LESSON #:
LESSON NAME
UNIT #: UNIT NAME
Grades X-X: Lesson#: Name – Template
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this lesson is to help students learn and develop empathy.
Lesson Content
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the
feelings of another person.
Empathy helps us build relationships by increasing our understanding of others and their circumstances while also allowing us to connect to feelings or
emotions others may be having.
Lesson Plan
Activity 1: (10 minutes) Empathy Video
As a class watch the YouTube video All about Empathy
Activity 2: (15 minutes) What is Empathy?
Activity 3: (30 minutes) Scenario Task Card
Split the class up into 8 groups. Give each group an Empathy Scenario Task Card and have the group discuss the task. Give the students 3 minutes to discuss the task then pass it to the next group. Have each group discuss every task.
Activity 4: (20 minutes) Read-Aloud
Read The Invisible Boy as a class. Discuss the following prompts:
How do you think Brian feels?
What color is Brian at the beginning of the story?
How do you think Brian feels when Justin starts to talk to him and invites him to do things?
What happened to Brian’s color by the end of the story?
Activity 5: (20 minutes) Reflect & Write
After reviewing the slideshow, have the students reflect and write 5 ways they can show empathy to others. Have the write a journal entry using the graphic organizer. Encourage them to think of a time when someone showed empathy to them. Invite students to share their strategies with the class.
Before wrapping up the discussion, remind students that we also need to show empathy to ourselves by being patient with ourselves and taking a break when we need to rebuild.
Discussion/Journal Prompts
- How would you describe an empathetic person?
- When have you experienced empathy?
- When were you empathetic towards someone else?
Strategies
- Talk to new people. Introduce yourself.
- Ask questions:
- How are you?
- How are you feeling?
- What can I do to help?
- Practice kindness and serve others.
- Try to think in terms of “us” and not “them.”
- Consider what things you have in common.
- Ask, “How would that make me feel?”
- Think about a problem that is not your own and ask, “How does that problem make someone else feel?”
- Apologize when you have hurt someone.
- Advocate for others when they are being hurt or are sad.
Curriculum Connections
English Language Arts
3.RL.1 Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a
text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
3.RL.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or
feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence
of events.
3.RL.6 Distinguish their own point of view from that of the narrator or
those of the characters.
3.SL.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-
one, in groups, and teacher led) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics
and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
3.SL.2 Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read
aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats,
including visually, quantitatively, and orally.