Classrooms are emotional places. Our students (and let’s be real, us teachers) experience a rollercoaster of emotions everyday in our classrooms. From excited to bored to frustrated to calm, it all happens on a daily basis within our 4 walls.
Emotional literacy sounds pretty lofty, but we ALL can target it and experience it. So – what IS IT? Researchers Salavoy and Mayer coined the term in 1997. They say that emotional literacy is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions and the emotions of others.
That’s a BIG ask of anyone, especially kids, but I know we can all agree how IMPORTANT it is. When we target the concept of our students becoming emotionally literate, we’re preparing them for LIFE. Check out 3 reasons why targeting this skill is imperative to our classrooms and the futures of our students.
1.) Emotionally literate people are strong communicators.
When a student in your classroom is struggling to communicate how they’re feeling, it often comes out in behaviors like crying, running from the classroom, fighting, hiding, and the like. While feeling our feelings is so important and honestly should be encouraged, those behaviors completely impede learning. When a child can say, “I am SO FRUSTRATED that I cannot get this answer!” or “I’m actually really sad because my dad left for a long business trip last night” – that give us an in. We can help determine helpful and effective coping strategies for them, extend empathy, and offer supports that can walk them through those emotions. Some students aren’t always ready or able to verbalize their emotions. Using choice boards as a structured communication tool can be so beneficial for moments like these.
2.) Emotionally literate people are empathetic.
When we can identify our own emotions, it makes it way easier to extend empathy to others. When a student identified their own frustration regarding fractions yesterday, and their peer identifies their frustration today, empathy can be more easily cultivated. Students can connect to characters in books and movies that experience similar emotions to ones they know they have felt before. Without emotional literacy, these experiences fall flat because children cannot connect to an emotion that they are unsure they have felt before.
3.) Emotional literacy is an actual, tangible life skill
Maybe this goes without saying, but emotional literacy is a LIFE SKILL. We cannot be successful as we get older as children, teens, and adults unless we can embody emotional literacy fully. Students need the skill of identifying their own emotions so they can access the help they need, can choose coping skills that will actually support them, and so they can empathize with others.
So – HOW DO WE TEACH THIS?! We need to practice with our students identifying the emotions of themselves and others. I have tons of resources that support these skills, and some of my favorites are these seasonal emotion task cards and this set of feelings adapted books.
Looking for a quick feelings chart to add to your calm corner, office, or for students to point at or circle their choice? Grab this freebie here.
