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Conversation for Social Interaction (CoSI)

Unit 2: Think about how your chatting partner feels

Unit 2 Overview

This unit helps children realise how the way they engage in social chat impacts the feelings of the people they are chatting with. The main type of ‘problematic chatting behaviour’ focussed on is going completely off topic. While introducing this, we make it clear that everyone makes chatting ‘slip-ups’ sometimes and we can ‘fix’ them; e.g., we can either apologise for being distracted or clarify why something made us think of the thing we said.
Unit 2 Overarching Plan: This page (see also the downloadable version) gives an overview of the whole unit, and we recommend you look through this before accessing the individual resources.

Click here to download the Unit 2 Overarching Plan (PDF)

Learning Objectives

Overarching Learning Objective: To understand how your chat makes your partner feel.

Learning Objectives

  1. Understand that chatting responses need to connect to what the chatting partners say.
  2. Practise keeping the chat going by using Connecting Statements (and questions).
  3. Practise listening and responding to what the chatting partners says.
  4. Understand that ‘chatting slip-ups’ can be fixed and practice using Fix It phrases when needed.
  5. Feel more relaxed engaging in social chat.

•••

Learning Outcomes

All students can

  • Understand the difference between a Connecting Statement and an Unconnected Statement.
  • Feel more relaxed in a social chat environment.

Most students can

  • Understand that using Unconnected Statements can make their chatting partner feel ignored or unimportant.
  • Use Connecting Statements most of the time (at least when the interaction is slowed down e.g. in the form of the Train Game).
  • Notice when others used Unconnected Statements (at least when the interaction is slowed down e.g. in the form of the Train Game).

Some students can

  • Repair some ‘Chatting Slip-ups’ (e.g. by apologising and saying they were distracted/giving a reason).

Unit 2 Lessons

Click here for the optional poster for this and following Units.

Complete in this order

Lesson Objectives Materials Timing
1 Intro Lesson
  • Understand how your chat makes your partner feel.
  • Understand that ‘chatting slip-ups’ can be fixed.
  1. Unit 2 Intro Lesson’ PowerPoint Slides
  2. Notes section on PowerPoint slides
  3. Unit 2 Intro Lesson Plan
25 minutes
2 Structured Practice To slow down social chat so that the children:

  • Practise listening and responding to what the chatting partners say.
  • Practise keeping the chat going by using Connecting Statements (and questions).
  • Understand that chatting responses need to connect to what the partner has just said.
  • Understand that ‘chatting slip-ups’ can be fixed and practice using Fix It phrases when needed.
  1. 2-minute explainer video for teachers on ‘How and Why to Play the Train Game
  2. ‘Unit 2 Train Game Explainer Slides
  3. Unit 2 Train Game Lesson plan
  4. Train Game board (print in A4 x 10 – and also keep these for unit 3)
  5. Train tokens
  6. Example children playing Train Game’ clip
30 minutes
3 Free Chat
  • Feel more relaxed engaging in social chat.
  • Practise listening and responding to what the chatting partner says.
  • Practise keeping the chat going using Connecting Statements (and questions).
  • Practise using ‘Fix It’ phrases where needed.
  1. ‘Unit 2 Free Social Chat’ PowerPoint slides
  2. Unit 2 Free Social Chat Lesson plan
  3. Unit 2 Teacher Feedback Phrases
15-20 minutes

 

 

Try to find another 5 minutes Free Social Chat time (without slides) during the week.