GRADES K-3
Specific Session Objective
Students will define trust and recognize avenues of trust in dealing
with personal problems.
Session Materials
Chalkboard and chalk
Five large paper figures to represent parent, teacher, friend, policeman,
brother/sister
Session Content
1. Ask the students to stand in a circle. When the leader calls
out an emotion, the students will use their bodies and faces to convey
that emotion in one swift beat of movement. Bach student designs her/his
own one beat movement and the entire group displays them simultaneously
in one beat. Demonstrate with a few examples of your own, then call out
words like happy, sad, worried, nervous, mad, etc. Sidecoach the students
to use their faces and entire bodies to show what that emotion might look
like. As they gain proficiency, speed up the tempo.
2. Ask the students to remember a time when they were especially happy, and to think about what happened to make them happy. Divide the students into groups of three and ask them to take turns telling the group about their happy time, or pantomiming something that would give a clue about their happy time. For example, if the happy time were a birthday party, the student might pantomime blowing out candles. Assist groups as needed. Discuss with the entire class how they feel inside when they are happy. If they respond with physical activities like jumping in the air, let the class try these physical actions as a group. When they are happy, who do they want to share that feeling with, who do they talk to, etc.? Now ask the students to think about a time when they were not feeling so very happy, and what happened to make them feel that way. Draw their attention to the five figures you have represented on the wall and identify them for the students. Ask them to stand up and walk to the person ' that you have represented on the wall whom they feel like they could talk to when they feel sad. There are no right or wrong responses. Ask them about when they feel lonely, hurt, worried, etc., allowing them to gather around the figure on the wall. At the conclusion, discuss their choices. Why did they choose a parent or a friend? Establish a definition of trust, based on their responses.
3. Gather the students around the chalkboard and draw a circle or stick figure to represent a person on the board. Explain to the students that this person is a child in the same grade that they are. (The subject could also be an animal or fictional character like a dragon). Ask for a name for this child. Tell the students that this child has a problem. Ask if they can "guess" what the problem might be. When/if they volunteer a problem you find workable, use it, or use one of your own devising, such as "Her/his little brother tore up an important art project." Ask the students if the person has a mother? a father? a brother? a sister? a teacher? etc. and add these stick figures to the board in circles around the child. When all the people in the child's life have been added, ask the students which person in the child's life could she/he talk to for help with the problem? Take their suggestion and ask for volunteers to play the role of the child and the person that the class has chosen for the child to talk to. For the first round, play the role of the advisor yourself, letting the student playing the child interact with you directly. Stop the scene and let another volunteer play the child in question, and a volunteer to be a different person in the child's life. During the scenes, sidecoach the students playing the advisor to ask questions of the person playing the child, and offer solutions. If possible, derive scenes in which more than one of the other people is present with the child, to involve as many students as possible. After a number of scenes have been played out, ask the students who they would choose to talk to if they had this problem and why.
Session Assessment
1. Ask for volunteers to describe what trust is.
2. Ask the students to name as many people as they can that they
can talk to when they have a problem or a feeling they need to share.
Relevant References in Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: 162, 194,
261-87
Developed by Carol Lanoux
GRADES 4-5
Session Objective
Students will practice deciding who to trust with personal information.
Terms
trust, disclosure
Materials
Large name tags, pencils or crayons
Session Content
The group stands in a circle. Have each person shake hands with
someone near them. They then grasp the hand of someone else nearby using
their free hand. Once they clasp hands with the second person, but not
until then, they may release their hold of the first, and find another
person with whom to clasp hands. In this way they proceed to move through
the space and the group. As the participants move ask them to think of
a secret-something that they are proud of or think is interesting, but
which most if not all of the group may not know about them. Examples: I
love to cook, I know sign language, I have a pet turtle, I can hold my
breath for a whole minute, etc. Encourage them to pick something they would
be OK with anyone knowing. Have them begin to whisper these secrets to
each other as they clasp hands, and sidecoach them to reach out to people
who they haven't yet swapped secrets with.
When the group has played the warm-up out, have them sit and discuss.
Did they learn something they liked or were impressed by about any of their
classmates? What made the "secrets" they told safe to tell? Talk about
"darker secrets" which one wouldn't want just anybody to know. Have each
person make up a secret that they would only tell a few special people.
Emphasize that the secret is make-believe; it should not be true for them,
nor for anyone they know. Now have them imagine who they would tell such
a secret to, and write their suggestions on paper signs. Examples might
include friends, teachers, parents or other relatives, religious leaders,
pets, etc.
Have them play out telling the secret, the recipient narrate what
they might do with the information after the encounter (good use, bad use).
Assessment:
Discuss what sort of secrets should be told and which ones should
be kept. How do we decide whether or not to tell a secret? What could happen
if we don't tell anyone? If we tell too many people or the wrong person.
References in Emotional Intelligence 111-126
Developed by Doyl Ott
GRADES 6-8
Session Objectives
1. Students will create a character with specific emotions, values
and beliefs.
