What is Social Emotional Learning?

Let’s face it, not every kid develops the same way, and not every kid goes home to a well adjusted functional family where they get all the attention that they need, their parents help with homework, and they are well-informed about empathy and conflict resolution. For us teachers, it’s a sad and humorous thought. The fact is that social emotional learning (SEL) helps increase academic achievement and improves behavior! This is why SEL so important for the classroom. So, what is SEL and what is an SEL curriculum?

“SEL is the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.” https://casel.org/what-is-sel/

Wow. That’s a lot. You might be thinking, “No! Not another thing that I have to do in class. There is enough I need to do as a teacher.” But there is a good chance that you are already doing a lot of SEL in your classroom. Additionally, there are so many programs and easy classroom integrations for every grade level. Keeping this in mind, SEL is not a huge time investment.

There are 5 components, and 5 guiding principles for SEL set by CASEL, an organization that invests in research and programs for evidenced based SEL.

1. Self-awareness: This is teaching your students to better understand themselves, and increase their overall self-esteem. It helps them to be honest about what they are good at, and where they need improvement. This component encourages students to be confident in their skills, be optimistic about what they can learn, and keep trying even when it’s difficult. Click HERE for self-awareness resources.
2. Beyond self-awareness, is the component of self-management. Self-management is the ability know your strengths and weaknesses, then the next step is to know how to effectively manage stress, emotions, impulses, and motivate yourself to set and achieve goals. Click HERE for self management resources.
3. Social awareness is most overemphasized of the SEL components in my school. It is ultimately about really creating a classroom community. Empathy can be hard to teach, but there are programs like Sanford Harmony that are awesome for lower elementary. Additionally, social awareness is the ability to understand and get along with others of different ability, backgrounds, and cultures. (See–I knew you were already doing SEL in your classroom!) 
4. Relationship skills. This is to help students communicate, listen, cooperate, resist peer pressure, conflict resolution, and seek and offer help when needed. A lot of adults I know, still have a lot to work on here… Of course, many relationship skills lessons in elementary fall under what you might call character development, and you can find pretty any quality or virtue in lesson form for any grade level on TPT. Check out my character development lessons there!  Click HERE for relationship skills resources.
5. Responsible decision-making: How many times a day do you say, “Is that a good choice?” This is a SEL question. However, it’s a higher ability, and is buffered by kids ability to do the other 4 SEL skills. Making constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions requires a bit of personal experience, appropriate social interactions, knowledge of what good and bad decisions are, personal safety, and social norms.  Click HERE for responsible decision-making resources.

Social Emotional Learning is super important for the classroom, and there are so many resources that you can use online to really get the right fit for your style and your students. 

Click here to see over 40 SEL/Social Emotional Learning resources that I think you’ll love!

If everyone had just a bit of those 5 skills up there, the world would really be a better place.