Brian Krause is an instructional technology coach with the Learning Technology Center of Illinois, a program of the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to support Illinois’s technology classroom use and infrastructure for K-12 school districts and educators. Brian serves as a coach for two districts in northwest Illinois and has led professional development at conferences across the Midwest.
So many tools, so little time. Teachers are always given new initiatives to test, new platforms to try (and to be expected to master). However, it seems there are never enough hours to build the skills, take a breath, and believe in yourself.
If we feel like this as adults, how do you think the children are doing? Although teachers have different responsibilities, do the students also experience emotions that deserve to be addressed?
The answer is simple: well, duh!
To help young people understand and manage these feelings, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is one solution the teacher community is now encouraged, asked, or maybe even required to use in our classrooms — and not without good reason. According to CASEL, SEL interventions that address the five core competencies (see photo) increase students’ academic performance by 11 percent. Additionally, the American Journal of Public Health found SEL even more important to include in students’ academic routine starting as young as kindergarten.
That being said, it takes time for teachers to learn what SEL really is, find quality resources, plan the lessons, and implement them in our classrooms. In my quest to seek new SEL strategies for the teachers I coach, I’ve found the answer to come from an unlikely source — Quizizz. Although it’s a platform I already use for typical classroom content, the benefits are beyond what I initially realized.
So, how can Quizizz help your students with SEL?
To be frank, Quizizz is a tool that can be molded to what you want it to be, and any of CASEL’s five SEL core competencies can be met in some way by using it. By offering engaging and personalized learning experiences, Quizizz can help teachers foster a positive and supportive learning environment that promotes SEL development.
For your next SEL lesson, let’s dive into three ideas you can try on Quizizz with your students:
1. Daily Check-In Questions
- SEL Competencies Met: Self-Awareness, Self-Management
A quick check-in can start the day off right for any kid, especially one who needs to vent or share. One struggle students may have with this, though, is finding the best way to pinpoint and express their feelings. Precise questions, like these SEL prompt ideas, can help jumpstart students’ thinking and elicit the strongest responses. Throw your favorite ones into Quizizz using one of the variety of higher-order thinking question types, like Open-Ended, or Audio or Video Response.
2. Drawing
- SEL Competencies Met: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making
Drawing is a fulfilling activity for students to express themselves when they don’t have the capacity to put their feelings into words. But wait, no need to break out the crayons and scratch paper; let your students doodle and design directly on Quizizz. The Draw question type allows you to include a prompt and a canvas, or an image to lay beneath their drawing. Check out these suggested SEL prompts to kick off the creativity and reflection.
3. Poll Questions
- SEL Competencies Met: Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making
All students deserve to have a voice, but sometimes it can be hard for them to harness, especially quieter students who aren't always comfortable speaking up in classroom conversations. By using Quizizz’s Poll question type, teachers can quickly gauge how the whole class feels and ensure everyone’s included. The SEL prompt ideas (mentioned earlier) also work well for this.
Ready to give SEL a chance in your classroom? Hear from fellow teachers about how they use Quizizz for SEL, or try one of these three templates to get you started:
Looking for PD material on this topic? Hannah Plourde’s 12-question Quiz hits the nail on the head:
Thanks for reading! Learn more here about each of the 10+ Question types on Quizizz. Feel free to share your experience on the platform with your community and ours: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
