Second Step® Middle School

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

FULL SCOPE AND SEQUENCE

Grade 6

Unit 1: Mindsets & Goals

Program Themes: Academic Success, Belonging, Growth Mindset, Helping Others, Planning Ahead, Perspective-Taking,

Resilience, Starting Right

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible

Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 1A

Starting Middle School

Describe challenges they might face as they start middle school and identify

resources where they can get help

Lesson 1B

Helping New Students

Use empathy skills to identify ways they can help new students feel welcome and

comfortable at school

Lesson 2

How to Grow Your Brain

Describe what happens in their brains when they try something new and how their

brains change with experience and practice

Lesson 3

Trying New Strategies

Name new strategies they can try when they’re having trouble learning something new

Lesson 4

Making Goals Speciﬁc

Write a speciﬁc goal

Lesson 5

Breaking Down Your Goals

Break a big, long-term goal down into smaller, short-term goals

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

Grade 6

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 6

Monitoring Your Progress

Set progress markers for their goal, determine when their goal has been achieved,

and determine if they need to try a new strategy to reach their goal

Lesson 7–Performance Task

Bringing It All Together

Create an action plan for achieving a goal

Unit 2: Developing a Positive Sense of Self

Program Themes: Decision-Making, Guiding Principles, Relationships

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible

Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 8

What Are Guiding Principles?

Identify what guiding principles are and where they come from

Lesson 9

Your Guiding Principles

Use a process to identify at least one of their own guiding principles

Lesson 10

Making Decisions

Describe how they can use their guiding principles to make decisions

Lesson 11

Multiple Guiding Principles

Apply more than one guiding principle before making a decision

Lesson 12

Thinking Short-Term and Long-Term

Evaluate how they would feel after making a decision using their guiding principles

Lesson 13–Performance Task

Using Your Guiding Principles

Apply their guiding principle to make a decision in a given situation

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

Grade 6

Unit 3: Thoughts, Emotions & Decisions

Program Themes: Conﬂicts, Resilience, Staying Calm, Thoughts and Emotions

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills,

Responsible Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 14

What Emotions Tell You

Describe why emotions matter in their lives

Lesson 15

Emotions and Your Brain

Describe what happens in their brains when they feel a strong emotion

Lesson 16

How Emotions Affect Your Decisions

Describe how strong emotions can inﬂuence the decisions they make

Lesson 17

Managing Your Emotions

Demonstrate and evaluate strategies for managing their emotions

Lesson 18

What Works Best for You?

Determine the emotion-management strategies that work best for them and choose

the best strategy to use in a situation, given the context

Lesson 19–Performance Task

Raising Awareness About Managing

Emotions

Apply their knowledge from the unit to promote awareness about emotion-

management strategies at school

Unit 4: Managing Relationships & Social Conflict

Program Themes: Conﬂicts, Growth Mindset, Perspective-Taking, Relationships

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills,

Responsible Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 20

You’re Changing

Describe the changes they’ve gone through in the past, the change(s) they’re

currently going through, and how those changes affect their relationships

Lesson 21

Why Conﬂicts Escalate

Identify actions that escalate conﬂicts and determine ways to prevent conﬂicts

from becoming more serious

Lesson 22

Considering Multiple Perspectives

Examine a social conﬂict from multiple perspectives so they can resolve minor

conﬂicts

Lesson 23

Respectful Communication

Demonstrate how to use respectful language to prevent conﬂicts from getting worse

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

Grade 6

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 24

Resolving Challenging Conﬂicts

Identify and evaluate various solutions to a conﬂict in order to ﬁnd the best solution

Lesson 25

Making Amends

Demonstrate how to make amends in meaningful and restorative ways

Lesson 26–Performance Task

Conﬂict Solvers

Demonstrate resolving a social conﬂict

Grade 7

Unit 1: Mindsets & Goals

Program Themes: Academic Success, Belonging, Growth Mindset, Helping Others, Perspective-Taking,

