Curriculum Overview
This page describes the structure of the curriculum, what makes it distinctive, what you need to start, and what success looks like by Week 18.
Before teaching, pair this page with the Facilitator Safety Guide, the Caregiver and Facilitator Guidance, the Facilitator Implementation Guide, the Outcomes and Framework Connections, the SEL Checkpoint, the Assessment Checkpoints, the Self-Assessment and Reflection, and the Competency Map.
The 18-Week Structure
The curriculum is organized into four core units plus a capstone, with two optional extension weeks for learners who want to go further.
Throughout the course, the student-facing language comes first and the more formal toolbox phrase sits beside it when useful.
Unit 1 — Internal Telemetry & Hardware States (Weeks 1–4)
Students start with body clues, dashboard lights, and brain battery language. The formal toolbox phrases are hardware, inputs, and telemetry. Sleep, hunger, sensory load, and energy are not separate from feelings; they change how the whole system runs. This unit ends with the Body Signal Notebook (formal name: Telemetry Log), the running record students use through the rest of the course.
- Week 1: Mapping Your Biological Hardware
- Week 2: Physical Inputs and Processing Capacity
- Week 3: The Brain's Emergency Override (the curriculum's pivot point)
- Week 4: Reading Your Own Early Warning Signs
Unit 2 — Debugging the Signal Noise (Weeks 5–8)
The brain does not show you reality directly; it tells a story about reality. This unit introduces thought bugs, story maker, worry snowballs, and Detective Check as the main student language. The formal toolbox phrases are cognitive distortions, feedback loops, and Input/Output Audit. Students learn to separate camera facts from the story their brain added and choose a next safe move.
- Week 5: The Software Bugs of the Mind
- Week 6: When the Brain Constructs Bad Stories
- Week 7: Faulty Logic Loops and How to Spot Them
- Week 8: Separating Signal from Narrative Noise
Unit 3 — Trust, Ledgers, and Network Security (Weeks 9–11)
Relationships are introduced first as trust jars and people who are easy to count on. The formal toolbox phrases are trust ledger, interface specs, and reliability. This unit teaches students to notice what fills trust, what drains it, how to make clear boundary rules, and why small consistent actions matter so much.
- Week 9: How Relationships Build and Spend Capital
- Week 10: Clear Boundary Rules
- Week 11: Consistency, Transparency, and High-Bandwidth Connections
Unit 4 — Game Theory in Groups (Weeks 12–14)
Groups behave differently than pairs. This unit leads with group pull, stories change when they travel, and hidden reasons. The formal toolbox phrases are alignment problems, signal corruption, and iterated cooperation. Students learn how group pressure works, how rumors spread, and why being fair and cooperative usually helps when you will see people again.
- Week 12: The Alignment Problem in Groups
- Week 13: Corrupt Data Transmission and Its Ripple Effects
- Week 14: Iterated Games and Mutual Support
Capstone — The Social Interface Patch (Weeks 15–18)
Students pick one problem that keeps happening and work it through a full loop: understand it, make a When/Then Plan, try it in real life during Try-It Week, then look back and improve it. The formal toolbox phrases are friction point, protocol, deployment, and post-mortem. Capstone projects should stay low-stakes, learner-controlled, and facilitator-approved.
- Week 15: Diagnosing a Recurring Social Problem
- Week 16: Make a When/Then Plan
- Week 17: Running the Experiment in the Real World
- Week 18: Post-Mortem, Patch Notes, and Next Version
Optional Extensions
- Optional 1: Advanced Regulation Firmware (box breathing, somatic grounding, progressive muscle relaxation)
- Optional 2: Complex Group Dynamics and Network Theory (in-group/out-group, network topology, information cascades)
These extension topics are best treated as guided options for older learners, mixed-age groups ready for more complexity, or ages 11-13 extension work rather than baseline expectations for every learner.
What Makes This Curriculum Distinctive
Systems Framing, Not Therapy Framing
Most curricula about emotions use therapeutic language: "processing feelings," "sitting with the discomfort," "validating the inner child." Those approaches have their place — but they tend to position the student as a patient who needs help.
This curriculum positions the student as an engineer who owns a system. The vocabulary is deliberate, but now it is introduced in kid-friendly form first:
| Instead of… | We say… |
|---|---|
| Feelings | Body clues / telemetry |
| Reactivity | Panic-brain switch / state machine change |
| Boundaries | Clear boundary rules / interface specs |
| Conflict | Hidden reason or mismatch / system mismatch |
| Rumination | Worry snowball / runaway feedback loop |
| Repairing a friendship | Filling the trust jar / updating the ledger |
| Personal growth | Trying version 2.0 / patching the plan |
This is not a gimmick. The framing reliably shifts a student from passive ("things are happening to me") to active ("I am running a system I can understand and improve").
Engineering Metaphors, Warmly Delivered
The tone is curious, not clinical. We are not training mini-engineers to be cold. We are giving warm kids a sharper vocabulary so the things they already feel become things they can name and act on.
