Ripple Effects provides developmentally appropriate, skill-building that is aligned with most states’ Content Standards for Language Arts. A summary of the most relevant content follows:

Listening and speaking:

Listening skills: Tutorials include: paying attention, following directions, actively listening, asking questions, making space, paraphrasing main ideas, inviting discussion of cultural similarities and differences.

Speaking skills: Tutorials include: expressing feelings, asking questions, participating in group discussion, avoiding stereotypes and cursing, using assertive (not passive or aggressive) voice, message, posture to command respect, making complaints, resisting peer pressure. Special lessons explore using dependent sentence structure (If/then, why/because) to predict consequences, use of conjunctions both/and to describe mixed feelings, use of active voice to command greater respect. Discussion questions in every tutorial and structured reflective inquiry process in journal activity provides repeated train in organizing thoughts.

Writing
All 550 lesson each have 5 part, assisted, journal writing exercise to explore personal experience. Word prompts provide a bridge to communication for students with low language skills, or English language learners. Users group on the web includes opportunities to share written work with others.

Reading
Fluency: Independent reading opportunities in areas of personal interest promote engagement with meaning and increase fluency. Text to sound narrative that can be turned on or off, provides assistive aid to dyslexic students and beginning ELL.
Comprehension: Discussion questions promote understanding of story, information, and instruction forms of written and spoken text.
Character analysis: provocative questions following the introduction of each case study scenario and true story, along with empathy training, promotes the use of personal experience as a basis for understanding others experience, motive, and cultural contexts.
Vocabulary: Specific lessons develop the vocabulary of social-emotional experience
Media Analysis and Production: All 550 lessons have exercise that promote analysis of media representation including recognition of faulty logic, misinformation, bias, societal prejudices. Students are invited to produce and submit true video stories of their own “earned wisdom” to include in future editions of the program.
Research: The program involved continuous practice in use of alphabetized index to find information. It also provides practice in use of web based hyperlink structure for following ideas and gathering information. Specific lessons and structured journaling exercises all promote skills in the process of reflective inquiry, observation of data, problem identification, brainstorming hypothetical solutions, evaluating those alternatives, choosing one to test, testing it and incorporating feedback into results.

Oral and Written Conventions: All information is presented in conversational tone, using correct English grammar. Tutorials on “swearing,” “courtesy,” “making a complaint,” “confronting injustice,” “offering help” educate in appropriate speech for different situations.