Break it Down For Me
Back to: Social and Emotional Learning
Photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash
Social Emotional Learning is a BIG idea. It’s really the belief that children don’t become healthy, functioning adults by happenstance. It’s the audacious notion that life skills: the way we interact with each other, the way we think about ourselves, the way we exist in the world, the tools we use to solve problems and show resilience– these are all things that can be, and should be, taught.
You may have noticed from the article on the previous page that different organizations and different people organize the skills in different ways. The CASEL 5 (or 6) is an example that we will look at in the next lesson.
I, too, am going to take a stab at organizing the SEL skills. I’d like to offer what I call, the 3 Umbrella Skills.
The 3 Umbrella Skills give us what I think is an easier way to think about all of the soft skills that fall under Social Emotional Learning. If you are just getting started with SEL, or just considering getting started with SEL, the 3 Umbrella Skills are a great place to start:
- Authentic Connection With Others- Our entire being depends on our ability to connect emotionally with other people. But, as you know, people are complicated! We can be difficult and moody and, for some of us, hard to understand. SEL gives us the tools to navigate this.
- Self Awareness and Identity- “Who am I” is one of the most fundamental questions we can ask ourselves. It guides our decision-making and effects our ability to form strong relationships.
- Emotional Regulation – Being a human is hard. We go through incredible hardship in our short lives. Having skills to regulate our emotions as we ride the waves of our lives gives us a sense of autonomy and power.
As we continue on, we are going to keep these 3 Umbrella Skills in mind and we are going to see how every SEL skill can comfortably live somewhere under these umbrellas.
If you are looking for the Broken Down version of SEL- the Umbrella Skills are it.