In short
- CASEL, the owner of a widely used SEL framework, names five areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.
- Durlak and colleagues (2011) analysed 213 school SEL programs and found better skills, attitudes and behaviour, and an 11-percentile-point gain in achievement.
- Those were taught programs with their own lessons, so the reviews do not show what story reading adds on its own.
- With English learners, teach feelings vocabulary first, and ask about the character, not about the pupil's private life.
If your school has adopted social-emotional learning, or SEL, you may be asked how English lessons contribute. Stories are an obvious answer, because a plot is made of feelings, choices and relationships. This article defines SEL in the words of the framework's owner. It reports what two large reviews of school programs found, and what kind of programs those were. Then it shows how a reading lesson can serve each of the five areas, and what to watch for with pupils who are still learning English.
What is SEL, and can reading teach it?
SEL names five areas of competence: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. A story gives pupils practice in at least two of them. They name what a character feels, and they see events from another person's point of view. A planned discussion can reach the other three areas as well.
Be clear about the evidence. Large reviews by Durlak and colleagues (2011) and Taylor and colleagues (2017) found measurable benefits from taught SEL programs in schools. Those programs had their own lessons and materials. The specific contribution of story reading is much less studied. So treat reading as practice that supports SEL, not as an SEL program in itself.
What are the five SEL competence areas?
A widely used framework comes from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). CASEL (n.d.) defines SEL as the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply knowledge, skills and attitudes. The aims it lists include managing emotions, feeling and showing empathy for others, maintaining supportive relationships, and making responsible and caring decisions.
The framework names five areas of competence. Each is a set of abilities. The descriptions below shorten CASEL's wording:
- Self-awareness. To understand your own emotions, thoughts and values, and how they influence behaviour.
- Self-management. To manage your emotions, thoughts and behaviour in different situations, and to achieve goals.
- Social awareness. To understand the perspectives of others and empathise with them, including people from different backgrounds and cultures.
- Relationship skills. To establish and maintain healthy and supportive relationships.
- Responsible decision-making. To make caring and constructive choices about personal behaviour and social interactions.
A framework names goals. It is not evidence that a method works. For that, look at the reviews of programs in the next section.
What did the large reviews of school SEL programs find?
Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor and Schellinger (2011) carried out a meta-analysis of 213 school-based, universal SEL programs. Universal means that a program was for all pupils, not for a selected group. The programs involved 270,034 pupils from kindergarten to high school.
Compared with controls, pupils in the programs showed significantly better social and emotional skills, attitudes and social behaviour. They also showed fewer conduct problems, less emotional distress and better academic performance. Across these six kinds of outcome, the mean effect sizes ranged from 0.22 to 0.57. The largest was for social and emotional skills.
The effect on academic performance was 0.27. The authors translate that into a gain of 11 percentile points in achievement. Only 16% of the studies collected data on academic achievement, so the figure rests on a subset.
Did the gains last? In that review, 33 studies (15%) collected follow-up data at least six months after the program ended. The gains were smaller at follow-up and remained statistically significant.
Taylor, Oberle, Durlak and Weissberg (2017) looked at follow-up directly. Their meta-analysis reviewed 82 school-based, universal SEL interventions involving 97,406 pupils from kindergarten to high school. Thirty-eight of the interventions took place outside the United States. Follow-up data were collected from 6 months to 18 years after the intervention.
At follow-up, participants fared significantly better than controls in social-emotional skills, attitudes and indicators of well-being. The benefits were similar regardless of pupils' race, socioeconomic background or school location.
What kind of programs were these?
They were taught programs, not reading schemes. In Durlak and colleagues (2011), the majority were classroom based. Just over half (53%) were delivered by regular classroom teachers. These usually took the form of a specific curriculum and a set of teaching strategies, such as behaviour rehearsal and cooperative learning. Another 21% were delivered in class by non-school staff, and 26% had several components.
