Here is a report from a German secondary school:
“Yesterday I discovered and used the Gefühlsmonster cards for a new application. In seventh grade, we’re currently working on Goethe’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. We tried to imagine the state of mind of the sorcerer’s apprentice, to perceive how it significantly changes during the ballad and we tried to some extent to sketch a mood barometer or a mood curve. Students were asked to work in pairs and to pick out a card for each verse that, in their opinion, corresponded to the state of mind of the sorcerer’s apprentice. When we compared the various partly unusual series of pictures, the class became engaged in a really fruitful conversation and each group of two explained why they had selected a particular card instead of another one. They were really astonished by the fact that, while the different moods of the apprentice in the course of the ballad were illustrated by individual students with partially different cards, each choice of cards could be explained to the class.
Rarely I have seen them independently delve into a text so attentively and sensitively and accept that feelings are evaluated differently by different people. We then found a thousand different adjectives which could express the specific mood of the situation.
Maybe next week I’ll let the kids tell the ballad as a thrilling, emotional story in their own words; Mr. Goethe would have, at least I hope, enjoyed it.”