Third graders in Michelle Flores’s class at Aspire Capitol Heights Academy in Sacramento. Photo: Michelle Flores
SACRAMENTO – School is nothing if not an intensely social experience, which is why teacher Michelle Flores posed this question to 24 third graders at Aspire Capitol Heights Academy: “When someone makes a mistake, what do we say?”
“That’s cool,” the third graders responded in unison. “We are experts at making mistakes,” said Flores, who incorporates social and emotional instruction, including the idea that making a mistake is not cause for embarrassment, into academics at the charter school using an approach called Responsive Classroom.
As California teachers begin to strategize about how to meet the Common Core standards, some educators say that explicit instruction in social and emotional competence – teaching students how to regulate their emotions, problem-solve, and disagree respectfully, among other abilities – should be a key part of the equation. The ability tocollaborate, to see others’ perspectives, and to persevere in solving problems is required of students in the Common Core. Social and emotional learning provides the interpersonal skills students need to perform these intellectual tasks, said Nancy Markowitz, an education professor and director of the Collaborative for Reaching and Teaching the Whole Child at San Jose State University.
“Social and emotional learning skills are foundational to children’s ability, and teachers’ ability, to implement and be successful in the Common Core standards,” Markowitz said. California is one of
