SEL in the Classroom: How to Integrate Social and Emotional Learning in Grades 6–12

Social and emotional learning (SEL) in the classroom is how teachers help students build the skills to understand their emotions, work well with others and make responsible decisions as part of everyday teaching. CASEL says SEL-focused classrooms often include three components: a supportive classroom climate, SEL woven into academic instruction, and explicit SEL instruction.

Secondary classrooms add their own challenges. Students move between several subject teachers a day, each subject gets a fixed period, and many teenagers tune out anything that sounds like a lecture about feelings.

This guide is for grade 6–12 teachers. It covers what SEL looks like in a middle or high school classroom, subject-by-subject ideas, six everyday routines, a 4-step way to start, and where explicit SEL lessons fit.

What SEL in the classroom looks like in grades 6–12

CASEL’s model gives secondary teachers a practical map. It names three components of an SEL-focused classroom, and it describes effective SEL approaches with the acronym SAFE: sequenced, active, focused and explicit. A 2011 meta-analysis of 213 school-based SEL programs, spanning kindergarten through high school, found that in the studies that measured academic performance, participating students scored an average of 11 percentile points higher than comparison students.

A supportive classroom climate. Students feel emotionally safe, part of a community of learners, and challenged. In a chemistry class, that means a student can say “I don’t get molar ratios” out loud without anyone laughing, because the class agreed early on how to respond to confusion.

SEL integrated into academic instruction. Students practice social and emotional skills inside regular coursework, such as taking another perspective or working through a setback. A geometry class where partners must explain each other’s proof before critiquing it is practicing perspective-taking and respectful disagreement while it learns the content.

Explicit SEL instruction. Students get dedicated time to learn, practice and reflect on specific skills in ways that fit their age. In a middle or high school, the natural homes for it are advisory, homeroom, health class or a dedicated SEL block.

CASEL organizes SEL skills into five competencies, often called the CASEL 5. Here is what each looks like with older students:

• Self-awareness: a 10th grader notices that a low quiz grade in first period is still bothering them in third, and names it.
• Self-management: an 8th grader breaks a two-week research project into dated steps instead of starting the night before.
• Social awareness: a student in a debate restates the other side’s argument fairly before answering it.
• Relationship skills: a lab group divides the work, checks in on progress and settles a disagreement without the teacher.
• Responsible decision-making: a 12th grader weighs a part-time job against a heavy course load before saying yes.

SEL and UDL. SEL also lines up with Universal Design for Learning (UDL). CAST released UDL Guidelines 3.0 in July 2024. According to CAST’s overview of the update, its engagement principle emphasizes belonging, joy and play, and empathy and restorative practices. Considerations such as “Foster belonging and community” and “Cultivate empathy and restorative practices” overlap with several routines in this guide. If your school already plans with UDL, SEL routines can sit inside that planning rather than on top of it.

How to integrate SEL into academic subjects

Integration means students practice an SEL skill while doing the subject’s real work, not in a separate activity bolted onto the lesson. In a 2012 report, researchers Stephanie Jones and Suzanne Bouffard argued that schools should build the teaching and reinforcement of SEL skills into daily interactions and practices, using strategies that are time-efficient and integrated with academic curricula rather than distracting from them. Each block below gives one routine you can use this week, with a middle school and a high school example.

SEL in English language arts

• What it looks like: Students read characters’ motives and choices to practice understanding people, and they give each other feedback on writing that is honest and usable.
• Try this: Before peer review, post three sentence starters and require one of each: “One thing that works is…”, “One question I had was…” and “One thing to try next is…”. Reviewers write their comments before anyone speaks, so quieter students have something ready.
• Middle school example: In a 7th grade unit on The Outsiders, students write a journal entry as Ponyboy after a turning point in the story, then compare what he feels with what he tells the other characters.
• High school example: In an 11th grade argument unit, students annotate an op-ed for the author’s motives and assumptions, then draft a response that answers the strongest version of the other side.
• Competency: Social awareness; relationship skills.

SEL in social studies and history

• What it looks like: Students study decisions real people made under pressure, so perspective-taking and decision-making are already part of the content.
• Try this: Run a “decision point” protocol. Stop the narrative before a historical decision and give students only the information the decision-makers had at that moment. Small groups recommend a course of action and name who would be affected. Then reveal what happened.
• Middle school example: An 8th grade class stops in the summer of 1787, argues for a large-state or small-state plan of representation, and explains how the other side would see it.
• High school example: A government class holds a structured discussion on a local zoning proposal, and each student paraphrases the previous speaker before adding a point.
• Competency: Social awareness; responsible decision-making.

