Journal of English Learner Education Volume 10 Issue 1 Special Issue: Social and Emotional Learning Article 1 July 2020 Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how Luis Javier Pentón Herrera American College of Education, luis.penton@gmail.com Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Elementary Education Commons, Indigenous Education Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Other Educational Administration and Supervision Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Article is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of English Learner Education by an authorized editor of STARS. For more information, please contact STARS@ucf.edu. Recommended Citation Pentón Herrera, L. J. (2020). Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how. Journal of English Learner Education. (10)1. Retrieved from https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol10/iss1/1 Pentón Herrera: Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how Social-Emotional Learning in TESOL: What, Why, and How Abstract In this article, I advocate for the adoption of SEL in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) as a promising pedagogy for ESOL educators and ELs. For this, I divide the remainder of the manuscript into four sections in addition to the introduction. In the first section—What is SEL? —I provide a brief theoretical description of SEL as it remains a fairly new concept in the ESOL field. In the second section—Why SEL in TESOL? —I elucidate my position of why we (ESOL educators) should embrace SEL pedagogies in our learning spaces using personal vignettes as support. The third section—SEL Application in TESOL—is the heart of this article. In this section, I introduce four practices TESOL educators can use to incorporate SEL in their learning spaces. Lastly, in the fourth section—Final Thoughts—I share a final message of encouragement and strength for educators hoping to adopt SEL in their teaching practices. Keywords: ESOL, ELs, Restorative Practices, SEL Published by STARS, 2020 1 Journal of English Learner Education, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 1 Social-Emotional Learning in TESOL: What, Why, and How Throughout my career as an elementary, middle, and high school Spanish and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher, I have reflected on the criticality of equipping my students with essential skills to succeed as students in schools, as professionals in their future jobs, and as human beings in life. Based on my experience as a language educator, I believe schools in the United States primarily focus on developing students’ skills for school and for their future jobs, but I continue to wonder how we are educating students to develop and treasure skills that will carry them in their lives as human beings. More importantly, I ponder about how we are teaching young people to use language to communicate their emotions and grow as individuals. In my cogitations and research, I often find that the content-driven, cognitive (or analytical)-based instruction we practice in our learning environments often fails to address emotions (Johnston, 2008; Martínez Agudo, 2018). As I write this article we are experiencing the global pandemic of the novel coronavirus and all I can think about is “how are standardizedtesting and all the classes we taught at school helping our students prepare for and deal with this new reality mentally and emotionally?” Schools did not prepare our students for this. As Cohen (2006) stated, there is currently a paradox in our teacher preparation programs and in our PreK-12 learning environments in the United States. “Parents and teachers want schooling to support children’s ability to become lifelong learners who are able to love, work, and act as responsible members of the community. Yet, we have not substantially integrated these values into our schools” (Cohen, 2006, p. 201) and we have also failed to integrate these goals into teacher preparation programs. The unintended consequences of failing to elevate the emphasis on social-emotional learning (SEL) to the same level PreK-12 schools and teacher preparation programs emphasize academic achievement are best reflected in our society today. Presently, the United States seems to be caught in a cycle of social instability, misunderstanding, and despair, which often results in violence. At the same time, people in the United States are becoming increasingly more self-involved and detached from society and their communities. Similarly, “the political and social issues that divide the country grow in bitterness, and compromise is looked upon as a dirty word” (Cohen, 2006, p. 228). All of these social realities happening today reflect what can happen when schools fail to educate generations on the social and emotional duties people have toward one another as members of the same society and as individuals existing within a community. The information shared in this introduction may seem philosophical and, perhaps, even disconnected from our reality as ESOL educators. However, the truth is that “English teachers stand at the very heart of the most crucial educational, cultural, and political issues