Parts of Speech and the Power of Words – A Lesson in Linguistic, Social, and Emotional Competence

Parts of Speech and the Power of Words’ was a lesson that synchronised language and personal competences. Conducted in the second grade students’ self-study class, the lesson aligned in its relevance the skills of detecting, distinguishing and matching parts of speech and the skills of communicating through empathy. The team tasks were designed to challenge students to demonstrate their knowledge and skills about the different grammatical categories of the parts of speech. The reference to the nature of the adjective as a symbol of the qualification of objects and people provoked the cross-curricular relationship of the lesson with psychology and citizenship education. Every word evokes a reaction in a person, and that reaction is his emotions. Working with emotion cards helped students build on their knowledge of the types of emotions a person can experience and how to recognize them in themselves and others. At the end of the lesson, students decorated wooden spoons with the message that a kind word is food for the soul. Empathy, as one of the key competences of the 21st century, is extremely important in interpersonal relationships. Its foundations are laid in early childhood to be built upon throughout life.