Last week as a continuation of our drama elective classes we continued to add elements that can help make a student a better “actor/actress/communicator.”
Specifically, we combined emotions with a monologue.
It always surprises me on both ends of the spectrum how easily some students show emotions and how supremely challenging it can be to others.
(Below) is a post at merithub.com that discusses the importance of giving students opportunities to express their emotions.
How to Make Students Express Their Emotions and Feelings
Same as everyone, students also deal with many experiences, emotions, and feelings. They often feel sad, anxious, delighted, and embarrassed. But for them, those emotions are difficult to express. It is necessary nowadays to educate students about expressing emotions and feelings. Sometimes, students may get frustrated because they feel that they are unable to make you understand their feelings.
In this article, you will get to know how you can make students express their emotions and feelings to you.
Role-playing –
You can teach students about various emotions and how to talk about them by coming up with a scenario, roleplaying it, and asking students to guess it. Tell them about reactions your body feels when these emotions come up. And discuss the way to express and manage it.
Describing emotions –
To make your students express different emotions, you have to create a link between emotions and words and make your students learn about this. You can use picture books, images, and videos to discuss other people’s facial expressions and let the students tell about what they feeling. These illustrations help students in recognizing emotions and feelings in others as well as in themselves.
Teach sign language –
You should include sign language in your curriculum. By teaching students core signs, you can provide the keys to express any feelings and emotions. By learning sign language, students can easily express their feeling even without words.
Art working –
You can encourage students to draw, sketch emotions, and paint the feelings out of them. By this many of the students, get might get the benefit. This will help them as well as you to understand what they want to express. Letting go of emotions into the drawing opens up the conversations going up in students’ minds.
Drawing is not the only option to make students express their emotions and feelings. Some students can express it in other art forms too. Some of them can express it in dance, song, and poetry. And there are many other ways too.
“Art equals emotions. A blank canvas can serve as a get-away for invisible problems. ”
– Christine
Listen and accept students’ emotions –
Sympathetic listening is the main key to reaching the emotions of anyone. When they get to know that you are listening to them carefully, they express their feelings freely. Sometimes, these emotions are really important for students, and when you accept all of those, they feel like you have acknowledged them. This will surely help them in expressing their emotions and feelings with you.
Be communicative –
Always be friendly and approachable and kind to students. This indicates that they can express whatever they want to. And never forget to praise them for expressing positively. Do not lose attention or get distracted while talking to students. When they find out you are easy to communicate with, it will help students to express their emotions and feelings before you.
Tell about other’s emotions –
Students are not that aware of other students’ feelings. You can help them by telling them how their actions can affect the emotions of others. This will create a sense of emotional development in them by this they will learn how to express emotions and feelings positively to others.
It is crucial that students learn how to express their feelings and emotions in a more positive and appropriate manner. Students who can easily express their emotions and feelings have low chances of having any crisis and outbursts. Practice and determination is the only key to developing the habit of expressing emotions and feelings in students.
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The paradox of adolescence is that our students may be feeling the most intense emotions of their lifetime to date, but they may be very hesitant to express those emotions.
Planet Improv does their best to always be as sensitive as possible to emotions that our students are experiencing and encouraging them to express them.
Improvisation theatre offers us the benefit of allowing them to do in a more comfortable way by “walking a mile in someone else’s’ shoes” by roleplaying.
Sometimes we teach our students/children that showing your emotions makes you look weak.
We vehemently disagree.