Components of Social, Emotional and Intellectual Habits: Kindergarten through Grade 12
Introduction
The Kindergarten through Grade 3 Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Habits Framework represents the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that form an essential blueprint for college and career readiness to achieve academic success and social-emotional learning. Social skills and habits of thinking and learning set the stage for all future learning. With support from adults during the early elementary years, children learn to interact with others, develop psychosocial attitudes concerning academic work, develop a cognitive framework regarding academic behaviors and thinking critically, maintain focus irrespective of obstacles, deal with frustration, and begin to manage their learning. The Kindergarten through Grade 3 Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Habits build from the foundational skills in the Cognition, and Social and Emotional Development domains of the CT Early Learning and Development Standards, highlighting the continued growth and development that must be supported over the early elementary years. In 2018, the State Board of Education (State Board) approved The Components of Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Habits: Kindergarten through Grade 3, and offered guidelines to support the establishment of collaboration among various stakeholders to build a comprehensive learning system that explicitly supports social, emotional and intellectual habits.
In 2021, the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) published a Statewide Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Landscape Survey and gleaned from the districts’ feedback, that like Grades K–3, stakeholders want to have SEL integration into academic instruction for Grades 4 through 12. In response to districts’ feedback, the Grades 4 through 12 Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Habits Framework was developed, and in 2023, approved by the State Board.
The Kindergarten through Grade 12 Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Habits Framework does not require districts to develop new curricula or programs to support SEL integration into academic instruction. Many of the social knowledge, skills, and dispositions can be addressed throughout the regular school day, during daily routines, and academic instruction. To that end, the Kindergarten through Grade 3 Subject Area Connections for Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Habits documents developed by Academic Office consultants and Connecticut educators are meant to serve as resources to teachers, administrators, and curriculum developers for integrating SEL into current curriculum documents (e.g., units, lessons). Furthermore, Embedded within the K-8 CSDE Model Curricula units are the interrelated social, emotional, and intellectual habits, as provided in the Components of Social, Emotional and Intellectual Habits: Kindergarten through Grade 12 document.
Resources
- Components of Social, Emotional and Intellectual Habits: Kindergarten through Grade 12
- GoOpenCT Connecticut K-12 Model Curricula
Resource for the Habits K-12
ELA
Math
Science
Social Studies
Physical Education
Physical Education: This curriculum framework document is organized in grade clusters rather than single grade levels. Thus, the core concepts for Physical Education are organized in a manner that indicates what students should know by the end of Kindergarten, and by the end of Grade 4.
Health
Health: This curriculum framework document is organized in grade clusters rather than single grade levels. Thus, the core concepts for Health Education are organized in a manner that indicates what students should know by the end of Kindergarten, and by the end of Grade 4.