Reflective Journaling for ELA Mindfulness Bellringers: SEL Writing Morning Work

Morning Work: Social Emotional Learning Activity: Supporting Students' Mental Health:

Build healthy social-emotional learning habits with this morning work journaling practice. Students start and end their week with a mindfulness journal practice that is rooted in research. If you teach Middle or High School students, then you know that our students are facing some serious struggles with mental health issues. I created this reflective bi-weekly digital or printable journaling activity in response to many of my student's expressions of anxiety that accompany being a teenager as well as their struggles with more serious mental health issues. This social-emotional learning practice is backed by research and aims to guide students toward reflecting on the positive things in their lives. This activity will help boost your students' confidence and will train students to build healthy journaling routines as we continue through the school year. Further, the research illustrates that the practices within these activities boost one’s overall happiness as well! I challenge teachers to complete the practice alongside their students since we all could use a little self-care. :)

Included is a slideshow that teachers review with their students, explaining the research behind each journaling activity. We all know how some of our students may be a bit more reluctant to write about feelings and their personal lives without a clear explanation that there is scientific proof that this practice will benefit them. You certainly won't hear, “Why are we even doing this?” :)

You can post the slideshow to Google Classroom or a platform of your choice (if students are still working from home) to have students review the content while they fill out their digital note-taking guide (this will hold them accountable to learning about the benefits of the reflection process) or you could teach the slideshow in class and have students fill out their journals digitally. There is also a printable version of this note-taking guide if you prefer your students work on paper.

The bi-weekly reflective journaling doc. includes 8 weeks of journaling and is editable to fit your classroom needs. You can have students complete this activity for the duration of your choice. Students begin journaling on Mondays and revisit that journal response on Fridays. I like to have students complete this practice for the entire semester. I love the routine because it also gives me 10-12 minutes every Monday and Friday (every class period!) to catch up on the things I need to catch up on. The writing activities in this journal include practicing gratitude, creating a weekly affirmation, activities that have students revisit their week reflecting on where they did well and where they could grow and so much more. The practice will take about 7-10 minutes on Monday and 7-10 minutes on Friday for a total of under 30 minutes each week. This is a great habit that takes little time but provides maximum emotional health benefits. When I forget the practice, students remind me that we have to do our journal practice.

OTHER ENGLISH CLASSROOM STAPLES TO CHECK OUT:

-Back to School Group Activity: ICE BREAKER: Engaging new group project for building community while helping you transition your students back from a year of distance learning.

-Paragraph Writing Outline: This is your go-to paragraph writing outline template for any high school writing prompt. Re-use throughout the year to build strong writing habits.

-Literary Analysis Paragraph Outline: This is a middle school and high school paragraph outline template designed for ELA paragraph writing. Both digital and printable versions are available. Reuse all school year as support for teaching literary analysis for any novel.