Building Empathy in the Classroom
Building Empathy in the Classroom
Have you noticed that your students could use support in having more empathetic responses in social and academic settings? Are you studying a topic that may be sensitive for some of your students? Do you feel that you need to deepen students’ ability to understand one another and or write about emotions in characters that you are teaching?
The past year and a half has been more challenging than any other. The world that we live in has changed dramatically and in response to this drastic change it is more important now than ever that we treat each other with empathy. With that being said, our children need to be equipped with language to identify and express their emotions so that they may better identify their feelings in any given situation as well as connect with others emotions. Teaching and building empathy in a classroom is no easy task, but is vital to our classroom communities.
According to the article, “How to Build Empathy and Strengthen Your School Community”, by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, studies show that when young people have empathy they display:
More classroom engagement
Higher academic achievement
Better communication skills
Lower likelihood of bullying
Less aggressive behaviors and emotional disorders
More positive relationships
In order to properly teach empathy though, we must first understand what it really means. “Empathy is a concerned response to another person’s feelings. It involves thinking, feeling, and even a physical reaction that our bodies have to other people when we relate to how they feel. To have empathy, we have to notice and understand others’ feelings, but that isn’t enough. We also need to care about and value them.” (Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2021). The following video was mentioned in our text, Read the World: Rethinking Literacy for Empathy and Action in a Digital Age as a great way to teach and show empathy in the classroom.
In this TED Talk, Jonathan Juravich, discusses how to teach empathy in our classrooms. He discusses how hard it may be for a kindergartener to understand that empathy is “walking in someone else’s shoes” without that kindergartener actually trying to put on someone else’s physical shoes. His TED talk goes into not only the importance of empathy, but also how to teach it to our youngest learners. Jonathan states that, “The root of empathy lies in awareness. Awareness is a ‘noticing of what is happening in and around you so that you can make a choice’. You can have a response, have an empathetic response. But first, we have to have an awareness of ourselves.”
There are many resources for teaching empathy within a classroom community.
Some picture books that help specifically with teaching empathy include:
The Feelings Book, by Todd Parr
I Am Human: A Book of Empathy by Susan Verde
I Wish You More, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
In My Heart: A Book of Feelings by Jo Witek
Say Something by Peter H. Reynolds
Video resources for teaching empathy include:
The Pits by Mile Hayhurst (bit.ly/2mqUgUZ)
Luxo Jr. (Pencil Test), a Pixar wireframe by John Lasseter (bit.ly/2m0vE59)
If You Fall, by Tisha Deb Pillai (bit.ly.2kSMnX0)
- One Small Step, Pixar
Helpful Language for building empathy:
“What emotions do we see in this text? Have you ever felt that way? Show me what that looked like?”
“What might be some clues that someone else is feeling this way?”
“What other emotions can we add to our chart?”
“Why might it be important to understand how a character or a person is feeling?”
In conclusion, it is important to build empathy within our classrooms for so many reasons. Yes, building empathy creates a more positive learning environment, encourages engagement and creates positive relationships, but it is so much more than just that. Building empathy is teaching our students how to be empathetic human beings in school and in the outside world and there is nothing more important than that.
It can be challenging to teach students empathy, because our goal is to generate emotions and support the development of its understanding to those who may have not experienced affirmation and kindness from their home environment. You provided different ways to implement these strategies such as into video clips that students could analyze, and into discourse that includes the language of asking specific questions to target the objective. I believe that conversations and group discussions will only enhance and compliment these lessons because the idea of empathy simply involves the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that after the almost 2 years that we have had it is more important now than ever to teach our students about emotions, especially empathy. Being isolated for so long has impacted our students and their social-emotional skills and needs greatly. As teachers, we must all take the time to teach our students about emotions, feelings, and social skills that they have been missing out on for almost 2 years now. Of course these skills should always be taught, but especially now students are struggling to identify their feelings, communicate, and interact in social settings because of COVID-19. Along with social-emotional skills in general, empathy is important to focus on currently to teach students how to respond to others' feelings. The video resources and strategies that you have included are great for starting to implement teaching empathy in the classroom!