2. Students will explore ways to effectively communicate their personal
feelings through their characters.
Terms
Passion - the emotions, as distinguished from reason
Tactics - planned actions for accomplishing an end; the skill of
using available means to reach an end
Materials: Journals and pens/pencils
Session Content:
1. Have the students form a circle and reflect on the events of
the day, deciding what the most powerful emotion they are presently feeling
is (in one word) and what events lead to them feeling this way. The emotion
could be anything, there is no wrong answer. Next ask them to experiment
with physicalizing this feeling in one motion. Once everyone has come up
with a movement, have them share their word and movement with the group.
2. Brainstorm some terms used to describe negative emotions (e.g.
disappointment, anger, frustration, sadness, rejection) and have the students
reflect on a time or instance in their lives where a lack of communication
caused them and the parties involved to feel one of these emotions. Have
them record a brief description of this instance in their journals.
3. Have the class count off by twos and line the ones and twos up
on opposite sides of the room, facing one another. Ask the ones to take
on the character of a child that wants desperately to go to a rally or
protest march of some sort (have the character decide what the issue surrounding
this event is). Their character should be completely passionate about this
cause, and want the world to know it. Ask the twos to take on the character
of the parent who is absolutely opposed to this event, and doesn't want
the child to go. Make sure that each character establishes contributing
factors that lead to the mood that they are in presently (these should
not be shared in the dialogue, the other player should ask them what is
wrong if they want to know). Where have they just come from? What has happened
to them so far today? These situations should inform their attitude in
the improv. When you call "action" each pair will meet in the center of
the room and start the improvisation. After about three minutes call "freeze"
and ask the ones to employ a new tactic. Give them about two more minutes
and then have them switch roles. When the players begin to become repetitive,
stop the action and have the class reconvene for discussion.
4. Ask the players to share with the group what the situations in
their scenes were. Talk about tactics that were used and have them give
demonstrations. Open the shared situations up to the whole group and allow
them to ask each character questions. Decide whether or not the answers
informed the character's choices, and if so, how. Talk about
appropriate times and ways to share personal beliefs and feelings,
and about what tactics are effective to use and why.
Session Assessment: Have the students refer back to the situation that they recorded in their journals earlier. Ask them to list the factors that contributed to their mood at that time and then come up with some alternative ways to communicate more effectively.
Relevant References in Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: pp.261-72
Lesson Developed By: Heather Drastal
GRADES 9-12
Self-Disclosure and Meisner's
Word Repetition
Specific Session Objective: Students will work with a partner to spontaneously comment on their partner's emotions and evaluate the effect that has on both partners willingness to trust.
Terms
Self-Disclosure Repetition Impulse
Session Materials
One copy of Sanford Meisner on Acting, by Sanford Meisner and Dennis
Longwell.
(Vintage Books, 1987.)
Session Content
1. Instructor will be familiar with the word repetition exercise
designed by Mr. Meisner. Pair students up in groups of two, selecting students
who will probably work well together. Avoid letting students pick their
own partners however, as this breeds cliqishness and hurt.
2. Partners will sit cross-legged on the floor, facing each other. Coach the class through a beginning version of the word repetition exercise. One student will look away from their partner and then back into their partner's face, saying, at that time the first short phrase that comes to mind. (Example: "Sullen look boy.") Their partner will repeat mechanically that phrase, until it has been exchanged several times. Partners will switch and the exercise will be repeated.
3. The next step in the series is that partners will repeat from their own point of view. One partner will begin by taking something off their partner's body language. Example: A: You're squinting. B: I'm squinting. A: You're squinting. B: I'm squinting. Reinforce that students should repeat mechanically; that they should not invent "line readings" for the sake of variation. Practice this until students seem comfortable.
4. Finally, let students know that the repetition exercise can organically
give way to change on impulse. Students should still repeat
mechanically, but the exercise may organically give way to a change of
phrase. This time, ask students to comment
spontaneously on their partner's emotions. Example: A: You
look scared. B: I look scared. A: You look scared. B: I look scared. This
continues until the second partner (in this scenario the "scared" partner
instinctually comments on the emotion of his or her partner). Examples:
You look scared. You look smug. You think I'm frightened.
5. One by one, "spotlight" pairs of students who are engaged in commenting on each other's emotions, the improvisation organically giving rise to change. Instructor can facilitate each group's work and call attention to nice moments for the class. Continue until everyone has had their work spotlighted.
Session Assessment
1. In a post-scene discussion, ask the class which emotions they
observed being accurately labeled by a student's partner.
2 Ask the partners themselves how they felt when they were "called" on their emotions. Specifically, did it make them more or less willing to divulge their true feelings. Did their partner do anything that made them feel safe or unsafe?
Relevant References in Goleman's Emotional Intelligence: pp.285-286
Designed by MarkArmstrong
