What Curriculum Materials Are Needed?

To get the dramatic improvements other schools see when implementing a social-emotional learning curriculum, you need to have the right materials. The SOAR^® Social-Emotional Learning Skills materials cost a small fraction of “core content” curriculum, yet they apply across the curriculum!

Required components include:

• Multimedia Teacher’s Guide
• SOAR Student Workbook or Software App
• Additional Supplies (for the SOAR Binder and SOAR Planner systems)

More details about each material can be found below, or by viewing our curriculum packages.

SOAR^® Multimedia Teacher’s Guide

The Teacher’s Guide includes “done for you” lessons so teachers can put their energy into working with their students. Quality, interactive lessons are right at their finger-tips and ready for delivery:

✓ Done-for-you lessons, presented on engaging slides.

✓ Multiple assessments for clear progress-monitoring.

✓ Lessons neatly organized into 10-20-minute chunks, each with supporting slides and teacher notes.

✓ Spiral review is built into each lesson.

✓ Interactive extension activities.

✓ Scorecard Pre-Test that addresses the WIIFM (What’s In It for Me?) Factor, dramatically improving motivation! During Lesson 1, students fill out this scorecard to identify their target needs. The Scorecard is then revisited at the beginning of each lesson so students can clearly see the relevance of each lesson to their life, or their peers’ lives.

The Multimedia Teacher’s Guide is included in all curriculum packages.

SOAR^® Student Workbook or Software App*

SOAR^® has been a “flipped class” since long before the term was known! With support from either the student workbook or software, students get important background information, access prior knowledge, and make important learning connections independently.

The book is written in short, concise, and clear chapters with a lot of visual support. The software app provides audio narration, multimedia instruction, engagements with immediate feedback, and electronic assessments.

The software app covers the entire SOAR^® Social-Emotional Learning Skills curriculum, presented as a self-guided course. The online app Includes:

✓ Interactive content/games, providing immediate feedback

✓ “How-to” videos, illustrating strategies

✓ Fully narrated slides, for reading support

✓ Quizzes/assessments, to ensure understanding of material

✓ Badges & certificates awarded for achievements

✓ Easy access from any computer or mobile device

“Flipping instruction” allows for much more fruitful classroom discussions, which facilitates “positive peer pressure” (see article about this concept here). In short, the positive peer pressure serves to make the learning much more deep and relevant for all students as they learn from each other. It also serves as a very effective way to gently coax along the 20% of students –in every group- that just don’t know if they can trust the information you are delivering. Many of these students will let their guard down when they see how their peers are responding.

*Much to our surprise, many schools purchase a “combination” license of books and software app. They tell us that they like the software app for delivering instruction and providing practice with immediate feedback, but they like the books for reference as students work to apply strategies.

To determine the best package for you: SOAR^® workbooks, SOAR^® App licenses, or a SOAR^® Combo Package, see the SOAR Pricing Calculator (bottom of the page). For more than 100 students, request a quote.

Additional Supplies

In the “self-management” section of the SOAR Social-Emotional Learning Skills curriculum, students will learn how to organize. The curriculum covers how to organize papers, time, and other personal spaces. 

To fully implement the organization systems taught, each student will need:

• One binder – 1 or 1.5 inches with plastic pocket on the inside, front cover.
• One poly binder folder for each class.
• One academic planner or agenda.
• One binder clip per student.

Click the following link for details on the binder supplies and planners we recommend.