Let’s Build Each Other Up: Using Literature to Teach Empathy in the Secondary Classroom
Written by: Kelsey Koeneman
The Gamification of Education
Like many secondary educators, I have fallen victim to the doom scroll of Educator Facebook pages and Pinterest. If you’re anything like me, you are left wondering why everyday in your classroom doesn’t resemble a game show. When we zoom out to the bigger picture, is that really what we want to see though? Part of what drew me to teaching was the possibility of helping kids who struggle grow up into adults that demonstrate empathy and compassion as well as make meaningful contributions to their community.
If the word empathy makes you want to click away from this tab, please take a deep breath, move your cursor, and lean into the discomfort. Everyday doesn’t have to be an emotional day in your classroom, but everyday is an opportunity to understand each other better. As educators, we should facilitate this understanding to help our students as learners and as people
“Everyday doesn’t have to be an emotional day in your classroom, but everyday is an opportunity to understand each other better.”
Empathy in the Classroom
Working in the humanities sector of the curriculum leaves this door easier to open than in other classrooms, but it is never fully shut. Many Project-Based Learning pathways are defined by their connection to the community, no matter what subject they teach. In my PBL AP Literature & Composition and PBL English 12 class, empathy is a necessary component to the curriculum.
In the PBL environment, students must attempt to bridge the gap between themselves and their peers in order to achieve mutual understanding and success as part of extended group projects. This type of work is becoming increasingly relevant to students on a variety of pathways as well as increasingly relevant to the modern workplace. If our students are to work together and eventually serve their communities together, they must find a way to empathize with each other.
Complexity Structures
An important unit of study for my seniors is the book Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (2018). In this book, a young woman is abandoned by her family and forced to raise herself despite lack of resources and lack of education. In order to truly understand this story, students must take a deeper look into what it is like to live in poverty. Many students may know what this is like firsthand, and many will not have considered this to be a real way of living, despite living in close proximity to students that experience poverty everyday.
In order to prime students for this novel, I use the Complexity Structures assignment. This activity allows students to reflect on their own experiences as well as those of their classmates. However, it begins as a solitary activity, so student privacy is protected. The Complexity Structures assignment allows students to reflect on their own experiences as well as illuminate what their peers may be experiencing. Students will receive their own deck of situation cards, highlighting positive and negative experiences that could affect their growth. Overall, the message is one of hope and reflection on how setbacks can affect you, but we are all still able to persist.
“The message is one of hope and reflection on how setbacks can affect you, but we are all still able to persist.”
To begin,
- Display the slides for students and explain the directions.
- Each student should receive a deck of cards. Each deck of cards will be shuffled in a different order. Create areas around the room where students can work comfortably. Establish rules of privacy and no talking throughout the activity.
- Using Jenga or a generic block game, provide students with “building blocks” for their complexity structures.
- The allotted amounts can be referred to as the Lumber Yard. Allow students to move in order to give extra space and privacy. In order for this activity to be effective, model drawing cards and taking from the Lumber Yard and putting them back depending on the cards and reflections.
- Once the students have exhausted their card deck, have them work on building a structure with their pieces that reflects their upbringing, rather than a traditional tower. Once the entire class has finished, allow each student to share why they built what they built. Then, ask the class to reflect on how they felt while completing this exercise and discuss as a group.
- Allow the students to express their feelings, but encourage them to feel hopeful as everyone is capable of building something. This is a great time to introduce students to community and school resources that they can use or recommend to a classmate.
Note: It can be helpful to add and take away from each student’s card deck to ensure that everyone ends up with sufficient logs in their Lumber Yard.
What’s great about this activity is that it allows students to participate in a modified Privileged Walk. They are in charge of their own privacy, but they will still be able to authentically reflect on their experiences.
Literature Fosters Empathy
Literature classes in general should all be working towards fostering empathy in students by incorporating diverse perspectives that allow students to learn more about the world and people that are different from them. As teachers of literature, we are uniquely able to introduce our students to a variety of ways of life throughout the content area. However, it is still possible to have these same kinds of interactions in any other content area. The Complexity Structure assignment could work in a variety of areas in order to prepare students to discuss social class in social studies, economics, and/or governments regarding policy.
Another great way to ask students to think deeper about empathy and individual circumstances is to have them research more about the setting of a book. With Where the Crawdads Sing, I have students research the setting as it relates to the Time & Place: Social Situation, Cultural Situation, and the Historical Situation. To see an example of what this activity could look like, follow this link. Placing themselves into every aspect of the setting helps them to better understand the motivations of the characters. It also helps them to realize why their peers might make different choices than they do based on their own experiences. This activity should lead into some class discussion about what life was really like for these characters.
Using Your Resources to the Fullest
So I’ve bought 3 packs of generic building blocks…Now what? Here are a list of some other activities that can be enhanced by the building blocks that you have invested in.
1. Multiple Choice Competitions
- Take any quiz or review study guides and reformat to multiple choice format. Students can take turns answering the questions. For every question, they can pull a block, or you can modify that they only pull a block when they answer incorrectly.
2. Positive Brain Breaks
- We could all use more positivity in our lives! These blocks can be used as a brain break for longer class periods that need a dose of positivity. Have students pull a block and compliment someone in the room.
3. Discussion Circles
- The blocks can add an element of intensity to group discussions. Anytime a student responds with “Yes, me too” or “I agree” they will have to pull a block. This encourages students to extend their responses and keep the discussion going.
Resources
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