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B U I L D I N G B L O C K S F O R S O C I A L- E M O T I O N A L L E A R N I N G
8. SEL Projects Man, Maria found herself thinking, it has been one long year! But I’m so proud of how I’ve been able to notice what my students need and can embed it into the day. The end of the year is going much smoother than the beginning did, and I see real change in Daniel and overall SEL growth in all my students. Now that our team has done this work together, it should be easier to put into place next year.
The use of projects and presentations is a great way to engage learners and integrate multiple curriculum areas, including SEL. These presentations could be done independently or within a small group or with a partner. John Hattie (2009), in his book Visible Learning, states that reciprocal teaching is an effective practice used for student learning. In addition to supporting student learning, this work also creates opportunities for students to practice SEL building blocks 2 (reciprocal engagement) and 5 (logical and responsible decision making). Using this learning structure, students learn through the process of creating and teaching concepts and ideas to their peers, and in turn by being taught the concepts and skills through presentations and projects their peers create. Instead of the traditional model of the teacher instructing the students, in this scenario the students are teaching each other, and the teacher is acting as a facilitator. Students can teach their peers and present the social-emotional learning in various formats. Students can create SEL presentations (see figure 4.27) using various digital presentation software and videos. Also, students could present SEL skills and concepts by using visual poster presentations, acting out social situations in skits or plays, or creating their own SEL-focused songs. Students can also engage themselves in learning through various SEL projects that specifically support literacy and writing skills (see figure 4.28). Ideas may include creating comic strips, bookmarks, magazines or newspaper articles, and stories that teach specific SEL concepts or skills.
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One team goal for next year is to increase our use of projects. I shared with my team how Daniel took so much ownership of the project I gave the class at the end of the year, and my teammates also noticed the same for many of the students in their classrooms as well. In fact, it was the most engaged we saw some of our students. As I reflected with my teammates, I wondered aloud if I could have used project-based learning earlier in the year to not just engage Daniel but help him develop his emotional regulation. We all agreed that this would have truly been good for all our students and not just Daniel, so we decided that we would plan for putting project-based learning earlier in the year and find ways to continuously incorporate it into our current curriculum.
