Language makes others have different thoughts and feelings

How can you tell people are interested in you?

Asking questions about:- Things they like/ dislike- Family/friends- Favorite foods/ sports/ vacation spots, etc.

• Looking at you• Finding you to chat • Spending time with you

Not Showing Interest in people

How do you feel when people show they are not interested in you?

• Usually don’t feel good when we are ignored or don’t show interest

- Awkward or Uncomfortable; Have weird thoughts

- Don’t feel good; Might be irritated

Showing Interest in People

How do you feel when people show interest in you?

• Usually feel good when people show they are interested in us

- Comfortable; Happy/Content- Feel good; Might want to have another

conversation another time

Examples of showing interest/ disinterest

Showing interest/disinterest

What is Caitlin thinking/feeling?

What is Erika thinking/feeling?

Examples of interests/ disinterest

Example A

Joe: I got a new computer game at the end of the summer.

Frank: I got a new rock cleaner for my rock collection and I have been collecting and cleaning rocking including volcanic and moon rocks.

How does Joe feel?- Frank does not show interest in Joe. He just talks

about himself, possibly making Joe feel that Frank does not care about him

** Come up with a response for Frank that would show he is interested in Joe.

Example B

Joe: I got a new computer at the end of the summer.

Frank: What game did you get?

Joe: Skyroom- I even beat the first level.

Frank: That’s really cool but I do not know how to play that game. I spent the summer working on my rock collection.

Joe: That’s cool. I didn’t know that people collected rocks. What type of rocks do you collect?

Example B

How does Joe feel about Frank when he asked what game he got, even though Frank did not know much about the game?

How does Frank feel when Joe asked questions about his rocks, even though he didn’t know much about them?

Why is it important to make other people feel good?

How can you respond to show you are interested in this person?

1. Your classmate says to you: “I had a baseball game last night”

2. I come in for lunch and say to you: “I’m really excited about my upcoming vacation”

3. A teacher says to you: “I heard it might snow tomorrow”

4. Your mom says to you: “I had a really long day at work”

Thoughts and Feelings

Everyone has thoughts and feelings ALL the time!- You are all having a thought and a feeling right

now

Social Thinking happens anytime you are sharing space!- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Cu8DEPISI

(Boy Meets World)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHOIYCX61fY

(Buddy)

Social Thinking

Happens whenever you are sharing space

What you do?

How it makes others feel?

How you were treated based on how others felt? (consequences)

How did you feel about how you were treated?

“People Files”

We keep these files in our brain about people we meet

Memories of past experiencesInfo about people’s interests/disinterests,

emotional reactionsFacts about friends and families, etc.

Need to remember both good and weird thoughts to help us make judgments about who to interact with and who we choose not to interact with

People File Interviews

Interview a classmate

Then circle the 3 things you found most interesting to you

Choose one to start a conversation with your classmate

Using what we know to ask people questions about their interests

People are perceived as “friendly” when they show interest in others

People are perceived as “unfriendly” when they don’t show interest in others

Asking questions…..

“Pass the unicorn”- only the person with the unicorn can speak. First person asks a question and passes it to that person. They answer and then turn and ask someone else a question

What types of questions can we ask other people?

Using questions to keep the conversation going

Initial questions- starts the conversation1. How was your day?2. What are your favorite hobbies?

What are some initial questions/ conversation starters?

Follow-up questions- keeps the conversation going, clarifies information or seek new information

1. Why was your day so long?2. Basketball is cool. What’s your favorite NBA

team?

Examples

A:“What did you do this weekend?”B: “I played on the computer and went out to

dinner”

- If I don’t ask anything else, I am not following up to get into a deeper conversation

- What would be a good follow-up question to this response?

Game Show

Will pick a question off the board- Will ask initial question on the card- Will earn one point for every follow-up

question asked

First person- question askerAnother person- volunteer to answer

questions

Response and Follow-Up Question

Person 1: What did you do this weekend? (initial question)

Person 2: I went to Rhode Island (response). What did you do? (follow-up question)

Person 1: I went to the movies (response). What did you do in Rhode Island? (follow-up question)

Person 2: I went to visit my aunt and uncle (response). What movie did you see? (follow-up question)

Examples

How was your weekend?

How did it feel when I made a comment?

How did it feel when I didn’t make a comment?

** So we should provide supporting comments to make people feel good, since this is what we want people to do for us

Supporting Comments

Little comments and gestures we make in response to someone else’s words

- Shows we are paying attention to speaker- Shows we have a thought or emotion in

response to speaker’s message

We might provide this response to make the speaker think we are paying attention, even though we aren’t

- Example of a social fake

Supporting Comments and Gestures

Comments: “wow”, “cool”, “sounds fun”, “wish I was there”, “yikes”, “that doesn’t sound good”, etc.

Nonverbal gestures: *** must have your body and eyes facing the person

- ex. while looking at a person can nod your head in agreement to show you heard or understood the person

- What are other types of nonverbal gestures?

