Encouraging Empathy

Wouldn’t a teacher’s life be great if all the students in the class were always kind to each other? Maybe in the real world we can’t make that happen…but we can get a little closer to that ideal. Numbers, animals, colors and, of course, the other children in these books can help students understand how other students feel and create an environment of acceptance and empathy. PS I often sub now, and once in a while I’ll encounter a classroom where kids are pretty tough on each other. On those days, I’ve declared a “Kindness Only Day” in which children are only allowed to say kind things about each other. When a child tries to say something hurtful, I quickly remind them of what day it is…and most kids rise to the occasion. It’s amazing!

Hound the Hound What’s Your Sound? By Mo Willems

Why would “Hound” empathize with “Bunny”? Only Mo Willems could make this work so well. Cat the Cat asks her friends Hound the Hound, Chick the Chick, and Cow the Cow, "What’s your sound? And, of course, Hound goes “woof”, Chick goes “peep”, and Cow goes “Moo”. But when Cat asks Bunny what her sound is, she gets flustered and sad. The story ends with “Sounds like….somebody needs a hug.” This book is a simple and fun but powerful message about how kids can help each other by not only accepting their friends’ differences but also finding a way to cheer them up.

Zero, One, Two by Kathryn Otoski

Numbers teaching empathy, really? Kathryn Otoski can make it work. And not just empathy. In these three books, Otoski teaches kids to stand up to bullies, be inclusive with friends, and accept everyone’s uniqueness. Zero doesn’t feel like she counts when she watches the other numbers line up, One teaches colors that are getting picked on to stand together and count, and Two feels left out until Zero teachers her to look at her problem from a different angle. I like the idea that for younger children this book not only encourages children to be kind to and accept each other, but also reinforces counting and color skills. I think this book would be a great catalyst for older kids to write a number/color story that teaches a lesson about empathy (maybe 5 hates being a middle number, 4 is nobody’s favorite, or 9 always comes last in line).

Normal Norman by Tara Lazar

Most of us have at least a little desire to fit in and be “normal.” But in the book Normal Norman, kids have a chance to accept that being normal isn’t what it seems. A junior scientist plans to demonstrate “normal” by introducing Norman the ordinary, average, and common orangatang. She gets frustrated because Norman eats pizza, not bananas. Norman speaks English, not animal talk. And Norman sleeps in a bunk bed with a stuffed animal. The scientist realizes that “normal is impossible to define,” and decides she’d rather dance with Norman than define normal. This book is a great catalyst for talking about how our differences make us special and fun. It also might help kids understand that trying to make others fit our expectations doesn’t usually turn out well. A good follow-up to reading this book might be to have your students write about how they are not normal and share them (if they choose) with the class. This might lead to students understanding each other better and relating better with each other.

Ivan the Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla by Katherine Applegate

Empathy in real life….Ivan, a baby gorilla, is taken from his home in the jungle to a shopping mall cage in Washington. After Ivan’s gorilla companion, Burma, dies, Ivan is sad and lives a lonely life. People become furious about Ivan’s situation and petition to have him moved to a zoo where he could be with other gorilla’s and live in a habitat more like his home in central Africa. Although this book is different from the other books in this blog because it deals with real life empathy for an animal, it can help students understand what empathy is and apply that to how they treat other children. For older students, it could be a catalyst for writing a persuasion paragraph about the positives and negatives of taking animals out of their natural environments.

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

We really can make a difference with our kids…I wanted to choose Wonder by RJ Palacio for this blog because when I read it to my fourth grade students, it totally changed how my students treated each other and especially how they treated a certain child with a learning and social disability in our classroom. But since I already used Wonder for a different blog, I thought I’d write about Out of My Mind which is similar. This book is about a girl named Melody who has Cerebral Palsy and cannot talk or walk or do pretty much anything for herself. However, Melody is intelligent – she just can’t communicate what she knows. That is until she gets a Medi-Talker computer. This book is great for helping students understand what children with physical, medical, and/or learning disabilities have to endure. Understanding is usually the key to accepting and empathizing with other people.