Planning Ahead, Resilience, Starting Right

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills,

Responsible Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 1A

Starting Middle School

Describe challenges they might face as they start middle school and identify

resources where they can get help

Lesson 1B

Helping New Students

Use empathy skills to identify why some students feel nervous when they’re

starting middle school and ways they can help new students feel welcome and

comfortable at school

Lesson 2

Creating New Pathways in Your Brain

Explain how practicing something difﬁcult helps the brain grow new neural pathways

Lesson 3

Learning from Mistakes and Failure

Analyze simple and complex scenarios to determine what they can learn from

making mistakes

Lesson 4

Identifying Roadblocks

Distinguish between internal and external roadblocks

Lesson 5

Overcoming Roadblocks 1

Think of and select appropriate strategies as part of If–Then Plans for overcoming

roadblocks

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

Grade 7

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 6

Overcoming Roadblocks 2

Create an If–Then Plan to anticipate and get past a roadblock that could prevent them

from achieving a goal

Lesson 7–Performance Task

Advice on Roadblocks

Give advice to a sixth-grade student who’s trying to learn something new and feels

like giving up

Unit 2: Developing a Positive Sense of Self

Program Themes: Growth Mindset, Planning Ahead, Self-Concept

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 8

What is Self-Concept?

Explain what self-concept is and why it’s important

Lesson 9

Your Self-Concept

Describe two or more parts of their current self-concept

Lesson 10

Inﬂuences on Self-Concept

Name at least one factor that inﬂuences their self-concept

Lesson 11

Changes in Self-Concept

Describe how their self-concept has changed over time

Lesson 12

Your Future Self-Concept

Describe the self-concept they want to have in the future

Lesson 13–Performance Task

Who Will You Become?

Describe something they can do now to connect their self-concept to who they want

to be in the future

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

Grade 7

Unit 3: Thoughts, Emotions & Decisions

Program Themes: Conﬂicts, Resilience, Staying Calm, Thoughts and Emotions

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills,

Responsible Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 14

Emotions Matter

Explain the importance of emotions and describe how emotions can affect their

thoughts and decisions

Lesson 15

Feel, Think, Do

Explain how thoughts and emotions are connected and can affect their decisions

Lesson 16

Unhelpful Thoughts

Distinguish helpful thoughts from unhelpful thoughts and analyze how unhelpful

thoughts can negatively affect the decisions they make

Lesson 17

Reframe the Situation

Explain how to interrupt unhelpful thoughts and reframe a challenging situation

Lesson 18

Practicing Positive Self-Talk

Practice using positive self-talk to reframe a challenging situation

Lesson 19–Performance Task

Making Better Decisions

• Demonstrate how strong emotions can prompt unhelpful thoughts

• Model strategies for managing their emotions

Unit 4: Managing Relationships & Social Conflict

Program Themes: Conﬂicts, Perspective-Taking, Planning Ahead, Relationships

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 20

What Makes a Conﬂict Escalate?

Identify common reasons why social conﬂicts escalate from minor to major

Lesson 21

Keeping Your Cool in a Conﬂict

Describe how using emotion-management strategies can prevent the escalation of

a conﬂict

Lesson 22

Conﬂicts and Perspectives

Explain how to listen to and consider someone else’s perspective during a conﬂict

Lesson 23

Resolving Conﬂict Part 1

Describe the perspectives of everyone involved in a conﬂict in a nonjudgmental way

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

Grade 7

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 24

Resolving Conﬂict Part 2

Consider possible solutions and their consequences in order to ﬁnd the best solution

for resolving a conﬂict

Lesson 25

Taking Responsibility for Your Actions

Explain what to do to take responsibility for their actions and make things as right

as possible

Lesson 26–Performance Task

Tips for Resolving Conﬂicts

Identify the key elements of resolving conﬂicts successfully

Grade 8

Unit 1: Mindsets & Goals

Program Themes: Academic Success, Belonging, Growth Mindset, Planning Ahead, Relationships, Resilience,

Starting Right, Values

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Responsible Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 1

Welcome!

