Social Emotional Learning for English Language Learners
- Mide
- Aug 10, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 5, 2020
Depending on the school setting you will be working in for the upcoming school year, in-person or virtual, English Language Learning (ELL) students may not have the opportunity to be immersed in the traditional, in-person school setting. As a result, additional opportunities to socialize with other ELL students, the larger student population, and school staff is removed. Providing direct counseling lessons on social emotional learning (SEL) will continue their development as an individual and as a member in the larger communities they will live, grow, and succeed in. Additionally, providing direct counseling lessons on SEL at this particular time will allow ELL students to cope not only in a new environment but also in a global health crisis.
Social Emotional Learning Competencies
1. Self-Awareness
Identify emotions
Recognizing strengths
Self-perception
Self-confidence
Self-efficacy
2. Self-Management
Executive function
Self-regulation
Stress-Management
Self-Discipline
Goal Setting
3. Responsible Decision-Making
Identify problems
Analyzing situations
Solving problems
Reflection
4. Social Awareness
Empathy
Respect
Appreciating differences
5. Relationship skills
Communicating clearly
Listening
Resolving conflicts
Cooperation
Resisting negative pressure
Supporting one another
Activities
Individual, Small group, and Classroom school counseling lessons
Use guided songs
Emojis, cartoons, or real life pictures expressing different emotions
Audio stories, TV show clips, movie clips, comic books
I do, we do, you do and additional modeling teaching strategies
Using vocabulary cards with definitions
Using vocabulary words as acronyms to reinforce SEL competencies
Translate advanced, complex words such as “empathy,” “stress,” and “pressure” to the students’ native language to scaffold learning
When planning lessons and choosing activities, it is best practice to cater each component to your specific ELL student population. Please consider their current English language skills, nationalities, ELL teachers’ input, subject teachers’ input, past schooling experience, cultural elements (ex. religion, age, citizenship and immigration status), electronic device accessibility, and internet availability.
The goal with SEL is not only to teach ELL students how to strengthen and utilize their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills but also to ground their current existence and experience in a new environment using a new language.
Considerations:
It should also be stated that SEL lessons whether by the school counselor, teachers, or other school educators for ELL students are also taught concurrently to the larger student population.
Secondly, SEL lessons can be separate, individual classes that a school counselor can teach or be integrated within ELL students’ subject classes such as math or social studies by their subject teachers.
Finally, ELL students refers to students who are currently acquiring English language literacy skills. Not all “newcomers,” meaning students who have recently arrived to the United States, are ELL students.
Sources:
Mide, MissInterEducation
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