Social and Emotional Learning 

Social and Emotional Learning 

Make sure to check in with your supervisor to know if the Social and Emotional Learning activities are required for your summer experience. 

Please note, that the information provided below might be slightly different from what you receive from your supervisor. You should refer to the resources and instructions sent from your supervisor if different from what is shared below. 

Social and Emotional Learning Questions and Answers

What is Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)? 

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. 

What is a huddle? 

A huddle is a virtual or in-person meeting with your supervisor and fellow GDYT participants. SEL Huddles will happen once a week. During the huddle, you will learn about a skill and complete activities. Your supervisor will also review the habit practice required for that week. Reach out to your supervisor to find out what day and time your huddles will take place. 

What will I learn?

Each week will focus on one of the following topics: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision Making.

What is habit practice? 

Habit practices are activities that you will complete at home on your own. The habit practice will help you practice the social and emotional skills that you learned about that week in your huddle. 

Who do I reach out to if I have questions?

All Social and Emotional Learning questions can be answered by your supervisor.

Week One 

Habit Practice Options 

Option 1: Listen to your heart

Find a song that has lyrics that describe the emotions you have been feeling over the past year. Depending on your organization's policies, ask youth to find the radio version or do not sensor at all. Answer the following questions by writing or recording a video

➔ What is the song?

➔ What emotions are identified in the song (pick at least 3)?

➔ How do each of these emotions relate to you? What experiences have you had that brought each of these emotions out?

➔ When you feel these emotions how do you express them?

Option 2: Personality Color Survey

Complete this ​short personality survey​. Answer the following questions by recording a video or writing. After you get your results click ‘start reading’ under your percentages. You will want to focus on the introduction, strengths and weaknesses, and career path sections. 

➔ What is your personality type?

➔ Do you agree or disagree with the answer? Why?

➔ What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of your personality?

➔ What did you learn about the career path for this personality type?

Option 3:  Social Identities - Seeing Me (Positive Affirmations)

Social identification is important because it influences how we see ourselves and how we  interact with others. If we have a positive view of our identity within a group, we are more likely to relate well to others in that group and feel positive emotions about ourselves.

Looking at this list of possible social identities:

➔ Ability - Mental and/or physical

➔    Age

➔    Ethnicity

➔    Gender

➔    Race

➔    Religion

➔    Sexual Orientation

➔    Socio-Economic Status/Class

Create a Positive Affirmation (A positive phrase which you repeat to yourself which describes how you want to be) for at least three of the identities above.

Examples:

Race: I am a beautiful Black woman who deserves love, respect, and kindness.

Socio-Economic status: I have enough. I am enough.

Ethnicity: I am a product of my ancestors. I walk in their light daily.

Option 4: Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose your own way to practice one of the power skills you learned this week.

➔ Integrating personal and social identities

➔ Identifying personal, cultural, and linguistic assets

➔ Identifying one’s emotions

➔ Demonstrating honesty and integrity

➔ Linking feelings, values, and thoughts

➔ Examining prejudices and biases

➔ Experiencing self-efficacy

➔ Having a growth mindset

➔ Developing interests and a sense of purpose

After completing this activity, write or record your answers to the following questions:

➔ Which power skill did you practice?

➔ How did you practice the skill?

➔ What did you learn?

Week Two

Habit Practice Options

Option 1: Self-Management Quotes or Poems

Get on google! Find a poem or quote that speaks to you about what we have discussed this week or create your own quote/poem on how you see self-management.

➔ What was the quote/poem that you found or created?

➔ Why did you choose or create this quote/poem? What inspired you?

➔ How does reading the quote/poem make you feel?

Option 2:  Personal Mantras 

A personal mantra is an affirmation to motivate and inspire you to be your best self. It is typically a positive phrase or statement that you use to affirm the way you want to live your life. Think about the strengths that you listed in your tree of life. In addition to the strengths you already listed write or record answers to the following questions 

➔ What do you have to do to truly be you?

➔ Who do you want to be even in the most challenging moments?

➔ What are the words you want people to use to describe you?

