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Cecilia Lederer
Social and Emotional Learning in the English Language Arts Classroom
"We're going to take a risk today," my mentor teacher Ms. Seuling told me, "we're going to make Reese a group leader." Ms. Seuling is teaching S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders with her 8th grade classes. It is a text rich in the real struggles that teens face, but Ms. Seuling doesn't rely on the material alone to teach her students these valuable lessons. By making Reese (a bright but sometimes arrogant and disruptive student) a group leader she was teaching him social and emotional competence in addition to literature.
Social and emotional competence is "the ability to understand, manage, and express the social and emotional aspects of one’s life" (Elias, 1997, p. 2). Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process by which we gain social and emotional competence and it enables students to form caring relationships, solve problems independently, and adapt to adolescence's complexities.
Marlatt tells us "it's all about relationships" (Marlatt, 2020, p. 44) and this advice is an elegant summary of SEL. Zins writes "among the major reasons cited for dropping out of school several involve social and emotional factors: not getting along with teachers or peers (35.0% and 20.1%, respectively), feeling left out (23.2%), and not feeling safe (12.1%)" (Zins, 2007, p. 234). These are problems that could be solved with preventative SEL. Creating a warm and caring environment for students to learn in helps them want to stay in that environment and thrive there.
There is significant evidence that SEL is needed to create a school environment conducive to academic learning. Elias asserts that "when schools attend systematically to students’ social and emotional skills, the academic achievement of children increases, the incidence of problem behaviors decreases, and the quality of the relationships surrounding each child improves" (Elias, 1997, p. 1), which shows the importance of SEL in keeping students in school and learning.
Elias tells us that "processes we had considered pure 'thinking'" are related to emotions in fundamental ways and that feelings of anxiety decrease focus and "flexible problem solving." Elias makes the analogy that the part of our brains involved in emotional response hijack "the thinking brain" (Elias, 1997, p. 3). For these reasons it is crucial that teachers create caring environments if they want their students to succeed with the course material. We care about our students when we accept them regardless of their abilities and create a space for them to flourish (Elias, 1997, p. 6).
There is some debate surrounding where social and emotional competence is best learned. Some believe that SEL should not be taught directly, and rather left to develop unaided (Elias, 1997, p. 9). Resistance can make it difficult to implement schoolwide SEL curriculums, and so teachers and administrators who believe in SEL must find ways to implement it however they can. As a prospective English Language Arts (ELA) teacher I believe that SEL can be taught especially effectively in my classroom, and although I support a dedicated SEL curriculum for entire schools, I will now focus on the ELA classroom as it is the arena in which I can make the largest direct impact on my students.
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), a U.S. based group, is among the lead champions of SEL in schools. (Storey, 2019, p. 123). CASEL defines five key competencies that make up the focus of SEL instruction. They are "self-awareness… social awareness… responsible decision making… self management… relationship skills" (Zins, 2007, p. 238). One of the things that suits ELA to SEL is the ability teachers have to choose material and direct lessons that focus on these aspects. The Outsiders is a great example of an effective SEL text. The novel tells the story of a teen struggling to find his place in an often cold world. The protagonist's struggles are an exaggerated version of the problems the readers face. Talking about those problems in class helps sort things out not only for the characters but also for the students. Storey recounts that "Educator Barbara Tuchman said, 'Books are humanity in print'" (Storey, 2019, p. 124) and that explains why they are such effective SEL tools. Storey goes on to say "research demonstrates that social and emotional skills can be purposefully targeted and unpacked within the context of exploring the literary devices and elements often featured in English curricula" (Storey, 2019, p. 126). So, topics such as "emotion, point of view, identity, character, relationships, individual and group conflict, motivation, decision-making and consequence and allows students to explore, deconstruct, and judge" (Storey, 2019, p. 127).
