We know the importance of teaching social emotional learning (SEL) skills, but just exactly how do we do it and plan for it? This blog will talk you through ideas and strategies to create a successful and engaging social emotional learning block that fits the needs of your learners.
So, if you don't have an SEL block it may be hard to even consider how to start planning for one. Here are a few things to consider when planning your lesson plans and format:
Consider the needs of your student! Considering the needs of your student are important when planning a social emotional learning block. What skills are we trying to teach? What is important for them to be more successful? If I know my students need to work on responding appropriately to their peers, I may build in a social game station. If I know my students need increased sensory input and exploration, I may build in a sensory station. Laying out what the ultimate goals of your SEL learning block are can be helpful to organizing.
How do they learn best? Considering the learning styles that yield the highest engagement can help to determine the format of your SEL block. Do your students benefit from small group instruction? Do they enjoy whole group instruction with an interactive activity? Do your students do best when integrating technology into their learning time? Do you need to do stations? What resources do you have access to? Making a list of the best learning environments and resources for your students could help to elicit a more impactful instruction.
Get creative! There is no one right way to plan for an SEL block. If this is something new you are introducing, start small and build up! Build on behavioral momentum. Make the activities fun, engaging and something they want to do! The more engaged your students are, the more likely they are to learn new skills and apply them.
Now, let's plan out your week. I've found the most impactful SEL instruction to be predictable and routined. Plan out what your week will look like. This helps to make instruction easier to plan for when it fits a predictable routine and structure. Here was my weekly format in my classroom:
Monday: Introduce the skill with a mini lesson, read-aloud or video!
Tuesday: Create an anchor chart or explore and analyze scenarios related to the skill
Wednesday: Do a group activity together to explore the skill.
Thursday: Independent activity or craft to reinforce the skill
Friday: A SEL game that targets the skill
Here is a breakdown of an SEL lesson I planned for a week! The social skills lesson was expected versus unexpected behaviors. You can find the link to this lesson here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Expected-vs-Unexpected-Behaviors-8662014
Monday: We read the book 'No, David!' by David Shannon. After reading the book we completed a worksheet where decided if parts of the book showed David doing expected or unexpected behaviors.
Tuesday: We created an anchor chart using photos deciding if they were expected or unexpected behaviors. We used this anchor chart the rest of the week to reference our skill through out the day!
Wednesday: We used these popsicle stick thumbs I created to look at pictures and decide if they were expected or unexpected behaviors. Adding this interactive component got my students really excited about practicing the skill.
Thursday: our independent activity consisted of this color by scenario worksheet. Students were to determine if the behaviors were expected or unexpected by coloring them green or red. Once done with this independent sheet, they had other printables to choose from!
Friday: this lesson for Friday involved a Jeopardy style game the students loved! We split into small groups and students kept track of their scores based on questions they answered correctly.
Having a lesson like this can guide your core instruction and SEL focus for the week. I did this lesson format every week as my direct instruction component for whole group lesson. Along with a whole group component, I implemented stations. Students would come to me for direct instruction on the lesson Monday-Thursday and filter through stations. Here are examples of station rotations I did during my SEL block:
Centervention: I used this website as a daily station rotation for my students! They LOVED this website. This allowed me to run SEL stations and do a smaller group of direct instruction while some students were on the computer. There is a K-2 and 3-5 component to help differentiate instruction. It's not a free website, but worth every penny!
Boom Cards: Again, anytime to be intentional about my technology instruction I did so. There are so many social-emotional focused boom cards for students that can reinforce or review any skills you are teaching. Download the boom cards app for free and then head to TPT to search for boom cards (either free or paid) to implement during your SEL block. Boom Cards can be done on a classroom tablet or computer.
Game station or game day: Every Friday was game day for us! My students looked forward to social skills on Friday. We would play a game that reinforced the skill we were working on or sometimes even just played a game to work on other various skills. Uno, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders were a few of our favorites!
You can find the game pictured here in this SEL lesson in my TPT store or in my growing Social Emotional Learning Curriculum Bundle: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Emotional-Regulation-Sensations-4482827
Sensory Activity: For some of my students. the SEL block was another way to embed sensory supported activities in to develop familiarity with sensory supports and improve their regulation. We sometimes had a puzzle station, fidget station, sensory-bin station or a sensory-supported craft! Check out my amazon store to see links to these sensory supported tools I would use as stations: https://www.amazon.com/shop/theedqueen
Independent Activity: For the years, I had students who were really independent we implemented an independent work station. This consisted of the supplemental materials in the lesson or various other activities the students could do independently. For some of my kids, drawing or playing with toys was their current means of independence so that is what they did! Again, be creative.. there is no one right way to plan for an SEL block.
I recognize planning SEL instruction is just one more thing added to your plate. So, let me plan it for you! Check out my growing Social Emotional Learning Curriculum bundle in my TPT store. All my my lessons are planned in a similar format to this blog and contain 1-3 weeks worth of instructional content depending on the lesson. The expected versus unexpected lesson can be found in this growing bundle as well.
This blog post contains affiliate links.