Hispanic Heritage Month : September 15 - October 15

A cornerstone of social emotional learning involves appreciating and learning about diversity - in culture, heritage, ability, and ethnicity. This month presents an opportunity to celebrate Hispanic heritage and culture especially, and to provide opportunities for students to learn about a deeply colorful and rich heritage. 

Some tools for academic lessons which will also support social emotional skills are:

• EDSITEment!'s Lesson for Esperanza Rising (Grades 6-8) - (Also available in Spanish) Not only is this lesson useful for teaching resilience, perspective-taking, and self-awareness, the provided "guiding questions" can be shared with parents and families to encourage at-home conversations about the material.

• Facing History and Ourselves' Dolores Huerta's Life of Indefatigable Resistance (Grades 9-12) - The short biography of this living civil rights leader is a lesson in goal setting, perseverance, and empathy. Students will be able to draw a direct line between Huertas' work and real impact in our society, with explicit empowerment from Huertas that "young people have led all key social movements in the US".

• Colorin Colorado's Book Lists for Teaching Hispanic Heritage (Grades K-5) - Books are an excellent method for teaching skills such as perspective-taking, anticipating outcomes, and reflection. Read any of the books listed here and discuss students' thoughts on commonalities and differences from their own lives. Also consider pulling in a Spanish-speaking colleague (or Youtube read-along) to hear some of these books read in Spanish. 

• The Disney Channel's Be Inspired | Celebrating Heritage Videos (Grades 5-12) - Watch any or all of the videos of Disney channel kid stars celebrating their heritage, and then work with students to create their own celebratory videos. Students will need to practice self-awareness, self-confidence, goal-setting, and self-management skills to create their video messages.