Social and Emotional Learning and Mathematics

Teaching involves developing the whole child, not only as good mathematicians but as good people—friends, colleagues, innovators, and citizens. Problem-solving is not only a quantitative challenge but a human one. We can engage students in deeply understanding what resolving problems entails and what it feels like, which is satisfying for children and adults alike.

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice specify that students solve real-world and mathematical problems by working effectively with peers; formulating, communicating and critiquing arguments; and persevering through difficulty. As students internalize these mathematical practices, they engage interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, also known as social and emotional learning (SEL) competencies.

Here, you’ll find an explicit unpacking of the connections among the mathematical practices and SEL competencies, as well as supports for integrating them in your classroom instruction. These resources were created by panels of experts in mathematics education and in social and emotional learning, along with teams of educators serving as co-developers.

• Integrating Social and Emotional Learning and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: Making the Case lays out the rationale for considering the strong connections among the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice and key social and emotional learning competencies.

• Integrating Social and Emotional Learning and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics: Describing an Ideal Classroom provides a brief historical perspective on the culture of mathematics classrooms and describes the shift required by the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice with regard to your classroom culture and collaboration with colleagues.

• Practitioner Spotlight/ Appendix to “Describing an Ideal Classroom” Table 2: Provides commentary with video clips on teacher Cathy Humphreys’s lesson that describes the ways in which her students demonstrate social and emotional learning competencies as they engage with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice.

• A Tool for SEL Evaluation:  A tool that can be used as an additional lens through which to evaluate materials in support of strong student learning. The purpose of the tool is to determine how well your mathematics instructional materials support students’ understanding and application of widely accepted social and emotional learning competencies.

• Using Social and Emotional Learning to Develop Mathematically Proficient Students: Instructional Guides: Each of these guides focuses on one of a series of problem solving activities developed by the Mathematics Assessment Resource Service (MARS) that call for students to engage in the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practice.

  The instructional guides, which surface key social and emotional learning competencies needed for the mathematical task, are designed to support you as you monitor and encourage student engagement in competencies called for by the practices. Each instructional guide provides facilitation suggestions that promote students’ social and emotional learning competencies and support students’ engagement in the Standards for Mathematical Practice. (These MARS tasks can be found in the performance assessment tasks section of this site.)

  • Instructional guide: “Conference Tables” task (grade 9)
  • Instructional guide: “Printing Tickets” task (grade 9)
  • Instructional guide: “Swimming Pool” task (grade 9)