SEL in science

• What it looks like: Labs are often group work, and experiments don’t always go as planned. Both are chances to practice teamwork and persistence.
• Try this: Assign rotating lab roles (materials manager, recorder, timekeeper and skeptic), each with one written norm. After every lab, each group answers one debrief question: “What did our group do when something went wrong?”
• Middle school example: When a 7th grade group’s plant-growth experiment fails, the group writes a short “what we’d change” note before redoing it, instead of starting over in silence.
• High school example: In environmental science, students weigh data on a proposed local development, including water quality, jobs and habitat, and write a recommendation that names the trade-offs.
• Competency: Relationship skills; responsible decision-making.

SEL in math

• What it looks like: Students learn to stay with a hard problem, ask for help in a specific way, and treat errors as information.
• Try this: Teach a help-seeking script and post it: “I tried ___, I got stuck at ___, and my question is ___.” Students use it before they raise a hand. Once a week, show an anonymous wrong answer and have the class find what went right before what went wrong.
• Middle school example: After a 6th grade ratios quiz, students sort their missed problems into “careless,” “didn’t understand” and “ran out of time,” then pick one goal for the next quiz.
• High school example: In Algebra II, partners analyze a worked solution with one planted error and explain the thinking that could have led to it.
• Competency: Self-awareness; relationship skills.

SEL in electives, arts and PE

• What it looks like: These classes often involve performance, critique and competition, so students practice handling nerves, giving feedback and being a good teammate in real time.
• Try this: Use a creator-led critique norm for any shared work: the creator says what feedback they want, and responders stick to that focus. In PE, end games with a 60-second round where each player names one thing a teammate did well.
• Middle school example: Before a band concert, 8th graders name the physical signs of nerves they notice, such as shaky hands or fast breathing, and practice one breathing routine during warm-up.
• High school example: In an advanced art class, students run a gallery-walk critique in which each artist names the question they want answered about their piece.
• Competency: Self-awareness; relationship skills.

To plan your own version, use this lesson plan template for integrating SEL with your next unit.

SEL strategies for everyday classroom routines

Routines help build the supportive climate that CASEL describes. They help because they repeat: students know what to expect, and the skill gets practiced many times a semester instead of once.

Teach a few reset strategies before you ask students to use one on their own. These coping strategies for students are short and teachable in grades 6–12. Restorative conversations also connect SEL to how your school responds to conflict; here is how SEL and PBIS fit together. For more ideas, see these SEL activities for high school students.

Making SEL work for teenagers

Many older students are quick to spot anything that feels condescending. In a review of SEL programs for adolescents, psychologist David Yeager found that effective approaches for teens focus less on drilling skills and more on making students feel respected by adults and peers, with a chance to earn status in the eyes of people whose opinions they value. He also cautions that conventional programs built around repeated skill instruction and rehearsal have a poor track record with students roughly 14 to 17. That is one reason the routines in this guide lean on student choice and real coursework rather than scripted drills. In practice:

• Give choice and voice. Let students pick the goal or the routine, and ask what’s working.
• Keep it short. Most of these routines take five minutes or less once students know them.
• Connect it to what they care about: grades, friends, college or a job.
• Never force personal sharing. Students can always pass, or write instead of speak.

How to implement SEL in your classroom: a 4-step start

You don’t need a schoolwide initiative to begin. One teacher, one competency and one routine is enough, and it gives you something concrete to share with colleagues later.

1. Pick one competency and one routine for the next four weeks. If group work keeps falling apart, pick relationship skills and the group-work norms routine. If students shut down after low grades, pick self-awareness and goal-setting.
2. Introduce the skill explicitly. Spend 10 to 15 minutes naming the skill, modeling it and having students practice it while the class is calm, not in the middle of a conflict. Show what a useful peer comment or a specific help request sounds like before you expect one.
3. Build it into one recurring academic task. Attach the routine to something that already happens every week, such as a lab, a quiz review or a writing conference. The subject blocks above give a starting point for each subject.
4. Check and adjust. After four weeks, look at one simple measure: exit-ticket responses, check-in trends or how often groups solve problems without you. Keep what works and change one thing. When a school wants a consistent sequence of skills across grades, that is a curriculum’s job; here is how to choose an SEL curriculum.

For a team or department: agree on the same competency and routine across the grade team for the same four weeks. Students hear the same language in every participating class, and you can compare notes at your next team meeting.

What gets in the way of SEL in secondary classrooms

Four barriers come up often in middle and high schools. Here is what helps with each.

