Lesson 12: Interacting with Others
Essential Question: How do I interact/talk to others outside of school?
Lesson Overview
1. Brain Warmup
2. Read Aloud
3. Modeling Activity
4. Group Activity
6. Brain Cooldown
Purpose:
- By referencing previously learned skills like conversation skills and parts of a conversation, students will be able to apply those skills when speaking with others outside of school specifically in public places. This lesson also intertwines the importance of being kind when talking with others.
Vocabulary:
- conversation skills
- parts of a conversation
- public places
Additional Book
What Does it Mean to Be Kind? by Rana DiOrio
- This story shares the importance of being kind to one another and provides examples on how to demonstrate kindness.
Click the book for the read aloud.
Additional Lesson
Activity
- Challenge students to having a discussion with a public worker at a grocery store or restaurant. Encourage students to reference the conversation map and practice the skills in public.
Additional Resources
- This article features information on how to promote friendship and includes activities encouraging students to reflect on friends and how they act as friends.
9 Tips for Teaching Your Child About Personal Safety:
- This article describes tips on how to promote personal safety in public and online.
Brain Warmup: Daily Discussion
Purpose: This brain warmup allows students to practice the conversation skills learned in previous lessons with a partner.
Materials: ‘conversation map’ poster, conversation map
Time: 5 minutes
Procedure:
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Partner students up with another student in the classroom.
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Remind students of the parts of a conversation. Reference the ‘conversation map’ poster when reviewing the parts of a conversation.
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The pairs of students will engage in conversations.
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Allow students to use their conversation map from Lesson 3
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The discussion should be between 3 and 5 minutes.
Note: If students are struggling to find topics to discuss, a list of ideas can be written for the students to reference. Ideas for discussions can be sports, animals, weather, cars, school, family, and movies.
Read Aloud: Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller
Before reading the read aloud, ask students “what does it mean to be kind?” Allow for students to brainstorm ideas and ask for volunteers to share ideas.
This read aloud stresses the importance of showing kindness to all and displays examples of how to be kind to one another. After the story, use the following discussion questions to aid in having a short conversation about being kind.
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What actions demonstrated in the book showed kindness?
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What actions of kindness have your demonstrated?
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What actions of kindness can you demonstrate in school and in public?
Modeling Activity: How to Talk in Public
Purpose: This activity provides students with an outline of what information is safe to share in public and what information needs to remain private.
Materials: ‘what to say in public’ graphic organizer
Time: 10 to 15 minutes
Procedure:
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Students will begin lesson in the carpet or open floor space facing the technology board. On the technology board or poster board write the parts of a conversation. Express to students these parts of a conversation apply when speaking with someone in public like a waiter/ waitress or someone at a grocery store.
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Stress the importance of the type of information shared in a classroom is different than the information shared in public.
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Appropriate Information for Classroom: Explain to the students that in a classroom it is okay to talk about your family, friends, and hobbies. School is a safe place to share feelings and concerns.
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Appropriate Information for Public: Explain to the students that in public personal information is kept to yourself. When introducing yourself, just say your first name. Explain to students to refrain from sharing details about where you live, your phone number, and your parents’ names.
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The information for classroom and public can be written on the board or poster board but the graphic organizer will help students categorize what information is appropriate for each setting.
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For the graphic organizer, students will move to their desk or a table. Pass out the ‘what to say in public’ graphic organizer. Please note that this graphic organizer is two pages. One page has a T chart labeled ‘classroom setting’ and ‘public setting’. The second page has examples of information that can be said.
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Students will cut out all the examples of information and sort based on whether the information would be appropriate for school or public.
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When the students have sorted examples and the work has been checked, then the students can glue the examples on page one (the T chart).
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After all students have completed their graphic organizer, review the information that can be shared in each setting.
Group Activity: Conversations with Public Workers
Purpose: This activity allows students to participate in role playing conversations that can occur in public. Students will practice their conversation skills and can refer to their ‘what to say in public’ graphic organizer when sharing information.
Materials: public setting backgrounds, ‘what to say in public’ graphic organizer
Time: 10 to 15 minutes
Procedure:
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Students will sit on the carpet or open floor space facing the technology board. Use the ‘public settings backgrounds’ during the role play activities. ‘Public setting backgrounds’ include a grocery store, bank, doctor’s office, library, restaurant.
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Two students will be selected to role play at a time. Partner A will be the public worker. The job description is based on when public setting background is showing. Partner B will be a student.
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Partner A and Partner B will engage in a conversation. Prompting questions and scenarios can be added to help students through the conversation.
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Partners will switch roles so that each student has an opportunity to be a public worker and a student.
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This process will continue until all students have had an opportunity to role play.
Note: Props can be provided for the public workers to make the experience more authentic. A challenge for activity would be to invite a public worker to visit the classroom and allow students to engage in conversations with the visitor. A public worker that would provide beneficial information what information to share in public would be a police officer or school official.
Brain Cooldown: What Makes Me a Good Friend
Purpose: This activity allows for students to reflect on their personality, how they treat their friends, and what makes them a good friend.
Materials: paper, markers, crayons
Time: 5 minutes
Procedure:
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Students will complete activity at their desk or at a table. Each student will receive a blank piece of paper.
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On the paper, the students will trace one hand. One each of the five fingers, the students will write or draw pictures explaining what makes them a good friend.
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Provide prompting questions or a list of brainstormed ideas for the students to reference.
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Ideas include I am nice, I am helpful, I ask friends to play with me, I share my toys, I smile at my friends.
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Once students have completed their hands, ask for volunteers to share what makes them a good friend. Collect hands and hang up in the classroom for all students see.
