How to Build SEL Skills Through Writing

The best way to prepare our students to be successful learners and citizens of society is to support their social-emotional needs. When students get in tune with their inner well-being through social-emotional learning (SEL), the learning environment of our classrooms changes entirely. It can go from frustrating and confusing to simplified and exciting. If you’re feeling apprehensive about integrating SEL into your lessons, Mobile Ed has several ways to blend SEL into your language arts lesson plans.

Though discussions around SEL were heightened as a result of the pandemic, we've found SEL to be one of the most important aspects of modern education. Social-emotional learning is the educational approach that helps students learn important social and emotional skills such as:

• • • Developing self-awareness
    • Resolving conflict
    • Managing emotions
    • Making smart decisions
    • Achieving goals
    • Learning empathy
    • Developing/maintaining healthy relationships 

So what does writing have to do with social-emotional learning? Writing is a space where students learn to use their voice and is one of the first opportunities students get in school to explore their inner emotions and express themselves. Not only are writing exercises important for a student's academic career, but it's also an imperative part of learning how to process information processing and communicate. 

Teaching SEL in schools has immense benefits for students both inside and outside of the classroom. Among other personal benefits, including increasing academic performance and improving mental health, it’s also proven that implementing SEL standards reduces levels of bullying in schools. But not only can writing improve social-emotional skills, but the opposite is also true; the more aware students are aware of themselves, their emotions, and their relationships, the more their writing can improve. They could be considered two sides of the same coin.  

CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, is the most widely used SEL standard in schools in the United States. Over half of the country has adopted these standards in their schools to meet social-emotional learning goals. There are five divisions of social-emotional learning determined by CASEL: self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, and social awareness. Here are some simple classroom writing activities to help build up these skills in our students. 

   Self-Awareness

• • • • Emotion Vocabulary: Helping students name their emotions gives students the power to understand and express them. 
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      • Journaling: Emotional awareness is a skill that can be strengthened with practice, and journaling helps students recognize and identify everyday emotions in a private setting. 
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      • Personal Narrative: Looking back on personal experiences is an effective way to learn about our habits and what makes us ourselves. 

   Self-Management 

• • • • Setting Goals: Writing out goals is a great way to reflect on one's values. This can also help students think about how they can achieve a desired result by brainstorming, planning ahead, and asking for help. 
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      • Short Stories: Made-up stories leave room for students to explore complex situations and situations that may reflect their own lives. Solving a fictional problem may help students solve a real one. 

   Responsible Decision-Making

• • • • Creating Characters: Students can learn about human emotions and problem-solving by creating a character and putting them into a familiar or unfamiliar situation. Students now have the opportunity to explore complex situations and emotions through a fictional character. 
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      • Personal Narrative: Reflecting on personal experiences can help students evaluate how certain decisions or reactions may have consequences. 

   Social Awareness

• • • • Perspective Exercises: Have students write about a situation from different perspectives. This promotes empathy and problem-solving and can give students a leg up as they develop relationships in their lives. 
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      • Thank-You Notes: These are an easy place to start for teaching students the practice of communicating gratitude and appreciation. Practice can help make expressing gratitude a healthy habit. 

   Relationship Skills

• • • • Peer Feedback: This opportunity teaches students how to provide positive constructive feedback in an effective and encouraging manner. It may take some practice, but this skill will benefit students inside and outside the classroom for years to come.  
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      • Collaborative Writing: Collaborative writing assignments can help students learn to work together while practicing communication and problem-solving. 
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      • Letters: Let students have some fun writing letters as they practice self-expression and communicating for a specific audience. 

Mobile Ed has developed a new school assembly designed to help educators teach social-emotional learning skills. In Quest for Kindness, students become adventurers as they go on an exciting quest in search of the Key to Kindness! The “legendary treasure" will unlock what it means to be kind to the people around us. With audience participation and interactive challenges, students won’t want this adventure to end! 

Quest for Kindness includes information about: 

• • Identifying emotions
  • Stress management
    
  • Empathy
  • Respect
  • Bullying and cyberbullying prevention 
  • Bystanders v. upstanders

• • Contact Mobile Ed for more information.