ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Over the course of the last several years, I have noticed an increase in the difficulty students have appropriately displaying their emotions. One area of great concern is that of appropriately expressing anger. Children need to understand that while it is perfectly normal and acceptable to be angry at times, how they deal with their anger needs to be appropriate as well. After reviewing teacher surveys, it appears that this emotion, and handling it appropriately, is the one needing the most emphasis. Additionally, there appears to be a need to explain to children that it is not only okay, but also encouraged, to ask for adult help in dealing with various emotions.
While anger seems to be the area most in need of addressing, we will also discuss and learn appropriate ways to deal with other emotions (e.g. happy, proud, disappointed, etc.). When reviewing my current files, appropriately identifying emotions is close to leading the way for both student and parent referrals. Children need the ability to identify what it is that is bothering them before we can begin to deal with the issue. Addressing something that they don’t see being there is difficult and often times fruitless for many.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding:No matter our age, it is not uncommon to have difficutly dealing with our emotions. 1. I want students to be able to identify various emotions and appropriate ways to express these emotions.  2. Additionally, I would like my students to carry this over into life outside of elementary school as they encounter more and different emotions and stressors.
Goal(s): 1. The students will recognize that we experience a variety of feelings each day.  2. The students will demonstrate effective and approprite ways of displaying their feelings.  3. The students will identify what others may be feeling based on the actions they are displaying.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. What are some of the feelings/emotions that we experience? 2. What do you do when you have these feelings? 3. What is not okay to do when you have these feelings? 4. How are we able to tell how others might be feeling? 5. What do I do with feelings that are hard for me to control or understand?
Objectives: 1. Using the smart board, students in small groups will identify at least 7 different feelings/emotions and list appropriate ways to display those feelings.  2. Using the smart board, students will cite examples of when they should seek adult help to deal with their feelings.  3. Using the digital camera to capture the feeling, each student will express a face of a feeling/emotion of his/her choice.  4. Using the video camera, the class will create a video of “If you’re angry and you know it” while demonstrating at least 5 appropriate ways to express anger.  5. Using Kid Pix, students will each construct a page for a book entitled “I feel purple?”. They will be asked to choose a color that identifies a feeling.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?  Visual assessments will be conducted to evaluate understanding of feeling/emotion identification and proper expression.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?  1. Many open ended questions will be asked of the students to help assess if they are able to identify when they might feel certain emotions.  2. I will also provide examples, both appropriate and not appropriate.  3. I will also ask for examples of how different people may respond differently to the same situation.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? 1. In addition to checking on progress when I am in the classroom, I will arrange with the teacher to visit briefly to ask for examples of different feelings and how they were dealt with that particular day.  2. I will also send a letter home to parents explaining the unit of study to ask for their assistance at home as well, as students learn to identify feelings/emotions and proper expression of them.  3. Additionally, I will review with the class the books created to determine if they (as a class) are able to come up with a variety of emtions.  4. This will also be assessed through the bulletin board Express Yourself which will be referred to regularily in instruction.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment)of understanding will you collect?  1. Many observations will be conducted to assess for understanding.  2. In addition, we will use role-plays of appropriate and not appropriate responses to various feelings.  3. Students will also be asked for examples of times they were able to identify their feelings and display appropriate responses to them.

Instructional Strategies

Students will use a combination of inquiry-based and problem-based strategies to answer the questions “What am I feeling?” and “What do I do with these feelings?” Along with individual activities of brainstorming different feelings and reactions to them, we will conduct a think-pair-share to show that not everyone feels the same way in the same situation. Many group activites will take place as we use project-based strategies to create our video displaying appropriate reactions to anger and our book to show that feelings are all around us.