Description
Unfortunately, stressful life experiences, such as loss or bereavement, the divorce of parents, anger, fear, bullying, and feeling diverse or excluded, can enter the life of pupils and students.
Aiming at the development of the person as a whole rather than at mere academic success, schools are naturally prone to help, but sometimes lack the means for doing it with care and respect of their primary educational mission.
This course offers a solution based on the therapeutic role of literature, which is the basis of bibliotherapy.
Bibliotherapy is the activity of using literature to grow towards good emotional health. Offering a responsive interaction with literature, bibliotherapy can assist young people with the challenges of development.
It can also offer support in relieving stress, providing successful coping strategies, and helping an individual to express both feelings and ideas about a problem or difficulty.
Through practical and experiential activities, course participants will understand the concept of bibliotherapy and its uses. They will deepen their knowledge of the therapeutic role of literature and its importance in the mental, emotional and social development of children. Moreover, they will learn about the teacher’s role in implementing bibliotherapy in the classroom and gain practice in it.
Each participant will learn how to develop complete lesson plans and implement bibliotherapy activities on selected children’s books that best fit their unique school community.
Through workshops and hands-on activities, as well as reflection and sharing, participants will prepare their own reading activities in a highly interactive and engaging learning experience.
By the end of the course, participants will have advanced their first steps in a new dimension for better health and care of their learners.
Learning outcomes
The course will help the participants to:
- Use children’s literature as a practical tool for stress management in educational environments;
- Learn about the therapeutic role of literature to foster resilience and promote the emotional intelligence of students;
- Understand the concept of Bibliotherapy and its use in the classroom;
- Identify the teacher’s role in Bibliotherapy;
- Integrate bibliotherapy activities into the curricula;
- Evaluate quality children’s books as resources for Bibliotherapy implementation.
Tentative schedule
Day 1 – Introduction to the course and to bibliotherapy
- Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
- Icebreaker activities;
- Presentations of the participants’ schools.
Bibliotherapy: inviting stories to help children cope with stressful life experiences
- Bibliotherapy: definitions, goals, phases, expected results;
- The books’ value and their role in children’s social and emotional development;
- Practical activities on understanding the value of a book for children.
Day 2 – The theoretical principles of bibliotherapy
- The basic principles of bibliotherapy;
- How to select books for bibliotherapy;
- The role of teachers.
Day 3 – Implementation: sample lessons with selected books
- What are the needs of our students in terms of social and emotional development?
- Practical activities on assessing students’ needs;
- Methodology: the 5 – step process of delivering bibliotherapy instruction;
- The limits of bibliotherapy.
Day 4 – Practical workshop and the power of crossover literature
- Activity: How to present a bibliotherapy session in the classroom;
- Planning reading activities according to a model lesson plan;
- The experiences of characters in quality children’s literature: a powerful tool to stimulate students’ critical thinking;
- The power of crossover literature.
Day 5 – Design your unique path to bibliotherapy
- How to develop complete lesson plans that best fit their unique school community;
- Sharing experiences, reflecting on activities with coursemates.
Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities
- Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion;
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance;
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.