Latest Issue of the MindBrainEd Think Tank + (ISSN 2434-1002) 5 MindBrainEd Bulletin V4i5 Think Tank Emotion May | Page 12

students read through their
scripts with little emotional
expression. They laughed at
what they thought was odd, such
as three of the characters
repeating, “Hi”, “Hi”, “Hi”, “Hi”,
“Hi”, “Hi?”, but otherwise read
through without much
engagement. Next, we watched a video excerpt for three minutes and I could see and
hear students getting into the content. What they couldn’t predict from reading or
listening to me, they could now understand both visually and through the
expressiveness of the actors. Following the video, students write their own short
guided conversations utilizing some of the vocabulary in the show. The difference
between the guided conversation writing they produced using the textbook and after
watching the video was devastatingly stark.
There is no doubt for me that emotion is socially constructed. I can see this
happening in my classroom as students successfully learn about and apply different
emotional expressions. The questions I think about for my future classes are; what
kind of emotions do I want to make in the classroom, and what are effective ways to
realize them?
Campbell, G. (2017) Interview with Dr. Lisa Barret, author of How emotions are made: The
new science of the mind and the brain. Brain Science Podcast. Episode #135.
Rivera, J. (Producer), & Docter, P. (Director). (2015). Inside out [Motion Picture]. United
States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (2010). The new science of teaching and learning: using the best of
mind, brain, and education science in the classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College
Press.
Glenn Magee’s current research interests are metacognition and reading strategies as part of a broader interest in
differentiated instruction through the use of thinking routines in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
classroom; in particular, whether these routines facilitate cultures of inquiry-based learning for both teachers
and learners.
And Now for Something Completely
Different…
Disney embodies emotions
for us.