Teaching Students Social Skills On-Line Course

Course Home Page

Teaching Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills to Improve Student Engagement, Self-Control, and Achievement: The Stop & Think Social Skills Program

Wecome to Your Teaching Students Social Skills Course: Home Page

     There have been many changes in our communities over the past number of years.  While all of us have experienced the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, there have also been increases in political and racial conflict, in poverty and financial stress, continued changes in the family “unit” and relative to gender diversity, the impact of the media (e.g., the internet, social networks, music) and technology; and changes in the school, curriculum, and instruction. These issues have impacted how our children and adolescents are growing up and learning, as well as how they are being supervised and parented at home.

     As a result of these combined factors, many children and adolescents are coming to school with social, emotional, and behavioral skill gaps that are undermining their ability to positively and actively engage in and benefit from the schooling process.  In addition, there are more students with attention and engagement problems, personal and social skill deficits, stress and anxiety issues, and other emotional and mental health challenges than ever before.  As a result, teachers are experiencing more behavioral problems in their classrooms, they are struggling to teach students who do not have the basic support skills (listening, following directions, asking for help, ignoring distractions) needed to learn, and they are becoming frustrated as academic expectations and teacher accountability pressures continue to increase.

    This course addresses these challenges by putting the research—demonstrating how students’ social, emotional, and behavioral skills significantly contribute to their academic engagement and performance—into practice by discussing the importance of social skills instruction for all students from preschool through high school. Social skills instruction is instrumental in teaching students the interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and resolution, and emotional control, communication, and coping skills that they need to be academically and behaviorally success.

   But a focus exclusively on social skills is not enough. Social skills must be taught within an ecological context that includes positive school and classroom climate and relationships, behavioral expectations and skill instruction, motivation and accountability, consistency and implementation fidelity, and multi-tiered services, supports, strategies, and interventions for students in need. We will discuss this ecological context in great detail in this course, but we will also use and teach the evidence-based Stop & Think Social Skills Program as the social skills “anchor.”

    Using The Stop & Think Social Skills Program as an exemplar, we will discuss (a) how to choose and implement a social skills program as part of a school-wide Social-Emotional Learning/Positive Behavioral Support (SEL/PBS) system; (b) what social skills are most important in the classroom and across the common school areas; (c) how to teach and use these skills to facilitate classroom management and student engagement; (d) how to apply these skills to help students prevent and respond to teasing, taunting, bullying, harassment, hazing, and physical aggression; and (e) how to successfully use social skills instruction as part of a multi-tiered process for students with disabilities and other students with challenging or significant behavioral problems.

   We are glad that you have chosen to expand your knowledge and skills in this important classroom, school, and life area. Once again, WELCOME to this Course !!!

Teaching Students Social Skills Introduction and Course Syllabus

   This brief 13-minute video introduces your course instructor, Dr. Howie Knoff, the organization of the Teaching Students Social Skills course, and the objectives for each session.

Presentation Handout:

2 0 1 Course Welcome and Sessions Overview Handout 3 2022.pdf

Course Syllabus:

0 Social Skills Final Course Syllabus July 2022.pdf

Teaching Students Social Skills Course:  Sessions and Links

Prologue:  How the Science of Student Self-Management Moves Us Beyond the Flawed SEL and PBIS Frameworks  [6:45 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 1. Defining Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Self-Management:  Describing the Science-to-Practice Components of a Social-Emotional Learning/Positive Behavioral Support System (SEL/PBSS)  [1 hour, 27 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 2. The Brain-Behavior Connection:  How Emotional, Attributional, and Behavioral Competencies Combine to Facilitate Self-Management  [50:09 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 3. Using Social Skills as the Anchor to an SEL/PBSS and Student Self-Management System: An Introduction to Social Skills Instruction  [52:57 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 4. The Science-to-Practice Characteristics of Effective Social Skills Programs, and How to Choose Them  [49:47 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 5.  An Overview of the Stop & Think Social Skills Program and Its Primary Components   [1 hour, 10 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 6.  The Stop & Think Social Skills Program’s Skills, Scripts, Use “on the Fly,” and Use in the Common Areas of the School  [1 hour]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 7.  How to Teach a New Social Skills Lesson: Step by Step  [1 hour: 50 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 8.  A Stop & Think Demonstration Lesson: Kindergarten—Listening, Raising Your Hand, Sitting for Circle Time, Walking in a Line  [Total Session: 48:00; Demonstration Lesson: 32:00 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 9.  A Stop & Think Demonstration Lesson: Grade 1—The Positions for Listening, Raising Your Hand, and Ignoring Distractions  [Total Session: 28:40; Demonstration Lesson: 12:30 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 10.  A Stop & Think Demonstration Lesson: Grade 2—Asking for Help  [Total Session: 44:00; Demonstration Lesson: 28 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 11.  A Stop & Think Demonstration Lesson: Grade 3—Following Directions  [Total Session: 32:45; Demonstration Lesson: 15:25 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 12.  A Stop & Think Demonstration Lesson: Grade 4—Dealing with Teasing  [Total Session: 53:30; Demonstration Lesson: 35:30 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 13.  A Stop & Think Demonstration Lesson: Grade 5—Ignoring Distractions  [Total Session: 53:30; Demonstration Lesson: 35:26 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 14.  A Stop & Think Demonstration Lesson: Grade 6—Apologizing  [Total Session: 36:45; Demonstration Lesson: 18:50 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Session 15.  Teaching Students Emotional Self-Control and Self-Regulation through Social Skills Instruction  [2 hours: 6 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Bonus Session #1.  An Overview of the Stop & Think Social Skills Home/Parent Program [49:34 minutes]

[CLICK HERE]

Teaching Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills Course:  Summary and Check-Out

Course Summary

Certificate of Attendance

[CLICK HERE]

TO START THIS COURSE:

[CLICK HERE to go to the Prologue]