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What is it?
What is it?
The ability to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures, & contexts. This includes the capacities to feel compassion for others, understand broader historical and social norms for behavior in different settings, and recognize family, school, and
community resources and supports. Such as:
• Taking others’ perspectives
• Recognizing strengths in others
• Demonstrating empathy and compassion
• Showing concern for the feelings of others
• Understanding and expressing gratitude
• Identifying diverse social norms, including unjust ones
• Recognizing situational demands and opportunities
• Understanding the influences of organizations/systems
on behavior
Understanding and following social norms is an essential aspect of Social Awareness.
Prosocial Behavior means taking positive actions that benefit others and are not prompted by personal gain. These behaviors are guided by the norms set up in school and your classroom.
Students with Strong Social Skills
Students with Strong Social Skills
Will have better relationships and friendships
Be more engaged in learning
Can “size up” situations and use the information to understand and work with others.
Some students need more direct instruction until social awareness becomes automatic.
Empathy
Empathy
Empathy is caught not taught!
-Mary Gordon
Empathy is the glue of relationships and is important in our interactions with students.
Neuroscience shows that when we give, our reward system in the brain is activated. We feel good when others like us, respect us, are friendly to us, and when we help other people.
We “feel” what someone else is experiencing, even if we are not experiencing it directly.
If we share someone’s joy, neurons are activated in our brains
When the teacher is happy, the students sense that happiness and become happy, too. If the teacher becomes upset, it will affect the emotions of each person nearby. The emotion will change the brain state of each student
Gratitude Towers
Gratitude Towers
Gratitude Towers is a great STEM activity that also incorporates social-awareness skills.
Materials Needed
Materials Needed
Index Cards
Tape
Pens/pencils
The Steps
Using the Engineer Design Process, students can follow the steps below to build their towers.
Give your students a stack of index cards.
Have your students write one thing they are thankful for on each index card. If they need more index cards, give them more.
Have your students get into groups of two or three.
Have them brainstorm and sketch how they are going to build a tower with their index cards.
Using tape and index cards, allow students to build their tower. The more things they are thankful for, the taller their tower will be.
Allow students to reflect on what they would do differently next time, and then discuss some of the things they are thankful for.
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