Empathy & Compassion
A curated collection of 4 books exploring empathy & compassion, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Learning Goal
Students will practice seeing the world from others' perspectives and develop compassion through storytelling.
Standards Connections
- ELA: RL.K-7.3
- ELA: RL.K-7.6
- ELA: SL.K-7.1
- SEL
Books in This Unit
4 titles — each with a full lesson plan.
Perspective & Empathy
The Whale's Tale and the Otter's Side of the Story
by Kate Messner
4 learning goals · 50–60 minutes
Empathy & Self-Acceptance
Simon and the Better Bone
by Corey R. Tabor
4 learning goals · 35–40 minutes
Compassion & Courage
The Boy and the Whale
by Mordicai Gerstein
3 learning goals · 40 minutes
Perspective & Curiosity
Ursula Down Upside
by Corey R. Tabor
3 learning goals · 30 minutes
Pacing Tools in This Unit
2 tools from the Pace-Write-Read handbook.
Point of View
Who is telling the story, who is narrating it — create options that will make a huge difference. Memorable choices have included death itself, so how do you decide? The narrator you choose quietly rewrites every scene.
Details
Serve double duty and point to what a reader must not miss and help to build out your story in extraordinary ways. One well-chosen detail does the work of a paragraph of explanation.