A Story from the Field: Integrating Psychosocial Support into a Reading Lesson Titled “The Land”
Grade 2 | Kobar Basic School for Girls | Teacher: Fida’ Abdel Jawad
“The Heartbeat of the Land in the Eyes of Second-Grade Girls”
Through my participation in psychosocial support training, and in social-emotional intelligence skills training in particular, I came to realize the importance of integrating the emotional dimension into the educational process, and that true learning is not limited to acquiring knowledge, but also includes understanding emotions, expressing them, and interacting positively with others.
Building on this, I decided to connect the Arabic language lesson on “The Land” with my second-grade students’ awareness of their feelings toward nature and the environment around them. I did not want the lesson to be merely silent reading or word analysis; rather, I wanted it to be an emotional journey in which the girls feel that the land is a living being that they feel for, and that feels for them.
I began the lesson by reading the lesson’s story in an expressive style that sparks the imagination, then moved on to the practical part related to emotional intelligence. I presented the “Feelings Wheel” and asked each student to identify the feeling that reflected how she felt at that moment, then asked them a reflective question: “How do you feel when you see the land clean and blooming? And how do you feel when trees are harmed?” The students engaged enthusiastically and began expressing their feelings about the environment. This activity helped create a safe and supportive classroom environment and encouraged the students to express themselves confidently and in correct language.
After discussing the importance of the land and the blessings it provides us, I used feeling cards to connect the lesson content to the students’ daily lives. They talked about the feelings they experience when they see beautiful nature, take care of plants, or help keep the environment clean.
To strengthen the skill of expressing emotions, I carried out an art activity in which I provided a drawing of a girl’s face. Each student glued on the eyes and drew the mouth that matched the feeling she had chosen, then colored it with her favorite colors. I also gave the students the opportunity to explain why they had chosen that feeling, which strengthened their self-awareness and their respect for the feelings of others.
During the lesson, I noticed great engagement and enthusiasm for participation among the students, and they were able to name their feelings and express them more clearly. I felt that integrating social-emotional learning strategies into the learning situation made learning more enjoyable and closer to the students’ reality.
This experience confirmed for me the importance of what I learned in the psychosocial support training, and that attending to the emotional side of students has a positive impact on their participation, engagement, and academic achievement. It also reinforced my conviction that building a classroom environment that supports emotions helps raise students who are more self-aware and better able to communicate positively with others, while also achieving the objectives of the reading lesson and emphasizing the importance of preserving and cherishing the land.
The experience was not without its challenges. At the beginning of using social-emotional learning activities, some students had difficulty identifying their feelings and expressing them verbally, while others were hesitant to share their feelings in front of their classmates out of fear of making mistakes or out of shyness. Time management also required greater attention to strike a balance between the objectives of the reading lesson and the social-emotional learning activities.
To overcome this, I used the Feelings Wheel and feeling cards as visual aids that helped the students recognize their feelings and easily choose what expressed them, and I offered them practical models for expressing emotions through dialogue and guided questions. I made sure to provide a safe classroom environment based on respect and acceptance, in which I encouraged all contributions without judgment, which boosted the students’ self-confidence and motivated them to participate more. As for time, I organized it by dividing the activities into stages linked to the lesson objectives, so that they served both reading skills and social-emotional learning at the same time.
Through this experience, I felt that what I learned in the social-emotional intelligence training has become a real practice inside the classroom. I saw its impact in the students’ increased engagement, their improved ability to express their feelings, and the strengthening of their positive relationships with their classmates. I also realized that integrating social-emotional skills into daily lessons does not require separate activities; rather, it can be a natural part of the learning process, contributing to building a balanced personality capable of learning and communicating effectively.