Implementation of ‘Four seasons in the mood’ (SoI-RO-508)
Alina Ramona Vlad, teacher of English–’Alexandru Ioan Cuza’’ National College, Galati, Romania
Abstract
A Journey through the Seasons of Feelings
In today’s landscape of education, where academic prowess often takes centre stage, nurturing emotional intelligence is a key factor to children’s development. In this blog post, we embark on a transformative journey inspired by the learning scenario ‘Four seasons in the mood,’ curated by Dila Cadun Selvi for Europeana. Building upon its foundation, we delve into an exploration of emotions, using Europeana’s rich resources to create a comprehensive learning experience.
Before navigating a wide range of emotions, it is crucial to acknowledge their existence. Emotions shape our interactions, perceptions, and responses. Through this learning scenario, we aim to instill in students the acceptance and understanding that emotions are intrinsic to human nature, fostering an environment where every feeling is embraced without judgment.
Through a series of activities designed to engage young minds, students are encouraged to express their feelings, explore the nuances of love and empathy. Using Europeana’s diverse array of resources, students embark on a journey of self-discovery, using multimedia platforms like Padlet, Lino and StoryJumper to give voice to their emotions and experiences.
Activity 1: The Senses of Love – Through curated images from Europeana, students reflect on the multiple senses of love, weaving personal narratives that celebrate human connection.
Activity 2: Design of Emotion – Guided by a love story, students embark on a visual and introspective journey, exploring their emotions evoked by the narrative.
Activity 3: A Broken Heart – In a poignant exercise, students confront the impact of hurtful words and the healing power of positivity, fostering empathy and resilience.
Activity 4: Through collaborative storytelling, students use their imagination to narrate tales, emphasizing the transformative journey from fear to fortitude.
Introduction
This learning scenario will use the celebration of senses of the ‘’Four seasons in the mood’’ created by Dila Cadun Selvi for the Europeana blog as a starting point to develop a whole set of exercises through which students will learn to express their feelings.
Before we can manage our emotional state, it is important to realize that we feel something, that there is this notion of “emotions.” We all feel. The child needs to understand that there is nothing wrong with them for feeling joy, anger, or other positive or negative emotions. They are uniquely human, genuine, valid, and it is absolutely natural to allow ourselves to feel them.
It is important to convey to our little ones that when we experience different emotions, they will also have a behavioural dimension. The outer world changes significantly when healthy restructuring occurs in the inner world, and the mechanism of imitation and modelling is a powerful mechanism for character formation for children and adolescents. Thus, the most precious gift we can give to younger generations is to take care of ourselves, to be gentle, empathetic, and to love with all our hearts.
Throughout the 3-hour implementation of the learning scenario, students experience emotions, practise the ability to understand, use, and manage their own emotions in a positive manner, so as to communicate effectively, through teamwork, empathize with others, and overcome challenges.
The goal of this didactic scenario is to develop students’ emotional intelligence and resilience, to cope with the possibility of change and to find an action plan to help them navigate any situation. Emotional intelligence is a plus in terms of motivation; therefore, the 13-year-old children need to learn to use their positive emotions and mobilize themselves easily to solve various problems or tasks.
The didactic scenario can be integrated into the school curriculum for Counselling and Personal Development as it supports students in the proper management of emotions, assertive communication, group cooperation, significantly contributing to the reinforcement of students’ self-confidence as unique and valuable individuals who interact harmoniously with others.
STAGES OF IMPLEMENTATION
Learning process
I incorporated elements from Dila Cadun Selvi’s learning scenario ’Four seasons in the mood’ as a foundation, leveraging its insights and structure, while also innovatively expanding upon it to create a more comprehensive learning experience. Specifically, I extended the activity by integrating additional exercises that delve deeper into students’ emotions, fostering a more nuanced understanding and providing students with diverse opportunities to explore and engage with this important aspect of human experience. Through this process, I aimed to enhance students’ emotional intelligence, empathy, and self-awareness, fostering their personal and academic growth.
