Medicine Hat College (MHC) Bachelor of Education students are finding new ways to help children develop essential social and emotional skills in the classroom through literacy learning. After delivering their lessons to children in a practicum, they shared their insights with teachers at the Southeast Alberta Teacher's Convention.
MHC instructor, Jason McLester, teaches a social issues in education course for fourth-year students. The course explores common challenges children face in our community and aims to equip future teachers with skills to help them navigate them.
"We explored the idea of using children's literature as the vehicle for deeper conversations," says McLester, who adds that aligning the skill development with language arts classes is an opportunity to discuss important life lessons through story. "That was a softer launch into conversations around the things that we wanted to talk about."
Important themes discussed in the classes include self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making, integrating hands-on activities to help the children understand and develop the skills.
Cameron Selwood, is one of the 32 students in the course who implemented this teaching in her grade three practicum at Isabel F Cox School in Redcliff. She used the book The Big Umbrella by Amy and Juniper Bates to discuss relationships.
"My class at the beginning of the year was really struggling with friends and accepting other people," says Selwood, who defined the terms acceptance, inclusion, and diversity through her activities. "We focused on communication, building those strong relationships with our friends, and connecting it always back to the book."
She adds that the lessons allowed the children to reflect on how it feels when they are not accepted by their peers and encouraged them to think of ways to help others feel accepted. By pairing these lessons with group-work, the children were able to practice how to accept and work with others, while also allowing achieving literacy outcomes.
At Irvine School, fourth-year student, Olivia Jacobson, covered the book, The Bad Seed, with her grade four practicum class, taking the opportunity to discuss self-management and responsible decision-making.
"Lots of the kids had read the book before, but looking at it from this different lens was really interesting, "says Jacobson. "Once we were finished reading the book, we talked about decisions the bad seed made and how they affect others and himself. Then, we talked about techniques that the bad seed could have used to change them to good decisions, because at the end of the book, he's changing, making better decisions for himself, and becoming a better person."
Other topics covered in the teacher's convention presentations, included empathy and being a good friend, discussed by Alecia Ullhorned, and reflecting on the qualities of positive coping strategies with Anica Haberstock.
"We want people to have more resilient outcomes," says McLester. "We can't always be resilient in every situation, but in general we can become more resilient individuals and, in essence, a more resilient community. I think that's what we're hoping to build through the development of these skills."
Through The Brandon Niwa Legacy Fund - The Beej Project, an initiative which strives to provide accessible mental health resources in the community, teachers now have the opportunity to be supported in their implementation of the curriculum in their classrooms. To learn more, email Jason McLester at jmclester@mhc.ab.ca.
