I know I’m in trouble when my pooch pulls selective hearing on me. This morning, in an effort to get a quick response from Lexie, I resorted to saying the word walk, as in “I sure wish I could take Lexie for another walk.” Presto! Eye contact was established!
Getting eye contact is the first step to good listening, wouldn’t you agree? Switching off the lights or engaging students in a sequence of claps usually works well. However, the next step—getting them to actually use those funny flaps on the sides of their heads—is something else altogether!
What tips do you have for promoting and practicing active listening? Share your ideas by the end of the day Thursday to have your name entered in a drawing for a nifty surprise from The Mailbox.
All ears,
Diane
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Check your inbox, Danielle! You’re our winner. 🙂
To promote listening I give small rewards, such as one M&M. This will often make others want to follow directions and listen too.
Well, I have used this acronym for years…S-A-L-A-M-I which means, STOP AND LOOK AT ME IMMEDIATELY! I have to tell you, that it really works. No rewards are needed. I think that most kids love food and hearing a food word throughout the day, gets them fully engaged! And if anytime throughout the day (not often), my students are above a #3 voice(yes, we use a voice scale, 1-5, too), all I have to say is SALAMI and I have their attention.
My favorite with preK kiddie is ” 1-2-3 who’s looking at me?”
I will change the tone of voice I use through out the day to get the kids to participate and try their active listening. I have whispered the directions for an assignment, asked my student to choral read with me directions and then picked a student to repeat what was said, and I have given out a marble for our earn a party to students who demonstrate that they are listening.
For pre-k at circle time, do a busy loud group activity first, to get them ready to listen.
I like to play “Simon Says,” ending with sounds off and hands in their laps.
We also use a cheer:
Teacher: One, two, three! Eyes on me!
Students: One, two! Eyes on you!
The children look up and find me in the room and point to me as they say their cheer.
I do the song Are you listening? to the tune of Are you Sleeping? It goes :
Are you listening
Are you listening
Everyone, Everyone
I need you to listen
I need you to listen
Right now, Right now!
I also use One, two, three eyes on me. or Touch your head, touch your nose and continue until you have everyone’s attention then say hands on hips. Tell them what you want them to do then say Zip it, Lock it, Put it in your pocket. To be quiet.
I think listening is one of the hardest skills to master.
I ring a bell.
I have a sign that I walk around with or hold up- when the kiddos see it the give the “time-out” sign with their hands.
I use a bell or other musical instrument to get the children’s attention. I think the best way to KEEP their attention is to PLAN fun activities that the children are actually interested in. Children learn best when they enjoy the topic at hand. Find out what your children enjoy by observing them at play and outside of the school day (if possible).
I try to incorporate active listening into transition times. To line up I might say- If your name starts with A line up or If you are wearing blue line up. This really gets my students to listen with a purpose!
If the noise level gets too loud in our prek class we will turn off the lights. It gets the children’s attention quickly without having to get loud myself or to try and scream above them. Once I have their attention then I talk in a lower voice and when they have responded appropriately the lights come back on.
I sometimes use the 1-2-3 Eyes on Me, but the most effective is when I say,”I love the way Kalyn is listening and Talan and Shelby, Then they all say How about me and within just a minute I have everyone’s attention.
I latched on to “Whole Brain Teaching” this year and just love it! To get my students’ attention I say , “Class” They say, “Yes”. If I say classity class..they say Yessity Yes. If I say Class-class class- class, They say Yes-yes, yes-yes, etc. Check out “whole Brain Teaching”. I love it!! It gives many wonderful ideas!
I use 1-2-3 eyes on me. The children have learned to stop and look at me. We then turn on our listening ears.
When we do our table work I begin the year with hands in your laps, wait for directions.
When I notice a child who is becoming distracted I look at them until they look at me and use 2 fingers under my eyes and add a wink. They are paying attention to me when they wink back. It usually makes me smile because so many of my 4’s can’t wink with one eye yet so they give me a 2 eyed wink,.
I clap in some kind of pattern. It might be three quick claps and two soft claps. This really gets thier attention becuase they have to listen to hear the pattern so they can repeat it.
I’ve used counting, clapping, and lights off too. What I find works well for fourth graders is to quietly wait.
When I need to quickly gain the attention from all the class I use “1-2-3 now everybody freeze” and everyone stops and looks at me..they love it..they stand, stop, look and listen….it really works…I have used the clap method,…(you have to wait for everyone to clap back, I have used the hand in the air,lights out, just waiting for everyone to stop and listen, complementing another students correct behavior, I have used I need all eyes and ears up here, I even tried holding up a stop sign before…needless to say what I have found that works consistently in all grade levels is the freeze game…I think it reminds them a playing freeze tag…I have yet to have a student who did not stop and listen…
This year’s class has a hard time listening. I turn off the lights, say one, two, three, eyes on me, but none of that works 100%. Waiting does not do it. If I lower my voice they don’t hear me. I like some of the suggestions other people have given. I may try one or two of those.
When my little students are not listening I begin to sing “Up and shut down, give a little clap….”
I agree with colleen. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Whole Brain teaching yet…take a few minutes to watch the intro videos. The class class is fun and a bit silly, that’s why my 4th graders love it. I have had to adjust it on occasion to ensure they stop and look at me…”classity class point at me” they reply “yessity yes happily” and they need to point at me. This way they are not just responding and continuing what they were doing (my class struggles with stopping when they don’t want to 🙂
Sometimes we’ll start with a song, “open, shut them, open, shut them, give a little clap clap clap…” It doesn’t always work though. I have found success with whispering, mainly because my kids have a tendency to be nosy. Since they don’t want to miss out on anything, as soon as I start whispering to one or two children more and more kids turn to listen. Right now it works for us.
Daily I use “Fast& Fun Mental Math” with my class. I could copy the pages for them but instead I choose to read it to them. It consists of ten daily questions. They respond on an answer sheet and then we check it together as a class. A couple of example questions would be “5 quarters + 2 dimes =?, what is halfway between 1/4 and 3/4?, What is the square root of 81?, etc.Each day has a different math theme (measurement, time, multiplication, etc.) It is a great way to review important math concepts and it really shows me who needs practice in listening. Sometimes a child will ask me to repeat the question after I have read it 3 or 4 times. A few can’t remember the important facts and figures…it really lets me know who needs to practice listening skills and who has it already. Since it is quick with ten questions, I could also use it for a math grade if I wanted. I love the book. It is for grades 4-8…but any teacher could make up their own questions for their particular grade and unit of study too!
I use a fake microphone sometimes and say, “Is this thing on? Can you hear me?” as I tap on it.
I use different voices for those times I want the kids to repeat after me: mommy voice, grandma, daddy voice, baby, British, southern drawl,etc.
Be careful with turning on/off lights – this can cause seizures for some children who are prone to it. There’s a cute item called yacker tracker that tracks the noise level in your class. It looks like a traffic light and has an optional alarm. A low tech take off of this would be to create your own levels of sound and corresponding color. Refer to it as needed. Ex. Take a red circle and say “we need rred(quiet) now. Use green for indoor voice ….. yellow for whisper etc.
We turn on our listening ear each morning… If someone isn’t listening, I help them change the batteries in their ears 🙂 I pretend to mess around kind of behind their ears, like I’m changing the batteries behind their ears. They do think it is funny, but I think they are starting to understand. I have had a few students come to me and say they needed help changing hteir batteies…
I usually raise my hand and the students know they are to raise their hand, close their mouths, and eyes on the teacher. Once they are trained, it works.
rainstick , tip it a few time they know it time to look and listen .
I usually say 1-2-3 eyes on me and they say, 1-2 eyes on you. Sometimes I just put my finger over my mouth (like quiet) and the first one to be quiet gets a sticker for their reward chart (if they fill it up they get to go to the treasure box). I have the no yell bell and sometimes I use that. I have to mix it up to keep them guessing and it keeps them from getting use to the same thing and not listening anymore.
I have a clap that the kids answer to, right after they hear mine they clap to answer and put a finger to their lips, look right at me to let me know now they are ready to listen. It has worked through out the years!
I tap my music tone bar and turn over my egg timer. The kids stop and freeze. If they freeze right away I have to give them 1 minute extra at centers. If I have to wait, then we loose that much time at centers. They love the game and try to freeze immediately.
just start a little song to a familiar tune, what’s next,what’s next. clean up, clean up. face up for snack time,wash up for snack time, sit right down, sit right down. it can be for any transition time, just change the words.
I start saying this action song: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, hands in your lap, and freeze. You can add other actions if it takes more than that to get their attention. But this usually works for my preschool class. They love any song with actions.
With my ‘normal voice,’ I state directions that students have to follow such as “Touch your nose if you are listening. Clap three times if you can hear me. Smile big if you are ready to begin. Show me thumbs us if you are ready to learn.” Those students who are actively listening, follow my directions to the tee, and soon enough, the rest of the class will follow. It works for any age group. I use it with my toddler and preschooler at home as well as the older kids in fourth/fifth grade. I make sure I modify the actions/directions appropriately. And I also make sure I vary the tone, pitch and loudness of my voice.
I ask in my normal voice, If you can hear me, clap once then clap one time. Then I say, If you can hear me clap twice and clap two times. This does work!