What
is SEL?
When
students work together on project teams, they learn to collaborate,
communicate, and resolve conflicts. Cooperative learning and
character development supports the social and emotional development
of students and prepares them for success in the modern workplace.
Helping students develop a sense of self will ultimately help them to
better manage their emotions, communicate, and resolve conflicts
nonviolently.
Numerous
research reports show that social and emotional learning (SEL) can
have a positive impact on students' academic performance. Some
experts discuss how educating the whole child by including social and
emotional skills with academics is critical for success in school and
in life.
Social
and emotional techniques to help students in academic progress:
In
Mount Desert Elementary School situated in Northeast Harbor, Maine,
has created a learning community that is the basis of the school’s
academic success, different key practices seem crucial to the
school's success:
- Responsive Classroom:
- An approach that helps to build positive relationships: helping students to build positive relationships, manage their behavior, and take an active role in their own learning.
Examples:
- Every morning, the entire class comes together to greet one another, share news,
- Positive language plays a key role.
- Teachers use positive words and tone to promote active learning.
- Using discipline challenges as learning opportunities: Logical consequences play a key role in addressing student misbehavior by sending the message that misbehavior - not the student - is the problem.Example:
- If a student breaks an object, the teacher and student will have a conversation, figure out ways to amend the situation, and then the student will take action to make the situation more positive for everyone involved.
In
this video you can see how teachers at Mount Desert Elementary School
in Northeast Harbor, Maine use Responsive classroom techniques
to get students focuses and ready to learn.
- Adapting curricula to student's learning needs and interests:
- Personalized attention for each student: Classrooms often have a specialist assisting the teacher and providing additional support to students.
- Differentiated Instruction: Many teachers at Mount Desert also report differentiated instruction as an approach that they use to support students' academic success. "Differentiated instruction" refers to modifying the curriculum and learning activities attending to the individual needs and maximizing learning potential.
- Writing from Personal Experiences: the writing component is based on the Reading and Writing Project, it emphasizes an autobiographical approach to writing, which uses "small moments" to connect a student's writing to his or her own personal experiences. Students begin writing by thinking about a personal experience that generated strong feelings.
- Making Math Relevant: Mount Desert students in grades 6-8 use MathScape, a math curriculum that connects math to human experience. A typical lesson plan uses real-world examples and data to engage students.
- A community-based learning atmosphere: Research supports the role of school community in improving student learning, students who felt a sense of belonging were more highly motivate.
- The Importance of Teacher Autonomy: An important aspect of the culture at Mount Desert is allowing teachers to have autonomy to determine what works best in their classrooms for promoting students' learning. Teachers unanimously describe the culture at Mount Desert as one in which every person is dedicated to ensuring students' success.
Example:- In one classroom, a teacher has found that doing yoga helps her students focus between the morning meeting and their first class, which is writing
Noelia
Moral and Carla Prieto
Links:
