Empathy Lesson: The Invisible Boy

This was a great book to help the students understand Empathy, and I highly recommend it among many other topics that it can go along with.

I begin by explaining and having a discussions of what Empathy is (standing is someone else's shoes, try to understand how they feel).  Can we ever feel exactly what someone else feels?  Why/Why not?  (we aren't them)

Lesson Questions:

Pg. 5:  What does Brian want?  (to make friends, to get picked).
Pg. 7:  How do you think Brian feels? (sad, lonely, ignored)
Pg. 9:  What is the difference in this picture? (Brian is gray and kids are in color)
Why do you think he is drawn like that?
Pg. 11:  Take a look at the picture where Brian has drawn the superhero.  (Ask again)  What is it that Brian wants?
Pg. 13:  How would you feel if you were the new student and others were trying to decide if you were cool or not?  Is that very nice?  What do you think Brian is thinking?
Pg. 15:  AHHH, could Brian have empathy for Justin?  How?
Pg. 18:  What do you notice that is happening to Brian in this picture?  (getting color)
If he is getting color instead of gray, how do you think he feels?  Why?
Pg. 20:  Uh-Oh, how does Brian feel now?
Pg. 24-25:  What do you think Brian is feeling now that he has worked with his two friends?
Pg. 26:  How does Brian look like he feels?

Watch for student reactions while reading the story and catch them feeling empathy for the characters.  Challenge the students to notice when they feel empathy for another person.

**I have found that this lesson takes a good 20-25 minutes if you are discussing what is happening in the story as you read.  It generates great questions and responses from the students.

Empathy Lesson

This has to be the most influential, positive discussion, student engaging movie clip I have found that has to do with empathy and several other topics (friendship, kindness, accepting others, and etc.).

I start out by discussing with the class what empathy is (standing in someone else's shoes, trying to understand another's feelings).  I also ask the class "Can we ever really understand what another person is going through? Why or why not?"

Then, I ask the class if anyone speaks Spanish and if any of those students started school not understanding any English.  I tell the class that this is their chance to understand what it may have been like for those students who don't understand English, because the entire video is in Spanish.

I tell the class to be watching for things that are happening, emotions, actions, and etc. because it can tell us a lot, even though we cannot understand what is being said.





I pause the movie right when Maria finds out about the boy being sick so that the students can observe the sorrow.

Questions to ask the class:
How did Maria have empathy for the boy?
Are there other people that showed empathy towards the boy?  Maria?

I turn to the paused movie and ask the class:
What is Maria feeling?
In what ways might we not be able to understand how she feels?
How can we have empathy for Maria right now?

After discussing the movie, I turn to the students who don't speak Spanish and ask them how they felt if they weren't able to understand what was being said.  Most answers are; confused, frustrated, weird, and etc.  I then ask, do you have some empathy now for our students that come to our school who do not speak English.

This lesson is interesting to watch the kids' reactions and can be very engaging for them to really understand what it means to have empathy.

Activity: Things we can't/can control

I used this activity after I taught a lesson on Anger.  I got the idea from 104 Activities That Build, by Alanna Jones (pg. 266, Out Of Control).

I changed the rules a little bit to fit more to my needs, so this is what I did:

I reviewed our last lesson about Anger.  I explain that we are going to play a game that has to do with managing our anger. 

I split the class into 2 groups.  I have 2 buckets full of prizes/candy and a pair of big dice for each.  I explain to the students that for the 1st round, I will give them 7-8 minutes to get as many turns as they can to roll a double.  Should they get a double, that person gets a prize.  When the time is up, I ask:

1.  What was fair about this game?
2.  What was unfair about it?
3.  What control do we have over the dice?
4.  Are we guarunteed a prize?


For the second round, the rules change.  Still, a prize is given when a double is rolled, but instead of the prize being issued to the roller, the prize goes to everyone else.  The second round ends when the first and only double is rolled.  Then I ask:

1.  Was there anyone who didn't get a prize at all?  If so, ask them how they feel. 
2.  Is it the end of the world since they didn't get a prize?

Then we discuss what things in life we can control versus the things we cannot control. 

I then ask the students:
1.  What can we learn from this activity?
2.  How does this apply to our lives?

Perspectives

Ok, so I absolutely love this book and my students love it, too!  A fellow collegue suggested this book to me a few years ago and after I bought the book, I immediately started pondering what I could do with it.  I taught a lesson on PERSPECTIVES a couple of years ago and had so much fun with it.

Here is what I did:

I began having a discussion with the students about what having a perspective means, what it does, how it feels, and what it has to do with other people. I read the story and then I asked the questions:

Why did the animals think the bat was crazy?
Who is correct? The bat or the animals?
Is there other ways to see things? (Giraff point of view, Elphant, lion, goat, rhino, owl)

At the end of the lesson, I had the students draw a picture of a bat standing on a branch or on a rock in a cave.  Then when they were finished, I had them turn their picture around and we had another little dicussion about what they experienced.

I taught the same lesson from Kindergarten all the way to 6th grade.  All of them loved it!

I was at a different school the last time I taught this lesson, so I am very excited to teach this lesson again. I will be teaching this lesson next week, so for this week, I have completed my bulletin board to keep the kids wondering...

Thank you Tawna, you inspire me!

New Book: TERRIFIC by Jon Agee

I attended this book fair by SCHOLASTIC and found this book called "Terrific" by Jon Agee. I have found this book on amazon.com for as low as .02 + 3.99 shipping (click here). Such a great story that addresses problem solving and perspective. I cannot wait to use this with my lessons and share it with my students! Very cute!
Now through May 21, I can get this 50% off. Through Scholastic, it is $4.99.