The review excluded programs whose main purpose was to raise achievement through educational curricula or teaching strategies. On that rule, an ordinary reading scheme would not have counted as an SEL program.
Two findings matter for an English department. First, programs taught by classroom teachers were effective in all six outcome categories. The authors conclude that SEL can be part of routine teaching and does not need outside staff.
Second, the way a program was built mattered. The authors coded four recommended practices, which form the acronym SAFE:
- Sequenced. A connected and coordinated set of activities to develop skills.
- Active. Active forms of learning, such as role play, so that pupils practise the skills.
- Focused. At least one component devoted to developing personal or social skills.
- Explicit. Specific SEL skills are targeted, not positive development in general.
The use of these four practices moderated program outcomes. So did problems with implementation.
What about reading on its own?
The research on fiction itself is thinner. Dodell-Feder and Tamir (2018) combined 14 experimental studies in a meta-analysis. Compared with nonfiction reading and no reading, fiction reading led to a small, statistically significant improvement in social-cognitive performance. The authors recommend that future work tests whether the effect transfers to real-world social functioning.
That is a small effect on tests of social understanding. It does not show that a story lesson changes how pupils behave. The guide to teaching values through stories weighs this evidence, and how stories build empathy describes the classroom practice.
We found no study that tested story reading as an SEL method with pupils learning English as a foreign language.
How a reading lesson can serve each of the five areas
The table below is practice, not a research finding. It shows where each area can appear in an ordinary story lesson. The questions are examples to adapt.
| SEL area | What the story offers | A question to ask | What pupils practise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-awareness | A character whose feelings change during the plot | 'How did Sami feel before the race? And after? Which words tell you?' | Naming feelings and what caused them |
| Self-management | A character who is angry, scared or tempted and has to cope | 'What did she do when she wanted to shout? What else could she do?' | Describing ways to handle a strong feeling |
| Social awareness | Two characters who see the same event differently | 'Tell the story again as the brother saw it.' | Taking another person's point of view |
| Relationship skills | A quarrel, a misunderstanding or a request for help | 'What could he say to put things right? Write his words.' | The language of apologising, asking and listening |
| Responsible decision-making | A choice with consequences for other people | 'What were her choices? Who is affected by each one?' | Weighing choices and their effects |
You do not need all five in one lesson. Pick the one or two areas the plot serves best.
Classroom example (an illustration, not a tested script)
Story: two friends, Maya and Jo, both want the same part in the school play. Jo gets it. Maya stops talking to her.
Self-awareness: 'How does Maya feel when she reads the list? Find the sentence.'
Social awareness: 'Now be Jo. What does Jo think when Maya walks past her?'
Relationship skills: 'Write two sentences Maya could say to Jo the next day.'
Naming the skill: 'Maya was jealous, and in the end she said so. That is managing a strong feeling.'
Name the skill as well as the story
In the coding used by Durlak and colleagues (2011), 'explicit' meant that a program targeted specific skills. You can follow the same idea in discussion. After pupils describe what the character did, give it a name, as in the last line of the example. No study cited here tested this step in a reading lesson.
Do not assume pupils saw what you saw. Narvaez (2002) concluded that children do not extract moral story themes as the writer intended. Ask pupils what they noticed before you name it. Discussion questions to draw the moral from a story gives a sequence to follow.
SEL for English learners: start with feelings vocabulary
A pupil cannot discuss a feeling without the word for it. So an English class has to build the vocabulary before the discussion can do its work. This section is practice advice.
- Start with a small set of basic words: happy, sad, angry, scared, tired.
- Add finer words as the stories need them: worried, proud, lonely, jealous, embarrassed, relieved.
- Teach each word from the story. Find the sentence where the character feels it, and read it aloud.
- Give sentence frames: 'She feels ... because ...' and 'I think he is ... because he ...'.
Feelings words are ordinary vocabulary too. Teach and check them like any other words from the story. For the kinds of question you can ask, see reading comprehension question types.
