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BEING A GOOD FRIEND
Learning Objectives
• The students consider what a good friend is.
• In the project stage, they make a
helpful poster with advice
and present it to other students.
Vocabulary
essential close mark advice alone friendship
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
IQ (Intelligence Quotient) has always been linked to
academic success. However, in the 1990s, journalist
Daniel Goldman in his book
Emotional Intelligence: Why
it can matter more than IQ
suggested that emotional
intelligence can also contribute to this academic success.
Emotional intelligence, also known as EQ (Emotional
Quotient) is the ability to identify and manage your own
emotions and the emotions of others. For example, it
may be acceptable to shout loudly and get angry when
your
favourite team loses a match, but it is probably
unacceptable to shout loudly and get angry with a teacher
in class. Teachers can help their learners improve their
emotional intelligence by encouraging them to (among
other things):
•
be active listeners (really listening and
understanding others,
using body language to show
this)
•
develop their vocabulary for feelings (e.g.
understanding the difference between
angry
,
sad
and
frustrated
)
•
develop self-awareness (realising how they appear
to others)
•
show empathy (being able to put yourself in
someone’s else’s shoes).
WARMER
Organise the students into small groups and give each
group two pieces of A3 paper and some board markers.
Ask
the groups to write
A good friend …
at the top of one
and
A bad friend …
at the top of the other. Then, ask them
to write down at least three qualities of each in a list with
bullet points, e.g.:
A good friend …
A bad friend …
listens to you
talks a lot but doesn’t
listen
makes you laugh
laughs at you
Then, display the posters on the walls. Invite the students
to stand up, read the posters and tell each other whether
they agree or disagree with the ideas.
LIFE SKILLS
