The RULER acronym ends with R for emotional regulation. Regulation strategies help us adjust our emotional state so that it’s not too overwhelming for us. This doesn’t mean we can control our emotions, making negative emotions disappear at will. But it does mean we don’t have to be controlled by them. The classroom can be an overwhelming place, and students benefit from being explicitly taught regulation skills. Here’s some activities that can help scaffold students ability to choose a regulation strategy to fit their emotional state: Here’s a master list of regulation strategies. Students dig deeper into each category with the following activities: These activities are included in my RULER…
-
-
Understanding Emotions, Social-Emotional Activities, RULER
Last month I completed a series of social emotional activities built around the RULER method for social emotional learning. Over the next few weeks I’d like to share them with you! You can purchase the activities in my TpT store, or use them as inspiration for your own activities. This post will focus on understanding emotions. Read Aloud: There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon Reading There’s No Such Thing as a Dragon by Jack Kent is a great way to introduce this concept. In the book, Billy Bixby wakes up to find a small dragon at the foot of his bed. He tells his mom about the dragon, but she claims there’s no such…
-
RULER: An Acronym for Social Emotional Learning + TpT Sale
If you want to spend less time putting out behavioral fires in your classroom, look to social-emotional learning. Outbursts, shutdowns, and fights occur when students don’t have tools for helpful (and appropriate) emotional expression. I recently read Marc Brackett’s Permission to Feel and was inspired to create classroom resources for his RULER acronym. In his book, Brackett points out what most of us already know–school is an emotionally fraught place for students and teachers, and we could all use some help. Today I’m so excited to release my newest TpT product–social emotional activities to fit each letter in the RULER acronym. It’s on sale until Friday, so be sure to…
-
Genre Study = Automatic Spiral Review
I don’t know about you, but I feel overwhelmed by the phrase “spiral review.” Sure, you want to give students opportunities for meaningful review, but “spiral review” brings to mind convoluted spreadsheets. You chart out a complicated course only to find yourself constantly treading water. But there’s good news, if you’re a reading workshop teacher (especially if you use genre study), you can engage in meaningful review without the spreadsheets. All reading instruction falls into a few broad categories. In genre study, each genre unit addresses these broad categories and fills in the details according to the genre you’re currently studying. Here’s an example: Instead of having a “text structure”…
