Caring research and ideas to develop caring learners

Article title

Caring is not magic.
It is just the consistent,
day-in and day-out, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute
tendency not to give up on anybody.

Introduction

Who's responsibility is it to facilitate the development of learners who care? In a democracy where everyone is responsible for the well being of everyone, the answer, everyone, seems obvious. While many curricula include goals and outcomes for caring, the use of media and literature can play a critical role in developing and supporting caring and caring relationships, which is supported by research.

This page includes information about caring and the use of media to support it, caring research, a review of bibliotherapy (to support the use of literature to strengthen caring, not to suggest its use by those who aren't qualified therapists), sample activities for school and home supported by research.

To advocate a caring school, or to include caring in the curriculum, does not advocate for caring as a substitute for learning or a rigorous curriculum. However, a rigorous culture of learning can not be established without first establishing a risk free and caring environment. Which is created by providing an atmosphere with the value of caring embedded into all relationships.

Caring is not a program, it is not reserved for special times of the day, nor is it reserved for special people such as counselors or grief specialists. It must be modeled and taught as a way to approach self, group, community, politics, society, and care for our Earth in a sustainable manner, so it becomes internalized as a value to be used by all in our decision making and actions.

Caring research

The Lilly Endowment’s Research Program on Youth and Caring has funded research. The following information is some of their findings.

Findings summary

• Variables that impede the development of caring include: poverty, dangerous and depleted neighborhoods, crowded and unhealthy living conditions, inadequate schools, limited access to health care, single and teen parenthood, violence among youth, trauma of parental alcoholism.
• One close supportive bond within the family seems to buffer children against the risks listed above. This protective measure transcends ethnic, class, geographical, and historical boundaries. This perception of a meaningful, caring relationship with one’s family was the strongest of the variables that correlated with emotional health.
• Werner found that 51% who adapted successfully to adulthood from the trauma of parental alcoholism relied on a significantly larger number of sources of support and religious coping than did those who were not successful. Furthermore, the successful had at lest one person who accepted them unconditionally.
• The attributes that lead to the development of a greater moral development of caring was related to the individuals perception of self as incorporating the ideals and image of one’s parents, and the ability to articulate theories of self in which personal beliefs and philosophies are important. It was not related to an increased capacity for moral reasoning.
• Studies showed the youth programs with the following attributes were effective at conveying caring to participants: 1) create an atmosphere where the young feel welcome, respected, and comfortable; 2) provide opportunities for the development of caring relationships with adults and peers; 3) provide information, counseling, and expectations that enable young people to determine what it means to care for themselves and to care for a definable group; and 4) provide opportunities, training, and expectations that encourage young people to contribute to the greater good through service, advocacy, and active problem solving on important issues.
• Results from some studies confirm the ideas that providing opportunities to care helps learners develop caring behaviors for the long term.

In summary the critical components of caring are:

1. Personal positive self-esteem.
2. Social involvement or interpersonal skills: communication, cooperation, negotiation, sharing, empathizing, and listening.
3. Respect for humaneness of others.
4. Social process skills: responsibility, adaptability, flexibility, and integrity.
5. A positive response of those receiving the caring.

More research

• Caring involves the need for individuals to project the feelings of others. There is evidence that babies and small children react to the suffering of other people, suggesting a biological or genetic link. There is also evidence that a certain part of the brain (orbital frontal cortex) is a module for social thought. There is also evidence of child developmental that affects the ability to care. The following is a list of related information.
• Autistic people do not have the ability to read other people’s minds. If they see a person put an object into a box and leave the room while another person moves the object from the box, they believe the returning person will know where the object is. They do not believe others can think differently. They do not lie. They tell the truth or fantasy. They are frightened by the unpredictability to understand others.
• William’s syndrome is when a person has a very high language and social skill ability, however their logical reasoning ability is retarded. Many times a discussion with a person would leave you to believe they are very intelligent, however they are incapable of solving simple everyday problems with logic.
• Children develop a concept of self shortly before the age of one. Small children looking into a mirror do not know the image is theirs. Later they realize the image is theirs.
• Once the existence of self is developed the existence of others follows. At first this existence may be what the person believes it is according to their view (egocentric).
• Children later realize that others can have a different point of view than theirs.
• Still later people realize that people have a different point of view than theirs and it is all right as long as it does not harm others.
• See also - Child Develoment Project (CDP)

