Mariana Bezerra

INTRODUCTION

In a world where emotional awareness is essential for both personal growth and academic success, creating space for students to talk about their feelings becomes a powerful teaching tool. My final project is titled “Feelings and Emotions – A Choice Board for Social-Emotional Learning in the English Classroom.”

This project was developed as part of the PDPI English program at Kansas State University. It aims to support beginner-level English learners in recognizing, expressing, and discussing emotions through accessible and engaging activities. The core idea is to integrate Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) with language acquisition, creating a space where students feel safe to express themselves while developing vocabulary and communication skills.

The Choice Board I created includes 9 interactive tasks such as drawing, singing, storytelling, taking selfies, and peer interaction. Each activity invites students to explore emotions using different learning styles — visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and interpersonal.By offering choices, this board promotes student agency, enhances motivation, and encourages personal connection to the content — all of which are key principles in both SEL and effective language instruction.

I hope this project can be a useful tool for educators who want to make their classrooms more empathetic, inclusive, and dynamic.