Connecting the Dots between Academic and Social-Emotional Learning with Literacy

Authors

Allison Phillippe, Michigan State UniversityFollow

Abstract

This article emphasizes the importance of supporting Social Emotional Learning (SEL) with literacy instruction, which could benefit both the academic and emotional success of students in your classroom. Currently in education there is a growing rate of students who have experienced trauma and could greatly benefit from SEL (Price & Ellis, 2018). The ability to incorporate SEL into current literacy instruction can help ensure we are meeting the individual needs of each student. This article will begin by defining SEL and explain its growing importance in education today. Then, it will discuss how social-emotional and academic learning are connected. Finally, it will provide suggestions for teachers to implement SEL into their current literacy instruction to help students apply social-emotional content from text to their own lives. This article will focus on supporting SEL with interactive read-alouds, small group instruction, and class discussion focused on character analysis. SEL and Literacy instruction can overlap to set students up for long-term success both academically and emotionally.

Author Bio

Allison Phillippe was an elementary teacher for nine years and is currently a doctoral student in the Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education Program at Michigan State University. She is interested in teacher preparation and the connection between literacy and social-emotional learning. She can be reached at phill911@msu.edu.

Recommended Citation

Phillippe, Allison (2021) "Connecting the Dots between Academic and Social-Emotional Learning with Literacy," Michigan Reading Journal: Vol. 53: Iss. 3, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mrj/vol53/iss3/5