Teachers often use literature in a language class to provide a motivating context and promote language learning. However, literature also helps nurture children’s emotional intelligence, which Goleman (1995: 9) defines as “knowing what one’s feelings are and using that knowledge to make good decisions.”
If you’d like to focus on supporting children’s development of emotional intelligence, below I share some suggestions.
Ask children to think about what the character could have said to the other characters to let them know how they were feeling. As an extension, act out reactions to each suggestion and choose a response that generates the most positive feelings.
Encourage children to add speech bubbles to the illustrations, showing what other characters could have said or done to make the character feel better.
Examine the body language of the characters in the illustrations and discuss how each character's body language shows their feelings. Encourage children to act out these emotions.
Provide a list of characters (names or pictures) and ask children to identify as many feelings as possible and match them with the characters.
Invite children to write a diary entry from a character's point of view, describing their feelings.
Encourage children to send a message to a character to make them feel better.
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