To develop a strong sense of moral caring people must have:

1. Strong perceptions of their personal capabilities.
2. Strong perceptions that they contribute in important relationships in meaningful ways and are needed.
3. Strong perceptions of personal power or influence over life.
4. Strong intra personal skills to understand their personal emotions and to have self-discipline and self-control.
5. Strong interpersonal skills to work with others and develop friendships through communication, cooperation, negotiation, sharing, empathizing, and listening.
6. Strong process skills to be able to respond to everyday life consequences with responsibility, adaptability, flexibility, and integrity.

Caring and behavior

• Dreikurs was concerned about people who want to win over children rather than to win children over. Winning over children makes them losers, and losing generally causes children to be rebellious or blindly submissive.
• The common practice of adding humiliation to a logical consequence, because of the mistaken belief that children won’t learn unless they suffer for their mistakes, violates the basic concept of mutual respect and changes logical consequences to punishment.
• Dreikurs explained that children are good perceivers, but poor interpreters. Much of this poor interpretation seems to be caused by the egocentricism of children. For example when an adult gives more attention to another child, the child perceives it as something negative toward them since they are not doing something with them.
• Alfred Adler, an Australian Jew who had to leave his native land during Nazi persecution, believed that a concept of gemeinschaftsgefuehl is essential for all humans to develop. There is not a good translation, but a close translation is social interest. His ideas meant that individuals had a real concern for one’s fellow person and a sincere desire to contribute to society. That is caring.

A story told by Kristin R. Prancer in Individual Psychologist also helps describe these ideas. Once there were two brothers who shared a farm. One brother was married and had five children. The other was not married and had no family. The one brother was thinking one night that it was surely not fair that the other brother was doing the same amount of work and equally sharing the profit. He decided that tomorrow he would offer him two-thirds. The other brother was also thinking and thought it was not fair that his brother was receiving only half the profit since he had a wife and five children for which to care. He decided that tomorrow he would offer him two-thirds. This is social interest or caring.

People who have the mistaken goal of excitement and desire to do things for a high or the fun of it, even though it may be harmful or hurtful to them self or others, have not learned caring.

Bibliotherapy

A review of bibliotherapy is provided to support the use of literature to develop caring.

With that review, let's explore

Using literature to promote caring

Lets identify some assumptions about using literature to create caring, instructional strategies to use with literature to do so, question to analyze literature, getting parents and care givers involve, and sample activity for a book.

Assumptions

• People have a transaction with literature.
• The better the literature the better the transaction.
• Literature transactions can help people understand how different actions affect other people.
• Young children are more egocentric in their view of the world.
• As children develop they move from an egocentric view of the world to one in which they understand that other people may have views and feelings different from theirs.
• Children’s thinking changes from a classification of everything as right and wrong to one of right, wrong, and for somethings it depends.
• Children develop in their ability to understand that actions have consequences and the choices when making decisions are many times complex.
• Quality literature can be a view into how other people make decisions and the consequences which result from those decisions.
• Quality literature can increase communication about values.
• Peoples’ experiences with literature can positively affect people to make decisions that demonstrate a caring relationship.
• Moral development is a continuous process that needs attention through all grades and beyond.

