MODULE 6:

Social Literacy
Learning Outcomes
• Define social literacy
• Discuss social skills, their impact and strategies for improvement
• Describe an emotionally intelligent person
• Present ways for enhancing people skills
• Identify ways on how to integrate social literacy in the lesson
• Draw relevant life lessons and significant values from personal experience
on practicing social literacy
• Analyze research abstract on social literacy and its implications to the
teaching-learning process.
• Design an instructional material that can be used in integrating social
literacy in a related discipline
CONCEPT EXPLORATION

The school is a social institution established for the contemplation of

reality in a profound, personal, informal and unstructured way. Teachers
facilitate learning, teach students and model certain types of acceptable
behavior while developing them in all aspects: academically,
physically, emotionally and socially. In performing such tasks,
teachers also relate to parents and other stakeholders. That is why
understanding and attaining social literacy is imperative among them.
 SOCIAL LITERACY

Social literacy entails the development of social skills, knowledge

and positive human values toward desire and ability in human beings to act
and react positively and responsibly in a wide range of complex social
settings. It can be acquired through social process of inquiry, values
exploration and social decision-making that relate to the acquisition of
knowledge and understanding (Arthur, Davison and Stow, 2000).
 SOCIAL SKILLS

Social skills are aspects of social literacy. As such, these are an

integral part of functioning in society. It involves good manners,
communicating effectively with others, being considerate of others'
feelings and expressing personal needs. In fact, children gain social skills
through playing while adults obtain it by interrelating with others, both
verbally (spoken language) and non-verbally (gestures, body language,
facial expressions, eye contact and appearance).
These can be attained through:

(1) gaining ideas, information, techniques and perspectives from

people with different areas of expertise;
(2) providing their own perspective for the benefit of others;
(3) accomplishing tasks and working together toward shared goal;
(4) providing mutual support for difficult situations;
(5) expanding network to learn about and pursue new
opportunities;
(6) gaining feedback and referrals from people who can
personally attest to work, skills and qualities; and
(7) making the school truly a healthy and conducive learning
environment.
Types of Social Skills
There are types of social skills that teachers can demonstrate among students to
attain a harmonious relationship with them.
1. Effective Communication. It is the ability to communicate effectively and
share thoughts and ideas with students through group conversations,
discussions, etc.
2. Conflict Resolution. It is the ability to get to the source of the problem and
find a workable solution by weighing both sides from those involved with the
goal of mediating for reconciliation.
3. Active Listening. It is the ability to pay close attention to a student in times of
counseling, introspection and consultation.
4. Empathy. It is the ability to understand and identify the feelings of students in
times of difficulty and trouble.
5. Relationship Management. It is the ability to maintain relationships and build
key connections with school stakeholders for the student's development.
6. Respect. It can be done by knowing when to initiate communication and respond
during interactions or even in times of heated arguments and confrontations.
7. Problem-Solving Skills. These involve seeking help, making effective decisions
and accepting consequences to derive better solutions to the problem.
8. Interpersonal Skills. These include the abilities of sharing, joining activities,
asking for permission and waiting for one's turn in every facet of school
undertakings.
Improving Social Skills. Social skills can be improved by focusing on sustaining
desirable attitudes and eliminating those undesirable ones through modeling, role-
playing and performance feedback mechanisms.
In addition, one may consider:
 maintaining eye contact;
 using proper body language;
 knowing the difference between being assertive and being aggressive;
 selecting effective communication channels;
 being flexible;
 accepting criticism without being defensive;
 remaining positive at all times; and
 being teachable and a good student in most instances
Likewise, other ways that may help are as
follows:

 Behave as a social person;

 Start small if necessary;
 Read books about social skills;
 Ask open-ended questions;
 Practice good manners;
 Encourage others to talk about
themselves;
 Pay attention to your body language;

 Create goals for yourself;

 Join a social skills support group;

 Offer compliments generously;

