Teaching kids listening skills
Active listening is the deliberate act of hearing to understand and respond. When the listener is engaged and interested in the discussion, they may ask questions. Then repeat what the speaker has said, keep constant eye contact, and utilize nonverbal communication to signal that they are listening. Such as nodding or making facial expressions.
Active listening is a part of the greater listening comprehension skill set. It is defined as follows: There are many listening skills, including discriminative, exact, strategic, and critical. More information on the details of active listening may be found here.
Elementary pupils often fail to demonstrate that they are actively listening. It is a skill that is often not popular in the classroom. By devoting sufficient time to teaching listening skills to children, we may help them recognize the significance of this talent.
Developing children’s listening abilities
One of the most effective strategies to develop active listening skills is to serve as a role model. By observing others, students may pick up a variety of essential abilities. Teachers can demonstrate active listening skills to students by making eye contact with them, participating in meaningful conversations with them, and asking follow-up questions. Teachers can model these skills with their students to demonstrate what it looks like to be an active listener.
On the other hand, a fun classroom project may demonstrate what active listening is not to demonstrate what it is. Teachers that fail to pay attention to their students may do it by looking around the room, checking their phones, or just walking out of the classroom. This practice aims to emphasize everything to the point where it is obvious that the instructor is struggling with his or her abilities.
Storytelling and active listening
Students should listen to a tale, and they should make predictions, which they should debate in small groups. Students will have the ability to pay attention to the smallest details to make correct predictions after completing this task. Teachers might take this lesson a step further by asking students to write the conclusion to the narrative, especially older students.
Memory-based games
Having pupils repeat what has been spoken before is an effective technique to teach attentive listening. Students should be in a group, either as a full class or divided into two, depending on the size of the class. When playing the game, it’s customary to say something like “We’re going on a picnic, so we brought…”
The first student would respond with a meal that starts with the letter “A.” (apple, for instance). The next student would repeat the process and add a meal that begins with the letter “B” (for example, bread). “We’re going on a picnic, and we’ve taken an apple, some bread, and a whole vehicle full of ants,” the third kid would explain.
Things from a picture book the class read might of some use in the game instead of those from the alphabet. And the alphabet restriction could is not necessary to accommodate fewer items or an even more limited subject matter.
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