Teaching with Trauma in Mind using Social Emotional Learning and Goal Setting

Cassandra Jackson


Seminar Title


Teaching with Trauma in Mind using Social Emotional Learning and Goal Setting


Concept/Strategy

Focus of the Research


How childhood trauma affects the brain and how SEL can help


Grade Level

Research Was Applied


High School


Relevant Grade Level

Connections


Middle School


Discipline

Where Research Was Applied


Language Arts


Additional Discipline Areas

I see Application to


All Disciplines


Invitation/Commercial


Imagine trying to play chess in a hurricane. You have no choice, you have to play. You have to keep your body, your mind, the game, and perhaps your opponent in tact. How? This is what school is like for a traumatized student. More and more, students are coming to us having experienced trauma, and it is inhibiting their ability to learn. Their past is affecting their present. They cannot move forward. They are stuck and simply trying to hold on. They are trying to play chess in a hurricane. We must change our viewpoint from "What’s wrong with this kid?" to "What has happened to this kid?", so we can begin to change our teaching style to meet their needs. By teaching Top 20 strategies (a social emotional learning curriculum) I was able to help my traumatized students become mobile in the path to achieving their goals.


Abstract


Students who have experienced severe trauma cannot learn in the same way they once did because of it. Further, because their brains were not fully developed when they experienced trauma they are at an even stronger disadvantage than had they experienced it as an adult. All of this greatly affects how they learn. What are we, as their teachers, to do? Through my research on childhood trauma and how it affects the adolescent brain, I know that simply telling them to step it up will not work. I must first teach to the heart. The question guiding my Action Research was - how can weekly goal setting with a focus on Social Emotional Learning impact academic success in students with emotional trauma? I combine these two seemingly unrelated topics (SEL and Goal Setting) because my students are not able to carry out their goals because of the damage that trauma has done to the physical brain. As Jensen (2006) states, “Our emotions help us to focus our reason and logic. Our logical side may help us, for example, set a goal, but it is our emotional side that provides the passion to persevere through trying times.” In order to help my students learn to persevere, I implemented Top 20 strategies and goal setting on a weekly basis. Through student, teacher, and therapist assessment of individual student school skills, tracking attendance, and goals set versus goals met I found that social emotional learning is at the core of helping students who are affected by trauma move forward to being more capable of withstanding the hurricane.