9 Ideas to Support ELL's Social Emotional Learning

 by Judie Haynes


Social-emotional learning is a process for acquiring life skills, including how to deal with others, build relationships, and work in an effective manner. ELs are thought to be at a higher risk than their general education peers for social-emotional and behavior problems. There are a number of factors that contribute to this:
ELs don’t yet have the English language and vocabulary skills to express their concerns and problems. They don’t have the language to initiate social interactions with teachers and peers and will often feel cut off from their peers.
ELs often perceive that their classmates are prejudiced against them. This may keep ELs from bonding with their classmates and becoming an integral part of the school community.
ELs may have low self-esteem because they haven’t made friends or are unable to participate in the academic learning of their class.
Here are nine ways that teachers of ELs can help their students develop social-emotional life skills.

1. Directly teach skills that allow ELs to manage stressful situations. It is important to provide a realistic context for these situations (classroom, hallway, playground, cafeteria).

2. If your ELs are exhibiting negative behavior, teach a lesson that includes scenarios that students can role-play. The use of role-play fosters social-emotional learning for ELs. Have students gain knowledge about how to observe their peers for models of correct behavior. This can be direct observation or video.

3. Promote social-emotional learning for ELs’ social skills by using children’s literature. Not only do children’s stories include common difficulties that ELs may have in school, but they include solutions to these problems. A series developed by Teaching Tolerance entitled “Perspectives of a Diverse America” addresses anti-bias and encourages the use of a multicultural curriculum.

4. Have students practice phrases to ease social interactions. For example, learning how to approach a teacher to ask a question or engage a classmate in a conversation can help ELs develop the social skills that they need to bond with their classmates and teachers.

5. Give ELs encouraging messages every day. Messages such as “I like the way you…”, and “I can see you are really trying” can encourage ELs as they are learning. Use gestures to accompany your positive message (thumbs up, pat on the shoulder. high five, smile) so that a child whose English is limited will understand that you are saying something positive.

6. Teach social skills that are valued by the ELs’ families. Involve parents in reinforcing these skills at home. For example, learning how to greet other children and adults in English can increase ELs’ confidence during social interactions. If parents emphasize the same skills in their home language, they will be more meaningful for students.

7. Help ELs acquire pride in their culture. In addition to your annual multicultural fair or food tasting, incorporate pride-building activities into your everyday instruction. Multicultural books are one way to develop this pride. You can also use video and other multimedia resources.

8. Help ELs develop self-esteem by supporting their academic progress. Scaffold
content information so that ELs feel successful in school. Classroom teachers need to learn what ELs should be able to do at different levels of language acquisition so that they are not putting too much pressure on them to reach academic goals that they don’t yet have the language to achieve.

9. ELs may have negative feelings about themselves in response to many situations that they experience at school. Teach ELs positive self-talk so that they can better mange their feelings. Have them write positive messages that they can use in either their home language or English to help build self-esteem.

Podcast

The students created a podcast where they recorded about a book they had read. This activity was differentiated as they read at their level and could successfully complete this assignment and chose parnters who had read the same book.
A "podcast" is a program (as of music or talk) made available in digital format for automatic download over the Internet.
Objective:

Three students created a podcast for a book they recently read. It’s a discussion on the book that was read. They talked about the book using guiding questions that were provided. They interviewed each other and talked about different parts of the book. 

This was a way to assess their speaking skills, and it was great to see their progress over the year.

WIDA LADDER

My awesome Ladder team!

Egypt Hands On Project

Working in pairs, students researched one of the following three topics and created a poster. Materials were provided, but students were free to bring in their own supplies. The poster included a lot of images and facts about their topic. This project was tailored to meet the needs of all learners and they were in groups and supported each other as they worked through the assignment.

Pyramids

• Why were the pyramids important/How pyramids were built /types of pyramids/features of the pyramid (inside and out)/What was inside the pyramid/pyramids around the world.

Mummies

• Religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians/Gods and Goddesses/How mummies were made/embalming process/The decorative coffins of Egyptian mummies /Famous Egyptian mummies/Mummies around the world

Legacies of Ancient Egypt

• famous inventions and achievements
• knowledge and learning

Here is the link to the project rubric

Out of Eden

The class had visitors to view their work on the neighborhood maps and the stories. An introduction was given to the project and our guests walked and read all the student work.

Collaborative Teaching and Planning

These are screen shots of our co-planning document.
The first shot is of our dashboard where we add all the documents that are necessary for our grade level. The EAL accomodations are also on this document. This makes it easy for us to make references to it whenever the need arises.
The second  two shots  are of our planning meetings where are have worked on it together and decide projects, assignments, asessments, due dates, and lessons. 
We have regular co-planning time to make sure that our instruction is focused on the program of studies for our content. We are also very fluid in our planning times as the three of us check with each other regularly and work on to improve upon next lesson. Victoria and Rob take the lead on content, while I take the lead with strategies, materials, and extra resources.
We both teach content in our respective classes and use the co-teaching models.
We are a great team!!!

Neighborhood Map-Out of Eden

The grade 6 students are working on a project this semester called Out of Eden Learn. This was created by project zero at Harvard University following the footsteps of Paul Salopeck. Every 100 miles, Paul stops and records a narrative and takes a picture of the sky, ground, and the sound at that location. As part of the project the students go through six footsteps.At this point they are on footstep two, and the following is an explaination for the acitivity they currently worked on.
The aim of this activity is to have students think about where they live and to know more of their neighborhood.
They sketched a map of their neighborhood or local area, as they see it. They drew this map on paper and took photographs it to upload to the site. Some also used an oline drawing program to create their maps.
The then, wrote a story about their map some of whom described a typical day in their life around their neighborhood, a memorable moment they have had in their home, or a story they have heard from someone else.

Here are some examples of their work along with their story.

~Miyu~

1. I live in Injambakkam on about half year. My house is next to the Futa’s house. And near the VGP and sea.
2. Near the my house, bloom the pink’s flower.
3. This place is construction.

     E.  There are palm trees in a someone’s house.

Hi, my name is Yoobin and I am 13 years old. I have lived in Chennai for a bit more than two years but I still don’t know my neighborhood really well.. To me who lived in South Korea for 11 years, India was quite new to me. Everything was new, such as loads, buildings, and people. When I first moved to India, I never even knew where I would live or where my school would be located. But as time went on and on, two years just flew by quickly.
There are many buildings in my neighborhood. There are huge hotels and apartments around my apartments. One of the hotels in my town is ‘OOOOO Palace’. Sometimes, my mom and I go to the bakery there and buy some macarons for a snack. There is a ‘Subway’ though I never went inside. Sometimes I go to the apartment near my house where my friend lives. Over time, my neighborhood has changed a bit. I feel like the pigeons that disrupt my sleep every morning have increased, but the homeless dogs around my apartment have decreased. I will always remember the smell of my neighborhood which is pleasant all the time.