Knight Skills
What are Knight Skills?
Knight Skills are skills that are aligned to our Knights’ Code and social-emotional learning competencies from the Collaborative for Academic and Social-Emotional Learning (CASEL). CASEL defines social-emotional learning as the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. Therefore, the overall goal of Knight Skills is for students to learn skills for managing their emotions, behaviors, and relationships and to be able to apply these skills to their lives outside the classroom. When students have better control of their emotions, are less impulsive, and have better relationships, they are better able to learn, and the impact of adverse outside-of-school factors on learning is reduced. The life skills learned through Knight Skills can increase students’ chances of success in the present and beyond graduation.
What are the Knight Skill lessons and modules?
Students are taught social-emotional learning skills through the Knight Skills curriculum. The specific lessons are taught through the lens of four different modules. These modules include mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation. Below is a breakdown of each module and the skills students learn in each:
Emotion Regulation Module: Teaches skills for decreasing unpleasant, distressing emotions and increasing positive emotions.
Mindfulness Module: Teaches skills for increasing self-awareness, becoming less judgemental, and gaining control of one’s attention.
Distress Tolerance Module: Teaches skills for making distress endurable, so that an upsetting situation is not made worse by impulsive action.
Interpersonal Effectiveness Module: Teaches skills for asking for something or saying no to another person, while maintaining a good relationship and one’s self-respect.
Who will be taught the Knight Skills and when?
Knight Skills lessons will be taught to all students. These lessons will be delivered by general education teachers through a student’s Go Time. Students will not miss their scheduled classes in order to access the Knight Skills curriculum. School staff are able to reinforce the generalization of Knight Skills by practicing skills with students and nominating students for Knight of the Month for exhibiting various Knight Skills aligned to our Knights’ Code.
How will students’ growth in personal and social learning be measured?
Research has shown that universal instruction in social-emotional learning has many positive academic and behavioral benefits for students, Student growth in social-emotional skills will be measured through the Devereux Students Strengths Assessment - High School Edition Student Self Report (DESSA-HSE SSR) assessment delivered to students two times per school year. This is an assessment that is aligned to the CASEL standards, as well as OCHS Knights’ Code, that specifically measures student social-emotional competence. Students will complete this assessment in the fall and spring of every school year to assess their social-emotional skills. Through this assessment, students are also able to set individual goals and add teachers and/or parents as advocates to help them achieve their goals.
Is the Knight Skills curriculum research and/or evidence-based?
Yes. The Knight Skills curriculum is adapted from a research-based curriculum called, “DBT Skills in Schools: Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents.” The program has been shown to reduce office referrals and disciplinary actions and has been shown to increase student social-emotional skill acquisition.