To see whether it’s helping, decide before you start what you’ll look at, such as exit-ticket responses, check-in trends or fewer group conflicts. For tools that work at the school level, see how to measure SEL.

Where explicit SEL lessons fit: the Emotional Well-Being Curriculum

Subject integration and classroom routines support two of CASEL’s three components. The third, explicit SEL instruction, needs its own time and a planned sequence. Ori Learning’s Emotional Well-Being Curriculum is an SEL curriculum for grades 6–12 built for that component. Schools run it in advisory, homeroom, health class or a dedicated SEL block, and subject teachers can reinforce the same skills with the routines above.

Each grade has 25 lessons in five units that map one-to-one to the five CASEL competencies. Core lessons are designed for 20 minutes, each with a warm-up and an exit ticket, and units include end-of-unit projects. Most lessons include collaboration boards and journal reflections. Schools get flexible ways to teach SEL: front of class, live participation or self-paced. The lessons are designed for minimal prep, so advisory and homeroom teachers, not only counselors, can lead them. Built-in supports include text-to-speech with adjustable speed, speech-to-text on open responses, adjustable zoom and highlight-to-translate in 130+ languages.

The lessons give students language that subject teachers can reuse:

• In the Grade 6 lesson “Fitting In,” part of the middle school SEL curriculum, students answer: “What could help students feel more included, accepted, and safe at your school?” A teacher could return to that question when a class sets its discussion norms.
• In the Grade 7 lesson “Collaboration,” students design a teamwork acronym and answer: “How can remembering this acronym help promote teamwork at school and in your community?” A science teacher could build lab-group norms from the class’s acronyms.
• In the Grade 9 lesson “Prioritizing My Time,” from the high school SEL curriculum, students think about how they spend their free time: “After sleeping, going to school, eating, and taking basic care of yourself, you are left with about 4 hours left in your day. How do you spend those 4 hours?” A math teacher could connect it to goal-setting after a test.

A recent third-party study following ESSA Level III standards included 1,829 students in grades 9–12 in a suburban New Jersey high school district. Students who completed all 25 lessons had 11% higher well-being scores than students who completed 5.

To see how the lessons would fit your schedule, request a demo.

SEL in the classroom: quick answers

What are examples of SEL in the classroom?

In grades 6–12, examples include a 60-second check-in at the bell, group-work norms that students write and revisit, peer-review sentence starters in ELA, rotating lab roles in science, a help-seeking script in math, and a restorative conversation after a conflict. Some are routines, some sit inside academic tasks, and each practices a specific skill, such as relationship skills or responsible decision-making.

How can I implement SEL in my classroom?

Start small. Pick one CASEL competency and one routine for four weeks. Introduce the skill explicitly, while the class is calm. Build the routine into a recurring academic task, such as a weekly lab or quiz review. Then check exit tickets or check-in trends and adjust. A grade team can run the same routine so students hear consistent language.

What hinders SEL practices in the classroom?

In middle and high schools, common barriers are a packed curriculum, teen skepticism, inconsistency from class to class, and limited teacher capacity. What helps: build SEL into existing assignments alongside planned explicit SEL lessons, keep routines short and give students choice, agree on one shared routine across a grade team, and start with a single routine rather than everything at once.

How much time does SEL take in a secondary classroom?

Most integrated routines take little time once students know them. A check-in takes about a minute, a reset before a test two or three minutes, and most subject routines five to 15 minutes when they replace part of an existing task. Plan extra time the first time you introduce one. Explicit SEL lessons need their own scheduled time, such as part of an advisory, homeroom or health period.

Sources

1. CASEL. “SEL in the Classroom.” casel.org/systemic-implementation/sel-in-the-classroom
2. CASEL. “What Is SEL?” casel.org/what-is-sel
3. Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., and Schellinger, K. B. (2011). “The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions.” Child Development, 82(1), 405–432. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x
4. CAST (2024). “The UDL Guidelines” (version 3.0) and “About the Guidelines 3.0 Update.” udlguidelines.cast.org
5. Jones, S. M., and Bouffard, S. M. (2012). “Social and emotional learning in schools: From programs to strategies.” Social Policy Report, 26(4). Society for Research in Child Development. eric.ed.gov/?id=ED540203
6. Yeager, D. S. (2017). “Social and emotional learning programs for adolescents.” The Future of Children, 27(1), 73–94. eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1145078
7. Jennings, P. A., and Greenberg, M. T. (2009). “The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes.” Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 491–525. doi.org/10.3102/0034654308325693