Lesson 15 Nonverbal Communication Intermediate social communication

Social Emotional Learning Standards*: Identify and manage one’s emotions and behavior. Recognize the feelings and perspectives of others. Use communication and social skills to interact effectively with others. Set priorities in building on strengths and identifying areas for improvement. *Taken from the Illinois State Board of Education: (California has not yet adopted SEL Standards) Objective: Students will examine different social scenarios to discover nonverbal cues. They will create a story that can be told nonverbally and present it to the larger group. Each student will consider her own nonverbal behavior to evaluate the message presented with the intended message. Students will then have the opportunity to reflect upon the implications of their own nonverbal behavior.

Task 1: Small Group to whole group discussion: Put students into small groups. Give each group a portion of Attachment 1 to read, discuss and present to the whole class the important information. They use the graphic organizer outline (Attachment 2) to help guide them as they prepare their presentation, and they will continue to fill the outline in as each group presents their portion on the material. Have them present in order, with the teacher clarifying and emphasizing the important parts: Whole Group Discussion: What is nonverbal communication? Why is nonverbal communication important? (Write important ideas on the board as students come up with them.)

Task 2: Practice showing and “reading” Part 1 Whole Group Warm ups: Call up about three volunteers for each of the following scenarios. The three students will show nonverbally how they feel about the scenarios, and the rest of the class responds by voting on the students who show the feeling clearly, but realistically. A friend hands you a large, beautifully wrapped gift on your birthday. You walk into a class to see a substitute teacher who normally lectures on and on in a monotone voice and doesn’t allow students to move or talk. The kid behind you continually taps on your desk with his feet. You’ve asked him to stop, but he only made a punching gesture and keeps tapping. You just got a lunch detention for talking, when you were just answering someone’s question. Your little brother just broke your favorite video game. You were just told that your pet is gravely ill and needs to be put to sleep. You were just telling your friend about how “hot” the new kid is, when you turn around and realize that this new kid is right behind you, having overheard your entire conversation.

Task 2 View each following slide, and for each picture, ask the class what nonverbal cues they see from each person in the picture, Then ask them to “Tell you a story” about what they think might be happening in the picture. Encourage students to debate their stories, using clues in the picture to give evidence as to why their stories make sense. Example: The man in red has his hands up and is yelling, he looks excited. The man in white is covering his face, he is embarrassed. The man in red just scored a goal to win the game. He’s really excited because he’ll be a hero, and the man in white is disappointed because he lost. OR… The man in red just kicked the man in white in the face and is mad because he got a foul. The man in white is in pain because he got kicked in the face. Which story makes more sense?

Task 3: Role Playing Before this activity starts, the teacher demonstrates how to tell a story without talking or otherwise using words. She demonstrates by acting out the story of a child receiving an ice cream cone, beginning to eat it, and then crying when it falls off the cone onto the ground. The teacher should use face and body to tell the story. The whole class practices acting out the same story. After the demonstration, give out one note card to each group (next slide). Students practice silently role-playing the scenario. Each group acts out their story without telling the audience anything, and without using words. The audience then guesses the story.

A teen is alone at a dance, but after a time, a handsome stranger asks her to dance. A baseball player gets a homerun that wins the game! At a restaurant, everything is going wrong. On a blind date, the woman is having a horrible time, but the man is having a wonderful time. Someone keeps doing practical jokes on his/her friends, until they get tired of it, and get him back with their own practical joke. A child gets separated from his parents at a park, but is found after a time. A thief robs a store but is caught by the police before he can get away. A group of people gets stuck in the elevator.

Task 5: Group project Groups will work on creating a nonverbal story using photographs and Comic Life. Small group directions (Attachment 3): Discuss and agree on a story. Assign roles for pictures. Take the necessary pictures. Import the pictures into Comic Life or Power Point. Present the stories to the class for feedback. Prepare evaluations for each of the other groups.

Task 6: Discussion: [Council] Attachment 4 On a scale of 1 -5, how well do you do with noticing and understanding the nonverbal cues from people around you? (A 5 means that you are very aware of the people around you, and the nonverbal messages they provide. A 1 means that you are very unaware, or very confused by the nonverbal messages people give.) [Everyone answers.] On a scale of 1-5, how aware are you of the nonverbal messages that you yourself give to the people around you. A five means that you are very aware of the impression your nonverbal cues give to others, while a one means that you don’t pay attention at all to your own facial expressions, body language, etc. [Everyone answers.] Which area would be most important for you to improve: noticing the nonverbal of people around you or understanding the nonverbal of people around you. [Everyone answers.] Why is nonverbal communication important in initiating a friendship or conversation? Why is nonverbal communication important even if you have no intention of becoming friends with those around you? What are some of the messages that people communicate that you think they don’t intend to communicate? What are some messages that you wish to communicate without saying anything? To your friends? To your family? To strangers? To your teachers?

Task 6: Games Find the Leader Wink (Murder) The Blind leading the Blind

Key Skills*: Understands and uses appropriate nonverbal behavior/gestures. Follows the rules of conversation (initiation, maintaining, ending conversation). Engages in reciprocal interaction: sharing intentions, emotions, interests. Uses strategies to regulate energy level Adapted from: The SCERTS Model: A Comprehensive Educational Approach for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Barry M. Prizant, Amy M. Wetherby, Emily Rubin, Amy C. Laurent, and Patrick J. Rydell California Common Core Content Standards: Writing To orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and or characters: create a smooth progression of experiences or events. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of a narrative.