March 2 016
PART 2: EVIDENCING PRACTICE
The following s lides s how s ome examples o f practice from my P 1 and P7 class work.
I p lanned a nd d elivered a 6 -­‐week Emotion Works series o f lessons with each class u sing activities and ideas that were a lready p art o f the term p lan.
Knowing my learners, consulting with class teachers, a nd u sing Emotion Works guidance, I made a decision a bout which Emotion Works level would b e a ppropriate for each a ge-­‐group.
P7 P lan
P1 P lan
I w orked w ith my P1 group to introduce the different c og meanings and links between them.
First, I checked their knowledge o f emotion words a nd related concepts to make sure that there was enough emotional language in p lace b efore a ttempting to introduce the cog concepts.
I u sed my ‘Coggle Vision’ to identify two useful resources a lready in school for assessing word knowledge…
A song
• ‘I am Very H appy’ from ‘The C lass M oves’ P rogramme
A story book
• The Lonely G iraffe b y P eter Blight, Bloomsbury P aperbacks
Assessment
Singing, a cting o ut a nd talking a bout the d ifferent feelings in the s ong, a nd reading a nd talking about the feelings o f d ifferent characters in the s tory reassured me that collectively the children could u se language to n ame feelings ( eg. sad, h appy, g rumpy, s cared) and describe emotion behaviours ( eg s miling, crying, s tamping feet).
I felt ready to g et s tarted teaching them a bout the ‘Emotion Words’ C og concept.
Pauline McKibben Practitioner A ccreditation Part 2
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March 2 016
An outline of a lesson I used to help introduce the Emotion Words c og concept:
I h ad a d iscussion with the children a bout feelings a nd the words we u sed to describe them.
We read the b ook, the Lonely G iraffe a nd were a ble to identify the d ifferent feelings the g iraffe a nd the o ther a nimals experienced throughout the s tory. We n amed the words a nd I wrote them d own on a p ost-­‐it a nd s tuck them to the front cover o f the b ook. I s aid these words a re ‘Emotion Words’ (or ‘Feeling Words’)
We talked a bout h ow words can b e written d own, o r spoken o ut loud.
The children took turns ‘reading’ a nd s aying the emotion words o ut loud.
sad
I then introduced the Emotion Words cog with the s ymbol inside that I’d laminated a nd cut o ut.
We s pent s ome time looking a t it a nd talking about the colour, the symbol, the d ashed lines a nd thinking of s ome more emotion words.
After the lesson, the cog was left o n d isplay o n a wall in the classroom to p rompt naming o f emotion words a nd cog references during the week with the class teacher.
The ‘I am Very H appy’ s ong from ‘The C lass M oves’ was a s ong the children were familiar with a s it was p art o f their ‘Shake a nd Wake’ morning warm u p routine. As they were a ll a ble to s ing the s ong and join in with the a ctions I felt it would b e a s uitable for introducing a nd d iscussing the cog concepts o f Emotion Behaviours a nd Emotion Triggers.
Some o f my q uestioning a nd p rompting included…
How can we s how the d ifferent emotions in the s ong?
What d o we d o to s how we’re h appy, a ngry, s ad etc.? Think a bout a time when you felt h appy, a ngry, s ad etc. – what d id you d o?
Although reasons for feeling emotions didn’t feature in the s ong I was able to build o n responses from the p revious q uestions to introduce the Triggers cog*.
What h appened to make you feel h appy, a ngry, s ad etc.?
Why d o you s ometimes h ave h appy, a ngry, s ad feelings etc.
* A g ood follow u p a ctivity I u sed to further explore the emotion triggers cog was to read the s tory ‘Good d ay, Bad d ay’ a nd then ask the children to h elp identify a nd d iscuss the triggers for the good d ay a nd the b ad day.
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March 2 016
When K athryn from Emotion Works came to o bserve o ne o f my P 1 lessons I h ad already introduced each o f the 5 cogs, s o my p lan for the lesson was to have the card p rompts to h and a nd the ‘model in mind’ to h elp me make reference to a nd h ighlight emotion cog a spects in a story b ook a s we encountered them. The b ook was ‘Who Feels Scared’ b y Sue G raves, Free Spirit P ublishing.
Here’s a transcript K athryn made, which I feel d emonstrates the impact of p revious lessons o n children’s learning. It a lso s hows how we can continue to consolidate a nd extend emotional understanding and language o n a n o ngoing b asis once we h ave established familiarity with Emotion Works concepts a nd resources.
This s nippet is from a p oint in the lesson when we were looking a t a n illustration of the character feeling s cared – talking a bout how it looks o n the o utside a nd h ow it feels o n the inside…
Me:
So y ou can’t see it when it’s in your head. What else might y our body f eel like? Ruby:
Shake like an earthquake. Me:
Yes, and R eece, y ou had a good description for how y our body f elt the f irst time you were on stage. What did y ou say it f elt like? Reece:
It felt like hot w ater on my face. Me:
It f elt like hot water on y our f ace. Why did y our f ace f eel like that? What emotion were y ou f eeling?
Reece:
Hot Me:
Your face was f eeling hot so y ou were maybe f eeling scared?
Reece:
Yeah, scared.
This is a n example o f s ome work I d id with the P 1s further d own the line u sing the ‘Lonely G iraffe’ story when they were learning a bout h ow the cogs link to each o ther.
The task h elped the children identify a n emotion word, b ehaviour and b ody sensation in a scenario from the s tory.
They were asked to colour the cogs a nd d raw something inside to represent each a spect.