of our time” (Gee, 1989, p. 60). In addition to teaching our English learners (ELs) how to properly listen, read, speak, and write English, we must also understand the responsibility we have to inculcate the social and emotional skills needed to flourish in American society. Certainly, for a society to be prosperous, its people must have common needs, respect ,and appreciation for one another, and a “growing unity of sympathetic feeling” (Dewey, 1990, p. 14). Thus, if we (ESOL educators) want our students to be successful in the United States, we must recognize that learning the language is only half of the skills ELs will need to fully integrate into their communities. In addition to learning English, our ELs also have to discover—many times alone https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol10/iss1/1 2 Pentón Herrera: Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how and unguided—how to navigate the unwritten rules of the social and emotional landscape of American society. In this article, I advocate for the adoption of SEL in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) as a promising pedagogy for ESOL educators and ELs. For this, I divide the remainder of the manuscript into four sections: (1) What is SEL? (2) Why SEL in TESOL? (3) SEL Application in TESOL, and (4) Final Thoughts. In the first section—What is SEL? —I provide a brief theoretical description of SEL as it remains a fairly new concept in the ESOL field. In the second section—Why SEL in TESOL? —I elucidate my position of why we (ESOL educators) should embrace SEL pedagogies in our learning spaces using personal vignettes as support. The third section—SEL Application in TESOL—is the heart of this article. In this section, I introduce four practices TESOL educators can use to incorporate SEL in their learning spaces. Lastly, in the fourth section—Final Thoughts—I share a final message of encouragement and strength for educators hoping to adopt SEL in their teaching practices. What is SEL? In the literature, SEL is defined as “the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions” (CASEL, 2020a, para. 1). According to Swartz (2017), the term SEL has been known for over 20 years, “but there is now a renewed interest among parents, [educators], health care providers, and policymakers as to how schools can better integrate SEL into classrooms in addition to traditional academic subjects” (p. 521). This renewed interest may be connected to research and publications documenting the positive impact SEL has on individuals’ personal growth as well as on their academic and behavior improvement (Allbright & Hough, 2020; Jones & Khan, 2017; Rogers, 2019). As an important clarification, SEL is a practice that can be implemented at all levels: PreK-12, adult education, and higher education settings. One of the most renowned SEL frameworks is proposed by Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL; 2020b), which identifies the five types of competencies shared below and shown in Figure 1. CASEL’s competencies support the message that educating children in social, behavioral, and emotional skills is important to achieve and be successful in school, their societies, and in life. CASEL’s Five Types of Competencies ● Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize one’s own emotions, thoughts, and values and how they influence behavior. ● Self-management: The ability to successfully regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different situations — effectively managing stress, controlling impulses, and motivating oneself. ● Social-awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures. ● Relationships skills: The ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. Published by STARS, 2020 3 Journal of English Learner Education, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 1 ● Responsible decision-making: The ability to make constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on ethical standards, safety concerns, and social norms. Figure 1 CASEL's Wheel of SEL Competencies. Taken from CASEL (2020b). Why SEL in TESOL? I recognize integrating SEL into our pedagogy may seem like an ambitious project for many ESOL educators. The American educational system has neglected the importance of students’ mental and emotional growth for so many years that the topics of social, emotional, and ethical education often seem disjointed from our professional duties and academic curricula (Cohen, 2006; Elias et al., 1997). For this reason, many teachers feel uncomfortable addressing topics that fall within the SEL umbrella such as emotions, values, and ethics (Brackett, 2019), to name a few. However, teachers begin to gravitate towards SEL practices—whether we call it SEL or not—the moment we (teachers) begin to see our students as human beings with personal challenges, struggles, and situations. It is at that moment when we become more empathetic towards our students’ realities and recognize the need for support beyond academics. I remember stumbling upon SEL inadvertently. My first experience realizing the impact society and emotions had in my classroom occurred back in 2016 when President Trump was elected. During the 2016-2017 