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You may have read, or privately suspected, that curling up with a good book can make you a better person. Over the past two years, several major news sources-including Scientific American and The New York Times-have confirmed the relationship between literature and virtue, placing fiction, in particular, in the limelight. The reason? Empathy.

Interview with Paul Bloom questioning the value of empathy and putting forward the need for compassion.

By giving students an idea of what it is like to walk in someone else's shoes, all literature that deals with big ideas and emotions is good for teaching empathy. Still, I have found a few types of stories that I go to when I really want to get my students working to think about how other people live.

By giving students an idea of what it is like to walk in someone else's shoes, all literature that deals with big ideas and emotions is good for teaching empathy. Still, I have found a few types of stories that I go to when I really want to get my students working to think about how other people live.

"By personifying, we often assume social roles and identities for objects and attribute intentions and emotions to them. This not only tells us a lot about our own cognitive states, it increases empathy and understanding. "

"A project-based learning unit on homelessness can provide middle and high school students with valuable information and foster empathy for the unhoused."

At the secondary level, wellbeing is taught to groups of 12 students in four 50-minute coaching sessions each week. They meet three times as a group, and on Fridays, that time is used for one-on-one coaching sessions. They explore topics like bullying, identity, and race through grounding texts such as Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah, and even picture books, like Sailing Boats in the Sky by Quentin Blake.

"historical fiction can make history matter-make it irresistible-to young readers. And it is important to make history matter, because reading about the past not only gives children factual information-sort of a mental timeline, for example, so that they know that the Revolutionary War happened before the Civil War-but learning about the past also allows, encourages, and teaches a child to identify with other voices, views, cultures, and times, which is a good life skill. Reading about the past teaches empathy and compassion. It helps a child see the similarities that lie just underneath our differences. "

Social impact games are a genre that seek to effect positive changes in society through play. Often, players are put in roles (known as "player agency") and must make decisions that have impactful consequences. These games are not necessarily designed for teaching; rather, the goal is to enable players to have empathy about social issues.

"A good book can help you understand what it's like for people who don't share your race, religion, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status. Diverse books teach empathy"

"Discussions that are centered in students' experiences spark more text-to-self connections and help students internalize concepts like empathy."

"Students were able to explore various frames of reference, identify a personal story to share using digital media, and experience empathy throughout the process. Digital storytelling has a permanent place in my classroom."

Mirrors, Windows Doors (MWD) is ann online magazine whose aim is to draw attention to the riches of children's and YA books from across the world that highlight cultural and multi-cultural diversity. MWD promotes authenticity of voice, and writing that increases empathy through reading about different experiences within different cultural contexts - maybe next door, maybe across the globe - whilst tapping into a common bond of humanity and shared emotional response. MWD is a resource for librarians, teachers, parents and carers, as well as teens, who want to find out more about the kidlitosphere from a global perspective.

We must teach students how to navigate in an unjust world, but also teach them how to change it. Educators talk about teaching the basics-reading, writing, and math-but shouldn't teaching students how to stand up, fight back, and work for justice be mandatory curriculum for a democratic society? This website was created by Linda Christenson (2004), who developed the PTAB (Target, Perpetrator, Ally, Bystander) strategy. It explains the strategy in depth, and provides additional information, lesson examples and resources which may be used.

Literature is an important component of a total language arts program at all grade levels because of the many benefits it offers. Here are some reasons for integrating literature into your curriculum.) By B.D. Roe|E.P. Ross - Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall Updated on Jul 20, 2010

"Thérése Hegarty and Patricia Kennon explore picturebooks in learning contexts and how they allow a discussion of friendship, conflict, struggle, norms, points of view, difference and injustice in a distanced way, thus allowing sensitive issues to be discussed without direct disclosures about the children's own lives."

"Books that explore cultural identity provide a foundation for instructional practices that develop cultural contexts and diverse perspectives. While creating a diverse reading list is important, the instructional approach, using the book as a foundation, is also critical to developing cultural competency and understanding."

"Fundamentally, personification is a specific type of metaphor. Generally, personification is defined as a literary device that assigns human qualities and attributes to objects or other non-human things. "