New Literacies Exploration Project Notes

Before beginning my research for the new literacies exploration project I had a very vague idea of what emotional literacy was. However, I have learned a lot about emotional literacy through my research. First, emotional literacy is generally defined as being able to understand emotions and to respond appropriately to one’s own and those in whom they interact with’s emotions. Becoming emotionally literate relates to many of the definitions of literacy my classmates and I collected in that children become emotionally literate by interacting with different texts, reading, listening, writing and drawing. Many of my classmates posted definitions that described how literacy was moving away from books and other print resources and towards a more digital world. Emotional literacy can be learned through discussion around print sources, but also through discussion around digital sources such as images, videos, blogs, web pages, digital stories, etc. I am learning that it is very easy to incorporate emotional literacy into the classroom or even a daily routine as we all experience different feelings – everyone has emotions. Parents or teachers can easily help their children or students become emotionally literate by taking a moment to discuss their current emotion. I have also learned how important it is for children to be emotionally literate; children who are emotionally literate children have stronger friendships, experience negative emotions for shorter amount of times, are sick less and have increased school achievement and professional success. One really interesting thing I learned in relation to emotional literacy is that happiness is a skill that can be taught to children through emotional literacy. Parents and educators can teach children to develop the habits of feeling and thinking, and the behaviors that lead them to feel positive feelings more often, through emotional literacy. I thought it was interesting to think that you can teach children or students how to have happiness through literacy.
When I think about the students in my placement classroom I think that the girls are clearly more emotionally literate than the boys, but that the class as a whole would need guidance in exploring emotional literacy. I have not seen any emotional literacy instruction within my placement classroom, but I do think that my students would benefit from emotional literacy instruction. Before beginning an activity or lesson involving emotional literacy some specific “norms” would have to be set, things I would have to tell my students may include: “this is something new,” “there is no correct answer,” “listen to what your peers have to say,” “don’t judge your peers,” “this is a safe zone,” etc. I am really not sure how my students would react to my or my CT’s introduction of emotional literacy, but it is something that I think would be interesting and beneficial to my students.
I am creating a prezi to teach my peers about emotional literacy. A prezi requires viewers to pay close attention, as there is text and images, and quick and drastic movement. A shot within a prezi can change drastically similar to a person’s emotions. Also, my project requires viewers to “view” to learn about emotional literacy, and people in the real world view emotions by looking at a persons face, watching their actions, etc. I think it will be challenging to compile everything that I have learned about emotional literacy into one short presentation, but I hope that the texts and images within my prezi will be powerful enough to help my peers understand emotional literacy.