Rock Climbing & Social Emotional Learning with Traverse Walls® 

Social emotional growth is an inherent outcome of rock-climbing programs. Climbing activities require climbers to be self-aware, persevere, make positive choices, be aware of others and work cooperatively. Because of that, climbing is an ideal area for integrating social emotional learning (SEL). Social emotional learning has gained a lot of traction over the years because research shows that it contributes to improved academic outcomes and behaviors, and even helps improve overall lifetime outcomes. If your school or organization has a Traverse Wall®, it can help to reach your organization’s SEL goals. Integrating SEL with climbing activities is as simple as what activities you choose to facilitate and adding post-activity reflection -- either through a discussion or through journaling. Here are some ideas to get you started. (Check back next week for ideas to use with your Vertical Climbing Wall.)

CASEL’s FIVE CORE SEL COMPETENCIES & OUR REFLECTION PROMPTS:

SELF-AWARENESS – Facilitate a climbing activity such as Climbing Wall Target Practice and then reflect/debrief:

• What was fun about this activity?
• What was hard about this activity?
• How did this activity make you feel?
• Did your feelings ever change from the beginning to the end of the activity?
  • If yes, how did they change and why do you think they changed?
• How did your feelings about the activity affect how you did in the activity?
• Did you feel successful at this activity?
  • If yes, what contributed to your success?
  • If no, why not?

SELF-MANAGEMENT – Facilitate a Traverse Wall® activity of your choice or from this selection of Competitive Climbing Activities and then reflect/debrief:

• What was easy about this activity? What made it easy for you?
• What was hard about this activity? What made it hard for you?
• What rules did you follow during the activity?
  • Were any rules hard to follow? Why?
  • Why are there rules for the activity?
• How did your team do?
  • If you won,
    • how did that make you feel?
    • how did you act after you won?
    • how did you help your team win?
    • what did a teammate do to help your team win?
  • If you lost,
    • how did that make you feel?
    • how did you act after you lost?
  • Would you do anything differently next time?

RESPONSIBLE DECISION MAKING – Facilitate a Traverse Wall® activity of your choice or Climbing Wall Target Practice and then reflect/debrief:

• What problems did you solve during the activity?
• What was the most challenging thing about the activity? What made it challenging?
• What decisions contributed to your success?
• How do you feel about the decisions you made during the activity?
• If you want to improve the next time you do this activity, what will you do differently? 
• What advice would you give someone who has never done this activity before to help them do well?

SOCIAL AWARENESS – Facilitate a climbing activity such as Add On and then debrief/reflect:

• What are some things you noticed about other climbers – either how they climbed or how they acted during the activity?
• Was this activity frustrating for anyone?
  • If yes, how do you know? How did they act? How did this make you feel?
• Was this activity fun for anyone?
  • If yes, how do you know? How did they act? How did this make you feel?
• Did someone help you today while you were doing the climbing activity?
  • If yes, what did they do?
  • If no, was there something someone could have done to help you?
• Did you help anyone today?
  • If yes, what did you do? How did it make you feel? How did it make them feel?
  • If no, why didn’t you?

RELATIONSHIP SKILLS – Conduct a cooperative climbing activity of your choice or choose one of these Climbing Activities that focus on Team Building and then reflect/debrief:

• What are some examples of how you and your partner(s) communicated during this activity?
• Did your team accomplish the goal of the activity?
  • If yes, what did you and/or your partner(s) do to contribute to the success?
  • If no, what do you think you could do next time to be successful?
• What does teamwork and cooperation have to do with this activity?
• What was challenging about this activity?
  • How did you overcome the challenges?
  • How did the challenges make you feel?
• Did your teammates ever disagree about how to do the activity? How was this resolved?
• What “pro tip” would you give someone who was going to do this for the first time?
• Is there anything about this activity that could be applied to other parts of your life?

Please share in the comments the ways you use your Traverse Wall® to develop social emotional learning in your program.