Lesson details
- Objective: Students practice listening without interrupting and paraphrasing a peer's idea.
- Time: 25 minutes
- Grade band: 3–5
- CASEL competency: Relationship skills
Materials
- A talking piece
- Space for a circle — desks pushed back or a rug
Steps
- Review listening norms: eyes on speaker, one voice, kind body language.
- Use a talking piece. Prompt: "One thing that went well this week."
- Listener repeats back one detail before the next speaker.
- Debrief: What felt hard about listening? What helped?
- Record one class norm the group agrees to keep.
Debrief questions
- What is the difference between waiting to talk and actually listening?
- How did it feel when someone repeated your detail correctly?
Variations
- Shrink to trios (speaker, listener, observer) if a whole-class circle runs long; rotate roles every two minutes.
- Raise the difficulty in later rounds: the listener paraphrases the idea and the feeling behind it.
What mastery looks like
- Paraphrases a partner's idea until the partner agrees it was heard right
- Holds the talking-piece norm for a full circle without reminders
- Explains the difference between waiting to talk and listening, in their own words
What tends to go wrong
The paraphrase step is the lesson. If students parrot word-for-word, model the difference between repeating and restating ("so your team finally won at recess — sounds like that mattered to you").