Response to SIM Module: Engage! If you don't have the SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL STUFF does the rest even matter?

 

What is the pedagogical value of utilizing the Social Interactive Model/Cooperative Learning? 

    Increasingly, educators are recognizing the importance of social and emotional literacy beginning in the early years of elementary education.  We are aware more than even that social literacy may be even more important than than a student learning their "ABCs.

    Utilizing social interactive models and cooperative learning in the classroom is one way that teachers address this need early on. This model allows for group assignments and participation and will no doubt present "teaching moments" to the educator as they stive to bridge gaps and misconceptions students may have on dealing with peers and frustration. In a study mentioned in our text - 900 at risk kindergarteners were identified and half of that group was put in classes that teach about social/emotional literacy. After ten years it was clear that the students who received that emotional social support faired better not only in school but in their lives. Engaging students in social interactive model get at the heart of education. Of course, educators must teach content and hope that they are imparting knowledge that will survive past the school day. But more than anything, a teaching should strive to build citizens who understand themselves, and can live and communicate in the world around them. Ideally people would be able to do so respectively, responsibly and productively.