Teaching Critical SEL Skills Using Picture Books (PreK-3)

Does the prospect of finding a way to incorporate the teaching of critical social-emotional issues send you into a quandary? Do you have a deep love for using authentic children’s literature in your current teaching practices? If so, look no further! Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a process for learning essential life skills such as decision making, problem solving, effective communication, empathy, perseverance, and coping, just to name a few. Teachers are searching for the most effective ways to introduce and teach appropriate social-emotional skills in the classroom as they relate to common classroom issues, some of which can be quite sensitive, and which almost always are beyond their control. This online course provides the perfect approach by using high-quality picture books to deal with a variety of SEL issues from separation anxiety, kindness, and tattling, to poverty and homelessness, divorce, anger management, childhood health and obesity, teasing and bullying, and others. Teachers will be provided with thorough background information on each topic as well as the implications for the classroom environment and teaching. Then, each topic shares three authentic children’s books, together with lessons for each title. The course introduces lesson plans for forty-seven picture books. An additional list of picture books is shared for every single social-emotional topic presented in the course, as well as links to additional resources, as applicable. By the end of this course, teachers will feel more confident and successful in their quest to embed the teaching of social-emotional skills into their own teaching practices.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: 

PDI courses receive letter grades. You can register and begin the course at any time and have until the end of Ashland University’s academic year to complete it. This course is web-based so you can access it from any computer with internet access. It is also self-paced, so you can work entirely at your own pace, when it is convenient for you. There are no specific times you must be online and no individual deadline dates for assignments. They can be submitted any time, so long as everything has been submitted by the end of the academic term.

HOW TO ACCESS YOUR COURSE MATERIALS: 

Within 1-2 business days of your Ashland registration, you will receive an email from your course content provider, Professional Development Institute, containing instructions on how to access your course materials. A note, their emails are sometimes forwarded to junk or spam folders. 

You will be working with PDI through their Learning Management System, to complete the course, after which, your instructor will record your grade on your AU transcript. We will notify you by email once this is done, with instructions on how to view and order transcripts. 

Ashland Professional Development: pds@ashland.edu