Purpose Statement
The two listening
activities are meant to encourage students to understand that listening in not
a natural activity, but rather a purposeful act that can be improved through
modeling, instruction, practice, and assessment. The activities will sharpen
students’ listening skills and can be adapted to different subject materials.
Since they can be integrated throughout the term to reinforce skills and to
provide a variety of instruction, it is hoped that the impact will be twofold:
1) students will benefit by improved listening skills and get a “reality check”
on their attention skills; and 2) instructors will benefit by getting a sense
of how well their students are listening.
Description of Activity
Activity #1:
a) The instructor reads or speaks a short passage of material that is under
consideration during class time.
b) The instructor then asks students to respond either orally or in writing by
answering 2 short questions: 1) what is the thesis of the passage? 2) recall
one big of evidence that supports the thesis.
c) Discussing students' answers not only reinforces the lecture, but emphasizes
good listening habits as well.
Note: Having students respond in writing accomplishes 2 goals: 1) it makes
every student have to respond; and 2) it allows the instructor to get a picture
of each student's listening skills. Another variation is to have students
exchange papers and negotiate in pairs or groups what they thought they heard.
Then, correct any misperceptions that are present.
Activity #2: a) The instructor first models the process and then begins the
activity. He or she reads the opening paragraph from a news story or magazine
article about a relevant course topic.
b) In most stories, clues indicate where the story is going, and the student be
able to predict where the story is going.
c) Ask students to jot down on paper where they think the story is going. In
essence, they are predicting the outcome.
The exercise will help them develop logic skills and learn to anticipate a
speaker's rhetorical cues.
Activity #3: a) The instructor reads the 12 questions slowly and clearly, but
does not repeat any questions. Move through the questions quickly. b) Students
are asked to record their answers on a piece of paper.
c) The instructor then reads the answers. Find out with a show of hands by the
total number of correct answers, how many students have been listening
carefully.
This exercise is a good icebreaker or is good to use in order to introduce good
listening skills to the students. It teaches students to be careful listeners.
Note: Ask students who have participated in the exercise before to refrain from
shouting out answers.
Materials Needed
A handout of the
listening activities is included
Application
Listening Activity #3
– the list of questions and answers would be a good way to begin the semester.
It is a great icebreaker activity to begin the semester’s lecture material – no
matter what the course. It alerts students early on to the importance of
careful listening and to the dangers of assumption.
Listening Activity #1 – having students state the thesis and offer a piece of
supporting material from a passage read, is also a good activity to do early in
the semester as a measure of how accurately students are listening. It shows
both the student and instructor where the student stands on this point.
Listening Activity #2 – practice at prediction, gets more at higher order
thinking skills and might be useful further along in the semester in order to
introduce the five processes of prediction: prediction, hypothesis, checking,
revising, and generalizing. These are mental activities that occur when we read
or hear, and is useful in helping students progress from mere recall of material
to be able to accurately predict a communicator’s purposes, assumptions, and
attitudes.
Related Student Services
Students can avail
themselves of a Listening module in the LRC which entails watching a videotape
on the power of active listening. The video is titled “Listen and Win.” It is
available to Work Experience 290 students and is able to be viewed by
contacting Janice Chase in the LRC. A Student Guide accompanies the video with
questions to answer and includes a self-evaluation.
this web page was created
on 11/2/99 at 4:09:07 PM
and modified on 11/2/99 at 4:09:07 PM