school year, I was teaching ESOL to high school newcomers from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, primarily, and many of my students were either unaccompanied minors or were seeking asylum in the United States. In a previous publication, I https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol10/iss1/1 4 Pentón Herrera: Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how shared a short vignette retelling what I experienced the first morning after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States: When I arrived at school that morning I saw and heard something that struck me very hard. I saw my students taking pictures together and telling each other that they had to take those pictures as “going away” memories before they got sent back to their countries. My heart sunk in sadness and pain, as I stood there helpless and hopeless. I was not prepared to discuss this topic with my students but I knew I had to learn how; I needed to help them fast (Pentón Herrera, 2017, para. 2). There were different events occurring around the time when I wrote the vignette above (see Pentón Herrera, 2017) such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation raids throughout the nation, school shootings, and increased anti-immigrant sentiments in our school, community, and society. All of these events, and my ELs’ responses to them, made me realize how difficult it was for my students to attend school or focus in our ESOL classroom. I vividly remember one day around that time when we were talking about a story we had just read and someone knocked on our classroom door. Some ELs jumped, others exclaimed or gasp, while a couple teared up a little fearing ICE was coming to deport them or separate them from their family members. In addition to all the difficulties immigrants have to face such as culture shock, language learning, and acclimatization, everything else that is taking place in our society (i.e. global pandemic, school shootings, increased anti-immigrant sentiments, etc.) is more than any young person can bear alone. We then arrive at the question, Why SEL in TESOL? I believe SEL has an important place in TESOL because students cannot learn successfully when they are afraid, hungry, scared, excluded, discriminated, invisible, unsupported, depressed, homeless, fearing family separation or deportation; the list can go on. Through much reflection and reading, I arrived at the realization that teaching is a moral act. As an ESOL teacher, I recognize the social duty I have to create a learning space where my students feel safe, welcome, physically and mentally nourished, and learn all the necessary skills they need to participate in their new environment and in a global society (Birch, 2009). At the same time, I chose to fill a necessary gap of knowledge our curriculum was not teaching my ELs: social and emotional intricacies of the United States and its people. Unlike their native English-speaking counterparts, my ELs—both U.S.-born ELs and immigrant ELs—do not have access to common U.S. social and emotional knowledge in their daily lives. As a result, my ELs may not be able to fully participate in their new society or benefit from the privileges that exist within it. The more I incorporate SEL into our classroom, the more I continue to view it as a teacher obligation and a matter of social justice and equity (Hastings & Jacob, 2016). The current reality of the global pandemic of the coronavirus or COVID-19 is capitalizing the need for our schools to take a more active role in caring for and supporting the mental and emotional wellbeing of our students. The ESOL student population was a vulnerable group before the pandemic started and now they are faced with even more barriers to achieving success. Some ELs are living in a small apartment with many families where they do not have enough space to maintain social distancing. Others are experiencing financial struggles because they and/or their family members have been laid off from work. Some are concerned about their family members who are living back in their native countries, while unaccompanied ELs are Published by STARS, 2020 5 Journal of English Learner Education, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 1 alone trying to figure out how to survive this new reality. In addition, we also have ELs who are housing insecure and do not have access to online resources to participate in school during this time. These are just a few of the many examples highlighting the difficult realities impacting the mental and emotional wellbeing of our ELs and impeding their full participation in virtual academic environments today. As ESOL teachers, we are in an influential position to educate our students in the power languages have to support and heal their mental and emotional wellbeing. In my time teaching young people, I have learned negative feelings dwell when students are not able to use language to vocalize their emotions. These negative feelings, combined with inaccessibility to vocabulary creates distance between the student and their peers and teachers. However, when students are able to access vocabulary to express their emotions, they begin to understand that