Instructional strategies to promote caring with literature

• Questions and discussion must be conducted in a manner that is not preachy or overly didactic.
• Good questioning skills help students create the ideas themselves. Use care to suggest ideas rather than tell students what they should think. (see questioning strategies)
• Select literature that will engage students in a quality transaction is the key to motivate them to get involved.
• Don’t rush to talk. Let the students begin the discussion. It is best to begin with their ideas. You might ask if they have questions or what would they like to discuss. If they ask a questions, turn it back to the class by asking what others think.
• Enjoy and appreciate student’s ideas and their communication. Let them speak freely and be careful not to pass judgment on their ideas.
• Be careful not to take sides or show alarm. Talking about temptations and dilemmas is part of value and moral development.
• Ask questions to facilitate discussion that focuses on how each character felt at different times throughout the literature.
• Ask questions and facilitate a discussion that causes students to relate their personal lives to the situations or characters in the literature.
• Ask questions and facilitate a discussions on how other people in real life are like the characters in the literature.
• Watch students’ nonverbal reactions to see how they feel.
• Make reading routine by setting aside a certain time each day.
• You may want to choose stories with certain goals in mind.
• You may want to share stories that are your favorites and let the students know they are and why. It’s easy to get carried away when we like something so be careful to make good decisions about what and how much to share.
• Ask questions and facilitate a discussion to cause children to find ways that people who are significant in their life are similar to the characters or situations in the literature.
• Ask questions and facilitate a discussion that celebrates differences in the characters and the situations in the literature.
• Encourage students to discuss situations and characters in the literature with other people who are significant in their life. This will reinforce positive values and actions.
• Encourage interactions between students and their caregivers so students will realize how the caregivers care for each of them.
• Encourage interactions between students and their caregivers so students will realize how the caregivers care for other people in the community and world.
• Encourage interactions between students and their caregivers so students will develop a sense of what their caregivers value and how they developed their values.
• Encourage interactions between students and their caregivers so students will develop a sense of family history and relationships that developed over time through positive interactions.

Questions to analyze literature

• What do you want to share?
• What do you think will happen next?
• How do you feel about?
• What are you learning from the story?
• What are you learning about the way each character feels about each other?
• Do you think each character will change in the story?
• How is a character like you? How would you like to be like a character? How are you different than the character? How would you like to be different than the character?
• How would you want each character to change? Why?
• How do you think the character felt? How do you think the character felt when...? What caused you to believe that?
• How would you feel if that happened to you?
• What caused the character to make the decision they did?
• What caused the characters to be together for the story to happen or take place? Could this happen in real life? Could this happen in your life?
• What caused you to admire the character? or What caused you not to admire the character?
• What scene did you like best? What did you like about it? How did the author help you to better understand the scene?
• How did the character show (caring, kindness, fairness, ...) What did the character do or the author say to cause you to believe that? Why do you think the character did that or why the author had that happen?
• What are the advantages with being able to ... (have someone to care for, make choices, have freedom, being able to do something, ...) What are the disadvantages?
• How do authors make characters seem real?
• What would you like to ask the character? What do you think the character’s answer would be?
• What do you think was important in the literature? Why was it important for...? What could have happened differently? How would that have changed the story or the character?
• How would life be different for the characters in the story after the events in the story.
• Is the way the character lives different than the way you live? What do you think about that difference. Would you want to visit the place the character lives? Would you want to live at that time, place, or manner? Why?
• What differences did the characters have? How were these differences celebrated or how did the differences create a conflict?

Getting parents & care givers involved

After the class has shared a piece of literature it is helpful to have learners go home and discuss what the story was about, how the characters felt, how the child felt about the characters, the situation or decisions that were made, and have their feelings and values supported by their parents or care givers.

Sample for John Jermey Colton I would start with a book note sheet, read the story, discuss the story with students, then edit the activity sheet according to how the discussion went, print it, copy it, and send it home for dinner.

If parent or care giver feedback is desired, include the care giver feedback sheet and have the students bring it to school the next day.

Suggestions for parents, care givers, & home correspondence

First, notify parents and care givers of the plan for their child to share literature that is being read or viewed in school with them at home. Include a general description of a discussion process and a summary sheet for a piece of literature and possible topics.

Discussion process & suggestions

General suggestions to make it an enjoyable dinner table type conversation, rather than a homework assignment. Review instructional strategy ideas

Let the child talk freely. Intervene only when its necessary to focus on the book or the theme.

• Ask to explain what the story was about.
• Ask about the focus questions or ask their child to describe the focus topic.

Focus on the characters.

