SEL Spotlight
March 2021
March Focus: Social Awareness
Social Awareness Leads to Success!
Social awareness is a person's ability to understand, appreciate, and empathize with others, especially those from other backgrounds or points of view.
The benefits of social awareness skills are far reaching. Modeling and promoting social awareness in the classroom is essential to helping students become well-rounded, successful individuals. Teaching social awareness helps students learn to manage their emotions, feel good about themselves, and achieve their goals.
Social awareness is something each and every student needs!
Social Awareness Skills We Can Model and Teach:
- Showing respect for others
- Identifying social cues (verbal, physical) to determine how others feel
- Recognizing emotions
- Taking others’ perspectives
- Demonstrating empathy and compassion
- Appreciating diversity
- Showing concern for the feelings of others
- Understanding and expressing gratitude
- Recognizing strengths in others
- Embracing individuals' unique differences
- Identifying diverse social norms, including unjust ones
- Recognizing situational demands and opportunities
- Read body language and facial expressions
- Caring about and being motivated to contribute to the well-being of one’s family, friends, school, community, the environment, and the greater good
- Appreciating the roll that each person plays in the larger picture
- Valuing relationships and making strides to maintain them
Teach Students to Ask Important Questions:
- Are my behaviors and actions respectful to others?
- How would I feel if I were in that situation?
- What would I want someone to say/do?
- What will someone else feel when I say/do this?
- Is what I am doing building or improving the relationship?
- How does my mood or tone affect those around me?
Make Empathy Important!
Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand, or feel from another individual's perspective. Empathy helps build connection and encourages compassion. Empathy is essential to building classroom culture and successful relationships. Successful individuals need to be empathetic. It is the foundation for building and maintaining relationships and learning to effectively collaborate with others. Being able to appreciate and understand others' perspectives is a life skill that everyone needs.
Studies indicate that empathy is linked to:
- Stronger/better relationships
- More/better classroom engagement
Higher academic achievement
Better communication skills
Lower likelihood of bullying
Less aggressive behaviors and emotional disorders
More positive interactions
Positive conflict resolution
Knowing this, it is imperative that our students see us act with empathy toward them and each other. Empathy needs to be a focal point in our classrooms every day!
Check out these articles for more on the importance of empathy in education:
What Do You Get?
Social Awareness Classroom Strategies
Active & Constructive Responding
(transformingeducation.org)
Classroom Service Projects
Part of social awareness is encouraging students to serve and do things that benefit others and their community. Service activities are a fun and meaningful way to connect your students to the word around them. By helping others, a class service project can also help students develop empathy. Here are a few service project ideas you can do with your class to make your school and community better places:
- Hold a clothing, books, or canned foods drive for a local shelter
- Create and send cards to a local nursing home
- Clean up an area around your school
- Create care packages for families in need around the holidays
- Create care packages or cards for those serving in the military
- Send thank you notes/cards to essential, frontline workers
- Make get well cards for students that are out sick
Similar or Different
- a) identify what their teammates have in common
- b) identify what differences exist between teammates
- c) decide what they can teach the class about their discoveries
Interest and Identity Bingo
- Walks to school
- Sings as a hobby
- Plays a specific instrument
- Wants to be in a certain career field
- Loves to read
- Was born in another country
- Has lived in a foreign country
- Has a specific unique talent
Bingo spaces can be adapted based on reading/grade level and your own students' unique perspectives. This will help students learn more about the people in their classroom and their social diversity. Students need to realize that it is important to be aware of everyone's abilities, interests, and backgrounds. Using bingo to start this discussion is fun and engaging.
Diversity Story Time
Teaching diversity in the classroom is an essential component of social awareness. During read-aloud story times, try to pick books about people of different cultures, race/ethnicities, religions, and other backgrounds. After reading one of these books to your students, discuss how differences make the world a better place and ask what they learned from the story.
Here are a few popular children's books about diversity to get you started:
- It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr
- Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
- The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler & David Lee Csicsko
- Families, Families, Families! by Suzanne Lang
- Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match by Monica Brown
(Waterford.org)
Perspective Poems
Social Awareness Video Resources:
Continuing Education Department
We would love to hear from you! If you have SEL ideas that you are currently using with your students, we would like to spotlight your strategies and share your success. Please let us know what is working well for you.
Email: russlerr@greenvilleisd.com
Website: https://www.greenvilleisd.com/Domain/946
Location: 4004 Moulton Street, Greenville, TX
Phone: 903-408-4464