emotions do not define them and begin to understand their own feelings better (Srinivasan, 2019). If we teach students the necessary skills to use language to effectively express what they are feeling, they will be able to understand better their emotions and know when to reach out for help when needed. In our present reality, our ESOL classrooms need to become a space that transcends traditional English instruction for academic purposes and relies on language as a tool for the restoration, support, and healing of our ELs (Pentón Herrera & McNair, 2020). SEL Application in TESOL In this section, I introduce four practices TESOL educators can use in their learning environments with their ELs: (1) bibliotherapy, (2) mindfulness, (3) peace education, and (4) restorative practices. To do this, I define and describe each of these practices and then provide an activity I have used in our ESOL classroom. As an important clarification, all four of these practices fall within the SEL umbrella but do not represent a non-exhaustive list. In addition, the activities I introduce for each of these processes can be modified as needed for the different age, language, and literacy levels of our ELs as well as for our current virtual teaching reality. Lastly, these four practices can be incorporated individually or combined as preferred by the educator, and can also be modified as independent activities (e.g., warm-up activity, reading activity, exit ticket, etc.) or class projects. For additional guidance, resources, and materials about these four SEL practices, please see Appendix A. Bibliotherapy Bibliotherapy is an interdisciplinary process that is used in different fields such as psychology, social work, library sciences, and education. This practice developed in the 1920s was inspired by the traditional role of librarians who advise reading material to individuals to benefit their needs. In the present, bibliotherapy is defined as “the use of literature to promote mental health” (Hynes & Hynes-Berry, 1986, p. 10). In this definition, the word literature is used in the broadest possible sense to include diverse forms of reading and writing. In addition, Hynes and Hynes-Berry (1986) clearly state that bibliotherapy is not restricted to the written word and allow audiovisual elements to be incorporated as “important expression of people’s thoughts and feelings” (p. 13). As such, when using bibliotherapy, facilitators—psychologists, social workers, librarians, bibliotherapists, teachers, etc.—have the flexibility to integrate diverse materials in their sessions. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol10/iss1/1 6 Pentón Herrera: Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how In practice, bibliotherapy relies on the active participation among the participant, the literature, and the facilitator; the three are considered the pillars of the process. “The triad of participant-literature-facilitator means that there is a dual interaction: The participant’s personal response to the story is important, but dialoguing with the facilitator about the response can lead to a whole new dimension of insight” (Hynes & Hynes-Berry, 1986, p. 11). In the process, facilitators and participants come together and go over the literature selected by the participant or the facilitator. The possibility of mental and emotional growth in bibliotherapy comes from the confrontation with genuine feelings. That is, when the literature is being shared, those involved need to first recognize the feelings evoked by that literature, then sort out, and evaluate those feelings or responses. Recognition, sorting out, and evaluation are the three steps of how bibliotherapy is conducted. Application In our ESOL classroom, I often incorporated bibliotherapy to talk about feelings. To do this, I would first introduce a short text (e.g., poem, reading, etc.), visual (e.g., picture, drawing, etc.), or sound (e.g., nature sounds, spoken words, etc.) and ask my students “How do you feel when you read/see/hear this?” My students would usually respond to my question by identifying feelings (step 1: recognize feelings). After all my students shared their feelings, I would write on the board “Why?” and ask them to write down their responses in their notebooks (step 2: sort out feelings). I would give my ELs the opportunity to share those responses with our class (or in small groups) and they also had the choice of keeping their responses for their eyes only. Once responses were written down and/or shared with peers, I would ask my newcomers to use some of the feelings they identified and some of the words they included in their response to write a cinquain. I would also give students the option of adding a visual element to their cinquains (step 3: evaluate feelings). As an important clarification, it is necessary for ESOL educators to teach cinquains before attempting this activity. Picture 1 shows the result of one of these bibliotherapy sessions with my high school newcomers. Published by STARS, 2020 7 Journal of English Learner Education, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 1 Picture 1 Using Writing to Explore Emotions Mindfulness With origins in Buddhist