Early Childhood Storytelling: SEL with My Little Brother, Elisha

Presenters

Chiquita M. Hughes, Mission 6 ConsultingFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Mission 6 Consulting, LLC

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Chiquita Hughes is an energetic presenter, author, singer, songwriter, and passionate educator who enjoys interacting with school leaders, staff, and families. Her mission in life is to improve the lives of others through song, word, or deeds. She currently fulfills that mission in the marketplace as the CEO/Founder of Mission 6 Consulting, LLC, as a full-time doctoral student at Miami University, and as an editorial assistant for the Journal of Marriage and Family Review, an international journal in family science. In her 22 years as an educator, Chiquita has served in roles at school, district, state, and national levels. She has conducted more than 3000 classroom visits and provided support to more than 70 school districts across two states-Florida and Ohio. During those times she has been blessed to work with amazing people and has collaborated to improve student achievement along the way. Chiquita receives inspiration for writing through faith, family, and friends. Several years ago, she dreamed of writing children's books when her four children were small. As a grandmother, Chiquita is especially motivated to pursue this dream as she spends quality time with her four beautiful and precocious grandchildren --Isaiah, Cletis III, Elisha, and Grace.

Document Type

Event

Primary Strand

Social-Emotional Learning

Relevance to Primary Strand

Through this presentation, educators, parents, and community agencies will be able to learn the effectiveness of integrating children’s picture books with SEL components as a part of a whole-child approach to learning and to support a positive school climate and culture.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

Family and Community Engagement

Brief Program Description

This session uses children's picture books to celebrate childhood moments of growing and learning while simultaneously integrating the Five Social Emotional Learning Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making. Recommended Ages: 3-8 (PreK-3rd grade)

Summary

The whole-child approach to education recognizes that learning includes social and emotional processes, as well as cognitive development (Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, 2018). Socialization for students begins at home and also occurs within the school environment as well as informal settings. (Harro, 2000). Vygotsky’s Zone of Primal Development reminds us of the roles we, educators, parents, and community partners, play in helping students acquire new knowledge and skills (Moore, 2011), through social, emotional, and cognitive interactions (Barnett, 2019; Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, 2018, Moore, 2011). Scholars have found that student learning can be inhibited by negative interactions and/or experiences. Positive self-identity and positive behaviors can be mediated through social interactions with others that are embedded in learning experiences. Children’s picture books provide a context for mediating social, emotional, and cognitive development as students are introduced to character emotions and conflict resolution (Garner & Parker, 2018; Keel, 2015). This session is guided by theories in social, emotional, and cognitive development in younger students, emphasizing the SEL framework as an effective integration in children’s literacy, especially children’s picture books. A children’s picture book will be used to celebrate childhood moments of growing and learning while simultaneously integrating the Five Social Emotional Learning Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision-Making. Recommended Ages: 3-8 (PreK-3rd grade) Targeted audiences: educators, parents, community partners

Evidence

The whole-child approach to education recognizes that learning includes social and emotional processes, as well as cognitive development (Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, 2018). Socialization for students begins at home and also occurs within the school environment as well as informal settings. (Harro, 2000). Vygotsky’s Zone of Primal Development reminds us of the roles we, educators, parents, and community partners, play in helping students acquire new knowledge and skills (Moore, 2011), through social, emotional, and cognitive interactions (Barnett, 2019; Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey, 2018, Moore, 2011). Scholars have found that student learning can be inhibited by negative interactions and/or experiences. Positive self-identity and positive behaviors can be mediated through social interactions with others that are embedded in learning experiences. Children’s picture books provide a context for mediating social, emotional, and cognitive development as students are introduced to character emotions and conflict resolution (Garner & Parker, 2018; Keel, 2015).

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be to engage in interactive storytelling activity that can be replicated at home and school

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to identify SEL components in a children's picture book

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to use a criteria to align stories with SEL components

Recommended Citation

Hughes, Chiquita M., "Early Childhood Storytelling: SEL with My Little Brother, Elisha" (2023). Southeast Conference on School Climate. 98.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/secsc/2023/2023/98

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.