Describe how the Second Step program can help them navigate physical, social,

and emotional changes in adolescence

Lesson 2

Who Am I? My Identity

Name unique and important aspects of their identities

Lesson 3

My Interests and Strengths

Describe how they used their personal strengths to develop an interest, skill, or ability

Lesson 4

Harnessing My Strengths

Explain how to use their strengths to get better at something new

Lesson 5

Pursuing My Interests

Describe ways to make the most of positive factors and decrease the effects of

negative factors while pursuing an interest or goal

Lesson 6

My Future Self

Describe important aspects of their future identities

Lesson 7–Performance Task

My Path Forward

Identify strengths and skills they already have and explain how they can use them to

develop their interests

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

Grade 8

Unit 2: Developing a Positive Sense of Self

Program Themes: Agency, Conﬁdence, Growth Mindset, Planning Ahead

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 8

Agency

Explain what agency is by describing how it appears in their lives

Lesson 9

Sources of Conﬁdence

Name a speciﬁc source of conﬁdence that led to a personal success

Lesson 10

How to Build Conﬁdence 1

Name a time when they built conﬁdence by preparing their physical and emotional

states or by observing others

Lesson 11

How to Build Conﬁdence 2

Name a time when they built conﬁdence using encouragement from others or

past experience

Lesson 12

Agency and Conﬁdence

Make a plan to build conﬁdence in a given area

Lesson 13–Performance Task

Your Conﬁdence-Building Plan

Make a plan to build conﬁdence in an area of their choice

Unit 3: Thoughts, Emotions & Decisions

Program Themes: Resilience, Staying Calm, Thoughts and Emotions

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Responsible Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 14

Understanding Stress and Anxiety

Recognize how stress and anxiety affect their emotions, thoughts, and bodies

Lesson 15

Where Does Stress Come From?

Categorize common sources of stress and explain the difference between controllable

and uncontrollable stressors

Lesson 16

Can Stress Help You Grow?

Reframe certain types of stress as opportunities for growth

Lesson 17

Strategies for Managing Stress

Demonstrate how to choose strategies for managing stress

2024 Committee for Children | SecondStep.org | Second Step® Middle School

Grade 8

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 18

Changing Strategies and

Getting Help

Analyze stressful situations, decide if they need to change strategies or get outside

help to manage their stress, and identify people who can help them when they feel

their stress is unmanageable

Lesson 19–Performance Task

My Stress-Management Plan

Create an individual plan for managing their stress

Unit 4: Managing Relationships & Social Conflict

Program Themes: Academic Success, Belonging, Conﬂicts, Growth Mindset, Perspective-Taking, Planning Ahead,

Relationships, Resilience, Starting Right, Values

CASEL Core Competencies: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible

Decision-Making

Lesson Title Objectives

Students will be able to:

Lesson 20

My Values

Identify their core values and how their behaviors demonstrate these values

Lesson 21

Values and Relationships

Describe the connection between their values and healthy behaviors in relationships

Lesson 22

Recognizing Others’ Perspectives

Analyze conﬂicts from multiple perspectives to help prevent them from escalating

Lesson 23

Finding the Best Solution

Generate and evaluate solutions to conﬂicts that are mutually acceptable to

everyone affected

Lesson 24

Making Things Right

Identify a variety of ways for making amends to restore a relationship that’s

been damaged

Lesson 25

Unhealthy Relationships

Distinguish between healthy and unhealthy relationships

Lesson 26–Performance Task

Guide to Healthy Relationships

Describe the importance of choosing healthy relationships, tell if a relationship is

healthy, and recognize and manage unhealthy relationships

Lesson 27

High School Challenges

Identify challenges many students face starting high school and people they can go to

for help with these challenges

..

#-B-MS-scope-and-sequence-updates-v