Random Acts of Kindness
It is not news that acts of kindness can improve well-being and relationships. It has been written about in texts that are thousands of years old. But in today’s world we are busy and often preoccupied with the continuous bombardment of information coming into our lives on an hourly basis. And this goes for our students as well. Particularly students who are preparing for an exam (or set of exams) or those aiming to get to their next step in their education.
One of the key areas my research highlighted on teacher competencies (which you can read a bit about here: https://eltspecialist.com//english-language-teaching-is-changing-el-gazette/) was that there was more awareness around mental health in staff and students than there has been before. But, there was not enough action on this in the EFL/ELT industry. So maybe taking ideas from other industries may help teachers and their students.
This blog post is a list of 5 practical lesson ideas based around the topic of ‘random acts of kindness’. But first the ‘why’… here is a little bit of theory for those who want it, skip the next 3 paragraph if you are in a rush, you can always come back to it later or just read the ‘tweet’ summary at the end!
Why teach a lesson on random acts of kindness?
Firstly, let’s just agree that English language teaching is an all-encompassing subject as we learn English through communication and information. But, secondly, and more importantly, good mental health and wellbeing are the bedrock to our happy and positive existence on this planet and is important for effective learning. Whilst good mental health comes from many areas in life, dedicating sometime during language acquisition can contribute to those atomic habits (https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits) we need to be making and sustaining daily.
Looking at the research in the industries of psychology and mental health. Over the years there have been many studies into the effects of kindness on mental health and there is striking data that shows practicing kindness throughout life (child to adult) has a positive impact on happiness. Even though there are other things people can do that also positively affect their happiness, such as being active and belonging to a community, one extra micro habit we can add is kindness.
There isn’t much data specifically on ‘random’ acts of kindness but that would probably be quite hard to research, I guess. However, a recent study by David Cregg and Jennifer Cheavens (Cregg & Cheavens, 2022) has focused their research on ways to reduce levels of anxiety and symptoms of depression through kindness. The results were astounding: there was an increase in life satisfaction and reduced negative symptoms, such as anxiety. But what is more intriguing, is that after these studies were complete, the researchers found that there were long lasting positive affect for both life satisfaction and a reduction in negative symptoms. And all this from a simple act of kindness!
5 Lesson ideas for ‘Random Acts of Kindness’
1. Tell a short story about ‘a random act of kindness’ as a listening task and then class discussion.
There are so many stories throughout the world about acts of kindness, you may even have experienced random acts of kindness yourself. Choose a story and set up the activity as a dictogloss (follow this link if you want to know more about dictoglosses: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/knowing-subject/d-h/dictogloss) . Then finish the lesson with either group or class discussion about kindness and their personal experiences. You could also ask students what they could do in their daily lives to show kindness.
It is important to note that we are not experts or even particularly knowledgeable on mental health as a psychologist or counsellor would be. But as we are teachers with many roles to play in the classroom: showing compassion and providing students with opportunities to learn about the world is something we are good at, and experienced in. So, a simple and thought-provoking lesson on Random Acts of Kindness might be a welcome break from the regular lessons or maybe an opportunity for students to just think about something a bit different.
2. Show a short video demonstrating a random act of kindness to promote class discussion.
There are some great videos on YouTube that show acts of kindness (random and not random). As a warmer, ask the students to define kindness (or ‘random acts of kindness’) in English. Then show them a selected screen shot of the video they are about to see and ask them to predict what is about to happen. Show them the video and then organise group/class discussions about the topic of kindness, their experiences and what they might do in their daily lives that is kind.
Here are a video that might work for you:
Whilst it is a mixture or random and non-random acts of kindness, the narration is accessible for lower levels and rich in expressions that you could use as a vocabulary lesson. It is quite a long video, you might want to just pick a few extracts from it.
3. Read an article about research into kindness (good for exam or EAP students)
There are lots of journal articles about kindness from various different disaplines. For lower level students, there are some website that discuss these articles and so are more accessible for students: https://thegoodnewshub.com/society/being-kind-can-help-overcome-anxiety-and-depression/
4. Students investigate messages left on London Underground by @allaboard
(WARNING – you may want to preselect the images as some might not be appropriate for your students)
@Allaboard was created by a couple of London Underground workers who wanted to bring more joy to people’s lives as they went about their journeys in London. You can find their story on YouTube and other social media platforms: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmzfWG8BIsL/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
5. A short video for business English students.
This video is about how James Rhee used kindness and goodwill as a bedrock for saving a fashion company in USA. It is a remarkable success story and full of business language has he explains how he designed a business plan to save the company: https://www.ted.com/talks/james_rhee_the_value_of_kindness_at_work
Tweet summary
Covering the topic ‘acts of kindness’ in a lesson may have far greater benefits, for you and your students, than you might ordinarily imagine. A new study has found that showing kindness can reduce anxiety and increasing life satisfaction. Here are 5 lesson ideas on ‘kindness’.
References
Cregg, D.R. and Cheavens, J.S. (2022) ‘Healing through helping: an experimental investigation of kindness, social activities, and reappraisal as well-being interventions’, The journal of positive psychology, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), pp. 1–18. doi:10.1080/17439760.2022.2154695.
Layous, K. et al. (2012) ‘Kindness counts: prompting prosocial behavior in preadolescents boosts peer acceptance and well-being’, PloS one, 7(12), pp. e51380–e51380. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0051380.
