Social And Emotional Learning Curriculum Activities

What is Social Emotional Learning in Simple Words:

Do You want to know What is Social Emotional Learning and its different aspects? Luckily, you are at the right place. Well, let me explain it first. It is the process of acquiring and implementing the essential skills, attitudes, and knowledge to understand and manage the following:

Emotions
To maintain relations in a positive way
Achieve and set targets and goals
To make Responsible and effective decisions making
To reflect empathy for people around us.

Therefore, learning these skills, attitudes, and knowledge helps students to strengthen and talk about their emotional and social wellbeing.

In educational institutions, social emotional learning is mainly based on the learning environment. So, it must be supportive, safe, and successful to help students to strengthen their social and emotional skills.

Why Social Emotional Learning Matters a lot for Students?

Social Emotional Learning matters a lot for students because it greatly influences their abilities to learn, grow, and perform in the best way. However, it not only helps them to perform successfully in schools or educational institutions but also positively contributes to their lives. That later supports them in their professional career.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Definition:

SEL Definition according to CASEL:

CASEL stands for Collaborative for academic, social, and emotional learning. According to the definition of CASEL, “SEL is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”

SEL Definition According to IBE:

IBE stands for International Burea of Education. According to IBE, SEL is defined as “Learning how to manage feelings and relationships with others. This includes ways to also recognize emotions and to maintain positive relationships in developing sympathy and empathy. Moreover, it involves the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that learners need to create positive relationships, build resilience, handle challenging situations, make appropriate decisions and care for others.”

Five Key Components of Effective SEL:

CASEL highlighted five key components for effective Social Emotional Learning. These components are considered essential in SEL programming through which it is taught and practiced.

Self-Awareness

The first and foremost component is self-awareness. It helps in recognizing and identifying our own emotions and strengths along with others. For example, self-confidence and self-efficacy.

Social Awareness

Social awareness is related to understanding others’ perspectives by considering their different background, culture, context, and language differences. In short, it explains respect and empathy towards others irrespective of any discrimination.

Responsible Decision-Making

It reflects the ability to make constructive decisions about our own behavior and others in different situations.

Self Management

Self-management is related to controlling our emotions, feelings, behaviors, and thoughts according to the nature of the situation to successfully achieve our goals.

Relationship Skills

As reflected from its name, it helps in making a cooperative and positive relationship with others. Additionally, the ability to communicate effectively with people from different backgrounds to successfully achieve the purpose of communicating.

Activities for Social-Emotional Learning:

However, to exercise SEL, there are some most popular activities for students. That helps them to learn social and emotional skills. Here I am highlighting the 5 most common activities for students in the context of SEL. So, let’s explore them:

Mindfulness

The mindfulness activity helps students to focus on themselves by observing their breathing and body postures. Moreover, it helps them to release their negative emotions and to enhance control of their emotions.

Naming Emotions

This is a very simple but interesting activity. Students are asked to think about their emotions and give them a name and share them. In this way, teachers can understand the emotions of students and take further actions to solve them.

Moreover, give a list of words that explains various emotions apart from sad, happy, angry, etc., so it will help them to think beyond the common words.

Daily Team Activity

At the end of the day, gather all the students and make a circle. And allow them to share their experiences if they apologize and applaud someone. Therefore, along with sharing a lesson to learn from this experience.

This type of activity helps students to learn about relationship skills and equally consider others around them.

Weekend Activity

Arrange weekend activities that cover the manifestation of the upcoming week and the evaluation of the past week. It helps students think about the upcoming opportunities with their classmates and how they perform in the previous week. However, this activity encourages the skills of responsible decision-making.

Practical Creative Work

To practically develop the creativity in students, arrange arts and crafts for students. It helps them in exercising critical or creative thinking abilities. Moreover, arts and crafts inculcate a sense of focus and patience in students. So, Ask students to create something creative from their lessons or what they learn in the classroom.

Best Books for Social Emotional Learning:

However, if you are a bookworm and prefer reading books related to Social Emotional Learning, this section is especially for you. So, here are some valuable suggestions about the best books for social emotional learning: