In the Listening Deeply strategy, students will learn and practice three deep listening skills: body language, focus, and empathy. In a series of lessons with different conversation starters, they will practice being active, authentic listeners with a partner– listening to make the speaker feel heard without reciprocating in the conversation. Speakers will also get more comfortable sharing about themselves and expressing feelings. Through the listening exercises, students will learn and come to value showing engagement when someone is speaking, understand people’s thoughts and feelings, and make others feel heard.

Over the course of four lessons, facilitate this activity using different prompts. On the following pages you’ll find suggested prompts, but feel free to choose your own instead.