Recently, I worked with Language Arts teachers
Mr. Lee, Ms. Watkins and Ms. Powell at Brooklyn
Park Middle School on an arts integration lesson
centered on The Diary of Anne Frank. 8th grade
students were highly engaged and invested in
the activities from start to finish. What was the
key to enable this heightened engagement to
happen? It’s called Emotional Learning. We
hear about it, but how do we do it? How do we
get students excited about their own learning
process regardless of the content area and
topic? Here are 5 ideas to get you started.
1. Start with ourselves as educators. Do we feel “safe” and secure in the classroom expressing our
own emotions and at times, our own vulnerabilities? I know – that’s a tough one – but it also makes
us real and it also allows us to be a co-learner with our students as well as their teacher. One way to
do this is to share a personal and appropriate story that connects to the content. In my case, I visited
the Anne Frank House and was able to relay how it affected me to see the “Secret Annex” personally.
I am sure of this – students can “feel the vibe” of an emotionally engaged or disengaged teacher. By
opening up appropriately and yet meaningfully, I was able to model that it’s okay to be emotional,
passionate about what you teach and attach personal meaning to a lesson.
2. Get students to WRITE and TALK about their direct experience and how they feel about engaging
with the subject matter. You can use simple prompts like:
•
When I tried to solve this problem I felt __________.
•
When I understand the problem I am able to_____________.
•
The part of the problem I understand is __________________
•
I struggle when ______________.
•
I can relate this lesson to my own life because_____________.
•
When I hear about this it makes me think of __________________.
•
The part of the lesson I enjoyed _________________.
•
I need help understanding _________________.
•
I care about_____________________.
•
I have some questions about______________________.
•
I am not sure about______________________.
STEAMed Magazine
35
April 2016 Edition