Using the answers to these questions, create a short phrase or statement that captures the essence of what the best you looks like. Share your personal mantra in your writing or recording. 

Option 3:  Self Care Satisfaction

Self care is defined as the practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress.

Name three new self-care practices you can take on this week to help you protect your well-being.

Examples of self-care practices:

➔ Give yourself social media breaks where you don’t look at any social media for an hour or an afternoon.

➔     Release relationships that make you feel drained or that you aren’t good enough.

➔     Go through your closet, room, and locker twice a year to remove broken, old or no longer needed items. 

Option 4: Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose your own way to practice one of the power skills you learned this week.

➔ Managing one’s emotions

➔ Identifying and using stress-management strategies

➔ Exhibiting self-discipline and self motivation

➔ Setting personal and collective goals

➔ Using planning and organizational skills

➔ Showing the courage to take initiative

➔ Demonstrating personal and collective agency

After completing this activity, write or record your answers to the following questions:

➔ Which power skill did you practice?

➔ How did you practice the skill?

➔ What did you learn?

Week Three

Habit Practice Options

Option 1: Virtual Museum Tour

The Benaki Museum in Greece. The museum was established in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in memory of his father, Emmanuel Benakis. The ​Benaki Museum​ houses Greek works of art from the prehistoric to the modern times and an extensive collection of Asian art. The entire museum can be viewed virtually in great detail. To view the online virtual tour, ​click here​. Additional virtual tours are​ Anne Frank's Family Home​, ​An ancient Mayan kingdom in Guatemala​, or ​Walk the Path to Mount Haguro​.

Write or record your answers to the following questions:

➔ What was your favorite exhibit and why?

➔ What are three things you learned about the culture of another by visiting this museum?

Option 2: What's in the news

Find an article in the news that shows a positive action another culture, race, or ethnicity has done this past year. Answer the following question by recording a video or writing. 

➔ Why did you choose this article?

➔ What is the positive action being done?

➔ How does the article describe the person/group they are discussing? Do you agree or disagree?

➔ What emotions do you think the person or group was feeling when completing this positive action? Why do you think they were feeling this way?

Option 3:  Attitude of Gratitude

Life can get pretty rough. It is easy to complain and be negative. Practicing gratitude has been shown to scientifically make us happier. The more gratitude we express, the more things it seems we have to be grateful for.

Pick two of the gratitude practices below. Share your response to the practice by recording a video or writing.

➔ Write down a gratitude ritual you do now. For example, giving thanks before a meal or pausing before you go to sleep to think about what went well in your day (and how to find good in the things that didn't!).

➔ Goodness comes every day! Write down something that you receive daily that you take for granted.. For example, electricity that keeps the lights on; fresh, clean running water; or powerful arm muscles that help you play your sport.

➔ Name someone you're grateful to have in your life and why.

➔ Describe something that happened in the past that you didn't feel grateful for at the time, but now think of with gratitude.

➔ Describe a moment when you felt gratitude in real time. What other emotions did you feel?

➔ Describe a way you've thanked someone or intend to thank someone.

Option 4: Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose your own way to practice one of the power skills you learned this week.

➔ 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 and systems on behavior

After completing this activity, write or record your answers to the following questions:

➔ Which power skill did you practice?

➔ How did you practice the skill?

➔ What did you learn?

Week Four

Habit Practice Options 

Option 1: Identifying and offering support

Practice identifying support for yourself and offering it to others.

1. Find one new support and use it.

2. Offer support to someone else.

Answer the following questions by writing or recording a video:

➔ What support did you choose and why?

➔ Was this new support effective? Why or why not?

➔ How did it feel to try something new?

➔ Who did you choose to support?

➔ How did they respond to your offer?

➔ How did it feel to offer support to someone else?

Option 2: Listening skills

Have youth complete activity with a member of their household or virtually with another student.

Questions examples:

➔ What is a favorite childhood memory?

➔ What are you most passionate about and why?

➔ Who is someone you really admire and why?

➔ What is a problem you are currently working to address?

➔ What is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you?