traditions, mindfulness is generally defined as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 145). In simple terms, mindfulness is the practice of slowing down, organizing our thoughts, and reacting to our surroundings or situations while keeping in mind the big picture. Two skills that define a mindful mind are focus and awareness. “Focus is the ability to concentrate on what [you are] doing in the moment, while awareness is the ability to recognize and release unnecessary distractions as they arise” (Hougaard & Carter, 2017, p. 42). Mindfulness practitioners describe this practice as an abstract, nonjudgmental state focusing on the attainment of self-understanding and wisdom by being present in the moment, with our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and the surrounding environment. In schools, mindfulness education has taken various forms of implementation including yoga, meditation, mindful eating, and mindful breaks. The goal of including mindful practices in learning environments is to educate students in understanding and regulating their behavior, improving their social skills, and lowering stress and anxiety. In a world where constant gratification and continuous global connectivity is at our fingertips, mindfulness practices allow students to pause, be present, and focus on the task at hand. In addition to benefiting learners https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol10/iss1/1 8 Pentón Herrera: Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how socially and emotionally, mindfulness practices have proved beneficial for improving students’ attention and focus in the classroom (Su & Swank, 2019). Furthermore, studies have shown school-based mindfulness instruction benefits students with childhood adverse experiences and trauma (Sapthiang et al., 2019; Sibinga et al., 2016). Application Because being a mindful teacher means being in the moment when we are teaching, mindfulness activities should not follow a script and should be flexible enough that can be modified to fit what is happening in the classroom at that moment. With this in mind, the activity that I would like to share for practicing mindfulness in our classrooms is starting our classes with a mindful quote. In our ESOL classroom, I would assign each student one day of the month to bring a short quote that inspired them in some way (I would have a few quotes readily available in case the students forgot). To begin our class, I would ask the student to share their quote with the class aloud and write it on the board for everyone to see (the quote should be in English and can be translated to all other languages as well for all ELs to read). After sharing the quote, I would give students a minute or two to be in the moment, in silence, and savor their emotions while reading that quote. Sometimes, my ELs would want to share how they felt after reading that quote; their comments were welcomed. However, for this mindful activity, the purpose is for students to be in the moment with positive, aspirational feelings—sharing their emotions or commenting is not required. In my experience, this easy mindful practice helped set a positive tone for the rest of our class period. Peace Education The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) defines peace education as “the process of promoting the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behaviour changes …to prevent conflict and violence, both overt and structural; to resolve conflict peacefully; and to create the conditions conducive to peace” (Fountain, 1999, p. 1) at all levels and nationally and internationally. Peace education’s primary purpose is to educate individuals and societies on how to prevent conflict on the basis of social justice, respect, equality, tolerance, and nonviolence. To accomplish this goal, peace education focuses on investigating, clarifying, and teaching about the reasons for violence and conflicts and offers solutions on how to develop non-violence attitudes and promoting peaceful, peacemaking solutions. According to Harris (2004, p. 6), modern peace education has five main postulates: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. it explains the roots of violence; it teaches an alternative to violence; it adjusts to cover different forms of violence; peace itself is a process that varies according to context; conflict is omnipresent In teaching, peace education can be used to address and deal with classroom or school conflict resolution, tolerance for diversity in the school and community, reconciliation efforts, and for encouraging cooperative learning (Salomon & Cairns, 2009). “Peace educators point out problems of violence and instruct their pupils about strategies that can address those problems, hence empowering them to redress the circumstances that can lead to violent conflict” (Harris, 2004, p. 5). When incorporating peace education in the classroom, an important consideration is Published by STARS, 2020 9 Journal of English Learner Education, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 1 that peace and resolution must be achieved through active dialogue and consensual processes where involved parties reach an agreement to end