Every Moment Matters: A Transformative Approach to Supporting Reading Comprehension and Social–Emotional Development

ABSTRACT

As elementary teachers navigate an increasingly complex educational landscape, it is more important than ever to attend to social–emotional dimensions of learning in conjunction with literacy learning across the school day. Although prioritizing social–emotional learning (SEL) in classrooms is valuable, a growing number of educators and scholars argue that traditional SEL can be inadequate if not paired with student‐centered instruction that honors and builds upon students' cultures. Based on findings from my partnership with a fifth‐grade teacher to iteratively design Read Alouds for Social Emotional Learning (RASEL), this article presents justice‐oriented recommendations in support of students' reading comprehension and transformative social–emotional learning (TSEL). Conducting read‐alouds that center characters' cultural experiences can provide opportunities for developing emotion vocabulary, inferring characters' feelings, synthesizing themes connected to social justice, and experiencing the perspectives of characters in ways that embrace complexity and justice.