Classroom Management – Helping Teachers Grow

This one’s fresh, my friends!  I was inspired and tried this little trick today, and it really worked!  If you’ve ever struggled to get your students to really, actively listen to each other, then try this little trick.

In class, we’re reading the novel, Ender’s Game.  Great book.  My 7th graders love it.  During one of our written reflections, I had my students share their responses with everyone at their table.  Typical stuff, I know.  But this time, when it came time to share with the class, I had the students share something they’d heard from another student rather than sharing what he or she had written.

This proved to be quite challenging!  More often than not, the students couldn’t remember anything that their other table mates had shared with them.  I told them to share again, only this time, each student needed to be an active listener since each of them would be responsible for sharing what someone else had written.

The conversations and sharing proceeded again, only with more energy, more interest, and greater levels of participation.  Afterwards, I asked the students if they could tell the difference between their earlier passive listening and their newer more active listening.  Sure enough, they could!

I often try to get the students to break out of their “private movie where each of them is the superstar and everyone else is an extra in their move” but it can be difficult.  This little listening exercise really seemed to help- both them and me!

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Darren