Listening and Clear Communication

Overview

In this third lesson of Healthy Relationships and Hauora, students practise respectful communication and active listening in fictional, low-risk situations. The lesson builds on earlier learning about relationship skills, boundaries and emotional safety, while recognising that communication can look different for different people, cultures and settings.

Learning intentions

• WALT use respectful communication and active listening.
• WALT communicate a clear message using words, tone and body language.
• WALT check understanding and respond when a message is unclear.
• WALT adapt communication to support accessibility, culture and setting.

Success criteria

• I can use the message structure: “I feel/notice… I need… Could we…?”
• I can show listening in more than one way.
• I can pause, reflect and ask or check understanding.
• I can identify when communication needs to change for a person, culture or setting.

Curriculum links

• Health Education — Relationships: communication skills, empathy, personal relationships and boundaries.
• Health Education — Relationships: respectful interactions, inclusion and emotional safety.
• Health Education — Relationships: consent, online safety, exclusion, bullying and stereotypes.
• Health Education — Relationships | Self and others: interpreting non-verbal cues, emotional regulation, cultural norms and respectful disagreement.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Welcome and regulation check. Display the visual agenda and regulation check and briefly explain that students may participate by speaking, signing, writing, drawing, using AAC, using puppets or observing. Students choose an emotion or energy icon, settle in a comfortable position and review the lesson expectations: fictional scenarios only, no forced eye contact or touch, and everyone can say no.

2. 5–15 min · Teacher model. Use the communication examples and listening steps to introduce communicate, listen, clarify, perspective, tone, body language, misunderstanding and accessible communication. Explicitly teach that eye contact is not required for listening. Explain that stimming, AAC, signing, writing, drawing, quiet attention and extra processing time can all be valid ways to communicate. Model the message formula: “I feel/notice… I need… Could we…?” Demonstrate listening: pause, attend in a comfortable way, reflect, then ask or check. Students identify the clear message, listening behaviour and check-back in two contrasting examples.

3. 15–25 min · Guided practice. Distribute the clear-message and active-listening practice sheet. Work through one fictional example together, such as a shared task where one person is unsure what to do. Invite students to select, write, dictate or record a message using the formula. Practise possible responses: “I heard you say…”, “Do you mean…?”, “Can you show me another way?” and “Would writing it down help?” Students rehearse in pairs or with the teacher, with a choice to observe and identify the skills.

4. 25–30 min · Movement and reset. Use the movement-break choice slide to offer a short walk, stretch, wall push, quiet reset or seated movement. Students choose a regulation strategy, then return to their selected station or quiet workspace.

5. 30–50 min · Communication stations. Set up four stations using the station instructions and role choices and provide communication cards, AAC or choice boards. In groups of three, students rotate through as communicator, responder and observer, or choose to use a puppet, sequence cards, video/audio, role card or observation role. Prompts are: planning a shared task; asking for space; correcting a misunderstanding; and requesting an accessibility adjustment. Observers use the worksheet to notice a clear message, a listening response and a check-back. Remind students that communication never removes another person’s right to say no. Allow additional processing time and repeat any station as needed.

6. 50–56 min · Adapt the message. Display the setting-change prompts. Students choose one station message and adapt it for two settings, such as face-to-face, a group, a workplace or online. They discuss how tone, timing, body language, written words, emojis or missing context could cause misunderstanding. Students may explain verbally, write, draw, use AAC or record an answer.

7. 56–60 min · Exit check. Display the reflection and exit-check slide. Students self-rate with icons on the worksheet: clear message, listening response and check-back. They complete or dictate one sentence: “One way I can show listening is…” and “I could change my communication when…”. Invite two volunteers to share, or collect responses privately.

Resources

• the Listening and Clear Communication slide deck
• the clear-message and active-listening practice sheet
• Communication cards and visual cue cards
• AAC devices, communication boards and choice boards
• Four fictional scenario station cards
• Puppets, sequence cards and role cards
• Timer, headphones and quiet workspace
• Regulation icons and pens or digital recording tools

Assessment

• Use a teacher checklist during guided practice and stations to record whether each student communicates clearly, shows a listening response and checks understanding.
• Ask students to explain or demonstrate at least two valid ways to show listening, without requiring eye contact.
• Review the self-rating and exit response to identify students needing more rehearsal with message structure, clarification or adapting communication.

Differentiation

• Provide one-step scripts, highlighted sentence frames, symbol-supported cue cards, repeated rehearsal and adult modelling. Accept speech, AAC, signing, writing, drawing, gesture, audio or observation as participation.
• Offer dyslexia-friendly text: clear sans-serif font, generous spacing, short lines, reduced copying, coloured overlays if used by the student, and audio or text-to-speech versions.
• Support ADHD, FASD and ASD learners with the visual agenda, predictable rotations, a timer, movement choices, reduced sensory load, quiet space, explicit turn-taking and extra processing time.
• Avoid forced eye contact, touch or performance. Allow students to choose partners, roles and communication modes; check understanding privately and use concrete fictional prompts.

Extension

• Students adapt one message for face-to-face, group, workplace and online contexts.
• Students explain two possible misinterpretations caused by tone, body language, cultural expectations or missing online context, then suggest an accessible clarification.