Do not ask for personal disclosure in a new language
SEL activities can ask pupils to talk about their own feelings and lives. In a language lesson that carries two risks. A pupil may lack the English to say something delicate with care, and may say more, or less, than they mean. And classmates may hear something private that the pupil cannot take back.
We found no study on this point for English classes. What follows is caution, not research.
- Ask about the character. 'Why was Maya upset?' is safe. 'When were you last upset?' is not a question for the whole class.
- Allow a pass. No pupil should have to speak about home or family.
- Do not mark feelings. Any answer to 'How do you think she felt?' is acceptable if the pupil gives a reason from the text.
- Know your procedure. If a pupil discloses something that worries you, follow your school's safeguarding procedure.
The story does useful work here. Pupils can talk about jealousy, fear or shame through someone who is not in the room.
With or without an SEL program in your school
If your school already runs an SEL program, do not build a second one in English. Ask the person who leads it which area the school is working on this term, and which words it uses. Use the same words in story discussions.
If your school has no program, be honest about what reading offers. It gives pupils words for feelings and examples to talk about. It does not replace a taught program of the kind the reviews tested.
Before you choose a term's stories, check each one against the five areas and note which it brings up. Level still comes first. See how to match students to the right graded readers.
To check whether anything has stayed, wait some weeks. Then ask pupils what 'managing a strong feeling' means, with an example from a story. This is a classroom check, not a validated measure.
How iRead handles this
In iRead, stories carry a moral, such as honesty, kindness, courage or perseverance. Stories in global packs are tagged with the values they teach. Dedicated quiz questions ask what the story taught. The tags name values, so matching them to the five SEL areas is a job for your school.
The core principle: Use the story to practise naming feelings and seeing other points of view. Ask about the character, and leave the pupil's private life alone.
See it in iRead: Stories carry a moral, such as honesty, kindness, courage or perseverance, and dedicated quiz questions ask what the story taught. Stories in global packs are tagged with the values they teach.
See values through storiesKey takeaway
Taught SEL programs have the evidence. Reading gives pupils the words and the examples, so use it to support a program, not to stand in for one.
Frequently asked questions
What is social-emotional learning (SEL)?
CASEL defines SEL as the process through which young people and adults acquire and apply knowledge, skills and attitudes. Its aims include managing emotions, showing empathy, maintaining supportive relationships and making responsible decisions. The framework names five areas: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making.
Can reading replace an SEL program?
No. The programs in Durlak and colleagues (2011) were taught programs, usually with a specific curriculum and teaching strategies. The review did not test story reading. Reading can support a program by giving pupils feelings vocabulary and shared examples.
What are good SEL activities for a reading lesson?
Ask pupils to name a character's feeling and find the sentence that shows it. Have them retell a scene from another character's point of view. Ask them to write what a character could say to mend a quarrel. Each activity stays on the story and needs no personal disclosure.
How do you choose SEL books for students?
Choose by level first, because a pupil who cannot follow the plot cannot discuss it. Then look for a clear feeling, a conflict between characters or a choice that affects others. Plan one question for the SEL area the story brings up.
Sources
- Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) (n.d.). What is the CASEL framework?. CASEL. casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/what-is-the-casel-framework/
- Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students' social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. Child Development, 82(1), 405-432. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
- Taylor, R. D., Oberle, E., Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2017). Promoting positive youth development through school-based social and emotional learning interventions: A meta-analysis of follow-up effects. Child Development, 88(4), 1156-1171. doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12864
- Dodell-Feder, D., & Tamir, D. I. (2018). Fiction reading has a small positive impact on social cognition: A meta-analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(11), 1713-1727. doi.org/10.1037/xge0000395
- Narvaez, D. (2002). Does reading moral stories build character?. Educational Psychology Review, 14(2), 155-171. doi.org/10.1023/A:1014674621501