• Ask about the main character.
• What happened to the main character?
• How do you think the character felt when an incident happened? What made them feel that way?
• How you think the character felt at the end of the story? What made them feel that way?

Depending on the age of the student those three might be enough. For older children you might try.

• Describe how character felt about incident an the beginning of the story and at the end. What made her/him feel that way and why did she/he change?
• What experiences have you had when you might have felt like character in the beginning of the story and at the end?
• What can people do to cope with situations like characters?

More ideas to analyze literature:

Family Activity

Theme - Heroes

Sample book activity

I read John Jeremy Colton. by Bryan Leech.

Leech, Bryan Jeffrey, (1994). John Jeremy Colton. New York, NY: Hyperion Books For Children.

Although shunned by his neighbors, because of his oddly colored house, John Jeremy Colton proves he is capable of being a hero in a time of crisis.

The we discussed the themes and question included in the review sheet. I hope you can find some time to have a dinner style conversation with your learners about the ideas you find interesting and important you would like to share with them.

Themes on which to focus

• People may not be what we think they are.
• Heroes appear in the least likely places.
• Anyone could be a hero.
• What is a hero?

Start with some general questions.

• What book was read and what it was generally about.
• What did you like about it?
• What didn't you like about it?

Follow up with some more specific questions

• What did John Jeremy feel like when the children did not return?
• What did the children feel like when they were not allowed to return?
• How did Mrs. Hythe-Potter feel when she was on the roof?
• How did Mrs. Hythe-Potter feel at the end?
• What caused her to change her mind?
• How did the other towns people feel?
• What's a hero?

 

Flip side

If you can find a few minutes, I would appreciate some brief information about your experience.

Briefly describe your child’s reaction to this Literature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have any comments or suggestions?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please return this page.

Thank you,

Teacher’s signature:

 

Additional activities to promote caring

• Share a piece of literature that focuses on a person’s contribution through their job. Have students create interview questions to go home and interview an adult about their occupation and the product or service they provide. Focus on how their jobs provide satisfaction both through what they do and what they provide to the community.
• Share a piece of literature that focuses on music. It might be a story about a composer, a poem, or a song which students like. Have the students create interview questions to go home and interview an adult. They might want to focus on present tastes in music, tastes the adult had when they were the student’s age, how music has changed over a period of time, how music is still the same, or what is it about music that people enjoy.
• Select a book that has an event that people in the child’s life would have lived during its occurrence. Have the student’s write interview questions and interview people who know about the event.
• Select a place in the community that has the same setting and visit it. Have students prepare interview questions to interview people about how they feel about the setting. When students return to class have them discuss the similarities and differences between the literature and the real life setting. Make a chart and list each character in a separate box. Have the students record what they learned about each character as they read or share the literature. Teachers can create their own to share with students also.
• Make a character map for the main character and maybe an important minor character. Mark the important events along a time line for the story. Have students share what they thought was important and why. Teachers can create their own to share with students also.
• Have students make a list of what they liked about the literature and did not like. Have students make a list of what they liked about certain characters or did not like about them.
• Write an advertisement for the piece of literature and tell why everyone should get to know a character.

