ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Emotional Literacy - How can it be taught?

Updated on February 16, 2015

Your feelings:

Do you understand your emotions?

See results

Emotional Literacy Education

Emotional Literacy Education

In today’s society little emphasis is put on emotional states of students, employees, teachers and humans at large. Most are expected to keep their emotions inside, under wraps and under control. No attention is paid, even in families, unless a person is out of control or letting their emotions unfurl in dramatic episodes. This method of dealing, or not dealing with emotions, has got to stop if we are to move forward as an enlightened society.

Emotional Literacy is reading the feelings and emotions of oneself and others, and acting accordingly. We need to acknowledge emotions, allow emotions and release emotions. We can learn to be more familiar with them, in order to understand them.

In the setup of the class, the concentration of the group is on Emotional Literacy. Even this simple step lends itself to the task of becoming aware because we are setting up a space to acknowledge emotions. Children are taught lessons on how to interact with emotions through games and fun activities.

Just how we enable our selves to be emotionally literate is the question at hand. I can volunteer my answer to this question in having studied emotions in sessions with my private clients, in my self and in my students who completed my first ever Emotional Literacy Kids Course. Allow me to explain.

Familiarity with the terms of emotions - the descriptive words - was a big step forward because it put tools into the hands of the children who may have had trouble describing what they were feeling. Simple and common words were utilized to discuss emotions. Then, we moved toward a scaling of those that felt good and those that felt not so good. Each student was encouraged to allow, acknowledge and accept any way they were feeling, at any time, and to seek to know more.

For example: I presented The Emotional Guidance Scale from the work of Esther Hicks, with graduated feelings starting with JOY and going the length to that of FEAR. In between are common words we discussed with varying levels of density and weight. This was clear in tonal voice changes as we read aloud from the scale. Each child could hear the difference, the dissonance, as we read from JOY to FEAR and again back up to JOY.

Our class focused around matching terms, using everyday pictures to match feelings, grading emotions, speaking of moments in feeling this emotion or that emotion, the changing of emotion in a more positive emotion - in oneself or another. Empathy develops simply by acknowledging that each person deserves to be heard and allowed space to exist. The essential teaching is that feelings or emotions are our friends, our tools, and they are to be respected for the information they are there to give.

This simplistic but thoughtful allowing and accepting of who we are and how we feel, made space for each child to feel valued, heard and accepted by peers. There is more curriculum that can be created revolving around the simple principles of sharing, providing space to feel, and listening with open hearts.

The teacher's manual for Emotional Literacy for Kids is now available at Createspace and Amazon. This teacher's course handbook compiles the lesson plans for all six 2-hour lessons into a handbook for teachers in classrooms and in homes.

Cassandra Lea Wilson

The Horizon Centre

Source

How we learn

Source
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)