Parallel Session Proceedings »
3.5.2 Bibliotherapy in the Classroom: Using Picture Books to Support Effective Decision-Making for Secondary Students
Through identification with an appropriate literary model, a student can gain the ability to respect and accept others. This session will provide participants an understanding of the issues specific to the gifted population, titles that resonate with students, and suggestions for questioning techniques to use with them to effect positive decision making and an understanding of the needs of others.
Fiction and nonfiction picture books can be used to teach concepts that often elude students: parody, satire, writer vs. narrator, perspective, and critical/creative thinking skills. Likewise, students need models in solving relationship situations. While the emphasis will be on secondary classrooms, the titles and strategies will be relevant K-12.
Bibliotherapy can normalize children’s experiences by reducing feelings of isolation that may be developmental in nature; literature selections enhance social emotional development by providing a perspective other than one’s own. Students are able to develop empathy for characters while questioning their own attitudes, which can translate to their understanding of others. Through identification with an appropriate literary model, a student can gain the ability to respect and accept differences.
Using literature enables participants to address concerns in a respectful manner and enables students to listen without becoming defensive or self-conscious. Reading about a character’s dilemma enables students to make observations about relationships, patterns of behavior, and blind spots. This particularly benefits gifted students who approach the world intellectually but lack self-awareness. When students think about an emotionally charged situation intellectually, they gain a template for solving their own problem. Well-chosen titles combined with effective questions leads to students who understand their own motivations and responses and appreciate their own unique qualities.
This session will introduce titles that may help students and suggestions for questioning techniques to use with them. Presenters will address anxiety, peer relations, perfectionism, and other social emotional concerns.