Using Personal Connections to Build an Understanding of Emotions

by Kelly Sheehan and Emily Marietta, Nashville, Tennessee

Overview

Organizing information is a crucial way to recognize material learned, as well as make new material relevant to students. With younger students, introducing abstract concepts is a difficult task. By using several short sessions and concrete experiences, students are able to better grasp the concepts of happy and sad emotions. This lesson plan can easily be modified for other emotions and can also be adapted for the full range of kindergarten through second grade. Older children can play more of a role in creating the language experience chart, while younger children can feel ownership by adding their own names.

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.

Student objectives

Students will begin to build a concrete understanding of the abstract concepts and vocabulary of happy and sad emotions by

Verbally telling about a personal experience when they felt happy and sad

Observing their own facial expressions with a mirror and representing these expressions through the creation of happy and sad masks

Using a shared language experience to solidify and support their understanding as a class

Instructional plan

Preparation

1. Gather materials for construction of happy and sad masks.

2. Decide how you will conduct the activity with the class. You can do the activity as a group and have all students complete happy masks and then sad masks (or vice versa). An alternative is to divide the class, having some students create sad masks, while others create happy masks. When finished, everyone switches.

3. Prepare the language experience activity chart. Divide a large sheet of chart paper into three sections. Label the sections as follows:

Things that make me sad are ____________________.

Things that make me happy are __________________.

Today I feel _______ because ___________________.

4. Create two pointers, one with a happy face, and one with a sad face on it. These pointers will be used to help students track their reading, with the happy pointer for reading about things that make them happy and the sad pointer for reading about things that make them sad.

Instruction and activities

Session 1: Creating happy and sad masks

1. Depending on how you have decided to conduct the lesson (see Preparation, 2), have students gather at their tables with the appropriate art materials for creating either happy or sad masks.

As a group, discuss what makes them feel happy or sad. This discussion is an opportunity for students to begin making connections to these emotions by verbally expressing their personal experiences. They will also begin to identify some specific features that are associated with each of the emotions to use while creating their masks. As part of the class discussion, encourage students to reflect upon and respond to each other’s experiences.

“Can you think of a time that you were sad/happy? What made you feel that way?”

“What does your face look like when you are sad/happy?”

“What makes you feel better when you are sad?” or “What things make you feel happy?”

3. Explain how students will create their happy or sad masks, and show them the materials they have to work with.

4. Offer mirrors for students to view their own faces as they express different happy and sad emotions, and draw their attentions to facial features, such as lip and eyebrow positions.

5. Give each student a plate and a bottle of glue to begin creating his or her mask.

6. When the plate for the first emotion is complete, the student will then create a mask showing the opposite emotion.

Session 2: Language experience activity

1. Have students gather in a group where they can all see the chart paper.

2. Ask students to recall making their masks.

“What is something that makes you feel happy/sad?”

“Why were you happy/sad?”

“Do you think everyone is happy/sad sometimes?”

“Let’s make a chart to see when everyone is happy and sad.”

3. Students will consecutively complete the three statements as you write their exact words onto the chart paper. Begin with the first statement, “Things that make me sad are ____________________.” Ask each student to complete the statement as you write what he or she says on the chart paper. Include parenthesis at the end of the statement and allow each student the opportunity to write his or her name on the chart paper after the statement.

4. Once everyone has had a turn, begin the second statement, “Things that make me happy are __________________.” Students will once again complete the statement in their own words and label it with their names.

5. Repeat the process using the third statement, “Today I feel ______ because ___________________.”

6. Once the chart is complete, have students read their statements one at a time using the appropriate pointer, happy or sad depending on the statement.

NOTE: If your students are capable, you may choose to modify this activity by allowing them to write their own statements onto the chart paper. To further challenge students, you can ask them to create a class poem using the following prompts:

Older students can be challenged to make their responses rhyme as well.

Session 3: Concluding the experience

1. Gather students in small groups and ask them to discuss some things they have learned over the last few lessons. Ask if they can notice some differences and similarities between happy and sad emotions.

“What are some things we know about feeling happy?”

“What are some things we know about feeling sad?”

“Can we think of any things that are the same between being happy and sad?” For example, students may recognize that both are ways we feel, both can be illustrated using our facial expressions, and both can have similar phyical responses (e.g., crying or wanting a hug).

2. Introduce the interactive Venn diagram, and present a tutorial on how to use a Venn diagram if students are unfamiliar with the concept. Explain the use of each circle to indicate the differences between two things, and the overlapping area between the two circles to indicate the similarities.

3. Label one circle “happy” and one circle “sad.” Explain that the space in the middle is for qualities that they share.

4. Depending on the age and abilities of your students, allow students to work in pairs or in small groups of three to four to take turns naming attributes for the graphic organizer.

5. Allow pairs or groups of students to type their own ideas and print a copy of their Venn diagrams.

6. Repeat until all students have had a chance to participate in the Venn diagram activity. Then post the diagrams in the classroom, along with the group members’ names.

7. Allow students to discuss what they have learned about emotions by viewing the charts and comparing group ideas.

Extensions

The Way I Feel by Janan Cain (Parenting Press, 2000) can be used as an extension to the topic of emotions. Each page is a poem about an individual emotion, so excerpts from the text can be used to keep the focus on simple emotions or it can be used to broaden the topic for older students. This book can also be used to support language development with rhyming, especially if the language experience activity chart has been modified to having students write a class poem with rhyming responses.

Additionally, Parenting Press offers an Expressing Emotions Teaching Plan, if a lesson on how to draw emotions is of interest.

For older students or those who are more familiar with computers, the Graphic Map may be a useful tool to employ in future activities. Students can use this online tool to plot the emotions of a character in a familiar text or to assess their own personal emotions during a classroom activity or event. The tool allows students to label each marker with either a happy or sad face or a ranking scale.

Art and picture books present abundant opportunities for students to interact with emotion.

Student assessment/reflections

Class discussion provides a means of observing entire class development. Take note of those students who can adequately share relevant examples of happy and sad experiences, as well as those who volunteer information.

Anecdotal notes and observation during class discussions, constructing of happy and sad masks, and the Venn diagram activity can all be used to distinguish those students who need additional practice from those who have a concrete understanding of the new vocabulary. Successful completion of these activities should be based on the level of the student, and should illustrate that the student has an appropriate level of understanding.

Evaluate students’ retention and generalization of the lesson’s content during future lessons. For example, if a journal is completed every Friday, students can be asked to journal about their emotions. Evaluate the entries to determine whether students are able to include information about emotions even when not directly requested, express their emotions in a different content, and apply the concepts to their personal experiences.