As speech-language pathologists, one of our primary goals is to help students communicate effectively and meaningfully. This often involves helping them find the right balance of participating and sharing in a conversation. It can be a delicate balancing act, particularly for emergent to intermediate communicators who may struggle with knowing how much to talk and when to listen to their conversation partner.

In the spirit of equipping our high school students with the skills they need to communicate effectively, I’m excited to share the “Who’s Talking” packet – a free high school conversation share packet that aims to teach students when and how to participate in a conversation. This packet is intended to help students practice the skills of knowing when they are saying too much or too little, and learn how to change the amount of participation in a supported conversation.

Lesson Plan: How to Share Conversations

Objective: Students will learn how to share the conversation, knowing when to talk, listen, and give others a chance to speak.

Materials Needed:

• A small “talking object” to pass between the partners (e.g., a ball, talking stick)
• A notepad to write conversation topics on
• A printed pie chart and colored pencils or markers to fill in each communication turn.

Preparation:

• Divide students into pairs.
• Give each pair a talking object, a notepad, a printed pie chart, and coloring items.
• Instruct each pair to brainstorm and agree upon 2-3 conversation topics.
• Allow pairs a few minutes to think about what they want to say about the chosen topics.

Playing the Game:

• The starting player begins with a greeting and one comment/question related to the topic.
• After speaking, the first player passes the talking object to the second player.
• The second player responds to the comment/question, staying on topic.
• After responding, the second player passes the talking object back to the first player.
• This back-and-forth conversation should continue for at least 4-6 turns or until the conversation topic is exhausted.

Tracking Conversation Share:

• After each turn, players should fill in one segment of their pie chart to represent their share of the conversation.
• By the end of the conversation, the pie chart should show an equal or near-equal division between the players.

Reflecting on the Conversation:

• After the conversation ends, partners should discuss the conversation. Did they stay on topic? Did they share the conversation time equally? Did they connect their comments back to what was said before?
• Partners can choose another topic from their notepad and repeat the activity as time allows.

Group Discussion:

• Bring the class together and discuss the experience. What did they learn about sharing the conversation? Did the pie chart help them visualize conversation sharing?

Evaluation:

• Assess students’ ability to stay on topic and share the conversation equally based on their discussions, pie charts, and group reflections.
• Ask students to share any challenges they encountered and strategies they used.

Download the Free High School Conversation Share Packet

If you’re interested in implementing this lesson plan in your speech-language practice, you can download the “Who’s Talking” packet here.

The “Who’s Talking” packet is a versatile tool designed to give students a better understanding of when and how to participate in a conversation. By practicing pacing and turn-taking, students can learn how to share the conversation, giving each speaker equal time to participate.

Remember, communication is a two-way street. It’s not just about speaking; it’s also about listening. The more our students can practice the art of conversation sharing, the better communicators they will become.

Sample Video

Students learn best from watching real students their own age model skills. Try out this sample video-modeling lesson below. We offer our entire Social-Emotional Learning platform free for 30 days here!

Related Blog Posts:

How to Teach High Schoolers to Stay on Topic

Enhancing Conversation Skills in HS Students: A Social-Emotional Learning Approach

Teaching Conversation Share: Balancing Talk Time for Successful Conversations