Education

FOR TEACHERS: How to teach social skills to students inside classrooms

Social Skills

There’s no denying this fact that social skills are absolutely crucial to succeed in life.

Since it’s a pretty well-known fact that these skills are pivotal to be a standout among the crowd, it’s only natural for tutors/teachers to teach these skills to students from a very young age to benefit well in the long run.

So how can you, as a teacher or a tutor, can really make a difference in your lessons by incorporating the teaching of social skills in your classrooms? The following tips can help.

Practice what you preach

You just can’t tell your class to say “please” or “thank you” as a form of a courtesy and expect them to follow when you never even bothered to do the same when the situation called for them the most.

You need to practice what you preach. If you want to teach your students manners, you need to demonstrate the same in your own behavior. A simple step like that can go a long way indeed.

Introduce your class to pen-pal letter writing

As the name suggests, this doesn’t any technology like e-mailing or texting and other similar things. It’ just good old-fashioned letter writing.

Have your students write letters to students of other schools; ones that they know only by names (you should provide your students with the names of the receiver; any random name would do).

This practice will not only help to enhance their social skills but can also play a major role in improving their writing skills on the whole. So is there something not to like? Guess not!

Use class room activities to your benefits

We have provided three proven activities that are more than capable of serving your purpose effectively. So do go through them as carefully as possible.

Skill 1: Attentive listening

Steps (The steps of this activity are explained from a student’s point of view):

  • Look at the person who’s talking. (Note: It’s advisable to have eye contact during the conversation to make the other person believe that you are really focused on his/her speech.)
  • Wait until the person has finished talking. (Note: Talking in between isn’t advisable at any possible cost.)
  • Give the person a sign that you have heard him/her well through a simple nod of your head or via positive phrases such as “okay.”

Class Activity:

You can use storytelling to your advantage as far as the attentive listening activity is concerned.

Invite students one-by-one to tell or read a story to the class on the whole.

As soon as it’s finished, you may ask a question from the story to the class in general. Those who successfully provides the answer to the question may be awarded a certain number of marks. The student who scores the maximum wins.

Skill 2: Greeting others

Steps (The steps of this activity are explained from a student’s point of view):

  • Look at the person (preferably in the eye).
  • Say “Hello” or “Hi” with a pleasant voice.

Class Activity

Ask your students to come up with a variety of greetings (such as “Hello,” “How do you do?,” and others) that they can use with each other.

The student coming up with the most, wins.

Skill 3: Following instructions as closely as possible

Steps (The steps of this activity are explained from a student’s point of view):

  • Look at the person (preferably in the eye).
  • Listen carefully to the instructions that s/he provides you with.
  • Say “understood” or “okay.”
  • Do the tasks accordingly.
  • Check back in with the same person to confirm whether it’s done alright or not.

Class Activity

Divide your class into groups and involve them in a treasure hunt game. Provide each group with instructions serving to be the biggest clue as to where the treasure is.

Tell your class that there’s no way of finding the treasure without following the directions mentioned in your instructions. So if they want to win, they better pay close attention to the instructions to the best of their abilities.

So that’s basically it then. It’s time we bring this article to an end for now. Hope you had a good and useful read.

Contributed by:https://www.myprivatetutor.ae/

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