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  • Handling Strong Emotions - Intermediate Low

    • Handling Strong Emotions - Intermediate Low

    Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes: Students will recognize and label emotions and create a plan of action for successfully navigating emotions in learning a new language. Language Learning Outcomes: Students will understand explicit main ideas, listen for specific information, narrate/describe in all major time frames about familiar and general topics, and use high frequency general vocabulary.

    Lesson Information

    Positive Psychology Learning Outcomes

    Students will...

    1. recognize and label emotions.
    2. create a plan of action for successfully navigating emotions in learning a new language.

    Language Learning Outcomes

    Students will...

    1. understand explicit main ideas.
    2. listen for specific information.
    3. narrate/describe in all major time frames about familiar and general topics.
    4. use high frequency general vocabulary.

    Materials Needed

    Overview

    Start by asking the following question and making a list on the board. Students can shout out answers or come up to the board to write them. Encourage students to use vocabulary they already know without translation.

    • What are some examples of emotions? 
      • Ex: Anger, sadness, happiness, anxiety, fear, surprise, etc.

    Ask the following questions. Model answers, then give time for students to answer these questions in small groups.

    • What emotions have you felt at the same time? 
      • Ex: I was sad when I left home, but I was excited to come to the United States.
    • What emotions do you feel when you learn a new language?
      • Ex: I feel excited when I do well on a test. OR I feel angry when I do not improve.

    Explain that in this lesson, students will learn about strong emotions that we experience when learning a language. 

    Activate Background Knowledge

    Speaking prompt: Give students one minute to think and prepare and one minute each to speak about this with a partner. 

    Think about a time when you were very angry. 

    OR


     Think about a time when you were very sad. 

    • What did you do?
    • What can you do in the future? (Ideas may include: breathe deeply, take a break, go for a walk, think before speaking, take a shower, write about it, etc.)

    Share with the class. If relevant, point out any experiences that were related to learning a language. Then explain that learning a language can be a very emotional experience. 

    Activity 1: Listening

    Watch video the following video titled “How Mindfulness Helps to Manage Emotions”.  

    • The first time you watch the video,  have students listen for the main idea.  
    • The second time you watch, have students complete the cloze activity (use a lower speed as needed).

    How mindfulness helps to manage emotions

     https://youtu.be/q47AXFzmZrw 

    Handling Strong Emotion Cloze Activity

      • Compare answers with a partner.  
      • Review answers as a class. 
      • Emphasize that thinking, writing, and talking about “emotional weather” helps us better understand how we are feeling, where those feelings come from, and how we can handle them

    Activity 2: Vocabulary

    Give each student a copy of the emotion wheel or have one available for them to refer to. 

    • Discuss the emotion wheel as a class. 
    • Divide the class into groups of 3. Have each student in each group identify 3 words on the emotion wheel that he or she doesn’t know. Students should choose different words from their group members.
    • Give students time to look up the words, and write an example sentence for each.

    The Gottman Institute The Feeling Wheel

    Activity 3: Speaking 

    In groups of 3, have students explain their words from activity 2. 

    Students should take notes about new words they learn as they listen to their group members.

    Activity 4: Speaking

    Explain that students will now use this vocabulary to describe their emotions.

    Have students create 5 “I feel… when…” sentences with a partner (they should speak these, not write them). Encourage students to write 3 sentences about their emotions learning a new language and 2 sentences describing their everyday emotions. Model adding an explanation to the sentence using “when” or “because”. 

    Ex. “I feel frustrated when I forget words in English”, “I feel excited because I have fun weekend plans”, or “I feel insecure when other students do better on tests than me.”

    After students finish creating sentences with their partners, ask a few students to share. Then discuss the following question as a class:

    Why is it important to describe our emotions?

    Activity 5: Make a Plan

    Have students look at the five “I feel… when…” sentences they wrote. Explain that they will now make a plan to deal with emotions in the future using ‘When I feel… I will…’. Model an example of what their plan could look like.

    • When I am frustrated with my English, I will take a deep breath and say one nice thing about myself.

    Give students time to make a plan for 3 emotions. Then have them share (if they are comfortable) with a partner.

    Homework

    Explain that students will track their plan this week by recording their emotions and what they did. A follow up on this assignment will occur on Thursday.

    The following handout has two charts per page and so you will only need to print out enough sheets for half the number of students in your class.

    Strong Emotions Plan

    Follow-Up

    Tuesday:

    Watch the video (stop at 3:00)

    • Listen for the three ways given in the video to help manage emotions. 
    • Discuss with a partner three practices that can be used to help manage emotions. 

    STOP being afraid of emotions: 3 STEPS ON HOW NOT TO BE AFRAID OF FEELINGS

    https://edtechbooks.org/-nPTC

    Wednesday:

    Identifying and labeling emotions interactive video

    Emotions Emoji - English ESL video lesson

    https://youtu.be/r8pJt4dK_s4 

    Thursday: 

    Discuss the plan you made for homework on Monday with a  partner. 

    This content is provided to you freely by Ensign College.

    Access it online or download it at https://ensign.edtechbooks.org/PositivePsychologyintheClassroom/handling_strong_emotions_intermediate_low.