How to Teach Active Listening

How to Teach Students Active, Empathetic, and Reflective Listening Skills

Listening to teach, reteach, or reciprocal teaching is the key to active listening. "Class, I Want You Listening at the Oustanding Level, I Want You to Understand the Lesson at the level You Can Reteach the Concept Fully to Your Peers!" This is one of the anchor statement I use with my students! 

• We can read 100-250 words per minute
• We can speak 150-225 words per minute
• We can listen to 400-600 words per minute
• Our minds fill in the gaps when we listen, usually with biasses and distractions! 

 ACTIVE AND PERCEPTIVE LISTENING: The most fundamental skill taught in school today is academic listening and questioning, the ability to make connections with others ideas, feelings, opinions and interests are the key to students that thrive and can meet mighty academic goals. Remember, there is no point in teaching if your students can’t or won’t listen carefully to the content!

Active/attentive listening is an essential communication skill that is central to all academic learning.

Active listening techniques can be used to improve retention of information, understanding, enjoyments and engagement in all learning activities. It requires that the students “PAY ATTENTION” to the speaker and fully concentrates on key details and the big picture, understands it is their occupation as a student to make connections to their current knowledge.  The listener should respond to questions and praise the speaker sharing. Then reflect and summarize to help remember what is being said. This is further strengthened with reflective listening, where the listener paraphrases back to the speaker or re-teaches a peer what they have just learned to confirm understanding of both parties.

The process of informational listening focuses on the ability of an individual to understand a speaker's message. It is a huge part of everyday life, and failing to understand the concept of informational listening can be very detrimental to one's quality of life and to their contribution to society. Much of the listening people engage in on a regular basis falls under the blanket of listening for information. In the office, people listen to their superiors for instructions about what they are to do. At school, students listen to teachers for information that they are expected to understand for quizzes and tests. In all areas of life, informational listening plays a huge role in human communication. wiki 

[PDF]How To Teach Listening. - Eric - U.S. Department of Education
Comprehension; *Listening Skills; Second Language. Instruction; Secondary ... C. Students should learn strategies for effective listening. 15. 1.

[PDF]Active Listening - Digital Promise
A well-researched, six-part active listening model can be applied to different ... During an activity, students engage in and demonstrate the six listening ... http://changingminds.org/techniques/listening/all_types_listening.htm for ... https://s3.amazonaws.com/Listen_Current_Research/Understanding-Auditory-Learning.pdf.

[PDF]Teaching speaking and listening: a toolkit for ... - Canisius College
help a wide range of key skills and Skills for Life practitioners through a programme of .... and listening such as non-verbal communication, active listening and.

(PDF) Learning to Listen: Teaching an Active Listening Strategy to ...
PDF | The importance of parent–teacher communication has been widely recognized; however, there is only limited research on teaching effective listening skills ...

(PDF) Teaching Listening Skills - ResearchGate
This chapter is devoted to teaching listening skill which is called as a ... It is maintained that listening is not a passive skill but an active process of ...

[PDF]Strategies for teaching listening - The Open University
Successful listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of practice. ... When students are doing a listening activity in the classroom, there should ...... Active listening activities: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/active-listening-activities ... http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/pdf/framework/english/nf2005.pdf ...

[PDF]Listen Actively
Improve Your Listening Skills” as the reading material for this lesson. Methods of ... Attention: To be effective parents, workers, citizens, or students we must.

PDF]Reflective Listening
Leading group discussions/conversations require effective listening as well. ... Reflective listening can be grouped into two skill clusters: • Attending skills- the skills of non-verbally communicating that you are empathetic with the other. This skill ...