violence. Imposing peace based on power, enforcement, or domination does not lead to conflict resolution; instead, it leads to structural oppression. This last message is important to know as a peace educator because the goal for peace education is for all students to be actively invested in resolving conflicts and reaching a long-term reconciliation. The long-term vision of peace education in teaching is that learners and peace educators ultimately serve as ambassadors for peacebuilding in their schools, communities, and around the world. Application In our ESOL classroom, I would engage students in peacemaking and literacy development simultaneously. At one time, my students represented a rich diversity of nationalities from Spanish-speaking, Latin-American countries. This diversity sometimes created conflicts between students due to misunderstandings, linguistic miscommunication, and cultural practices. As a result, I began to approach reading instruction as a Socratic-style project-based experience that targeted specific conflicts we were experiencing in our classroom or school. In these Socratic-style reading activities, we would read about topics such as moral values, behavior, the immigrant experience, to name a few, and I would ask my ELs to share their thoughts about the reading. Through this rich, positive sharing, we began to identify our differences and similarities and would reflect on what those differences and similarities meant for our classroom or school. More importantly, we would also explore how we could resolve conflicts arising from those differences to maintain a peaceful and welcoming learning environment for all. At times, I would also incorporate a final summative assessment where students had to write, explain, and/or draw their responses. An example of this peacemaking process can be found in Pentón Herrera (2019) where I share my initial attempts on what eventually became an instrumental practice in my pedagogy. Restorative Practices Restorative practices—sometimes also known as restorative discipline (Stutzman Amstutz & Mullet, 2005) or restorative justice (Winn et al., 2019)— is grounded in traditional Indigenous traditions and cultures from around the world. Wachtel (2016) defined restorative practices as “a social science that studies how to build social capital and achieve social discipline through participatory learning and decision-making” (p. 2). The primary aims of restorative practices are: (1) to reduce crime, violence, and bullying, (2) to improve human behavior, (3) to strengthen civil society, (4) to provide effective leadership, (5) to restore relationships, and (6) to repair harm (Watchel, 2016). To accomplish these aims, restorative practices focus on promoting empathy, building and maintaining strong, respectful relationships, and practicing justice. For teachers using restorative practices, these aims are accomplished through a complete transformation of their pedagogies where everything they do is centered on restorative practices. In the ESOL classroom, restorative practices have the potential to improve discipline (Stutzman Amstutz & Mullet, 2005), support literacy education and problem-solving skills (Winn et al., 2019), and encourage democratic, respectful participation (Costello et al., 2009). One of the most well-known staples of restorative practices is restorative circles (Costello et al., 2010). In a recent publication (see Pentón Herrera & McNair, 2020), my co-author and I shared how restorative circles can be adapted and used in the ESOL classroom. For this reason, in the https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol10/iss1/1 10 Pentón Herrera: Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how paragraph below, I propose a practice different from restorative circles that can also be adopted in the ESOL classroom through the lens of restorative practices. Application A restorative practice that can easily be introduced in the ESOL classrooms without extensive teacher preparation or training is common classroom values, guidelines, or conditions, as opposed to classroom rules. In our ESOL classroom, I asked my ELs at the beginning of each school year to share with me one or two values, guidelines, or conditions they believe were necessary for them to feel safe, welcome, and ready to learn in our classroom. For newcomer ELs, please give them the opportunity to communicate this information in their native languages and use translation as needed. Then, as a class, we would find five to ten common values among all the student responses and we would work together in our first project: building a class poster! In the poster, we would write down the selected five to ten selected values, review all of them once again, and conduct a final vote (thumbs up or down) to agree to keep them (the vote must be unanimous). Throughout the year, I would use our classroom values to talk to our class, as a community, and redirect student behavior when they were deviating from our accepted values. Final Thoughts The primary goal of SEL is to educate our students while acknowledging that mental and emotional health are a vital component of their wellbeing and success. Thus, SEL and academic learning