When students learn to both regulate their emotions and apply executive function strategies, they become more engaged learners who are better at managing stress, staying focused, and solving problems. Marilee Sprenger shows how SEL and EF work together in various subject areas.
Young adult novels with multiple narrators offer kids the opportunity to analyze an engaging writing technique and also experience the social-emotional lives of various characters. ELA teacher Kasey Short includes sample questions, activities, and lots of title suggestions.
Grounded in research and real-world situations, The Social-Emotional Learning Playbook by Nancy Frey, Douglas Fisher and Dominique Smith supports the social-emotional growth in you, your students and your community, writes Anne Anderson, calling the book “a great PD resource.”
Patty McGee invites teachers to infuse some “Harry Styles magic” into social-emotional learning. In countless ways, Styles’ lyrics can be surprisingly fun and effective to build emotional IQ, acting as springboards for exploring and learning about our emotional landscape.
Ever since Gilgamesh ran into challenges, humans have recorded stories that thrill us and help us gain social emotional skills. Stephanie Farley shares ELA activities that help students understand characters and learn the elements of SEL through projects they do together.
Boys and young men are in crisis. Middle school is where negative masculinization takes root, creating social pressures that can impair mental health and lead to marginalization and harmful misogynistic beliefs. Author and former principal Jason Ablin shows how SEL helps.
Author Thomas Hébert recommends K-12 books he believes can help gifted students develop SEL skills. Vignettes from six classrooms demonstrate ways to use text selections effectively. Reviewer Amy Estersohn found the book’s appendix of 160+ suggested texts most valuable.
When students learn to identify and name the ideas and emotions in poetry and share their own emotions through writing poems, they better understand their feelings and build empathy and understanding for others. Teacher leader Kasey Short shares methods and lots of poems.
Book Reviews / Social & Emotional Learning
by MiddleWeb · Published 03/16/2023 · Last modified 04/01/2023
Social-Emotional Learning Starts with Us by DiFazio and Roeser offers SEL stories from educators, experts, and students, along with grade-level activities. The authors not only share their knowledge and expertise, writes consultant Anne Anderson, they share their hearts.
If educators are serious about teaching critical skills and serving the whole child, they need to get serious about SEL education and “make it a core and central organizing principle for middle school programs,” writes teacher, principal and leadership mentor Jason Ablin.
