Empathy Statements

Empathy statements include two parts.

1. Empathize with the person.
2. Move the person beyond empathy and redirect them to set a goal and begin progress towards the goal. In other words, getting on with life.

Three ways you can help students refocus:

1. considering past success,
2. future success,
3. or change directions entirely.

Timing, to moving from the empathy part to the refocus part is judged by the severity of the issue and the student's emotional needs.

Samples

• You think it will be hard to change and you're afraid of failing. ... Let's take it one step at a time.
• A student has just received a poor score on a paper.
  Your are disappointed because you wanted to do better. ... ... You did pretty well the time before. Let's look and see what you did differently.
• A student has just received a poor score on a paper.
  Your are disappointed because you wanted to do better. ... ... Let's try today's problem. Look at it and see what you think. Let's talk about what is or isn't different.
• A first grade student is upset that they can't swing because they didn't get to a swing before they were all taken.
  You really wanted to swing. Can you climb on the tower?

 

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes