At Highlights, we believe in helping children become their best selves in all aspects of development— cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and moral-spiritual. Part of that mission is to provide content to help children grow socially and emotionally so that they can become thoughtful, global citizens.
Each of our products is developed with these principles in mind, which is why many of our products have a focus on social-emotional learning (SEL).
This is the skill set that we use to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Through research, SEL has been proven to increase prosocial behavior, improve attitude and academic success, and lower emotional distress and behavior problems. Beyond positively impacting social, academic, and professional development, SEL also builds character traits that are important to career success.
With the growing importance of SEL, an organization called CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, formed to establish SEL as an essential part of education. Our research-based SEL series of leveled readers, Voices Leveled Library, was part of a CASEL "Select" program, chosen from among hundreds of SEL programs across the country.
Voices Leveled Library ranges from grade K to 6 and has six SEL themes:
- Identity awareness
- Perspective taking
- Conflict resolution
- Family, friends, and community
- Social awareness
- Good citizen
These themes help children build character and core social skills while also deepening their reading skills. The series also includes many easy-to-use resources for educators, such as comprehension questions, assessment handbooks, and lesson plans. Accompanying audio is included for each title to help early English language learners.
SEL is important in today’s world and is important to the development of curious, creative, confident, and caring children. Start the journey of SEL today with Voices Leveled Library and reach out to your Highlights representative in your market here.
