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Can empathise with a character's motives and behaviours

Year 5 Autumn Transition Therapy

Teachers’ Notes

❑This therapy begins by explaining what is meant by the terms ‘empathy’ and ‘motives’. This is modelled using a simple, well-known tale.

❑Short extracts are then used to model how a character’s motives can be interpreted through their actions.

❑Pupils then have the opportunity to discuss and identify motives through the use of two extended extracts by established authors.

❑Throughout the therapy, pupils are encouraged to think about how else the character could have behaved, what they might have done or whether the actions were justified.

The swap shop

disagreeable irritable grouchy cantankerous

Welcome to the swap shop! Your job is to compose a sentence that

uses some boring or unambitious vocabulary that

you could swap for my exciting and

challenging vocabulary. I will choose the best

and most accurate use of the word to

award it to.

For example, I might consider swapping the word ‘cantankerous’ for the word ‘grumpy’ in this sentence:

‘The grumpy old shopkeeper wouldn’t allow children into his shop without an adult.’

What is empathy?

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Part of the challenge for an author is getting their readers to empathise with the

characters.

For example, if a player looks totally exhausted after a tennis match, and we have felt similar exhaustion after exercise, we

can empathise. It means we understand how they feel.

This can be confused with sympathy (noun) and sympathise (verb). Sympathy is when we feel sorry for, or pity, someone.

Your turn: how are these characters feeling? Tell your partner about a situation where you felt the same. Can

you empathise with these characters?

If we can empathise with characters, we can begin to understand their actions and motives for behaving in a

certain way.

Let’s look at the character of the boy in ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’.

Action: repeatedly lied about there being a wolf.Motive: because he was bored and lonely.Character trait: attention-seeking, deceitful.

If we could empathise with this action, we might think of a time when we have done something to try to get people’s attention

or have told a lie!

While we might feel that this was not a good way to behave, by using empathy, it helps us to understand the action of the

character in the context of the story.

Your turn: At the end of this story, the villagers refuse to go to the boy when he cries wolf. Can you empathise with why they made this decision?

Action: not going to the boy’s aid when he cries wolf the final time.

Motive:

Character trait:

Your turn

Look at the extract below. Can you identify the motive for the action listed below?

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and live the high life. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of a nanny, who was made to understand that she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible.The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

ACTION: A mother gives her new baby to a nanny to take care of.

MOTIVE:

Your turn

How did you do?

When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and live the high life. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of a nanny, who was made to understand that she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible.The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

ACTION: A mother gives her new baby to a nanny to take care of.

MOTIVE: She just wanted to go to parties and have fun, not to take care of her child.

Your turn

Look at the extract below. Can you identify the motive for the action listed below?

So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing much but the faces of her nannies and nurses. They always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because her parents would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying. So, by the time she was six years old Mary was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived.The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

ACTION: The nurses give Mary whatever she wants.

MOTIVE:

Your turn

So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing much but the faces of her nannies and nurses. They always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because her parents would be angry if they were disturbed by her crying. So, by the time she was six years old Mary was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived.The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

ACTION: The nurses give Mary whatever she wants.

MOTIVE: Mary’s parents would be angry if they were disturbed by her crying.

How did you do?

Understanding character behaviour

So, by the time she was six years old

Mary was as tyrannical and

selfish a little pig as ever lived.

Discussion: Is it Mary’s fault that she is tyrannical and selfish?

Authors are very good at implicitly telling us why a character behaves in a certain way.

We know that Mary behaves this way because she has never been taught any different. This is because her nurses and nannies want to obey their employers. We also know that she is neglected by her parents and that this must be difficult for Mary.

Dialogue

Read the extract below. How would you feel if someone spoke to you like this?

One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine years old, Mary awakened feeling very cross, and she became crosser still when she saw that the servant who stood by her bedside was not her usual nanny.“Why did you come?” she said to the strange woman. “I will not let you stay. Send my usual nanny to me.”The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered that the usual nanny could not come and when Mary threw herself into a temper and hit out at her, she looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the usual nanny to come to Mary.The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

I would feel… because…

Your turn

Now think about Mary in this extract. Can you empathise with why she speaks this way to the woman?

One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine years old, Mary awakened feeling very cross, and she became crosser still when she saw that the servant who stood by her bedside was not her usual nanny.“Why did you come?” she said to the strange woman. “I will not let you stay. Send my usual nanny to me.”The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered that the usual nanny could not come and when Mary threw herself into a temper and hit out at her, she looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the usual nanny to come to Mary.

So, when we are reading narratives, empathising with the character helps us to understand their actions. By working out the motive for their actions, we can understand their

character much better, even if we don’t feel that they have behaved in a way that we agree with.

ReflectionThink about today’s lesson and talk to your partner about what you feel confident about and what you

feel you need to practise more.

I am confident with …

I would like more practice with …