Book list for with caring themes

• Me First, Helen Lester. (1992). Scholastic, Pinkerton learns a lesson about always being first from the Sandwitch.
• The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pigs. Eugene Trivizas and Helen Oxenbury. (1993). Scholastic. A nonviolent ending with pig and wolves truly living happily ever after.
• The Art Lesson, Tomie de Paola. Putnam Publishing, 1989. Autobiographical. Tomie is discouraged by his first school art experience until he is able to create his own works.
• Arthur’s Teacher Trouble, Marc Tolon Brown. Atlantic Monthly, 1986. Arthur is afraid of his new teacher. After excelling in a spellathon, he wins his praise.
• The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble at School, Stanley Berenstain and Jane Grant Berenstain. Random House, 1986. Brother is absent from school due to a cold and misses instruction in division and a soccer match. After he skips school, he learns it is never to late to correct a mistake.
• Crow Boy, Taro Yashima. Viking Press, 1955. A very quiet boy walks down from the mountains to attend school. He is ridiculed for his interest only in observing nature. A teacher takes interest in him, and helps him demonstrate his own special skills.
• First Grade Jitters, Robert M. Quackenbush. J.B. Lippincott, 1982. Scared of school, a young rabbit develops the jitters. Fears are allayed when a friend explains meeting the teacher and tells that the teacher doesn’t expect them to be able to read and write yet.
• First Grade Takes a Test, written by Miriam Cohen and illustrated by Lillian Hoban. Greenwillow, 1981. The first grade takes its first multiple choice test. A gifted child is then identified and leaves the class, only to return when she misses her classmates.
• The Girl Who Knew It All, written by Patricia Reilly Giff, illustrated by Leslie Morrill. Delacorte Press, 1979. A girl covers up her reading deficiency, but finally admits she needs help.
• Grover Learns to Read, written by Dan Elliot, illustrated by Normand Chartier. Random House, 1985. Afraid that his mother will stop reading aloud to him, Grover hides his growing ability in his own reading skills.
• I’d Rather Stay Home, written and illustrated by Carol Barkin and Elizabeth James. Raintree Publishing, 1975. This story is about the tensions of the first day of school.
• Jim Meets the Thing, written by Miriam Cohen and illustrated by Lillian Hoban. Greenwillow, 1982. Jim is afraid of The Thing, yet he is the only one who will move a praying mantis.
• Louis James Hates School, written and illustrated by Bill Morrison. Houghton Mifflin, 1978. Louis James quits school for glamorous jobs. After he fails at skywriting for misspelling and driving an ambulance for not being able to read the signs, he decides to go back to school.
• Morris Goes to School, written and illustrated by Bernard Wiseman. Harper Row, 1970. Morris, the moose, goes to school. Silly but fun.
• My Mom Can’t Read, Muriel Novella Stankek, illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers. Albert Whitman, 1986.Tina has trouble learning to read and her mom doesn’t help. After confessing her inability to read, Mom learns to read along with Tina.
• No Good in Art, Miriam Cohen and illustrated by Lillian Hoban. Greenwillow, 1980. Upset by criticism, Jim is afraid to paint until the contagious enthusiasm of the rest of the class, which is generated by the new art teacher.
• See You Tomorrow, Charles, Miriam Cohen and illustrated by Lillian Hoban. Greenwillow, 1983. Charles is a blind boy whose classmates learn to look beyond his handicap to his capabilities.
• Six New Students, Franz Brandenberg, illustrated by Aliki. Greenwillow, 1978. The Fieldmouse children all declare they don’t like different school subjects, but Ferdinand, the first grader, says he doesn’t like all of them. The teacher had him do his work in context and he loves it. An easy-to-read book with short "chapters".
• So What?, Miriam Cohen and illustrated by Lillian Hoban. Greenwillow, 1983. Jim learns that some things are easy for some people and hard for other people.
• Sometimes I Don’t Like School, Paula Z. Hogan, illustrated by Pam Ford. Raintree Publishers, 1980. George avoids his problems in math rather than seeking help. Admitting the problem helps him solve it.
• Sometimes I Hate School, Carol Barkin and Elizabeth James. Raintree Publishing, 1975. Two boys are upset about a substitute teacher and the change in routine. A male primary teacher is featured.
• Today Was a Terrible Day, Patricia Reilly Giff, illustrated by Susanna Natti. Vicking Press, 1980. Ronald has a terrible day because he is in the "dumb" reading group, and feels inferior and incompetent. In the end he reads a note from the teacher successfully.
• What if the Teacher Calls on Me?, Alan Gross, illustrated by Mike Venezia. Children’s Press, 1980. A boy worries about being called on in class, practices the answer, then while daydreaming about it, is caught answer less.
• When Will I Learn to Read?, Miriam Cohen and illustrated by Lillian Hoban. Greenwillow, 1977. Through Jim’s experiences, this book provides encouragement for those impatient children who are anxious to learn to read.

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