Overall, I have learned how SEL is a whole-child
approach to education. I have learned
about how it really focuses on giving students the tools that they need in
order to navigate the world—not just within the confines of the classroom—but beyond
it and long after graduation. Initially,
in learning about the five components of SEL, I was wondering how I could
possibly include this in a high school ELA classroom. Unfortunately, with the Regents Exam, I feel
like I’m also backtracking to try to fill gaps and give students the best chance
possible of passing the exam so that they can graduate. A lot of times when I hear about these initiatives
and it doesn’t present ways to get students reading and writing, it is
difficult for me to focus on them (especially since so many fall into the unfortunate
trap of only showcasing how the initiative works with elementary-age
students). However, several of the SEL
videos discussed little things that I already do and can elaborate on. I really liked how they discussed that for
something like building Social Awareness, we may need to frontload some
discussions and get students thinking about how to read body language and agree
or disagree with each other in an appropriate way that isn’t as reactionary as
what they may be seeing online. I also
liked the examples that it gave for group projects. Since coming back from the pandemic even
classroom discussions have been difficult to foster because students are used
to hiding behind a screen and not verbalizing anything out loud. I think having the structured groups, roles,
and goals could be helpful. Even if the
end product isn’t great, it can give them that boost in understanding how to
work with others around them and beyond their natural friend groups.