Reflective listening is a communication strategy involving two key steps: seeking to understand a speaker's idea, then offering the idea back to the speaker, to confirm the idea has been understood correctly. Empathy is at the center of Rogers' approach. Dalmar Fisher, an Associate Professor at Boston College, developed a model for Reflective Listening that includes the following elements:

1. Focusing upon the conversation by reducing or eliminating any kind of distraction.
2. Genuinely embracing the speaker’s perspective without necessarily agreeing with it. By engaging in a non-judgmental and empathetic approach, listeners encourage the others to speak freely.
3. Mirroring the mood of the speaker, reflecting the emotional state with words and nonverbal communication. This requires the listener to quiet his mind and focus fully upon the mood of the speaker. This mood will become apparent not just in the words used but in the tone of voice, posture and other nonverbal cues given by the speaker. The listener will look for congruence between words and mood.
4. Summarizing what the speaker said, using the listener’s own words rather than merely paraphrasing words and phrases, thereby mirroring the essential concept of the speaker. A reflective listener recaps the message using his/her own words.
5. Responding to the speaker's specific point, without digressing to other subjects.
6. Repeating the procedure for each subject, and switching the roles of speaker and listener, if necessary.
7. During the reflective listening approach, both client and therapist embrace the technique of thoughtful silence, rather than to engage in idle chatter

We Learn.... 

10% of what we read 

20% of what we hear 

30% of what we see 

50% of what we both see and hear 

70 % of what is discussed with others 

80% of what is experienced personally 

95 % of what we teach to someone else. 

William Glasser 

Listening Technics the Improve Understanding, Retention and Comprehension  

1. Smile, lean in and show real interest

2. Make eye contact and acknowledge the speaker 

3. Find connections, reflect, respond and question mentally what is being shared without judgment

4. Strengthen the memory by creating a mnemonic narrative 

5. Respond with questions and paraphrase and discuss information to confirm understanding
6. Make the knowledge you own by reteaching your peers

7. Praise the speaker for sharing and caring

LEAN IN AND LISTEN

ACTIVE AND PERCEPTIVE LISTENING: The most fundamental skill taught in school today is academic listening and questioning, the ability to make connections with others ideas, feelings, opinions and interests are the key to students that thrive and can meet mighty academic goals. Remember, there is no point in teaching if your students can’t or won’t listen carefully to the content!

1. LISTEN ATTENTIVELY and ACTIVELY TO TEACHER AND PEERS
2. PRAISE YOUR PARTNERS AND PEERS
3. REPEAT thoughtfully AND REPHRASE courteously
4. INTERPRET and REFLECT ON KEY DETAILS MENTALLY
5. PRAISE YOUR STUDENTS PUBLICLY!
6. MODEL, MODEL, AND MODEL ACTIVE LISTENING AND PERCEPTIVE LISTENING!  

BECOME A MIGHTY LISTENER WITH REPEATED PRACTICE! Take your listening and learning skills to the highest levels. ATTENTIVE LISTENING and learning STRATEGIES!

1. Lean in, be polite, be patient, and attentively focus on the speaker
2. Prepare your mind to learn and connect with the speakers ideas, eliminate distraction! No fake listening, half listening or zombie listening!
3. Acknowledge the speaker with eye contact, nod, and use gestures to show you’re interested and engaged with the speaker.
4. Take a real interest in their ideas, view points, feelings, and or opinions.
5. Make connections mentally to the big ideas not just the small details.
6. Praise and complement the speaker for sharing their ideas
7. Paraphrase what the speaker said and ask for clarifications if any
8. Take time and actively reflect on what you learned. TEACHERS NEED TO EXPLICITLY      GIVE WAIT TIME TO REFLECT ON LEARNING.

Attentive Active listening: Learning new concepts and making connections to background knowledge! The mind will wonder, “why is this actually important to me”? Many students practice fake listening, half listening or zombie listening. Teachers must practice the 100% rule; students must understand the ideas and concepts being taught 100% of the time! “100% RULE” Engage, repeat, rephrase, model, and praise attentive listeners.

Perceptive listening: Reading between the lines, inferring, drawing conclusions and interpreting “seeing” the big picture! The most complex and neglected listening skill taught in school today.