List of Supportive Comments

Game Show (again)

I will be the “talker”You will be the “responder”- using only

supportive comments - May be a gesture- May be a comment

* Do your best to show (or social fake) your interest in my topic

So far, we have learned…

To keep a conversation going and to show a person you are interested, you can:

1. Ask follow-up questions2. Make supportive comments- Complete worksheet

However, most conversations involve just sharing related comments

- Add your own thoughts and experiences to what someone else has said

Add-A-Thought

Relating your own experiences directly to a comment made by your conversation partner

- Another person’s comment causes us to have thoughts

- Connect one of our thoughts to the thoughts stated by others

Ex. I love ice cream. I think cake batter ice cream is my favorite.

What could you say to add-a-thought?

Add-a-thought

Conversation Examples (Topic is established and maintained loosely)

How is each comment related to previous statement?

Weekend-> Cleaning ->Weekend ->Beach ->Sailing

Maintaining topic threads, rather than sticking only to one subject

Weekend -> Wedding -> Swimming -> Karate class -> Dance

• Complete worksheet

Add-a-thought

I like to go to grandpa’s house to celebrate Easter but he never hides eggs or gives Easter baskets.

What types of “spin-off” conversations can you have?

- Easter experiences- Visits to relatives- Traditions around the holidays- Easter eggs/ baskets

Add-a-thought activity

One person tells a few things he recently did (last weekend, summer vacations, holidays, etc.)

Everyone else thinks of ways to add a comment that connects your own experiences or thoughts of the world to the speaker’s previous comment

- Each time you connect, you put down your “add-a-thought” slip of paper; stacking the slips on top of each other

Review

Last weekend, I went to my friend’s lake house.

On a sheet of paper, for this statement, write:- A follow-up question- A supportive comment- An add-a-thought

Game Time!

You will have 1 minute each to provide as many follow-up questions, supportive comments and add-a-thoughts

Each will be tallied:- Follow up questions- Supportive comments- Add-a-thought

What are you thinking?

“ I went to see a show on Broadway this weekend”

- If I started a conversation this way or walked into a room and said this, what would you think?

What do you think?

Example

If I asked: “ Have you ever been to Broadway in

NYC?”

- What is my intention or purpose when asking this question?

- Is this better than just stating:“ I went to see a show on Broadway this weekend”

Bridging Questions

Asking Questions to Make People Talk About Your Area of Interest

- Questions are used in most conversations ex. “Have you been to the cafeteria today?” “No, why?”

“They have an ice cream sundae bar set up- looks

awesome!”

- Allows you to introduce a preferred topic while showing interest in other people’s thoughts

Activity

Come up with a topic you like to talk about- Write it on the top corner of your desk

• Under it- write a bridging question to start a conversation on your topic

Broad topics vs. Specific Topics

What do you think now?

Bridging or Baiting Questions

Also important to recognize these questions to figure out our conversation partner’s intention (Why are they asking this question?)

If I walk into the classroom and see most of the students have transitioned but ask the one student left, “What class do you have next?”

- What is my intention?

What is Corey’s intention?

Boy Meets World- On the Fence 4.30-6.03

What bridging questions does he use?

Find a way to use a bridging question to start a conversation with your given topic

Come up with a topic you like to talk about- Use a broad bridging question to start the

conversation

Question: What’s new?

“You just stopped/ killed the conversation. By saying nothing you give us nothing to think about!”

Language is supposed to trigger imagination in our conversation partner and a sense of wonder

- If you say ‘nothing’, there is no way for the person to connect with you

- Come up with one descriptive response:What did you do last night?

How long is too long to talk?

Cannot always talk for as long as you desire

Start Short and Add On- Start short and brief 10-15 seconds- if someone is interested, they will ask a

question to encourage you to speak longer

• People don’t literally time their responses but they do consider how long they have been talking

How can you tell is someone is no longer interested in talking with you?

Body Language

Eye Contact

What the person says

Other:

How long is too long to talk?

Tell a story about your weekend/ favorite game/ hobby etc.

I will project a stop watch on the board to keep track of how long you are talking

Classmates listening will fill out:

We can talk about whatever comes up…

We can talk about whatever comes up based on what we have experienced and learned about the world

We are going to practice talking about topics that are a bit unusual

Read the topic, then make a comment about the topic

- Peers add own questions or ask a question about the topic

We can talk about whatever comes up…

Come up with topics people often talk about but whose the topic is not considered “important” or “smart”

Present the topic, pick a partner, and try to talk about it for one minute

Give me a broad topic

Come up with as many subtopics you could talk about if that topic was brought up

Ex. School, Military, Sports

Come up with a random statement…

Every person must connect their comment to the previous person’s statement

Try to keep it going for 2 minutes

Ex. My next door neighbor has three rabbits. Rabbits are cool.

I think the Patriots are cool. I miss football. I can’t wait for it to be the fall.

How does Erika feel?

Shifting Topics

How do you transition from one topic to the next?

Need to find a way to connect to the topic being discussed

How does it make people feel when you change topics suddenly?

How does Erika feel?

Give me 2 random and different topics

Let’s see how many comments it takes me to transition from the first topic to the next