Illinois Learning Standards

Stage D - Social Emotional Learning (SEL)



Goals, Standards and Descriptors


Goal 1 - Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success.



1A —
 Identify and manage one's emotions and behavior.
  1. List positive strategies for handling conflict.
  2. Explain why characters in stories felt as they did.
  3. Distinguish among emotions you might feel in various situations.
  4. Use "I-statements" to express various emotions.
  5. Record changes in your emotions throughout the day (e.g., before and after transitions, recess lunch, etc.).
  6. Demonstrate an awareness of how your behavior affects others.
  7. Practice different strategies for handling upsetting situations.
1B —
Recognize personal qualities and external supports.
  1. Identify something you would like to be able to do better.
  2. Describe ways in which you contribute to the school community.
  3. Describe ways in which you help out at home.
  4. List ways families can support students in school.
  5. Describe how peers can support each other in school.
  6. Measure your progress toward a personal goal.
1C —
Demonstrate skills related to achieving personal and academic goals.
  1. Identify how obstacles have been overcome in achieving a goal (e.g., examples from literature, social science, personal experience).
  2. Recognize how conditions and people have contributed to your achievement of a goal.
  3. Identify the steps needed to perform a routine task (e.g., homework completion, organization of personal space/materials, studying for a test).
  4. Identify factors you could not change that prevented you from achieving a recent goal.
  5. Evaluate what you might have done differently to achieve greater success on a recent goal.

Goal 2: Use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships.

2A  —
Recognize the feelings and perspectives of others.
  1. Label others' feelings based on verbal and non-verbal cues in different situations.
  2. List strategies to support students who are left out or bullied.
  3. Describe how one feels when left out of an activity or group.
  4. Describe how one feels when bullied.
  5. Predict possible responses to a range of emotions.
  6. Use "I-statements" to let others know that you have heard them.
2B —
Recognize individual and group similarities and differences.
  1. Recognize the different social groups in school.
  2. Recognize the different cultural groups in school.
  3. Compare and contrast social groups.
  4. Compare and contrast cultural groups.
  5. Analyze the unique contributions of individuals and groups as featured in biographies, legends, and folklore.
  6. Develop strategies for building relationships with others who are different from oneself.
2C —
Use communication and social skills to interact effectively with others.
  1. Identify ways to build positive relationships with peers, family and others.
  2. Identify attributes of cooperative behavior in a group setting.
  3. Demonstrate cooperative behaviors in a group.
  4. Practice reflective listening (e.g., I messages, paraphrase).
  5. Demonstrate how to initiate conversation with a new student.
  6. Develop a plan that supports the improvement of behaviors within a group.
2D —
Demonstrate an ability to prevent, manage, and resolve interpersonal conflicts in constructive ways.
  1. Identify the consequences of a solution.
  2. Identify assertive, passive and aggressive conflict resolution behaviors.
  3. Describe conflicts you have experienced and how you dealt with them.
  4. Explain how resolving a conflict with a friend could strengthen the friendship.
  5. Generate alternative solutions for a conflict.
  6. Demonstrate constructive conflict resolution strategies in the classroom.

Goal 3: Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts.



3A —
Consider ethical, safety, and societal factors in making decisions.
  1. Identify factors that make a situation unsafe.
  2. Recognize the consequences to oneself and others of dishonest behavior.
  3. Evaluate how others influenced your decisions (e.g., family, church, team, club membership).
  4. Avoid dangerous situations (e.g., unsupervised sports, walking in areas where you feel unsafe, biking without a helmet, hanging around with peers who use drugs).
  5. Demonstrate respect for the property of others.
  6. Demonstrate internet safety.
  7. Show what it means to accept responsibility for one's actions with regard to school work.
3B —
Apply decision-making skills to deal responsibly with daily academic and social situations.
  1. Generate alternative solutions to problems.
  2. Analyze the consequences of alternative solutions to selected scenarios.
  3. Develop criteria for evaluating the consequences of a decision for oneself and important others in one's life.
  4. Demonstrate the steps of a decision-making process:
    • define the problem
    • say how you feel
    • identify contributing factors
    • set a goal
    • identify alternative solutions and the consequences of each
    • select the best solution
    • evaluate the results.
  5. Apply a decision-making model to solve an interpersonal problem.
  6. Apply a decision-making model to academic challenges.
  7. Demonstrate awareness that feelings influence one's decisions.
3C —
Contribute to the well-being of one's school and community.
  1. Identify ways that community workers assist residents in protecting and improving neighborhoods.
  2. Analyze your rights and responsibilities as a member of your school community.
  3. Discuss your reasons for voting as you did in a simulated local, state, or national election.
  4. Participate in making and enforcing classroom rules.
  5. Brainstorm ways you could contribute to your community (e.g., help a neighbor, contribute to community safety, help keep your block clean).
  6. Construct an argument to persuade classmates to vote or become a candidate for office in a simulated local, state, and national election.

Return to Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Performance Descriptors