Independent Thinking on Emotional Literacy

Written by Richard Evans, Independent Thinking on Emotional Literacy: A passport to increased confidence, engagement and learning shares an approach that will help educators boost their pupils' emotional literacy, with the broader aim of nurturing a more grounded, engaged and intrinsically motivated child. Foreword by Ian Gilbert. Do teachers truly understand their pupils? And do the pupils themselves really understand their own needs? In Independent Thinking on Emotional Literacy, Richard Evans reminds every school educator that behind every child is a set of circumstances so entwined - and within them a set of emotions so involved - that to ignore them is to be complicit in any educational failings experienced by that child. Richard equips educators with a collaborative 'passport' template designed to improve pupils' emotional literacy and promote discussion of the often-unspoken issues that prevent children from making progress at school. It enables staff to steer young people to greater emotional understanding of themselves, so that they can better manage their route through the school system. Furthermore, Richard provides a detailed tutorial as he walks you through the subtleties and wide-ranging possibilities of its use. Colour copies of the passport are also made available for free download as a complimentary feature of the book. If the passport is aimed at anyone, adult or child, it's those not altogether happy with the system; those not convinced it provides as much breadth and meaning as it could; and who sense that education is as much about the acquisition of self-knowledge as it is about that of knowledge per se. Ultimately, the result of the enterprise is deeper understanding - whether it's of the girl who falls asleep at the back, the boy who needs constant support, or those pupils who need extra careful attention at parents' evening. Suitable for all educators in both primary and secondary settings.

Richard Evans is a secondary school teacher with a particular interest in, and passion for, helping students who struggle with literacy. A former journalist, he has spent the last decade learning from pupils in lower sets and in nurture and tuition groups. One of the fruits of their joint labour is 'the passport' - a tool designed to assist teachers in helping pupils develop their emotional literacy.