In need of a resource for teaching conversation starters to your high school students? Look no further, download our free high school starting conversations material!
Teaching Starting Conversations to High School Students
You can successfully teach the art of starting a conversation or ‘conversation starters’ with the help of Everyday Speech! Initiating communication with others can be a challenging skill but is incredibly important and ultimately leads to creating connections with people by sharing information and experiences. Starting a conversation puts students in the driver’s seat of their social world as they explore different people and personalities.
Lesson Plan – Using Your Free Starting Conversations Material
1. Introduce Starting Conversations
Before using our free starting a conversation material with your student, teach the steps to start a conversation and the importance of initiating a conversation. Starting a conversation involves planning a topic, greeting the other person, making comments and asking questions, and tuning into the person you are talking to! When we initiate conversations that our peers want to engage in, it improves our relationship skills and friendships, boosts our self-esteem, and provides us with the opportunity to learn about ourselves, others, and the world around us.
2. Practice Starting a Conversation
Provide your student with the opportunity to practice starting a conversation with you (the teacher)! Encourage your student to plan a topic, then greet you, then ask you questions or make a comment depending on their topic, and finally tune into you to make sure you are interested and to keep the conversation going.
3. Use Our Free High School Starting Conversations Material
Our free high school starting conversations material is a goal poster that can serve as a reminder for your students on the steps to starting a conversation! Download, print, and post this poster in your learning space or send it home with your student in order to remind them of the 4 steps they can take to start a conversation: plan a topic, greet the other person, ask questions, or make comments, watch for clues that the other person is engaged to keep the conversation going!
Sample High School Conversation Skills Video:
This sample high school conversation skills video is a great enhancement to this lesson! Everyday Speech provides real-life scenarios as age-appropriate actors model new skills. We offer a 30-day free trial for all of our social skills materials!
Related Blog Posts:
The Whole-Child Approach and Why it Matters
3 Activities for Teaching Basic Conversation Skills