A lot of things are done in the name of social-emotional learning.
Here are some SEL strategies that teachers vouch for having worked in their classrooms.
Relationships!
Michelle Makus Shory, Ed.D., is a career language educator who has taught grades K-12. She works at Seneca High School in Kentucky, serving multilingual learners, their teachers, and their families. Shory is also an adjunct professor for local universities and the co-creator of the website :
As a veteran teacher of multilingual learners (and as a language major), I know that language classrooms must be welcoming spaces. It is important that when students enter the room, they see images that are reassuring and representative of their cultures. Additionally, it鈥檚 essential to create a space that is calming. I use muted colors, simple artwork, and a lot of plants.
Because many of my students are from more relationship-oriented than task-oriented cultures, I begin working on relationships on day one. For example, creating a list of classroom norms together (instead of imposing my own rules) encourages a feeling of respect and care that students appreciate. Further, ensuring that we all know and can pronounce each other鈥檚 names is essential and adds to the sense of community in my classroom.
My tried and true way to start classes is with dialogue journals. I give each student a simple spiral notebook, and from day one, each student and I engage in an ongoing personal dialogue daily for the entire school year.
These journals are a place where students can share their concerns, celebrations, and questions. They are also a simple way for me to give a pep talk, check in with a reticent student, or remind students that today is a new day and they鈥檒l always have a fresh start in my class. Dialogue journals are simple but powerful. They allow my quiet students to open up and allow my outgoing students to share something they might not want to share with the class.
The dialogue journals have also helped me solve some simple problems for students, like finding them a new seat, helping them get a schedule change, or talking to their other teachers about implementing their accommodations. Making these simple changes can have a big impact on a student鈥檚 day.
Additionally, I teach on a block schedule where classes are 90 minutes. Knowing this is a long time to sit, I incorporate movement into my classroom. Also, I introduce students to simple yoga poses and breathing exercises. Adding a tree pose or some breath work to an extended class helps students (and me) reset and reengage. I also remind students of the importance of using breathing exercises during stressful situations and how it can help us regulate our bodies and minds.
Finally, reading texts about newcomers to the United States鈥攁nd reminding my students that we are a community that helps each other鈥攊s an essential part of my classroom. I keep a list of students who like to interpret and translate, walk new students to their next class, and help new students through the lunch line.
鈥楥heck-In With Students鈥�
Melanie Battles, Ph.D., is a founding consultant of Scholars for the Soul: An Educational Solutions Firm and has over a decade of experience working in education as a K-12 literacy educator, college adjunct faculty member, instructional coach, and educational consultant:
Social-emotional learning is the heart and soul of teaching and learning spaces and how we develop as humans through the mind, body, spirit, and soul channels. It allows our students and teachers opportunities to connect on a spiritual level that humanizes one another, fosters empathy, and helps cultivate a space of belonging that is absolutely necessary for the risk taking that is a natural part of learning.
When I have used and observed SEL in action, one of the most impactful strategies has been to check in with students in an organic way. That could look differently for different occasions, but some of the most profound have been when teachers create a greeting-choice board that allows the student, upon arrival at the front door of the classroom, to select how they want to greet the teacher: smile, fist bump, hug, high-five, handshake, etc.
The beautiful thing about this SEL check-in is that it allows students to enter into a radical space of love that welcomes them to connect with their teacher in a way that provides them with the autonomy to practice consent and boundaries over their own bodies while also practicing how to be kind and greet their teachers each and every day.
The teacher is also able to take notice of the student and inquire deeper if there are any changes or alerts they should give attention to before the student walks into the class. As a protector of the learning space, you want to do a soul check of the energy that each student is bringing in so that you can optimize positivity, calm, and belonging, but that is an impossible factor to try and control.
When teachers check in with students and share their love and excitement to see each student, even if that student tap danced on the last nerve you had, they get a chance to share grace and love, vital parts of filling our cups daily so that we can pour out the beauty of our intellect, genius, creativity, and curiosity.
Another SEL strategy I highly encourage with the schools and teachers I coach and consult with is to measure the confidence + competence level of each student when introducing content.
Oftentimes, especially as students grow from the latter elementary grades into middle and high school, there is either a positive or negative self-perception of their learning capacity, and sometimes, it is segmented by content level, i.e., 鈥淚鈥檓 not a math person鈥� or 鈥淚鈥檓 not a reading person.鈥� This self-perception must be assessed before teachers go deep into teaching the content because it can become a barrier where the student experiences the learning experience as a threat and not an opportunity for the brain to stretch (via challenge) and grow, but rather as a chance for them to experience shame and embarrassment for what they are unable to do or know.
I recommend to 糖心动漫vlog to ask students a few questions to gauge their self-efficacy and self-perception of their own ability to learn. Some sample questions could be: How confident are you in your ability to learn? Do you believe you are able to learn new things really well? On a scale of 1-5, how well do you learn new things? How do you feel about learning math problems? [insert sample content] When you see this sample, how well do you feel about your capacity to learn and master this content?
