Climate Mental Health: Active Listening Skills

Engagement Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences Center for Education

In this lesson, students will identify emotions they experience as they learn about the impacts of climate change. In pairs, students will practice active listening skills as one student describes their emotions to the partner who applies active listening skills. They then flip roles and the other student describes their emotions while the partner listens.

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Notes from our reviewers

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The lesson notes, "It takes time to become comfortable with Active Listening, it might be helpful to include it as a regular practice in your teaching." This is a skill that learners at all levels can benefit from. If possible, take time to develop active listening practices throughout the semester or year with students.
Truly listening to others is a skill that requires presence and attention, which is useful for all types of learning. This lesson would benefit by introducing the background on what climate change is, which is necessary knowledge for this lesson. Teachers can find this background in the CLEAN teaching climate pages - https://cleanet.org/clean/literacy/climate/index.html. Passed initial science review - expert science review pending.
It may be helpful to model this activity for students with another adult who is familiar with active listening. The concept is simple, but it's difficult to truly allow for the type of listening this lesson asks for without practice. It may be helpful to have students do several rounds with different partners or to have students repeat this activity on successive days so that they further develop the skills involved.