Believe it or not, students need to be taught how to listen. Here is a poster I made up, (well actually I borrowed the idea from somewhere) to help focus on what we should do to listen well.
Once again, being succinct is key. We listen with out eyes – look at who is speaking. We listen with our mouth – by being quiet. We listen with our ears – by paying attention. We listen with our hands – by not playing with anything. And we listen with our feet – by not moving around.
Here is another poster I made up to help the students remember how to build a good paragraph. I borrowed this idea from somewhere as well, but it works really well.
This helps us focus on five sentence paragraphs. I think 5 must be a magic number. I think it works for so many things in class. I count to five to get attention because it reminds them of the five points of listening.
So far, the year has started off great. I hope things continue to go this well when I start covering the curriculum next week.
3 responses to “How to Listen”
I think we all need to be taught how to listen, not just students. So often we are thinking up the reply we’re going to make, before we’ve even heard what’s been said.
I think your students are lucky to have such a conscientious teacher. Good luck with your new term!
Love that “how to listen” poster. Wow, I know soooo many people who could use that. They have no idea what is involved in truly listening to someone else. Great job!
I know that I have learned how to really listen to people only recently. I have learned not to monopolize the conversation and actually listen to what the other person is saying.
I also look back at some of the warnings or advice that people have given me that I really didn’t hear or pay attention to. I am thinking of a few that my best friend told me years ago. I should have listened to him.
Thanks for the comments. I think that we all need to focus on listening. Even I need reminders sometimes.