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School Success

A Teacher and Tutor eGuide to Help the Older Student with Limited Listening Comprehension

Carmen Y. Reyes

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Contents Introduction Alternative Teaching Techniques to Improve Listening Skills Alternative Teaching Techniques to Increase Understanding of Oral Directions About the Author Discover other titles by this author at Smashwords.com

Introduction The classroom experience is an oral language experience. Students acquire new knowledge and skills primarily through verbal communication, and the ability to learn strongly reflects how well students respond to the information presented orally. Students benefit when they understand that hearing and listening are two different behaviors, and that listening is a skill that they can learn and/or improve. Students also need to be aware of how their own listening behaviors facilitate or inhibit their learning. Weak listeners, in particular, benefit greatly from a scaffolded, supportive approach, coupled with the explicit teaching of strategies for becoming good listeners, both presented next. Alternative Teaching Techniques to Improve Listening Skills Clearly and explicitly, distinguish the most important information from what is less important. Focus on the essential information. Eliminate the information that is not essential for the student to be able to learn or to understand the concept. Decide what you want the child to learn from the lesson. Tell the child exactly what you expect him to remember. Directly tell the child which points are important. For example, say, These are the three points that you need to remember Present the information in a way that highlights what is important; that is, what the student must pay attention to. Train the child to recognize main points or main ideas. Every five minutes, stop the lecture and ask, What is my main point? Train the child to recognize supportive details to the main points or main ideas. Once the child identifies the main idea, ask, What details you just heard that are supporting the main idea? Alternatively, ask, Did you hear any supporting details? Reinforce the childs understanding of main ideas and details by asking questions such as: 1. Am I making any sense to you? 2. Do you hear a main point?

3. Tell me my main point If the child produces details instead of main ideas, ask, Is that a main point/idea or a detail? Alternatively, What makes that sentence a detail instead of a main idea? Have the child listen to short paragraphs and identify the theme (main idea). Teach the student to prioritize (e.g. listing) the more important information from the less important information. Verbally organize the information, e.g., First, second, and now the most important point Divide complex auditory material into smaller, more manageable parts using numbers or steps. Give attention clues to prepare the student to listen. To help the student focus, use verbal cues to alert the child that you are going to say something important. For example, say, This will be on the test or Listen. This is important. To help maintain focus, explicitly transition the child from one task, topic, or subject to the next. Say, Okay, we are done with _____. Now, we are moving to _____. Provide systematic review within a few hours of learning. Before introducing new information, review previous information from the last lesson. Use planned repetition of those concepts or material that is important for the student to learn. Increase repetition by giving the child extra opportunities to perform and/or practice tasks previously learned. Make reviewing an essential component of your instructional programming. 1. Establish a review corner in your classroom; an area where students go to review or practice taught lessons or skills. 2. Have worksheets ready from completed activities or lessons for students to review and extra practice.

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Assign homework that includes or focuses on reviewing skills taught days, weeks, or months earlier.

Preview the key ideas that you are going to teach, so that the student knows what to listen for. Help the student pay attention to specific auditory information or key words by: A. Slightly exaggerating and/or changing your voices inflection (pitch or tone) B. Slightly increasing and/or changing the volume of your voice; that is, changing your speaking rate. Develop awareness and interpretation of voice tones. To accomplish this, repeat the same word, phrase, or sentence, changing the tone and temperament. The student identifies when your voice sounds angry, excited, scared, etc. Train the student to notice how placing vocal stress on a specific word or phrase changes the meaning of the whole sentence. Examples:
1. 2.

I wish I could fly that airplane. I wish I could fly that airplane.

When you first introduce a concept, present the new information slower than you would normally do when you are speaking about familiar concepts. Directly speak to the student about the topic of listening. Make sure the student is aware of poor listening behaviors that inhibit learning, e.g. fidgeting, distraction by noises or sights, faking listening by simply staring at the book, and daydreaming. Make sure the student understands that, like in reading, listening is an active and purposeful process. Active listening has a goal or intention for listening, pays attention to main ideas, pays attention to details, follows the sequence of ideas, and pays attention to transitional or signal words. Teach the student strategies for becoming a good listener. Some strategies that you can discuss and display in your classroom are: 1. Look at the speaker
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Pay attention to the speakers facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice for clues to meaning Echo (repeat) what you hear in your mind

3.

