Using Personal Connections to Build an Understanding of Emotions

Overview

From Theory to Practice

OVERVIEW

Organizing information is a crucial way to recognize material learned, as well as make new material relevant to students. This lesson uses several short sessions and concrete experiences to introduce the abstract concepts of happy and sad emotions to younger students (the lesson can easily be modified for other emotions). In an initial session, students begin making connections to emotions by verbally expressing personal experiences that have evoked happiness or sadness, and they create two-sided masks with happy and sad expressions. Subsequent discussions encourage them to make more general observations about human emotions; and to identify and express their own current feelings. The interactive Venn diagram is used to organize students' observations happy and sad emotions.

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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Winters, R. (2001). Vocabulary anchors: Building conceptual connections with your students. The Reading Teacher, 54, 659–662.

• Vocabulary and concept development is based on solving problems and connecting new information to personal experiences.
  
  
• Students clarify their understanding through informal social interactions and active processing.
  
  
• By having meaningful interactions with language, students can begin to understand the concept of emotions.

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