 Stay up to date on current events; and
 Identify and replace negative thoughts.
Impact of Social Skills
Possessing social skills results to:
(1)better relationships
(2)better communication
(3)greater efficiency
(4)advanced career prospects, and
(5)increased over-all happiness
Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Emotional intelligence can bring about maintaining a healthy and purposeful
relationship with others that may best depict a socially literate person.
Goleman (1996) defines Emotional Intelligence (EQ) as the ability to:
(6) recognize, understand and manage own emotions, and
(7) recognize, understand and influence the emotions of others.
It is being aware that emotions can drive behavior and impact people (positively
and negatively), and learning how to manage those emotions, both one's own and
others’ when under pressure, especially in times of
(1) giving and receiving feedback
(2) meeting tight deadlines
(3) dealing with challenging relationships
(4) not having enough resources
(5) dealing with change, and
(6) experiencing setbacks and failure.
Strategies for Enhancing Emotional Intelligence
Goleman (1995) laid down ways of enhancing emotional intelligence in the light of
understanding and managing emotions that teachers need to know and understand.
1. Think about feelings. A person has to be sensitive to one's and other's feelings to come up
with the right manner of approach or appropriate response.
2. Pause. This is about taking a moment to stop and think before doing anything to refrain
from resorting to an unsound decision at the height of anger.
3. Strive to control one's thoughts. This is controlling the reaction to emotions by focusing
on one's thoughts in harmony with goals and values.
4. Benefit from criticism. Criticism, even not delivered in a favorable way, is an opportunity
to learn and it gives idea on how others think about you.
5. Show authenticity. This is saying what we mean with what we say and we have to stick on
to our values and principles.
6. Demonstrate empathy. Whenever we show empathy to others, such as understanding their thoughts
and feelings, we can easily establish a connection with them.
7. Praise others. This is by way acknowledging and appreciating others toward attaining self-fulfillment
and building trust.
8. Give helpful feedback. Although negative feedback may hurt one's feelings, at some point, it can be
turned constructive for one's improvement.
9. Apologize. Saying sorry demonstrates humility, a quality that will naturally win others as you value
the relationship more than the ego.
10. Forgive and forget. Forgiving and forgetting prevent others from holding emotions and allowing
one to move forward.
11. Keep our commitments. The habit of keeping one's word in things, either big or small, develops a
strong reputation for reliability and trustworthiness.
12. Help others. One way to positively win others is through helping them because listening to and
helping them can build trust and inspire them to follow.
13. Protect ourselves from emotional sabotage. This is being wise enough in protecting ourselves
when others attempt to manipulate our emotions for personal sake.
Recommended Tools in Enhancing Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence can be enhanced in school with the help of the following tools and
strategies.

 Emotional Literacy Workshop The Zoo: Animal Workshop

 Emotional Literacy Museum  Face Workshop
 Mixed Emotions Cards  The Machine Transformer
 eMotion Cards  Tower Building
 Biodots  Build Me a House
 Bingo Emotions  Internalization Activity
 Feeling Faces  Mirroring and Unmasking Activity
 Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence
Assessment
Ten Characteristics of an Emotionally Intelligent Person
(Connors, 2018)
The following are indicators and manifestations of an emotionally intelligent person that have
to be considered and demonstrated in schools.
1. Empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is
experiencing from within their frame of reference. Greater Good Science Center in UC
Berkeley laid down two different types of empathy, namely:
(a) Affective empathy - refers to the sensations and feelings that one gets in response to
others' emotions including mirroring what that person is feeling, or just feeling stressed when
he/she detects another's fear or anxiety.
(b) Cognitive empathy (sometimes called "perspective taking") - refers to one's ability to
identify and understand other people's emotions.
2. Self-awareness. It is the art of understanding one's self, recognizing the stimuli that he/she
faces and preparing how to manage him/herself, both in a proactive and reactive manner.
3. Curiosity. It is one's willingness to learn and improve. When one is curious, he/she is
passionate and therefore, he/she is driven to desire to be at his/her best.
4. Analytical mind. It pertains to being critical thinker that analyzes and processes all new
information that comes his/her way and see if they can extract ways to improve.
5. Belief. It is the power of believing in one's self, both at present and the future. It is a matter
of affirming that people and things in one's life happen for a reason and that everything will
ultimately turn out to be good.
6. Needs and wants. It is something to discern between things that one needs versus things
that he/she just wants and establishing needs prior to fulfilling wants.
7. Passion. It is the natural desire, instinct, drive, ambition and motivated love for a subject or
someone. More so, it brings positive energy that helps sustain and inspire one to keep going.
8. Optimism. It is about maintaining a positive attitude that may increase one's opportunities,
improve relationships and think clearly and constructively.
9. Adaptability. It is an important recognition and the ability to make or remake decisions in
one's best interest. It is also determining when to continue his/her course, or when is the time
for a change.
10. Desire to help others succeed. It is becoming interested and appreciative of the success
and achievement of others.
People Skills
Like emotional intelligence and social skills, people skills have been widely used in
demonstrating social literacy at home, in school or anywhere that a person may be.
 According to Wikipedia, people skills are patterns of behavior and behavioral
interactions.
 For
Thompson (2009), this is an area of exploration about how a person behaves and
how he/she is perceived irrespective of his/her thinking and feeling.
 Honey (2001) defines it as the dynamics between personal ecology (cognitive, affective,
physical and spiritual dimensions) and its function with other people's personality styles
in numerous environments (life events, institutions, challenges, etc.).
On the other hand, people skills are tools used to communicate and interact effectively
with others. Therefore, individuals with strong people skills are able to predict behavior,
relate to others and socialize easily.
People skills can also be defined in three sets of abilities:
(1) personal effectiveness or about how one comes across with others
(2) interaction ability or how well one predicts and decodes behavior, and
(3) intercede easily or ability to lead, influence and build bridges between people.