experiences can and do work in synergy; they do not have to be mutually independent of one another. Where SEL instructs, educates, and heals the learners’ minds and soul, academics strengthen students’ content knowledge and achievement. An allegory I use to describe the synergy between SEL and academics is that SEL represents the water and academics represents the soil, both of which are necessary for seedlings to develop and thrive. Without water and soil, seedlings’ growth is comprised and cannot fully flourish. The same happens when academic instruction neglects SEL; students can only develop to a certain point and their growth, as individuals, will be compromised. As I end writing this article, I am reminded of Parker J. Palmer’s (2007) words, “the courage to teach is the courage to keep one’s heart open in those very moments when the heart is asked to hold more than it is able” (p. 11). As we continue to face this global pandemic and, during its aftermath, we (teachers) have to remind ourselves to keep our hearts open and support our learners academically, emotionally, and mentally. As teachers, we are indeed courageous individuals who must now face this new teaching reality without a handbook or how-to guides (Palmer, 2007). Yet, we must remind ourselves to remain flexible and to prioritize our learners’ mental and emotional wellbeing as we teach content. Adopting SEL into our learning environments may seem like a colossal endeavor that is incompatible with the standardized American educational system. However, now more than ever we must evolve our pedagogies and envision an educational system that acknowledges the vital role of social-emotional nourishment as much as it does with academic instruction. Now more than ever, we must advocate for the incorporation of programs and processes that provide the support our students require to overcome modern global realities and achieve success. Published by STARS, 2020 11 Journal of English Learner Education, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 1 References Allbright, T., & Hough, H. (2020). Measures of SEL and school climate in California. The State Education Standard, 20(2), 28–50. Birch, B. M. (2009). The English language teacher in global civil society. Routledge. Brackett, M. (2019). Permission to feel: Unlocking the power of emotions to help our kids, ourselves, and our society thrive. Celadon Books. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (CASEL). (2020a). What is SEL? https://casel.org/what-is-sel/ Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (CASEL). (2020b). Core SEL Competencies. https://casel.org/core-competencies/ Cohen, J. (2006). 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Berkeley Review of Education. https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~bre/call-for-conversations-2016/ Pentón Herrera, L. J. (2019). How to behave and why: Exploring moral values and behavior in the ESOL newcomer classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 53(4), 1033–1059. DOI: 10.1002/tesq.532 Pentón Herrera, L. J., & McNair, R. L. (2020). Restorative and community-building practices as social justice for English learners. TESOL Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.523 Rogers, J. E. (2019). Leading for change through whole-school social-emotional learning. Strategies to build a positive school culture. Corwin. Salomon, G., & Cairns, E. (2009). Peace education: Setting the scene. In G. Salomon & E. Cairns (Eds.), Handbook on peace education (pp. 1-7). Taylor & Francis Group. Sapthiang, S., Van Gordon, W., & Shonin, E. (2019). Health school-based mindfulness interventions for improving mental health: A systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies. 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Defining restorative. https://www.iirp.edu/images/pdf/DefiningRestorative_Nov2016.pdf Winn, M. T., Graham, H., & Alfred, R. R. (2019). Restorative justice in the English language arts classroom. National Council of Teachers of English. Published by STARS, 2020 13 Journal of English Learner Education, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 1 Appendix A: Annotated SEL Resources SEL Practices Bibliotherapy Resources and Annotations a) Clear Lake Children’s Center. In this resource, teachers can find a comprehensive list of books on a variety of topics (i.e. ADHD, social skills, accepting differences, etc.) that can be used for bibliotherapy. b) “Booking It” to Peace: Bibliotherapy Guidelines for Teachers. This document shares a step-by-step explanation of how to use bibliotherapy in our classroom. The authors propose a five-step approach including: (1) motivation with introductory activities; (2) reading time; (3) incubation time; (4) follow-up discussion time; and (5) evaluation and closure. In addition, on pages 17 and 18, they share a book list of children's literature that teachers can use for bibliotherapy in the classroom dividing them by topics. c) Independent reading log. This is a free worksheet shared by Trauma-Informed SEL in teacherspayteachers.com. As explained by the contributor, teacher can use this worksheet to assist students in making connections to a text and tracking their progress. The