One afternoon, I got a Facebook message from a
parent of a former classroom student. Normally, I ignore these requests until
the student has graduated, but since this mom was a room helper, I accepted the
request. Moments later, I received a personal message with a letter attached.
I opened the message, and closed it again after
reading the first part. I knew if I kept reading, I would likely be fighting
off tears! I opened it later when
I was alone and read it.
This student written letter affirmed two things:
first, children need adults in their life that care about them socially,
emotionally, and academically. We must teach the whole child–not just the
curriculum. Secondly, the letter was a reminder of how important it is to
explicitly teach children how to cope with emotions and social situations. We
need to model how to treat others, too, and provide a safe classroom climate to
practice and discuss social and emotional issues.
BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. offer amazing
resources to support social-emotional learning (see list below) in meaningful
ways, while inserting some humor and whimsy. I love that I can easily embed the
content into my teaching, using the movie as a springboard and the associated
features and tools, like Challenges, Newsela articles, and Make-a-Map, to
support learning, differentiate, or go deeper into a topic.
Social-emotional learning (SEL), according to
licensed psychologist Jennifer B. Rhodes, is a “broad term referring to how
students regulate their emotions, communicate with others, use compassion and
empathy to understand the needs of other people, build relationships and make
good decisions.” Over the last two decades, social-emotional education has
resulted in improved academic performance, fewer conduct problems, positive
social behaviors, and less emotional distress.
Meta-analysis of 213 rigorous studies and over
270,000 students demonstrated that students who received SEL instruction
performed better than students who did not. The studies revealed an 11 percent
gain on measures of academic achievement, and similar significant improvements
in conduct and discipline, social behavior, and emotional distress.
BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. support the five SEL
competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills,
and responsible decision-making. The short movie length and lovable characters
grab students’ attention while the variety of support resources engage students
in the content, encouraging them to think deeply about the
concepts.
Be sure to check out the following BrainPOP and
BrainPOP Jr. topics that support SEL:
BrainPOP
BrainPOP Jr.