This is the type of holistic data that is key to developing a growth mindset and student鈥檚 confidence in their own capacity to learn and grow as learners. Teachers are able to form alliances, as described in Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond, and know specifically what to target and make plans to build a student鈥檚 self-efficacy by setting goals, providing scaffolds and supports as necessary, and reflecting on the learning and thinking moves that resulted in those goals being accomplished. When students are able to observe their own growth, their confidence and competence grows.
SEL helps students and teachers to connect to one another in ways that promote community and belonging, necessary components to taking intellectual risks and growing both intellectually and soulfully.
鈥楾he Tiny Moments That Happen Every Day鈥�
Leah Porter is a 3rd grade teacher in Holt, Mich., and the 2022 Michigan Teacher of the Year:
Social-emotional learning practices are heavily weighted in today鈥檚 educational landscape. From statewide initiatives, district practices, professional development for 糖心动漫vlog, and classroom application, SEL is a phrase that is emphasized multiple times a day in schools across the country. What makes SEL powerful for students is not in the instruction of HOW to do SEL, but it is in the tiny moments that happen every day in the classroom.
I鈥檝e had the unique opportunity of having the chance to observe many teachers in a variety of educational settings. The teachers who were mindful of their students, their responses, and their triggers while simultaneously being genuine and empathetic supported students鈥� path to success.
When students are in a space where they feel safe and know they have a caring adult in their corner, it makes all the difference in a child鈥檚 social-emotional state in the classroom.
These observations inspired me to continue to improve my daily social-emotional practices. This past school year, I had students who were facing many challenges: the death of a parent, crippling anxiety, unstable home lives, and more. I knew this before meeting them, but HOW they would respond in the classroom would be up to me to figure out.
In the best classrooms I have been in, a teacher who is in tune with their students isn鈥檛 reactionary to momentary challenges and waits and thinks about how to respond. That can transform student regulation. If I am being honest, this is not something that has come easily to me over the years, but when watching an expert teacher display restraint in a tough moment with a student, you can see how the response of the student shifts because they know that their teacher sees them. There is nothing more powerful than that emotional shift for a student.
A critical part of this patience is establishing the community norms necessary to accomplish a thriving environment for all students. You are modeling for students how to respond to another human that is facing challenges. This helps develop empathy and a community that is in tune with each other. You set the tone in response and support for your students.
I strive each day to build this type of environment in my own classroom. Here are a few small moments of developing this environment over the past year.
On the first day of school, a student started screaming, 鈥淢y dad died!鈥� He was hysterical. The class was upset and scared. I walked over to the student. My head was spinning. My inclination was to try and find a fast fix, but I restrained myself from saying anything. I took a couple of deep breaths. I looked up and saw my collection of stuffed songbirds behind my desk. I began to ask the student if he knew much about cardinals鈥攈ad he ever seen one before? He shook his head. I told him that, for many, cardinals represent a loved one that they鈥檝e lost. When you see one, it is a symbol that someone you miss loves you. I asked him if he would like my stuffed cardinal to sit on his desk and stay with him. He nodded yes.
That bird didn鈥檛 leave his hand for the rest of the day鈥攁nd for many days following. It represented an acknowledgment of all he had lost but gave him strength in those first weeks back to school.
In January, another student lost their mother. On her first day back to school, I greeted her at the door, and she immediately hugged me. After a moment, she looked up at me and said, 鈥淐an I have the cardinal?鈥� It stayed at her desk for the next month.
This class didn鈥檛 need big lessons on SEL in the classroom; they were living it every day. I watched students support each other in quiet ways, with a hug, a check-in, a drawing, or just sitting with them. It was a daily reminder of the importance of how our behaviors can transform how those around us respond.
This spring, the class was getting ready to take a test. I reviewed the instructions when one student started crying because they had forgotten their own headphones. He was inconsolable. My first instinct was to try and get him to stop crying because I felt pressure to start the test. I paused, though, took a couple of deep breaths, knelt next to the student, and suggested he take a break. This gave me a moment to get the rest of the class started while giving this student some space. I knew this outburst was more than about headphones, but what was triggering about them was unknown to me.
As the class began, I opened the door and saw the student sitting outside of the classroom. He shared what was causing him stress, but he wouldn鈥檛 begin without those headphones. I walked back into the classroom, and a student was raising his hand. I walked over, and he shared that the student could use the headphones he brought from home. My heart stopped momentarily. I thanked him and walked back out to the student in the hall, trying to hold back tears. This simple solution was an acknowledgment that his friend had seen him. He came back in and started, his friend鈥檚 headphones on.
The possibilities of building a community that is embedded in SEL is possible. As an educator, it is a journey that changes from year to year. Making decisions about the type of environment you want to develop while keeping in mind that you will need to be flexible each year is essential. The approach you take with students is critical and will make all the difference for your classroom community.
Thanks to Michelle, Melanie, and Leah for contributing their thoughts!
Today鈥檚 post answered this question:
What are the most effective social-emotional-learning strategies that you鈥檝e seen, and why do you think they are so effective?
In Part One, Diana Laufenberg, Marie Moreno, and Marcus Luther shared their recommendations.
Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it鈥檚 selected or if you鈥檇 prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
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