Planning with Purpose and Intent: Designing Lesson Objectives and Assessments to Embed Social Emotional Learning in Elementary General Music

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a topic of growing interest and relevance to music educators, particularly those who teach elementary general music. While there are natural connections between music education and SEL, the incorporation of SEL into a music curriculum must be done with purpose and intent. Many elementary general music teachers struggle with purposefully embedding SEL into their existing curricula, due to factors such as a lack of time, relevance, and inadequate preparation. In this article, elementary general music teachers will discover ways to design lesson objectives and assessments that purposely embed SEL skills with musical outcomes to support the social, emotional, and musical development of all students in their classroom.