worksheet is divided into four main sections: “Real life connection” can be for personal or world connections; “Emotional reaction” encourages students to practice emotional literacy and identify what triggered an emotional reaction in them; “Quote I like” provides a good jumping off point for further discussion; in “My Choice” students are given the autonomy to choose the last type of reflection from five choices that require critical thinking. Mindfulness d) Utah Education Network Bibliotherapy Lesson Plans. This document shares step-by-step lesson plans that teachers can use in their classes to read and explore different topics such as gang influence on children, inclusion and belonging, and coping with grief, to name a few. a) Introductory lessons to mindfulness. This is a free lesson plan with worksheets shared by The Whole n’ Happy Mindfulness School in teacherspayteachers.com. This 9-page package includes two mindfulness lesson plans and five differentiated journal/worksheets/coloring pages. b) British Council Mindfulness Lesson Plan. This resource is a free, 50-minute lesson plan from the British Council about mindfulness. This lesson plan comes accompanied by a worksheet. Although this lesson plan was developed with intermediate-advance ELs in mind, it does offer a great resource for teachers to use in their ESOL classrooms and differentiate as needed. c) Three quick activities for teaching students mindfulness at any age. This short reading is from weareteachers.com. In this reading, teachers can learn how to incorporate mindful activities in their classrooms (elementary, middle, and high school). Although the three quick activities are divided by grade, they can be used with students from all grades. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol10/iss1/1 14 Pentón Herrera: Social-emotional learning in TESOL: What, why, and how Peace education d) 51 mindfulness exercises for kids in the classroom. This article from Waterford.org shares 51 mindful easy exercises teachers can use to practice mindfulness in the classroom. Each exercise is hyperlink to visuals, worksheets, or detailed descriptions of each activity. a) Creating a culture of peace: A Practical guide for schools. This practical guide from Peaceful School International was written by the author for teachers. In this guide, teachers can find lesson plans, reading passages, and detailed peace education activities that can be easily incorporated into the classroom. b) Peace Education - American English – U.S. Department of State. This volume from American English, U.S. Department of Education offers tasks and activities related to Peace Education through content-based lessons. The document includes ten chapters each focusing on different topics such as “non-violent” language, cross-cultural understanding, and developing empathy. Each chapter offers detailed lesson plans for classroom implementation. c) Classroom strategies to teach peace. This resource from the United States Institute of Peace shares classrooms strategies and resources developed by the 2017 Peace Teacher cohort. Each strategy offers additional links to lesson plans and additional materials including the free “Peacebuilding toolkit for educators: A resource for middle school and high school classrooms” free ebooks, which are available in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic for download. Restorative practices d) 10 Ways to Promote Peace in Your Classroom. This resource, shared by Montessoriforeveryone.com, provides detailed information on how teachers can incorporate peace education in their classrooms in 10 simple steps. a) Restorative practices: Lesson plan guide. This resource from Open Society Institute – Baltimore are a collection of step-by-step lesson plans teachers can use in their classrooms right away starting from “Getting acclimated to the circle” to “The greatest city in America”. At the end of the document, teachers can find additional resources and materials such as prompting questions for circles, poem analysis worksheet, and suggestions for texts and videos that can be incorporated in restorative circles. b) Community, circles, and collaboration: The first 10 days. This resource was created for Armadale Public Schools and is shared through the International Institute for Restorative Practices (IIRP). This guide was designed to support teachers during the first 10 days of school by sharing detailed 10-day lesson plans, templates, and worksheets/activities teachers can use right away. c) Restorative practices think sheet. This is a free resource shared by Sammie Hansen in teacherspayteachers.com. This think sheet was created with restorative justice practices in mind. Rather than focusing on discipline, help students to consider how their actions affect those around them. Published by STARS, 2020 15 Journal of English Learner Education, Vol. 10, Iss. 1 [2020], Art. 1 d) Problem solving restorative thinking. This is a free resource shared by TeachingWithMsLeGrow in teacherspayteachers.com. This chart is a great visual for students to refer to when solving problems following a restorative approach. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/jele/vol10/iss1/1 16