Week 1: Listening

I start the school year with a lesson on listening. Anytime I start a new group or have a new student, I start with this as well. These are the main concepts I teach:

• Listening is a classroom expectation
• We show that we care about others when we listen
• Active listening includes thinking about what the person is saying 
• Listening is an important job. We use our ears to hear, but use many other parts of our body to truly listen. 
• We use listening so that we can learn

"Whole body listening" is a central component of my classroom management. After each session, I ask each of the students to tell me a specific way that they used whole body listening during the lesson. They receive a hole punch on a tag card if they followed the listening expectations and earn a prize when they get to ten hole punches. Since this concept is reviewed at the end of each session, the students develop a deep understanding of what the listening expectations mean and how to apply them. As we go through the year, I also teach strategies for maintaing the expectations (self-regulation). If students do not follow the expectations, then at the end I ask for one way they did use whole body listening (e.g. "my feet were quiet"), one way they had a harder time (e.g. "I was talking when others were talking"), and what they can do next time to maintain the expected behavior (e.g. "I can raise my hand for a turn; I can take slow deep breaths if I have a hard time waiting.")

The resources I use to teach these concepts are:

Whole Body Listening Larry at School
by Kristen Wilson and Elizabeth Sautter

Whole Body Listening by Ryan Hendrix, Kari Zweber, Nancy Tarshis, and Michelle Garcia Winner

This book is part of the Incredible Flexible YouTM Curriculum 

I use this book with my learners who have low receptive language levels. Can You Listen With Your Eyes? by Nita Everly.

 Activities

Having a range of activities allows me to differentiate my instruction to best meet the needs of my learners. I may do only one activity for children who master the concept quickly, or several activities for children who benefit from the repeated practice. 

Make a Listener

I give each child a child shape and they use foam shapes and drawing to show all the parts of the body used during active listening.

Mr. Potato Head

The children take turns picking parts to put on the potato head. I add a foam toy brain and felt heart that the children can put inside the potato head. The students answer two questions before putting on a part:

1. "Is this body part used for whole body listening?"

2. "How is this body part used for whole body listening?" or "What does it look like/sound like when this body part is used for listening?"


Self Portrait of a Listener