ReplyDeleteEmpathy is such an important character trait to have, but one that can be challenging for many. I completely agree with you, Colby, that COVID-19 has made it even more difficult for students' social-emotional skills. I think programs like Second Step and other SEL activities, can promote empathy and other important skills. I love all the resources you included, especially the Pixar short films. I think these are a great way for students to be able to understand some of these tough concepts. I also believe children's literature is a helpful way to explore the topics.
DeleteI love your inclusion of film as a way to teach and promote empathy in the classroom. At the beginning of the year I used specific clips from the movie Wonder to demonstrate to my students how words we say can affect others. We then had a long discussion about how we all want to feel accepted, even though we are all very different from one another. I think that teaching how to identify one's own feelings is just as important too, because it all helps us become better community members. I also believe that this work of teaching empathy and SEL should continue throughout the school year, not just in the beginning of the year, when it tends to occur the most.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Adriana. That sounds like a great start of the year activity! I'm sure it is also a discussion you are able to come back to when the need arises for a reminder on accepting and respecting each other's differences.
DeleteYou also talked about how important it is to identify one's own feelings, and as a teacher or parent sometimes it can be hard to get kids to peel back those layers and identify events and the feelings that came with them - which is why I loved the part in the TED Talk when he used the example "Tell me about a time today when you were happy/upset/excited/laughing". This open ended question is so much more informative and interesting than "What did you do today?" Also, I could see the question becoming a springboard for talking about and identifying feelings with younger learners: "How did you know you felt nervous?" "Because my stomach felt a little upset and I wasn't sure i was ready", etc.
Thank you for all the great resources and food for thought, Sue! Wonderful job!
I had a discussion with my students about empathy this week! This year I've had to have a lot of discussions with my class about kindness. I used the book "A Little Spot of Empathy" to introduce the idea of empathy to my students and how that can build a connection. After reading the book, I was able to say to some students have you felt that way that student is feeling -many would say yes - I would tell them they are experiencing empathy. Empathy is a difficult idea/concept to understand for children, but is certainly important to build empathy within the classroom.
ReplyDeleteGabi, I also used "A Little Spot of Empathy" in my 1st grade classroom. As part of our school wide expectations students are expected to be Kind & Safe. Trying to explain to 5 and 6 years old what it means to be "kind" can be a bit challenging. I found that using this book helped give an example of understanding of how others might feel. I do like how in this blog there are other examples to explain empathy in ways that students can connect.
DeleteThis is a great post with wonderful resources! Given the challenging and isolating past two years, it is more important than ever that empathy and emotions are discussed in the classroom. This year, I have noticed that many more students are struggling with anxiety than in previous years. I believe that building empathy in the classroom helps create a comfortable environment for students to express and process their emotions. I liked the helpful language for building empathy that you included. It goes to show that discussions about empathy and understanding emotions can be integrated throughout the day easily. These discussions help contribute to the larger task of creating a positive and empathetic classroom environment.
ReplyDeleteAfter these past two years, I have also noticed quite a struggle in students connecting and understanding each other. With the separation, it has been difficult for these children to develop and practice their social-emotional skills. One of my biggest areas of focus is a classroom community. However, I have seen such disconnect in these communities which is leading to a great need for social-emotional learning. The resources you included are phenomenal. Not just for educators to enrich their learning, but for students to grow their skills as well.
ReplyDeleteThis post has such wonderful resources for me to use in the future! Given what everyone has gone through this past year, empathy is definitely something that students need to learn more about. Recently I have noticed, especially with the younger children is that they are struggling the SEL aspect of school. They don't know how to resolve conflicts, relate to someones feelings, or show they are sorry when they have hurt someone. I know that many teachers in my school are experiencing the same difficulties. This could be related to the fact that they were all home with their families for so long that they never interacted with someone outside of their family circle for very long. This blog post give me some great advice when it comes to building empathy in the classroom that needs it so much!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post on such an important topic! Now more than ever in classrooms there is such a need for students to be empathetic to their peers. The pandemic has caused increases in anxiety in many children, but also has prevented students from being in person, working with other students. It is so important to work with students on recognizing and expressing their emotions. But just as important for students to understand and be empathetic towards their peers. This post highlights the importance and provides some useful advice on building empathy in a classroom.
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