“Emotion helps us screen, organize and prioritize the information that bombards us.
It influences what information we find salient, relevant, convincing or memorable”
Bandes&Salerno (2014)
We usually think that the process of learning comes through our brain but which part of it?
Until not long ago the emotional brain was ignored and the emotion itself was considered as a lower level than as a vital, contributing element in the development of critical thinking.
However, the emotional brain does exist and “suggests that the constant interaction of the experience of emotion, with its simultaneous impact on the body and other parts of the brain, leads to the individual’s interpretation of feelings. The emotional brain is a partner with the cognitive brain in the learning experience”. (Understanding Emotions in the Classroom By Claudia Marshall Shelton, Robin Stern)
From these words it is clear that the more we let our learners use their emotions in the classroom, the more they will learn.
Goal
From the heart to the mind: teach through feelings and emotions
Accomplishing this goal:
- Find a short movie picture (such as trailers, commercials) (www.mashable.com, www.viralvideos.com
- Focus on the topic of the video (love, beauty, friendship, bullying, sharing, etc.) and create a set of questions to ask your students in order to make them think critically and/or ignite a conversation.
- Other possible tasks are:
- Change the ending of the video.
- Subtitle or dub the video.
- Let your students make their own video about the topic.
- Post the video on the social network you use with your class and let your students comment it.
-From a linguistic point of view you can even teacher grammar structures and new vocabulary.
See an example below.
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk
Link to the lesson plan: http://larissaslanguages.blogspot.it/2013/08/you-are-more-beautiful-than-you-think.html