Activity 1:
The Senses of Love. What meanings do you give to Love? Various definitions of love are presented, and students will explain what this feeling means to them based on different images from the Europeana website presented by the teacher.
https://www.europeana.eu/ro/item/2064116/Museu_ProvidedCHO_Nationalmuseum__Sweden_22065
https://www.europeana.eu/ro/item/117/_1FD1EEE0_A011_41DE_9359_61C4759B8D00
The students use the padlet.com app to give personal examples:
https://padlet.com/alina_vlad/my-luminous-wall-a83mm9x6owa
Activity 2:
Design of Emotion – Do I know how to express my feelings?
A love story entitled “A Perfect Heart” is presented using the Active Reading Method. The story is interrupted from time to time, and students are asked to express their opinion regarding the continuation.
Feedback: Love is altruistic, it asks for nothing in return.
During the reading, the board is divided into four frames that will be completed as follows:
Frame 1: Draw what comes to mind while hearing the story (faces expressing different emotions can be drawn).
Frame 2: Note emotions/feelings during the reading (students can select two or three colours that best describe the emotion they feel). What colour is it? What shape does it have?
Frame 3: Note an event from your life related to this story.
Frame 4: Give a title to the story.
The teacher makes use of Lino app: Emotions – lino (linoit.com)
Activity 3: A Broken Heart
1. Ask students to use a piece of paper and create a heart.
2. List on the board some insulting comments that students have heard or used towards each other. For example, “you weren’t invited,” “you have no business being with us,” etc. These are listed without referring to any specific person.
3.Then list 10 positive, pleasant statements that they have heard or expressed towards each other. Encourage them to think about things that help them when they are scared, alone, angry, excluded, insecure, etc.
4.Read the list of hurtful words. Each time you read a painful expression, ask the children to fold a crease on the heart they have in front of them. (after reading a few expressions, check if everyone has folded correctly). The hearts look somewhat different, but all have scars.
5.Next, read the list of pleasant expressions. The rules this time are as follows: after every 4 different pleasant things, ask the students to unfold a crease of the heart. Share with the class that it takes at least 4 pleasant things to erase a negative remark.
Even if we unfold all the creases, the traces remain.
Activity 4
Create a story in a few lines with the following words: “Heart, Incident, I gave, Whole life, I will forget, Fear, Unique, Sharing, Only good friends“.
Students use the application storyjumper.com and create a booklet with stories.
It is necessary to establish measures to evaluate the main activities because students’ feedback provides insight into the behaviours the students have retained and the next steps for approaching lessons for the teacher. Therefore, at the end of each activity, to gain a perspective on students’ learning, I used:
3-2-1: Students write or speak about 3 things they have learned, 2 things they still want to learn, and 1 question they have. This way, they exchange opinions with their classmates and provide each other with feedback on their work.
Reflective journal – students are encouraged to respond to questions such as:
What did you learn new from this lesson?
What feelings did the learning process evoke in you?
Which of the discussed ideas seemed most interesting to you?
Which one needs clarification?
What difficulties did you encounter?
How can you use this learning experience in the future?
Did you enjoy the learning experience, if not, why? If you could change something, what would you do?
2. Outcomes
Learning through creative and interactive activities develops captivating and authentic educational experiences that promote lifelong learning. Methods based on discovery techniques and creative thinking challenge students to experiment, generate new ideas, and behaviours. Children who experience success in facing challenges become motivated, active, responsible, and valuable members of the community. At every corner, there is an experience waiting to surprise and amaze young minds in growth; therefore, such inquiry-based approaches exploit the full potential of students.
The needs of current education have changed. At school, students need to develop their imagination, creativity, and innovation. Therefore, we teach them to recognize the value of respect, understanding, solidarity, and empathy, and in this way, they learn to cooperate with others, develop their emotional intelligence, an essential competence of contemporary society. For me, investing in students is not only an investment in their future but also an investment for the positive change of the world in which we live.
Reflection
Through this learning scenario, we empower students to navigate the complexities of human emotions with understanding. As we embark on this journey, guided by the wisdom of the seasons, let us sow the seeds of emotional intelligence, nurturing an entire generation of children.
Implemented teaching scenario: Four seasons in the mood (EN-CUR-145)
Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.
CC BY 4.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Helsinki City Museum.