ICS Inter-Community School Library: PYP SEL: Responsible Decison-Making

What is responsible decision-making?

The abilities to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions across diverse situations. This includes the capacities to consider ethical standards and safety concerns, and to evaluate the benefits and consequences of various actions for personal, social, and collective well-being. Such as

Demonstrating curiosity and open-mindedness
Identifying solutions for personal and social problems
Learning to make a reasoned judgment after analyzing information, data, facts
Anticipating and evaluating the consequences of one’s actions
Recognizing how critical thinking skills are useful both inside & outside of school
Reflecting on one’s role to promote personal, family, and community well-being
Evaluating personal, interpersonal, community, and institutional impacts

Responsible Decision-Making | Social-Emotional Learning
Learn ways to teach children to make responsible decisions by developing the ability to think through all parts of a problem, analyzing a situation, understanding its ethical implications, and evaluating the consequences.

Characteristics

Responsible Decision-Making Characteristics

The characteristics, which will exhibit in different ways depending on their age, include:

Make positive decisions about personal behaviour and social interactions
Consider the wellbeing of themselves and others
Brainstorm different strategies or solutions to a task
Reflect and evaluate actions to meet set goals
Understand how emotions and thoughts influence behaviour
Identify rules and social norms of behaviour
Understand the consequences of a particular course of action
Make appropriate and constructive choices about behaviour and interactions
Consider the situation and make an appropriate decision
Be proud of their choices
Realise not all decisions will be easy
Patience, willpower and perseverance
Aware of positive and negative consequences to decision-making

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Responsible Decision-Making Discussion Questions

Did [character] make the best decision under the circumstances? Why?
Did [character’s] emotions affect their decision making?
What was [character’s] motivation for making that decision?
Do you think the outcome was what [character] hoped for?
Did [character] think about the consequences of their decision?
Could [character] have made a better decision? Why?
What should [character] have thought about before making such a decision?
Will the results of [character’s] decision have an impact on the other characters or the environment?
Who could [character] have discussed their idea before making a decision?
Will this decision help [character] reach their goal(s)?
Is this a decision [character] can be proud of?

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Responsible Decision-Making Activities

1. Class Contract

One way to encourage responsible decision making is by collaborating with your students to create a classroom contract. An effective classroom contract should contain two things: your expectations as a teacher and your students’ own hopes and needs for the school year.

Putting a contract together with your students can help them feel like their voices are heard and that you’re willing to listen. To make this activity interesting for your students, you can even include “exciting” information like class parties or rewards for meeting academic goals. It’s fun and, more importantly, establishes your classroom environment as one where everyone’s choices matter.

2. Student Council

Depending on your needs, you could involve your entire class in student council or have them elect representatives. By bringing your students in to discuss classroom needs and upcoming events, student councils can involve your class in the school community while teaching them responsibility.

If you’ve never held a council before, hold a discussion with your class to decide which student council ideas would work best.

3. “What Would You Do?” Activity

Practicing how to make tough decisions can help your students learn how their actions affect others. Give your students a list of situations in which they would have to make an important choice. Have them write down an answer to each situation by themselves, then discuss their answers as a class.

Here are a few problem-solving scenarios to get your students started:

While playing with your little brother, he accidentally breaks your favorite toy. What do you do next?
You see a new girl playing by herself at recess. What do you say to her?
You’re eating a sugar cookie and your friend asks if he can have a bite. How do you respond?

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Classroom Activities for Encouraging Responsible Decision-Making

Encouraging-Responsible-Decision-Making
Responsible decision making requires students to demonstrate competence in a series of skills that ultimately assist them in the process of analyzing a situation and making the appropriate choice. The table below outlines potential ways to guide students as they develop each relevant skill.

Books in the Library

Chalk by Bill Thomson
Three children discover a magical bag of chalk on a rainy day
Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big by Berkeley Breathed
Fannie Fudwupper's big brother, Edwurd, spends his time cooking up big fibs full of phooey and letting them rip. But one day, Edwurd tells such a whopping lie that the army, the air force, and the dogcatcher are called to reverse the damage.
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett; Jon Klassen (Illustrator)
A young girl and her box of magical yarn transform a community in this stunning picture book.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (Illustrator)
"Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy." Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.
Here Comes the Garbage Barge! by Jonah Winter; Red Nose Studio (Illustrator)
Before everyone recycled . . . There was a town that had 3,168 tons of garbage and nowhere to put it. What did they do? Enter the Garbage Barge!
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen (Illustrator)
The bear's hat is gone, and he wants it back. Patiently and politely, he asks the animals he comes across, one by one, whether they have seen it. Each animal says no, some more elaborately than others. But just as the bear begins to despond, a deer comes by and asks a simple question that sparks the bear's memory and renews his search with a vengeance.
No, David! by David Shannon (Illustrator)
David is a beloved character, whose unabashed good humor, mischievous smile, and laughter-inducing antics underline the love parents have for their children--even when they misbehave.
The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett (Illustrator)
Each of the birds has an egg...except for Duck. So when Duck finds a beautiful egg of his own he's delighted -- even though the other birds make fun of it. But everyone's in for a BIG surprise when his egg finally hatches!
Pig The Pug by Aaron Blabey
ISBN: 9781743624777
Pig is a greedy and selfish Pug. He has all the bouncy balls, bones, and chew toys a dog could ever want yet he refuses to share with his poor friend, Trevor. Little does he know, however, that being greedy has its consquences.
Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson; Sydney Smith (Illustrator)
In this wordless picture book, a little girl collects wildflowers while her distracted father pays her little attention. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter.
Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campoy; Rafael López (Illustrator)
What good can a splash of color do in a community of gray? As Mira and her neighbors discover, more than you might ever imagine!
The Tunnel by Anthony Browne
What Do You Do with a Problem? by Mae Besom (Illustrator); Kobi Yamada
This is the story of a persistent problem and the child who isn't so sure what to make of it. The longer he avoids the problem, the bigger it seems to get. But when the child finally musters up the courage to face it, the problem turns out to be something quite different indeed.
Come with Me by Holly M. McGhee; Pascal Lemaître (Illustrator)
When the news reports are flooded with tales of hatred and fear, a girl asks her papa what she can do to make the world a better place. "Come with me," he says. Hand-in-hand, they walk to the subway, tipping their hats to those they meet. The next day, the girl asks her mama what she can do--her mama says, "Come with me," and together they set out for the grocery, because one person doesn't represent an entire race or the people of a land. After dinner that night, the little girl asks if she can do something of her own--walk the dog . . . and her parents let her go. "Come with me," the girl tells the boy across the hall. Walking together, one step at a time, the girl and the boy begin to see that as small and insignificant as their part may seem, it matters to the world.
Window by Jeannie Baker
Chronicles the events and changes in a young boy's life and in his environment, from babyhood to grownup, through wordless scenes observed from the window of his room.
The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers
Finn's Little Fibs by Tom Percival
What happens when one little lie turns into a big problem? From the creator of Ruby Finds a Worry comes the perfect picture book for helping children learn the importance of honesty.