Year 7 and 8’s begin their Respectful Relationships curriculum with the topic of Emotional Literacy. This topic aims to help students consider factors that influence our emotional responses and how we might express these. Activities in this section focus on expanding student’s vocabulary for the description of emotional states, developing understanding of the role of body language in interpreting the emotions of others, using empathy to build understanding of differing viewpoints and developing awareness that many emotions can co-occur in response to different experiences and situations.
Emotional literacy can assist students in taking steps to regulate their own emotions and developing effective methods of verbal and non-verbal communication. By expanding their vocabulary for expressing emotions, students are supported to increase their self awareness and their empathy for others, providing them with the building blocks for positive interpersonal relationships.
This topic also links to the current Victorian curriculum areas of: Personal and Social Capability, Critical and Creative Thinking, Health and Physical Education and English, therefore supporting students to achieve in other areas of learning.
Parents may wish to support their child in developing their emotional literacy by asking them about the best words to describe their feelings about a situation or experience, asking them how they think others may feel about a situation and prompting their child to consider what information gives them clues about the emotions others may be feeling. Parents can also model these skills themselves by using vocabulary to identify their own emotional responses and experiences.
For an example of activities undertaken in the Emotional Literacy topic, please see the activity summary below.
Myth: Respectful Relationships claims that children are sexist.
Fact: Respectful Relationships is not saying that children are sexist.
Evidence shows that children in early childhood settings may start to exclude others based on their gender. For example – some children may insist that some games are for boys or girls, and may exclude others from playing the game.
This evidence shows it is important for children to be learning about and building healthy and respectful relationships from the early years and to understand their opportunities are not limited by their gender – that girls can grow up to be firefighters or footballers and boys can grow up to be nurses or teachers. |
Feature activity: Years 7 & 8 Empathy Quiz
- Students discuss what is meant by the term “Empathy”. Empathy is the capacity to recognise or imagine the emotions experienced by another person.
- Students discuss why empathy is important, the consequences of not having empathy, how we develop empathy and other exploratory questions.
- Students then partake in a game that uses clues to match an emotional response with a trigger scenario.
Teachers highlight that not everyone has the same emotional responses to all situations and therefore it can at times be difficult to predict the feelings of others. Asking and observing can help with understanding what the person is feeling. |
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