When completed, I talked through the worksheets in a way that h elped d emonstrate the idea that the cogs link together a nd tell u s d ifferent things about the s ame feeling.
To create the worksheet I used some of the visuals from the cog activity sheet.
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March 2 016
My P7 p lan for Emotion Works was linked to a class n ovel a lready s tarted b y the class teacher: ‘The Cay’, b y Theodore Taylor, P uffin Books.
When I first read it through with my coggles
on I identified lots o f emotional content that would b e u seful for introducing a ll o f the Emotion C ogs in the 7 -­‐part model. I found the context o f the s tory to b e a very helpful way to initiate conversations around emotional topics with p upils.
The visual o f the model was a u seful backdrop while I took a week b y week approach to focussing o n p articular cogs. Understanding the links b etween cogs came very n aturally for the P 7s with the model o n s how.
Here’s a little transcript from K athryn’s visit capturing s ome learner responses during a recapping s ession in week 5 .
This q uestioning was a ccompanied by me holding u p the cog each q uestion was related to. Me: Child 1: Me:
Child 2: Child 3: Me: Child 4: Child 5: What’s a word f or how he’s f eeling? Worried How can we tell he’s worried? Just sitting t here
Slumped
How would his body f eel? Lump in y our t hroat
Knot in his stomach
In ‘The Cay’, the s tory reaches its climax a s a huge s torm is about to hit the Island.
“Timothy k new t hat t here w as v ery little t ime to prepare. He moved through t he camp purposefully and making sure Philip, t he y oung boy w as safe. Their future w as uncertain”.
This was a n excellent time to talk a bout the b uild u p o f the s torm and how it was impacting o n each of the characters. The idea o f a storm brewing was a g reat way for the children to s hare their u nderstanding of the word ‘intensity’.
Upset Annoyed Irritated Frustrated To further explore a nd talk a bout the concept o f Emotion Intensity, the children chose a n Emotion Word o r Body Sensation a nd then wrote d own related words to d escribe increasing intensity.
I then a sked them to s et o ut the words they h ad written o n a s cale from low to high intensity.
Pauline McKibben Practitioner A ccreditation Part 2
Furious
Raging Ready to Explode 4
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Demonstrating Learning
To d emonstrate their learning at our s chool s howcase, P rimary 7 chose to create a p iece o f a rt work.
They d ecided that they were able to connect the colours o f the emotion cogs to the s unset on the island in ’The C ay’.
Each p upil chose a silhouette which they felt represented them a nd a n emotion word they could relate to.
They went on to write a ll the variations o f their emotion word a long the o range section of their p ainting, with triggers a long the yellow s ection and b ody s ensations across the red s ection. The g reen o n the b ranches b ecame the b ehaviours and the body b ecame the s pace for intensity.
Some o f the children found this a ctivity very intense a s they recalled s ituations which had made them feel u pset o r u ncomfortable. This p resented opportunities for chats about regulation s trategies they h ad u sed a nd could possibly use in the future.
Sharing our Learning with Others
The children in P rimary 7 a lso wanted to share their learning with the whole s chool so we worked together to create a n interactive b oard b ased o n the s unset theme to d isplay in the d ining h all.
Class representatives were a llocated a lunchtime s lot to s tand b y the b oard a nd encourage o ther children to s hare their knowledge a nd u nderstanding o f emotions a nd write it o n the b oard.
This was in fact s low in g etting started. However, once the whole s chool input was in p lace a nd classes b egan learning a bout Emotion Works, this h ad the effect o f making the children more confident and willing to write o n the b oard.
The b oard is s till o n d isplay a nd children continue to write o n it.
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March 2 016
What did the children say?
At the end o f the P rimary 7 input I a sked the children to complete a q uestionnaire.
Here a re s ome o f their comments.
Q. How can you use Emotion Works in your learning?
You can use it t o properly understand a chapter you are r eading or build a good character, Olivia
I can use emotions in my w riting, A li
When y ou are r eading something y ou can break it down, Connie
We can use our emotion cogs t o understand other people and t heir emotions and see w hat happens, Rula
You can use it t o w rite better emotion w ords in writing instead of happy and sad, Xian J ie
Help my sister and brother stop fighting (which will help me do homework better), Kitty
Q. How could you use Emotion Works in your life?
If y ou are mad y ou can use y our cogs t o calm yourself down, S pencer
You can use it t o help in t he future if y ou have to sit a t est or exam, Kayleigh
You can use it w hen y ou need t o solve a problem or w hen y ou get into t rouble, Eva
You can use it t o solve problems between friends, Charlie
I can use it t o t alk t o my mum about w hat happened, Brady
If y ou get in t rouble y ou could use y our cogs t o describe t he stages and w hat happened, Reiss
You can use it so w e can w ork out a better regulation strategy, Xian J ie
What did the children say?
Q. How could you apply your knowledge of Emotion Works when talking to others about f eelings?
Act it out, t alk t o t hem about how they feel. What’s t he back story, Helen
Ask about t heir t riggers. Get their backstory, ask why t hey behave t hat w ay and suggest some regulation strategies, Olivia
You can ask t hem about t heir t riggers and backstory t o understand t hem, Rula
Talk it t hrough drama, A imee
You can ask t hem how t hey feel and link it t o a trigger, Connie
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Q. Any other comments about the programme?
It w as an amazing course, v ery educational, Olivia
I r eally liked doing t he art piece, Reiss
This programme w as awesome, I felt awesome during t he programme. Thank y ou!, A imee
Thank y ou. You helped me improve, Kitty
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