Concrete Skills, Observable Outcomes
Every week has a Check for Understanding — specific, observable signals that the concept landed. This makes it easy for a facilitator to know whether to move on or repeat a session.
Built-in Differentiation
Every week includes a For Younger Learners (Ages 8–9) block and an Extend (Ages 10–12) block. The same curriculum supports both ages without splitting into separate tracks.
Some weeks also include guided extension moves for ages 11-13, especially when the topic asks learners to analyze peer pressure, online interaction, reputation, exclusion, or a more detailed final project.
Age-Banded Emotional and Social Learning Goals
Ages 8-9: Guided foundation
Learners should be able to:
- name common emotions such as happy, sad, angry, worried, excited, embarrassed, frustrated, proud, and lonely
- notice simple body clues such as tight fists, fast heartbeat, tears, quietness, or wanting space
- use sentence frames such as "I feel ___ because ___" with support
- describe what a character or person might be feeling using clues
- try one calming strategy with adult guidance
- ask for help, space, a break, or clarification when needed
- practice listening and taking turns in low-stakes conversations
Ages 10-12: Core path
Learners should be able to:
- describe mixed emotions and explain possible causes
- connect feelings, thoughts, actions, and consequences
- choose from several regulation strategies, such as breathing, movement, journaling, drawing, taking space, or talking to a trusted person
- identify more than one perspective in a social situation
- use respectful language during disagreement
- suggest fair solutions to common friendship or group problems
- reflect on a mistake, repair attempt, or growth moment without shame
Ages 11-13: Optional extension
Learners may also:
- analyze more complex social situations involving peer pressure, exclusion, group identity, online interaction, reputation, or social media
- compare how different people or cultures may express emotions differently
- discuss how stress, attention, sleep, belonging, conflict, or digital spaces can affect emotions
- lead or support a group problem-solving conversation
- build a more detailed final project with audience, empathy, evidence, accessibility, attribution, and revision
Advanced emotional, social, and reflective tasks should stay guided or optional. Younger learners can stay with fictional, classroom, or story-based examples while older learners take on deeper analysis.
Prerequisites
None.
No prior coursework, no background in psychology or neuroscience, no specific reading level. A facilitator who can run a conversation and a student who can talk about their day is enough.
That said, the curriculum is best when paired with a consistent facilitator who shows up week after week. Trust is the medium this work runs on.
Implementation Model
The curriculum is designed as 18 weeks with three short sessions per week. Each session is planned for about 20 minutes, with some settings stretching to 30 minutes when discussion, journaling, or extension activities fit the group.
If you only meet once per week, combine the week's three short sessions into one compressed block and preserve the same arc: model, practice, reflect.
Choosing Emotional and Social Examples
Rotate examples across home, school, community, online, and group settings. Emotional and social literacy is not only about classroom behavior. It also applies to friendships, family routines, teams, clubs, games, digital spaces, community events, and everyday misunderstandings.
Useful examples include:
- fictional story characters
- classroom routines
- group project disagreements
- playground or recess misunderstandings
- sports team moments
- library clubs
- community center events
- neighborhood cleanup projects
- family meals or chores
- sibling or cousin conflicts
- online game chats
- text message misunderstandings
- birthday party invitations
- cultural celebrations
- public event posters
- school announcements
- pet-care responsibilities
- waiting, turn-taking, and sharing situations
When possible, choose examples that reflect different kinds of learners and communities: rural, suburban, urban, multilingual, multigenerational, neurodivergent, disabled, shy, outgoing, homeschooled, foster, blended, single-parent, guardian-led, and culturally diverse families.
What You Need to Start
- A notebook for the Body Signal Notebook / Telemetry Log (any kind)
- Pens, pencils, paper, sticky notes
- A timer
- Roughly 60–90 minutes per week (three 20–30 minute sessions)
- A facilitator who is willing to do the activities alongside the student
- The Facilitator Safety Guide and Facilitator Implementation Guide
That's it.
What Success Looks Like at Week 18
By the end of the capstone, a student who has completed this curriculum should be able to:
- Read their own body clues and telemetry. They can name a physical or emotional signal as data rather than getting dragged by it.
- Notice panic-brain switches. They can tell when they are sliding into reactive mode and use a regulation move before acting.
- Catch thought bugs. They can notice catastrophizing, mind-reading, or personalization and challenge the story.
- Run a Detective Check. They can separate camera facts from the narrative their brain wrapped around them.
- Read a trust jar / trust ledger. They can describe what builds trust and what drains it.
- Use clear boundary rules. They can say what they want, what they will do, and follow through respectfully.
- Look for hidden reasons. They can describe a conflict as a mismatch, not just a personal attack.
- Make and improve a When/Then Plan. They have tried at least one explicit plan in real life and learned from the results.
But the deepest measure is identity. The student should describe themselves not as someone who "has anxiety" or "is bad at friends" but as someone running a system they understand and can improve.
That shift — from passenger to engineer — is the entire point.