Harry Potter Reading Activities

Harry Potter Reading Activities: Teaching Emotional Intelligence and Character

The Harry Potter series is an amazing piece of literature that teaches students a love of reading, yet also teaches emotional intelligence! The characters compelling stories of courage, honor, perseverance, and sacrifice give students a chance to be all those things. The Brothers Grimm fairy tales and Aesop’s fables taught countless generations of children characters and morals using morality tales. Today we need literature that treats kids as smart intelligent beings that flourish when exposed to insightful complex literature. Morality, sacrifice, empathy, and honesty are just a few themes that kids discover in the pages of Harry Potter. Harry Potter can be a roadmap for children to an emotionally intelligent adulthood. My class discusses and ruminates on the many themes that present themselves as we read the Harry Potter series, and students have so many insightful moments when they relate funny, poignant, scary moments to personal experience.

Idesa for Using Harry Potter in the Classroom to Teach Emotional Intelligence

• Compare and Contrast Character Traits: Harry Potter vs. Hermione...
• Make a list of what makes a character evil or good
• Create your own Harry Potter chapter story using a classic morality theme

Harry Potter is not about witchcraft and wizardry as some opponents have argued, the books are about friendship and growing up. We should count ourselves fortunate and blessed when all generations learn the skills of caring, empathy, sacrifice, acceptance, and honor. If you have not read Harry Potter or you have not visited the books in a few years its time to rethink all the wonderful teachable moments that the series provides.  Sean Taylor The Reading Sage