© Swanshurst School

Get your students listening!

© Swanshurst School

Teaching listening

• Plan for active listening. • Model good listening. • Teach listening skills explicitly. • Teach note-taking to select and transform

information and to aid memory.

© Swanshurst School

A sequence for teaching listening

• Activate prior knowledge • Cue pupils in to genre/content • Establish purpose/objective • Model the process • Provide support for focused listening e.g. a

note taking frame • Review the learning

© Swanshurst School

10 teaching strategies

1. Provide a clear focus or hook to structure listening.

2. Use clear strategies for reporting back, such as jigsaw groups, etc.

3. Many activities are ideally suited to brief sections of a lesson, e.g. starter activities in English.

4. Ask pupils to respond physically – raise hands, stand up – every time they hear relevant items of information, or specific language features.

5. Make note-taking collaborative by numbering pupils 1 to …. Ask all the number 1s to listen for and record certain items of information, number another focus, etc. Groups then jigsaw to collate and present.

6. Ask pupils to listen to a passage and respond to/record either verifiablefacts or matters of opinion. They should justify their decisions and discuss any tricky points.

7. Ask pupils to identify and jot down a limited number of key words or phrases (and no more) in a piece of information (e.g. six).

8. Ask pupils to record information using a specific device such as a chart (e.g. who, what, where, when, how and why or cause, effect, location), grid, spider diagram, pictorial diagram with labels, a table, etc.

9. Use listening strategies to focus on and reinforce literacy objectives in all subject areas.

10. Model good listening.