EDLA 527 - Literature to Teach Life Lessons

A person’s emotional intelligence is shaped by his or her childhood experience. If nurtured and strengthened, social-emotional development benefits a student’s health, relationships, and academic achievement. On the other hand, if a student’s emotional intelligence is not developed, it can lead to severe personal deficits and possible societal costs.

In this course, you will learn how to assess your students’ social-emotional intelligence and use classroom strategies to support their development. You will discover the power of using literature to teach valuable life lessons, and how to create an affective, literature-rich curriculum that promotes social-emotional intelligence. Promoting social-emotional development in the entire school as well as at home amplifies the impact of your efforts in the classroom, so you will also cultivate several techniques to initiate these changes.

With the strategies from this course, you will be prepared to use stories to enrich your students’ lives and learning and give them social and emotional skills that will benefit them in the classroom and beyond.