Fostering Emotional Literacy Begins With the Brain

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Fostering Emotional Literacy Begins With the Brain

Teaching elementary students the neuroscience of emotions helps them understand their feelings and empowers them to respond with intentionality.

A fourth-grade student has an angry outburst in the middle of your lesson. How do you respond? Emotions are contagious, and your initial reaction might be to respond in anger. What happens if instead you build on your relationship and learning? Using proximity and calm, you say something like, “Wow, I can see you’re having a big feeling right now. Let’s take a beat together.”

In some instances, everything shifts.

About the Author: Growing Great Schools

Everyone thrives in a great school. Students are fully engaged and enjoy learning; relationships across the school are positive and respectful; creativity, diversity and critical thinking are valued and everyone feels they belong; it takes courage and commitment to create such a school. Growing Great Schools™ was established by Sue Roffey with partners around the world to promote ways for all schools to become great schools. Our partners are individuals, organisations and schools whose main purpose is education for wellbeing – to build healthy relationships, resilience and social and emotional development.