META TAG

Sunday, February 16, 2020

How SEL Makes a Difference for Your Struggling Students


Hello again, friends!
I am here again to talk to you about a subject that is near and dear to my heart:  Social Emotional Learning (SEL).  

Some people view social and emotional learning (SEL) as about “soft” skills that are not connected to academics. But I am here to tell you that it is a critical part of how we help struggling students through our academic intervention programs. As a teacher, you need to foster connections with your students for students to have a satisfactory amount of work completion. I have found that most of the students in intervention programs are students who struggle to have “traditional” connections to our school. 

One of the things that I do is teach students specific SEL skills each month.  During the first month of school, I generally start with PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.  After all, students need to understand that they are personally responsible for their actions toward classroom materials and assignments, as well as their own behavior for the entire school year. Otherwise, you will have an epidemic of students who consistently "forget" to turn in classwork and homework assignments.  And then when you remind them because you have finally gotten through the last pile of papers to grade, they of course, don't remember where the work is.... or they insist they turned it in!

So during the months of August and September my focus is RESPONSIBILITY.  I have 4 lessons that I weave through the first weeks of school. With all the paperwork that needs to be filled out by parents and then returned to you, the student interest inventories, the getting to know you activities, etc. I find that it is imperative to start with being responsible.  


My Being Responsible Unit has 4 lessons, just like most of my SEL units do.  If you would like to see it click HERE. However, because responsibility is critical for success, I separated one of the lessons into three parts.


Lesson 1
Being Responsible: What it Means, Sounds, Looks, and Feels Like

Lesson 2
Take Responsibility: Making a Choice

Lesson 3
Being Responsible: Following Through
3 Day Lesson-Being Responsible
•Day 1 (part 1) : Why Do We Do Homework?
•Day 2 (part 2): Creating a Homework Space
•Day 3 (part 3): Planning Ahead

I would love to hear how you teach your students to be responsible for themselves and their own learning.  Please comment below and share your thoughts!

Until next time,


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