4. 5.

Mentally paraphrase what you hear Ask yourself, Do I understand this? Ask questions (or write your questions) if you are confused Mentally summarize (or write or sketch) the speakers main points

6.

Make sure the student understands that active listening is not about word-for-word memorization. It is not necessary to hear, understand, and remember every word the speaker says. Teach the child to listen for meanings and to remember key information. Train the child to sketch (draw), illustrating the message of the speaker. Older students with low auditory analysis skills do not seem to grasp the relationship between, for example, a where question and a place answer, or between when and time. For example, you ask the child for a place (where) and he produces a date (when) or a name (who). To reinforce understanding of the relationship between the kinds of questions asked and the responses that the child produces, display a set of Wh- word cards (Who? Where? When? What? Why?). Read aloud phrases that answer any of the Wh- questions and have the student match (by raising his hand, pointing to, or telling) each phrase with the right Whquestion. Examples:

Next year: When? The visitors: Who? In the nest: Where?

Encourage the student to answer who, where, when, what, and why questions about longer oral stories or narratives. (You read the stories aloud.) Make sure the child understands that, when you ask a why question, he must produce a because answer. Teach the child to analyze stories using a simple story grammar, for example, Who is the story about? What is he/she trying to do? What happens when he/she tries to do it?

What happens in the end?

When delivering your lessons, write on the chalkboard (or chart) and follow this outline:

Who? Where? When? What? How? Why? Point to each Wh- question when you are referring to it; for example, when you mention a story character or historical figure, point to Who? To improve retention and comprehension of material presented orally, teach the student to take notes following the same Who, Where, When, What, How, and Why outline. From this outline, the child can tell or write a four-to-five sentences summary. Frequently stop at key points to check that the student understands the material. When presenting more complex auditory information or new concepts, pause often to give the student the time to assimilate and process the information. Depending on the complexity of the information delivered, use planned pauses between words, between phrases, or between longer linguistic units (sentences). Reduce the amount of verbal information that you present at one time. Break down one longer lesson into two or more mini-lessons, and deliver it in smaller chunks. Cut one longer lesson in half. For example, rather than discussing the seven major religions in a single lesson, split it into four and three, presented on two separate lessons. Present the abstract information reduced to chunks. Examples: 1. What did the character, Anna, says that disappointed Brian: _____, ______, or _____? 2. Can you figure out who broke Grammys window: _____, _____, or _____? What are the clues that help you figure out this information? 3. The main idea of this article is that: _____, _____, or _____.

You can reduce the amount of information that the child needs to assimilate and remember by teaching the child to organize the information into categories. For example, orange, apple, celery, banana, carrot, pineapple, spinach, and beet are easier to remember when the child categorizes as four fruits (orange, apple, banana, and pineapple) and four vegetables (celery, carrot, spinach, and beet). Teach the child to use key words or categories to organize his ideas and thoughts, so that they are easier to remember. Use associations to help the student retain the material presented verbally. Link the information (concepts), finding the associated features or what is similar. Present verbal material in an associative environment; that is, give additional information, describe it, identify other items in the category, and give examples. Use examples to illustrate the verbal material. With the student, create effective associations, ensuring that you clearly state the connection among the pieces of information. Connect old material or concepts with new material or concepts. Review related material before presenting new information. Help the student relate the new information to her existing knowledge and life experiences. When you teach with stories and personal experiences, you are providing a rich associative context. The child will process easier any complex and/or important information when she can relate and connect the information with her personal experiences. Train the student to ask for a cue (e.g. first sound of the word), and associative information (e.g. description or an example). Teach organizational patterns, so that the student knows how to organize the information in a meaningful way. Make sure the child is familiar with organizational patterns such as main idea and details time order cause and effect comparing and contrasting

