Emotions & Literature in Slovakia

"E-motions"

Project No.: 2016-1-ES01-KA219-025300_1

LITERATURE AND EMOTIONS

How Slovakia deals with the emotions and literature

To identify and to express the emotions is very complicated and hard process. In general, a lot of students have serious problems to express themselves. We consider teaching through art activities to be essential at many classes. For instance, teachers of History, Slovak or foreign languages like English or Russian deal with emotions almost every day. It depends on the topic of the lesson and other criteria, too.

            Slovak or English languages are most commonly used subjects which content is linked with literature and emotions.

Activities carried out in Slovakian classes:

1     1.     English language-        The teacher: Mgr. Lenka Lucká

Class: 7.A, 7.B, 7.C

Topic: Reading comprehension ‘Touching the Void’- true story

Theme: friendship, death, survival, forgiveness, trust, challenge

The lesson was divided into several parts. 

Firstly, the teacher motivated the students by playing the short video Touching the Void trailer. The teacher asked questions if they thought it was a true or fictional story. They worked with the key words and read the text in silence.

After that, the students were divided into 4 groups of 3 and their task was to imagine that they are each one of the 3 climbers and talk about how they felt during the incident. They were discussing several questions:

·       What thoughts, feelings did they have? Why?

·       How did they feel afterwards?

Feedback: Students were trying to identify with the 3 characters from the story (Joe, Simon, and Richard who stayed at the base camp, while Joe and Simon set out to climb the mountain despite of the upcoming snowstorm). They talked about their feelings. Some of them (who represented Richard) were nervous and afraid of their friends. Others (who represented Simon) were confused because of not knowing what to do with his hanging friend in mid-air. The students – Joe´s – were trying identifying themselves by thinking about Joe´s emotions- fear, despair, disappointment. They talked about the disaster that happened to Joe- while they were climbing the Siula Grande Mountain, he broke his leg.

The discussion in groups was changed to the class discussion (teacher-led discussion). The teacher tried to help the students to understand and imagine climbers´ feeling more.  The following issues were carried out:

·       What would you do if you were Simon and accident happened to you?

·       Would you cut the rope? Why? Why not?

·       What would you do if you were Joe?

·       Would you be able to survive?

Feedback: The atmosphere in all classes was quiet well. Some students were a little bit sad because they imagined themselves to be in the climbers´ place. One of them said: “I wouldn´t cut the rope. I would die with her. I couldn´t live without her.” Meaning: the teacher and the students were talking about what they would do if the incident happened to them. The teacher said: “Would you choose your life over your friend´s life?”

Wind up/ Post-reading task: drawing and painting

The students´ task was to draw and paint an unspecific object, to use colours to express their emotions and to think of the dramatic story with its consequences. Clues:

·       How do you feel about the story of the three climbers?

·       Are you happy? Sad? Furious? Angry? Depressed?

·       What kinds of emotions are inside you?

At the end of the lesson the teacher collected their drawings and concluded the lesson.

Feedback from the students: they are fond of reading (especially 7.A), so they were satisfied with the topic of the lesson. The aim of the lesson was reached moreover, the students enjoyed drawing and painting and they considered it as a good tool of expressing their emotions.

2.     Slovak language-       Teacher: Mgr. Mária Gužiňáková

Class: 6.B

Topic: Kočovníci severu – adventure literature

Aim:       to describe the main character on the basis of the text,

to characterize the antagonist, to find literary tropes and figures and to explain their meaning.

The theme of the story was related to the cruelty to animals. The teacher wanted to make the students to be aware of the animals’ right for living. The aim was to discuss about animals and taking care of them.

The teacher motivated the students by asking some questions.

·       Have you got a pet?

·       Who takes care of it properly?

·       And what about the world and the animals?

·       Do we respect them?

The teacher played the video about animal abuse (only fragment of it).

 During watching the video, the students were shocked about the fact that the people could hurt the animals so much. It was disgusting for them. The students´ task was to come in front and draw the emotion on the paper. The teacher could “read” their emotions through their faces.

Feedback: The teacher found out that the video realised negative emotions.

 After that, the students were working with the text; they were talking about their issues, making notes (main idea, protagonists, antagonists, theme, topic).

The teacher and the students were discussing about the topic and their emotions. The students were also watching the short video about how the people should behave to the animals (The Lost Dogs´ Home).

Feedback: The last activity was called “Animal Tree”. It was divided into two parts. The first was focused on the inner goodness- It meant the things that should remain- positive characteristics. The second one meant everything negative connected with animals (everything that should “die” or disappear on the ground). The students´ task was to come in front and to stick the little paper on the board. There was their opinion about animals´ care written on it.

For checking their emotions, the students answered the question: “How are you feeling now?” At the end of the lesson the students found out that it is important to have respect not only for the people but also for the animals.