Instructions:

1. One partner will choose a question from the provided examples (or come up with their own) and then ask it to their partner. The partner will speak for two to three minutes on how he/she/they feels about the topic. As he/she/they talks, the other person cannot speak – his/her/their goal is to listen.

2. After two minutes, the listener has one minute to recap on what his/her/their partner has said. He/she/they cannot debate, agree, or disagree – only summarize.

3. Next, the roles switch, and the process starts again.

Answer the following questions by writing or recording a video:

➔ Who did you choose as a partner? Why?

➔ How did it feel to listen without responding?

➔ How did it feel to be listened to without being interrupted?

Option 3:  Taking a stand!

Standing up for yourself is hard. Standing up for others can be even harder. Thinking through many of the racial injustices we have seen this year in many different communities.

➔ Write a paragraph stating what you can do as one human being to take a stand for another human being.

➔ How do you think this person would feel about having your support?

➔ Now that you have offered support to this person, write down one way you can also stand up for yourself because YOU MATTER!

Option 4: Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose your own way to practice one of the power skills you learned this week.

➔ Communicating effectively

➔ Developing positive relationships

➔ Demonstrating cultural competency

➔ Practicing teamwork and collaborative problem-solving

➔ Resolving conflicts constructively

➔ Resisting negative social pressure

➔ Showing leadership in groups

➔ Standing up for the rights of others

After completing this activity, write or record your answers to the following questions:

➔ Which power skill did you practice?

➔ How did you practice the skill?

➔ What did you learn?

Week Five

Habit Practice Options

Option 1: Reflection on your values

Looking at your five core values (if you have not picked them do so now), what are some of the ways in which your core values are showing up in your everyday life? Do you feel like you are doing a good job of living out your values? If yes, how so? If not, why do you think that is?

Please share your thoughts by writing or recording a video.

Option 2: Using your values to support your decisions

Review your list of values on a daily basis. When you have to make a decision, make a list of options that are aligned with your values. For example, if I value helping others, I can decide to offer help when I can see that someone needs it. 

Answer the following questions by writing or recording a video:

➔ How often did you review your values list?

➔ What was it like to review your values?

➔ What decision did you have to make?

➔ What options did you find that were aligned with your values?

➔ What was the result of your decision?

Option 3:  Intent versus Impact Exercise

Have you ever said something trying to be nice, understanding, and helpful, but ended up hurting another person's feelings? This is an example of when your intent and impact did not match up.

Intent refers to what you thought you were doing or saying.

Impact refers to how that action was perceived by the other person.

Your intent was to be kind and say, or do, the right thing, but your actual impact proved to be hurtful. This can be very confusing. As confusing as it is, we still should strive daily to treat others as they would like to be treated.

➔ Name a time that you said or did something with a friend or family member that you thought was okay, but ended up being hurtful. This may be a time when you intended to be kind, fun, or helpful, but it was actually hurtful or upsetting.

➔ What could you have said or done differently?

➔ What did you learn from this experience?

Example:

A friend comes to you to talk about an issue they’re having at school. You offer them advice, but your friend is defensive and ends the conversation. You later learn that they felt like you were telling them they handled the situation poorly. Your intent was to offer a plan of action, but the impact was that they felt judged.

What could have been done differently?:

I could have listened, asked clarifying questions to make sure I understood, and offered no advice unless my friend asked me for advice.

Option 4: Choose Your Own Adventure

Choose your own way to practice one of the power skills you learned this week.

➔ Demonstrating curiosity and open-mindedness

➔ Learning how to make a reasoned judgment after analyzing information, data, and facts

➔ Identifying solutions for personal and social problems

➔ Anticipating and evaluating the consequences of one’s actions

➔ Recognizing how critical thinking skills are useful both inside and outside of school

➔ Reflecting on one’s role to promote personal, family, and community well-being

➔ Evaluating personal, interpersonal, community, and institutional impacts

After completing this activity, write or record your answers to the following questions:

➔ Which power skill did you practice?

➔ How did you practice the skill?

➔ What did you learn?