Storey also argues that ELA provides "natural opportunities to engage in SEL through creative, persuasive or reflective writing, reading and analysis, debate and dialogic talk, or projects and performances" (Storey, 2019, p. 125). Her assessment, especially the suggestion of performances, aligns with many of Elksnin's suggested activities for teaching communication skills, for example a tone of voice exercise where the listeners must guess the emotion based on a reader using different voice tones. (Elksnin, 2003, p. 66-67). In Ms. Seuling's class, the students are split into groups who read aloud. One student plays the narrator, and the others play the characters' spoken dialogue. I have heard many students become acting coaches, directing their classmates how the emotion of text must be read. They may not know it, but in these moments they are engaging in SEL.
If so much depends upon these SEL lessons, why risk making Reese, the bright but difficult student, a group leader? Jones tells us that "Classroom management is not about controlling students or demanding perfect behavior. Instead, effective management is about supporting students to manage themselves throughout daily learning and activities" (Jones, 2014, p. 19). The ideal is that students like Reese will rise to the occasion and fill the shoes of their responsibilities. Ms. Seuling reframes "bad" behavior as learning opportunities when she takes risks like putting Reese in charge (Jones, 2014, p. 21). She has also involved students in their own management by having them agree to a set of respectful classroom norms.
A teacher selecting a particular student makes that student feel special and appreciated. It also gives them something to work towards. When another student, Carlos, was refusing to speak with his group leader, Sophie, Ms. Seuling asked him to show that he could be a leader in the future. This is the request that ultimately led Carlos to listen to and talk with Sophie, so that they could get their work done. Ms. Seuling's groups support the SEL goals of "Development of autonomy, self-discipline, and ethics" and the classroom is constructed so that "mutual respect, cooperation, caring, and decision making are the norm" (Zins, 2007, p. 238). In these respectful groups, students are tasked with analyzing the text as a "community of learners" (Elias, 1997, p. 9), another core concept of SEL. These communities engage in "active learning techniques" (Elias, 1997, p. 2) and are "More likely to work out [their] own way of learning" with an "Improved learning-to-learn skill" (Zins, 2007, p. 241). SEL arms students with the tools they need to succeed in both school and the world outside it by teaching them to rely on their own intelligence and to interact with others with care and kindness. It is important to implement SEL wherever we can, and as an ELA teacher it is my duty to bring it into my classroom.
References:
Elias, M. J., Zins, J. E., Weissberg, R. P., Frey, K. S., Greenberg, M. T., Haynes, N. M., ... &
Shriver, T. P. (1997). Promoting social and emotional learning: Guidelines for educators.
ASCD.
Elksnin, L. K., & Elksnin, N. (2003). Fostering social-emotional learning in the classroom.
Education, 124(1).
Jones, S. M., Bailey, R., & Jacob, R. (2014). Social-emotional learning is essential to classroom
management. Phi Delta Kappan, 96(2), 19-24.
Marlatt, R. (2020). Revitalizing English language arts through social and emotional learning.
English Journal, 109(3), 44-49.
Storey, M. (2019). Engaging minds and hearts: Social and emotional learning in English
Language Arts. Language and Literacy, 21(1), 122-139.
Zins, & Elias, M. J. (2007). Social and emotional learning: Promoting the development of all
students. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 17(2-3), 233–255. https://doi.org/10.1080/10474410701
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Hi Cecilia!
Thanks so much for this writing and analysis. I sincerely appreciate it!
You really demonstrate an admirable command of the research and convey it in a really welcoming and colloquial tone. In short, you distill a lot of research in ways that, well, don’t sound like research in the traditional overstuffed and pedantic way research often comes across. This is really tough to do. I appreciate your success!
I think my biggest suggestion is not based in the specifics of the text itself, but more its provenance. It appears as though Ms. Seuling engages in, whether deliberately or not, SEL-inducing practices. Does it matter if this is done consciously or subconsciously as long as the result is the same? And how will you adopt these practices in your own unique way to propagate your own safe and supportive learning for the other Reeses of the world?
Dino