Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in Middle School

No matter what your role in education- administrator, teacher, student, or parent- it’s more than likely you have heard of the acronym “SEL” at some point during this school year. SEL, otherwise known as “Social-Emotional Learning,” is being touted as an essential educational practice for a solid, well-rounded educational experience for our students.

What is SEL?

Social-Emotional Learning is exactly what its name implies: learning how to be socially and emotionally competent in our mindset, in our reactions, and in our interactions with others. In short, social-emotional learning involves learning how to navigate life’s inevitable ups and downs in a healthy way.

An example of demonstrating social-emotional competence would be taking a deep breath and considering other options before engaging in a conflict with someone else.

Another example would be visualizing positive outcomes when going through a period of academic or personal stress.

Why SEL?

Turn on the news and you’re inundated with stories of people who are either victims of poor decision-making, or facing consequences for the poor decisions that they made for themselves.

The reality is, a single decision can change the course of someone’s life forever.

The basis of SEL acknowledges certain truths about us as humans: that we are emotional beings whose biological makeup predisposes us to certain patterns of thinking and behavior, but that we don’t have to be limited by biology.

Social-Emotional Learning exists on the premise that we can effectively train ourselves to have more helpful patterns of behavior and thought and therefore be apt to make better decisions in our lives.

SEL for Middle School Students

Middle school: awkward school dances, awkward body movements, and lots of drama! As a 7th and 8th grade teacher for the past seven years, I think if there’s ever a good time to work on the social-emotional health of an individual, it would be during middle school!

For most school-aged children, middle school marks the beginning of a time of profound physical and emotional changes. Most enter puberty during these years, or shortly before. They’re suddenly finding themselves in bodies that are taller and more developed, moods that do a whole lot of fluctuating, and a conflicting desire for freedom and independence along with a desire to find a “place” to fit in.

Puberty is the cornerstone of adolescence and marks the transition from childhood to adulthood, and that’s exactly where we find a lot of “tweens”- craving the independence and freedom of adulthood, but still learning how to regulate- dare we say, childish- emotional impulses.

This past school year we saw a record number of violent fights at our school. This year made me realize a couple of things: First, the interrupted schooling that the students experienced during the Covid pandemic profoundly affected their behavior and how they socialized at school. In my opinion, the fluctuating structure during the Covid-19 years created almost a lawlessness in the kids’ behavior this year.

Secondly, I realized how helpful it is to explicitly teach SEL at school. Students learn a lot of their socialization skills at school- the pandemic showed us just how much this is true. It’s worth it then to teach them how to socialize and cope emotionally in healthy, beneficial ways.

SEL Strategies Specifically for Tweens

Mention the phrase “social-emotional learning” to a young adolescent and there’s a high probability they’ll immediately tune out.

This is an age group that is quite capable of deep thinking, but like most youth, the most learning success comes from changing things up and trying to keep it interesting. (And maybe not always revealing that they’re learning SEL.)

What are some strategies/activities that we can encourage?

• Practicing mindfulness
• Role-play
• Journaling
• Breathing techniques
• “Time-out”
• Small group and large group discussions
• Circle time

Food for Thought…

In my opinion, we’ve come a long way as a society by realizing the benefit of actively teaching social and emotional skills at school. SEL wasn’t a thing when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, though I sure wish it was. My own SEL was acquired through navigating my own figurative bumpy road over the years.

SEL isn’t any more or less necessary to learn now for young people than it was back when I was growing up, but with the prevalence of cell phones and fewer face-to-face interactions, we have to ask ourselves- is it harder to learn SEL now than in years past?