Salt in His Shoes- SEL Growth Mindset & Perseverance

Description

Salt in His Shoes- SEL Growth Mindset & Perseverance resource inspires your students to dream big, have perseverance, set goals, develop a growth mindset, and overcome obstacles with this engaging companion. Based on the inspirational childhood story of Michael Jordan, this resource teaches students that success comes from patience, practice, and believing in themselves.

Students complete meaningful literacy and SEL activities that encourage reflection, character analysis, and personal goal setting.

This resource includes 49 pages and 19 engaging activities that encourage reflection, character analysis, and personal goal setting. Plus, it includes over a week’s worth of classroom instruction materials and centers/stations focused on growth mindset, perseverance, courage, and literacy development.

Perfect For:

SEL lessons

Growth mindset lessons

Literacy centers

Character education units

Black History Month lessons

Morning meeting

Whole group instruction

Small group instruction

Independent practice

The character traits activity helps students identify Michael Jordan’s perseverance and determination using evidence from the text, strengthening both literacy and SEL connections.

What’s Included

This complete SEL and literacy companion includes:

Story summary and comprehension activities
Story concepts graphic organizer (characters, setting, problem, solution)
Beginning, Middle, End summarizing worksheet
Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text, and Text-to-World connection pages
Character traits analysis activity
Character traits with text evidence worksheet
Theme and message reflection pages
Reading comprehension and discussion questions
Vocabulary activities with student-friendly definitions
Writing prompts focused on perseverance and goal setting
Growth mindset reflection activities
Michael Jordan research project
Informational writing extension activity
Printable and easy-to-use worksheets

The vocabulary activity helps students understand key terms such as determination, patience, disappointment, and confidence, strengthening. This is both reading comprehension and social-emotional awareness.

Skills Students Will Develop

Students will strengthen essential academic and SEL skills, including:

Reading comprehension
Identifying theme and message
Story sequencing and summarizing
Character analysis and text evidence
Growth mindset and perseverance
Goal setting and reflection
Writing and informational research
Vocabulary development
Critical thinking

Social Emotional Learning Focus

Students learn to:

Develop perseverance

Build confidence
Practice patience
Set and achieve goals
Develop a growth mindset
Believe in themselves

The reflection and writing activities encourage students to think about their own dreams and the steps needed to achieve them. This reinforces real-world SEL skills.

Why Teachers Love This Resource

No prep required
Strong SEL and growth mindset integration
Supports reading comprehension skills
Promotes perseverance and goal setting
Includes research and writing activities
Perfect for classroom and counseling lessons
Printable and easy-to-use format

Whether you are teaching about famous role models, encouraging students to chase their dreams, or helping them build a stronger growth mindset; This Salt in His Shoes SEL companion will help your students connect deeply with the story—and with themselves. Just print, teach, and inspire!