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Second Step® Insights

3 Ways Human Skills Can Support Student Literacy

November 20, 2024 | By: The Second Step® Team

Most language arts and primary educators are familiar with this foundational concept of literacy education: First, students learn to read. Then, they read to learn.

While simple, this formula illustrates why literacy is so essential for learning and academic success. Once students reach a certain reading level, they can use their literacy to acquire more knowledge, explore complex concepts, and interpret more sophisticated information. Literacy paves the way to academic skills like critical and analytical thinking, self-expression, creativity, and more.

When we think of literacy in this way, we begin to understand why it’s so important. We also understand why the recent struggles in literacy among American students are so concerning. According to testing data from the National Center for Education Statistics, reading performance declined by five percent between 2020 and 2022—the largest drop since 1990.

Educators should continue to prioritize literacy as a fundamental academic competency, of course. But given the extent and urgency of the problem, we should also consider how other methods can support student literacy. Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a great place to start.

Research indicates that comprehensive school-based social-emotional learning can lead to significantly improved academic skills, attitudes, behaviors, school functioning, and academic achievement. Just as literacy leads to other academic skills, SEL can help build the skills that lead to learning and academic success. Literacy is one fundamental area where SEL can help students grow.

A study on the relationship between social-emotional skills and academic success found that self-control, persistence, and curiosity were three of the most important skills for academic success. Social-emotional learning programs and interventions are designed to help students build all these skills and more, aiding them in the challenging but essential process of building literacy.

Persistence is key to literacy

Building literacy begins as early as six months and extends into young adulthood. This long, gradual process spans the entirety of a child’s academic journey and demands continuous growth. Needless to say, building literacy takes incredible persistence.

Research ranks persistence as the second most significant social-emotional skill for achieving academic success. Self-awareness is a core social-emotional competency that encompasses capacities such as growth mindset, self-efficacy, and experiencing a sense of purpose. Persistence is closely connected to each of these capacities. Comprehensive SEL programs are designed to help students build these capacities, enhancing their persistence and supporting their literacy development.

Curiosity is a catalyst for literacy—and vice versa

Curiosity is a powerful driver for learning because it stems from a genuine desire to discover new things. This is especially true for literacy, which acts as a gateway for students to explore and fuel their curiosity. As curiosity motivates students to build their literacy skills, literacy in turn fosters further curiosity, creating a positive cycle.

SEL helps develop curiosity in countless ways. For example, SEL encourages responsible decision-making, which nurtures open-mindedness and curiosity. It also enhances social awareness, enabling students to adopt new perspectives and understand their environment more deeply. By fostering these qualities, SEL can empower students to approach literacy with greater curiosity.

Emotion management can support literacy

Literacy can be challenging to develop and teach because it relies on mastering successive, interconnected skills. For students struggling to read, this process can be frustrating. On the other hand, progressing as a reader is rewarding, and recognizing these positive emotions can keep students engaged and motivated as they build literacy. In this way, emotion management—a key aspect of self-management within SEL—is another supportive skill for building literacy.

Literacy: A gateway to growth

Literacy is one of the most important academic skills for students because it acts as a gateway to further academic learning and personal growth.

Social-emotional learning can help students build essential skills that support them on the lifelong journey of building literacy.

You can visit SecondStep.org to learn more about how Second Step® SEL programs empower kids to become more curious, persistent, and emotionally competent in their learning.