In general, Portland Business Journal describes people skills as (Rifkin, 2009):

1. Ability to effectively communicate, understand and empathize
2. Ability to interact with others respectfully and develop productive working relationship
to minimize conflict and maximize rapport
3. Ability to build sincerity and trust, moderate behaviors (less impulsive) and enhance
aggreableness
Educational Impact of People Skills
People skills are important for teachers in effective classroom management. Knowing how
to communicate and teach people instead of simply teaching their subjects will help make a
difference in the classroom (Bolton 2009). Accordingly, almost 50 percent of classroom
success lies on effective interpersonal relationships, while the other 50 percent lies within
academic skills (Boyle, 2011). This is because teachers tend to interact and relate with
students. Therefore, they need to learn how to practice these people skills effectively in
order to create a healthy and conducive learning atmosphere in the classroom.

In general, people skills are an essential part of work, life and social success. When one has
strong people skills, he/she is able to:
(1) pitch him/herself
(2) overcome social anxiety
(3) communicate ideas
(4) influence others positively
Strategies in Obtaining Good People Skills
McQuerrey (2019) presents the following strategies in maintaining good people skills which are essential in a
meaningful, joyful and purpose-driven life that teachers also need to know.

1. Good communication skills. Strong people skills in the communication area include the ability to take in
information, clarify comments and participate in effective verbal and written exchanges.

2. Conflict resolution skills. Having the ability to mediate disputes and resolve conflict among others is an
important personal and professional skill.

3. The value of patience. Patience is an exceptional people skill that is valuable in every profession.

4. Tolerance and understanding. Having tolerance and understanding for the differences of others leads to
success.

In general, there are 5 A's to improve people skills, namely: (1) acceptance; (2) appreciation; (3) approval; (4)
admiration; and (5) attention.
Ten Essential People Skills to Succeed

The following is the list of soft skills for one's self-reflection and examination.
1. Being socially assertive. Social assertiveness is essential for conserving social energy
in the right ways. People with high social assertiveness have more focused social energy
and more clarity in their interactions.
2. Crafting a memorable presence. People with great presence take it easy in making
connections and are extremely good at rapport building. Those with a strong presence can
attract others, are well-remembered and are likable.
3. Mastering communication. This is knowing how to present ones’s self and, in turn,
gets one's message across.
4. Sustaining lasting confidence. People, who can sustain lasting confidence are able to
conquer their shyness, avoid awkwardness and get through their anxiety or overcome any
nervous tendencies.
5. Being an excellent conversationalist. This is essential in communicating and
interacting with others. Excellent conversationalists are people whom others may be fond
of listening to and discussing with.
Most interactions happen in three levels:
(1) The First Five Minutes: This is the first impression and the time to decide if
someone is worth getting to know;
(2) The First Five Hours: This is moving past first impressions into rapport building;
and
(3) The First Five Days: This is the final and ultimate level of trust and connection.
Thus, a conversation is the key to moving up these three levels.
6. Being highly likable. Likability is an important facet of trust by through being
authentic or genuine with their true selves.
7. Being exceptional at decoding emotions. People, who are good at reading people,
are exceptionally strong at knowing how others think and feel.
8. Pitching ideas. Pitching is a very important people skill because it happens all the
time when one is asked for his/her opinion and in introducing himself/herself.
9. Being charismatic. Charisma is the perfect blend of two essential people skills traits
such as warmth and competence.
10. Being an influential leader. Leaders in both personal, social and professional life
are able to gain camaraderie.
Integrating Socio-Emotional Literacy into the Curriculum
Schools that want to teach socio-emotional learning but confined with classroom time
can take a social, emotional and moral inventory of what students are currently learning by
involving: (1) a person's emotional life; (2) an ethical dilemma; (3) a situation calling for
compassion; (4) a societal challenge; (5) the ethical use of knowledge; (6) cross-group
interactions; and (7) an implicit prosocial concept.
By integrating social literacy in the curriculum content, teachers do not only give
students opportunities to practice their social-emotional skills, but also show them how
integral these skills are in their daily lives.
Hence, reviewing curricula through social, emotional and moral lens is like a habit of
mind that the more it is done, the easier it gets. Obviously, the greatest benefit of teaching
lessons like these is that students can begin to examine their education, their decisions, their
interests and their relationships through this lens, while helping them cultivate a more
thoughtful and discerning approach to life.