To effectively engage emotions from our students we must then engage them in stories or narratives. By providing narrative context into your teaching methods you can enhance the power to stimulate and develop the imaginations of your students. Knowing the characteristics or kind of narratives that will engage the students in the age range of eight to fifteen is the key to stimulating their imaginations. There are six basic characteristics that interest this age group of students: 1. Extremes and limitations, 2. Heroic associations, 3. Romance, wonder and awe, 4. Revolt and idealism, 5. Matters of detail, and 6. Relating to human knowledge. .
Starting with extremes and limits Egan explains how students of this age bracket will be more engaged with the type of knowledge that shows the human experience at its limits (the most courageous, the cruelest, most bizarre, the strange, the terrible and the wonderful). The more different the topic is to the student the more interesting and engaging it becomes. It is through these extremes and limits that we are able to see the everyday existence in a new light, and from there we are able to learn where the familiar fits and what it means. By using a different perspective than the ones our students see everyday we are able to better engage them in learning and imagination while we are teaching them the material we want them to learn.
This age group sees people who have overcome the everyday existence that they know of as heroes. Heroes, to this age group, can come from any area of life: sports stars, pop singers, actors, writers, friends, parents, etc. These real world people who have "transcended" the rules that we all live in everyday and triumphed engages their imaginations. Students will imagine themselves as these heroes or the characteristics of these heroes. When students "try on" these heroic qualities they imagine themselves as different and more interesting.