Mini-lesson: Introduction to Listening with Understanding

and Empathy
Objective: Students Will Be Able To identify what Listening with Understanding and
Empathy looks, sounds, and feels like.

Lesson Cycle Notes

Do Now For 12 minutes, teacher will facilitate

● What is houselessness? What do you think are students into shifting their opinions
some causes of houselessness? What effects and perspectives into more
happen to a community when there is an empathic views.
increasing number of people becoming
houseless?
● Play “What Would You Do” video on actors
taunting houselessness
● Empathic questions: What do you think the
person who’s houseless was feeling? How
might they feel about the opinions of our
community? What might houselessness feel
like?

Introduction to new material For 20 minutes, students will guess

● Define empathy: Empathy is holding a deep on their own examples, and then will
understanding for people and their experiences follow teacher to write down class
and perspectives examples.
● Prompt students, take 3 minutes to silently
answer and write down:
○ What does this deep understanding
look like?
○ What does empathy sound like?
○ What does empathy feel like?
● Give students examples of what Listening with
understanding and empathy looks like, sounds
like, and feels like. Have students write down
notes of examples
○ Looks like: nodding, raising eyebrows,
attentive attitude
○ Sounds like: One mic one voice,
phrases like: I understand, thank you for
sharing, I see
○ Feels like: heart warming connection, a
sense of support and care

Guided Practice For 15 minutes, students will work

● Let’s identify how empathy can be found inside with partners (or individually) to
the classroom complete this portion. Teacher and
● Now, let’s identify how listening with assitant will work with challenged
 understanding and empathy can be found students to guide their ideas into
outside the classroom written expression (answer in full
● Video on Empathy: Brene Brown on Empathy sentence, stay on task)

Independent Practice Teacher will monitor students as

● Prompt: Give three examples of people they silently and independently
Listening with Empathy and Understanding. answer the prompt. 8 minute
Then, explain how they looked, sounded, and exercise.
how they might have felt given those factors.

Closing (exit Ticket) Allow students the remaining 10

● What is Empathy? minutes of class to answer the daily
● What does Listening with Understanding look, exit ticket
feel, and sound like? Please give one example
for each