8 Ways to Boost Social-Emotional Skills in an Inclusive Classroom

Inclusive classrooms should focus not only on nurturing students’ academic skills, but also on promoting the social-emotional skills all learners will need to make friends, work well with others, and navigate life successfully. In addition to more formal instruction with a program like Strong Kids, educators should teach social skill development through informal activities and strategies throughout the school day. Excerpted and adapted from the popular guidebook Inclusion in Action by Nicole Eredics. here are 8 ideas to cultivate social and emotional skills in your inclusive classroom.

Model manners. Support inclusion in your classroom by modeling inclusive behavior and language. If teachers expect their students to learn and display good social skills, then they need to lead by example. Your welcoming attitude sets the tone of behavior among the students. They’ll learn how to socialize and respect one another from your example. For instance, don’t yell to get students’ attention if you expect students to be respectful of one another. (The culture of kindness you establish now will have a long-lasting impact on your students. This short film by teen filmmaker Kayla Ling perfectly illustrates the beautiful ripple effect of kindness.)

Assign classroom jobs. Classroom jobs provide students with opportunities to demonstrate responsibility, teamwork, and leadership. Jobs such as handing out papers, taking attendance, and being a line-leader can highlight a student’s strengths and build confidence. This practice also helps alleviate the workload! Teachers often will rotate class jobs to ensure that every student has an opportunity to participate.

Role-play. As any teacher knows, it’s important to teach students a concept and then give them an opportunity to practice the skill and demonstrate their understanding. The same holds true for teaching social skills. A common teaching strategy you might use is to have students practice social skills through role playing. Try providing structured scenarios in which the students can act out various social situations, and then offer them immediate feedback.

Arrange a pen pal program. Set up a pen pal program in which students from your class write letters to students in another class at another school. This activity teaches students how to demonstrate proactive social skills through written communication. Especially valuable for introverted personalities, writing letters gives students time to collect their thoughts, and it levels the playing field for students who do not speak. Try providing structured sentence frames in which the students can hold polite conversation with their pen pals, and give guidelines on language usage, topics, and how much personal information to share.

Establish a big buddy system. In terms of social skills, it is just as important for students to know how to communicate with younger or older people as it is with their peers. The “big buddy” system is a great way for students to learn how to interact with different age groups. In a big buddy situation, an older class will pair up with a younger class for an art project, reading time, or games. This type of activity needs to be preplanned and carefully designed with students’ strengths and interests in mind. Meet with other teachers ahead of time to create pairings of students, prepare a structured activity, and establish guidelines for interaction and ideas for conversation topics.

Provide large- and small-group experiences. In addition to their academic benefits, large- and small-group activities can give your students an opportunity to develop teamwork skills, goal setting, and responsibility. Group work can help quieter students connect with others; it also appeals to extroverts and reinforces respectful behavior. Examples of large-group activities are group discussions, group projects, and games. Small-group activities can be used for more detailed assignments or activities. Before any group work takes place in the class, review group behavior and expectations. You might also assign students roles to uphold within the group, such as reporter, scribe, or timekeeper.

Read, write, or tell stories that teach social skills. There are dozens of stories for kids that teach social skills in direct or indirect ways. Stories written expressly for this purpose are known as social stories or social narratives. Find ways to incorporate these stories in your class programs. You can set aside some time each day to read aloud a story to the class or use a story during instructional time. Better yet, have your class write stories with characters that display certain character traits.

Hold class meetings. Class meetings are a wonderful way to teach students how to be diplomatic, show leadership, solve problems, and take responsibility. They also reinforce the value that each person brings to the class. Usually held weekly, class meetings are a time for students to discuss current classroom events and issues (not individual problems). Before a class meeting, you may want to provide your students with group guidelines for behavior, prompts, and sentence frames to facilitate meaningful conversation.

Take good care of yourself and your students, and tell us your favorite tip for boosting social-emotional skills in the comments below!