Developing Emotional Control: 5 Practical Strategies for Middle School Classrooms

Posted In Application On January 9, 2025

Developing emotional control is a vital step in fostering middle school students’ executive function skills. This critical ability helps them manage reactions, stay calm under stress, and make thoughtful decisions—essential for academic success, social empowerment, and emotional well-being. In this blog, we’ll explore practical strategies teachers can use to integrate emotional control into their curriculum, promoting self-regulation, confidence, and improved learning outcomes.

Matching Reactions to Problems

Provide each student with a blank sheet of paper and have them fold it in half lengthwise. On the left side, students write five problems they’ve experienced over a specific period. On the right side, they document their reaction to each problem. Then, guide them in evaluating whether the size of their reaction matched the size of the problem. For any mismatched reactions, encourage reflection on what a more appropriate reaction might have looked like.

Why It Works:

• This exercise promotes self-awareness and empowers students to assess and adjust their emotional responses as they are developing emotional control, a foundational component of executive function learning. It also builds students’ confidence as they practice problem-solving and self-regulation.

Coping Strategies for Stress

Ask students to write strategies for coping with stress on a note card and keep it accessible. Strategies might include taking deep breaths, counting to ten, or going for a brief walk. Over an agreed-upon period, have students try one or more strategies when feeling stressed. Then, document how their reactions change and identify which strategies are most effective for them.

Why It Works:

• This activity encourages the development of emotional control tools to handle stress proactively. By helping students identify what works best for them, you’re fostering student empowerment and improving their self-regulation.

Belly Breathing for Calmness

Teach students a belly-breathing technique and encourage them to use it three or more times during moments of upset over a designated period. Students document what triggered their emotions, how upset they felt, and how their mind and body responded after practicing belly breathing.

Why It Works:

• Breathing exercises are simple yet powerful executive function strategies for developing emotional control. They help students calm their minds, regulate their emotions, and improve their academic performance by reducing stress.

Comparing Anger Across Environments

Have students compare and contrast how anger manifests at school, at home, and in social situations. Encourage them to document their thoughts, feelings, and actions in each setting to determine if their reactions are consistent or vary based on the environment.

Why It Works:

• This activity fosters self-reflection and helps students recognize patterns in their behavior, enhancing their ability to self-regulate and adapt. It also supports student social skills by encouraging awareness of how their emotions impact interactions with others.

Reframing Negative Thoughts

Over a designated period, students document two or more situations where they experienced strong negative feelings. For each, they write down the unhelpful thought they had and then create a new, more helpful thought. Students reflect on whether focusing on the new thought changes their feelings.

Why It Works:

• This exercise equips students with practical tools to manage emotions and develop healthier thought patterns. By reframing their thinking, they can improve their emotional responses and overall well-being.

Student showing the importance of developing emotional control skills.

Building an Executive Function System

Incorporating these activities into your classroom supports executive function instruction and provides students with strategies to improve their emotional control. These lessons are a key component of solving executive function challenges, empowering students to build the skills they need for long-term success. When students feel in control of their emotions, they experience improved engagement, stronger social skills, and better academic performance.

Explore more ways to develop emotional control for grades 1-4 and 9-12.

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By focusing on teaching executive function skills, particularly developing emotional control, teachers can create a classroom environment that fosters student confidence, enhances learning, and supports every student’s growth.