What is Social and Emotional Learning?

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.
(CASEL, 2020)

Using story-telling and role-playing games as a vehicle towards practicing SEL skills have short and long-term benefits. Students are more successful in school and daily life when they know and can manage themselves, understand the perspectives of others and relate effectively with them, and make sound choices about personal and social decisions. When we use a culturally relevant story to deliver life experiences to learners, we can encourage them to engage in  the world as if they were playing a game.

Each participant has a specific job, is introduced to real-life scenarios to explore through role-play, and has discussions as a team to process and develop communication skills. This gives the participant a more positive attitude towards oneself, others, and tasks including enhanced self-efficacy, confidence, persistence, empathy, connection and commitment to school, and a sense of purpose.

The culturally relevant story and role-playing game provide a safe environment for participants to exercise positive social behaviors and relationships with their peers and adults. The safety to explore and decide which directions they want to take their character encourages students to bring those decisions to their lives. They build their own sense of moral, purpose, self-awareness and confidence which leads to decreased emotional distress, reduced risk-taking behavior, improved test scores, grades and attendance.

Understanding SEL

What is SEL from CASEL

Benefits of SEL from CASEL

RP as an SEL Teaching Tool from EduTopia

SEL In-Depth from Committee for Children

SEL Resource for Educators from Corwin Press

How Does Role-Playing Help SEL?

In all of our adventures, we use emotionally engaging and culturally relevant story-telling to engage our participants in a world where they can practice their emotional and interpersonal skills. The best way to learn SEL is to practice these skills in an environment where it is safe and they have a sense of belonging. We do this by using carefully designed Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) experiences. LARP with SEL encourages our learners to embody aspects of themselves as a character that they create. This allows them to build skills, practice, and receive feedback in a safe environment which helps them to see how their behavior affects those around them.

We also provide courses for running your own SEL role-playing adventures with our Universal Game System which includes the Nonviolent Conflict System for teaching all ages skills such as the science of psychology, negotiation, brokering, moderating, and conflict resolution.

What We Provide

We can provide:

• Consulting
• Curriculum Design
• Cultural Educator Assessment
• Plot Writing
• Staff Training
• Script Writing
• Custom Costuming & Props
• Video Production
• Equipment & Supply Sourcing
• Marketing Materials
• And what ever you need to make your SEL adventure work!

Looking for a subcontractor? Download our Capabilities Statement if you are interested in having our women owned small business (WOSB) work with you on your grant or government contract.