in the NBA, no matter how much the odds are stacked against him.
About the Author
Nicole D. Collier is a former elementary teacher turned whole-life coach and author who writes about learning to be true to yourself. She is the author of Just Right Jillian and The Many Fortunes of Maya.