Making Social and Emotional Learning Relevant to Students

Using Art, Music, and a Bit of Science to Boost SEL Skills

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Inspired Ideas

6 min readOct 11, 2021

We recently conducted a survey among educators and parents to learn their thoughts on social and emotional learning (SEL). From that survey, we learned that familiarity of SEL among teachers is on the rise, and parents and teachers both largely see SEL as a critical component of instruction. As social and emotional learning becomes a staple of K-12 instruction, it’s time to consider its future and work toward what’s next for SEL implementation.

To start that conversation, we recently held a webinar called Social and Emotional Learning in Context, where speakers explored how we can better consider the context in which students learn, including all the factors that make up students’ lived experiences, such as equity, learning differences, and culture, and apply social and emotional learning with that context in mind. Our speakers discussed why it’s important to make SEL relevant for learners and detailed how they employ avenues like art, music, social media, and even science to connect with students and arm them with lifelong SEL skills.

🌟 This webinar was the first in a four-part speaker series on SEL. Register for the remaining webinars, held each Wednesday in October, today!

Experts on the webinar included Jenna Moniz, educator and Education Program Support at the HeartMath Institute, Tim Needles, educator and author of STEAM Power: Infusing Art into Your STEAM Curriculum, and Lisala Beatty, Director at Music and the Brain.

To see the full webinar, check out the recording below. Or read on for some quick takeaways and highlights from our speakers.

We’ve come a long way with social and emotional learning. Where are we now?

For many educators, it’s been a long journey to understand, prioritize, and integrate SEL. So much has changed and evolved: where are we now?

The survey we conducted can help us better understand the current SEL landscape, and get a pulse on what educators need to better implement SEL. Here are a few of the elements we learned:

Teacher familiarity of SEL has risen 11 percentage points since the last time we conducted an SEL survey, from 83% in 2018 to 94% in 2021.
Teachers are much more knowledgeable about their school’s/district’s plans for teaching SEL skills (91%) than they were in 2018 (77%).
87% of parents believe SEL is important in helping children navigate today’s world.

COVID-19’s impact on SEL is a concern for educators.

A majority of educators in our survey said COVID-19 and/or the shift to remote learning has caused their students emotional distress and problems with attendance. Administrators and teachers cite many students have “given up” on school and show signs of depression, loneliness, and anxiety. Teachers also find that student confidence has plummeted, and it is easier for them to disengage from learning.

Most educators believe SEL will be important to help students transition to in-person learning and help deal with family losses due to COVID-19. Educators believe that SEL will help provide short term benefits such as reduced behavioral problems (96–97%), improved grades (91–95%), and less emotional distress (96–97%).

When it comes to thinking about the evolution of SEL and putting SEL into context of student’s lived experiences, recent trauma is key to consider in instruction and relationships with students.

What does it mean to put SEL in context?

Here’s what we know: students need support now more than ever. As illustrated during remote learning, home, school, family, and community are inextricably linked. And finally, differences in experience and learning needs matter. All of these factors should influence the way we approach SEL in the classroom today.

Social and emotional learning has always been about educating the whole child — now, we’re considering how that whole child exists, grows, and learns within their whole world.

The goal of our webinar was to put social and emotional learning in context by considering the all the differences among students, including sociocultural elements of students’ learning and experience. There are a lot of ways to think about SEL in relation to all the other factors that influence a child’s experience, such as the idea of whole child education.

What are these contextual factors?

Experiences during COVID-19 are a very specific set of contextual factors that influence the SEL supports a student needs, and a critical example for this school year. Other examples of contextual factors include:

Educational equity and equitable communities, which we know are inextricably linked to SEL
Access to resources in school and at home
Culture, family, and community: culturally responsive SEL is critical!
Academic learning and learning differences
The kids themselves! Interests, passions, and traits: what makes them human

How do you teach SEL in context?

That was the question our three speakers explored through their classroom practices centered in art, music, and science. These educators and thought leaders all use methods of expression and connection to get to know students, help students get to know themselves a bit better, and ultimately arm students with the SEL competencies they need to thrive in their individual paths, no matter the challenges they face.

Here’s a quick recap of the strategies and approaches they discussed:

Leveraging What We Know About the Heart

Jenna Moniz, a talented and passionate educator formerly at Broward County schools, discussed her work with the HeartMath Institute, and what we know about the importance — and even intelligence — of the heart. (To learn more, check out the HeartMath Institute’s site!) Jenna emphasized the importance of giving students room to listen to their heart and explore what they feel.

Jenna recommends teachers hold daily check-ins with students, provide them with opportunities to communicate with their peers, and give them plenty space to express themselves, rather than repressing their emotions: through art, music, and dance!

For more from Jenna, be sure to watch the full webinar.

Reach and Empower Students with Music

Lisala Beatty from Music and the Brain focused on the ways in which her partner schools use music curriculum to foster CASEL’s core competencies. By incorporating listening, analyzing, collaboration, and accomplishment into each lesson, Music and the Brain helps students build an identity, thereby fostering self-awareness and self-management competencies. It also creates a sense of belonging in the classroom, with drives the competencies social awareness and relationship skills. Music can also build student agency, which corresponds to CASEL the competency of responsible decision making.

Find more resources on Music and the Brain here, and apply to be a partner school here.

Make SEL Meaningful to Students and the Community with Art

Finally, STEAM educator Tim Needles shared the many ways he uses art to foster important SEL skills in students and even connect home, school, and community.

Tim advises that educators be open to adopting a creative mindset in all that they do, and foster that creative mindset in students. Creativity can help us adapt, improvise, and view challenges as opportunities.

Tim shared a few of the art projects he has completed with his students to help them adopt a creative mindset and express their experiences and emotions, including visual reminders of gratitude focused on an individual idea for each student, murals displayed in the classroom, and cards to share with the school community. Tim’s students also use technology to create visual representations of their experiences and take to social media to share those pieces with their communities.

For more from Tim, check out his book, STEAM Power: Infusing Art into Your STEAM Curriculum.

Be sure to watch the full webinar above, and review the results of our SEL survey to get inspired about the future of social and emotional learning in your classroom or school.