problem solving Make the child aware that he can organize the same information in different ways (using different organizational patterns), and he can organize different information, or information from different sources, the same way (using the same organizational pattern). Make the child aware that different types of content can be organized differently. Provide plenty oral and written practice in organizing the information: in sequence (what happened first, next, last) by main idea and supportive details by category (which items belong in the category) descriptively (topic sentence and description of attributes) Give the child plenty oral and written practice in classifying and categorizing the information. Give the child a structure for organizing concepts and/or taking notes, for example, a systematic (step-by-step) numbered list or an outline. Make comparisons to illustrate new vocabulary and concepts. When delivering auditory information, you need to consider both the complexity of the information and its length. Use shorter sentences and less complex vocabulary to describe the concept or to explain it. When you present auditory information, take into account meaningfulness. Present the topic in a way that is relevant to the student and discuss the purpose for learning or doing the task. Relate the information to the childs environment. Provide visual reinforcement to support the verbal information, e.g. pictures, charts, drawings or sketches on the chalkboard, movies, diagrams on the overhead projector, outlines, modeling the steps, and using gestures. Provide simultaneous verbal-visual presentation, making sure that the visual information matches the auditory information. Write key words or key phrases on the chalkboard or chart. While you explain it, point to the printed information.

Point to the section on the textbook or chalkboard where the child is going to find the relevant information. For a reading aloud, the Look First technique greatly enhances comprehension. Before you read, describe, and analyze the story, show the pictures included in the story. For each picture you show, the student mentally asks, What this picture is showing or telling me? What clues are included in this picture? Alternatively, you ask the questions while showing each picture, pointing silently to key details or clues in the picture. Then, using the picture cues, the child predicts story structure elements such as characters, setting, problem, and main events. After the child predicts, you read aloud the story to confirm or revise the predictions. Similarly, you can use the look first technique to introduce and/or reinforce any topic or concept. First, the student looks at the pre-prepared visual display (e.g. diagram, graph, or picture). Then, point to the section of the visual you are going to talk about and/or are showing key details, or draw a frame around the section with your finger. When the student has had enough time to look at the visual, both as a whole and framed, describe the visual and/or explain it briefly. After a brief oral presentation, direct the student to look at the visual again. Provide visual imaging of the verbal material. Teach the student to draw mental pictures of what she hears. Reinforce visual imaging of the verbal content by periodically telling the child, Picture this or Imagine this. Teach the child to visualize the information as if it were a movie. Then, the child plays it back mentally when she needs to verbalize the information or answer questions. Use predicting strategies in all your listening activities. To enhance comprehension of the listening material, regularly have the child make inferences based on prior knowledge and experiences. Vocabulary knowledge or word meanings, is a key element in comprehending what is heard or read. To build oral language vocabulary, refer to the guidelines and activities listed on my article School Success: A Teacher and Tutor eGuide to Help the Older Student with Limited Vocabulary Knowledge. To download this article free, go to my collection of articles for Struggling Learners: http://www.scribd.com/my_document_collections/2676769

Pre-teach new vocabulary and concepts before discussing and/or analyzing the material. When delivering a lesson, help the student organize what she hears by using a partially filled outline as a listening guide. The outline should include main ideas and one or two details. As the child listens, she fills-in the missing details. After ample practice, challenge the child to produce one or more main ideas and all key details. Before your lesson, write 3-to-5 key points on the board and read aloud (e.g. These are the most important points of this lesson). At the end of the lesson, use the information on the board to review and summarize the lesson. Begin your lesson with an advanced organizer (on chalkboard) that includes the main points/important topics and what the child is going to learn. For example, at the end of this lesson, you will learn: (a) a timeline of the World War 2, (b) the countries involved, and (c) which country surrendered ending the war. Teach the student to use reauditorization, that is, to repeat mentally the key information or steps (Say it quietly in your head). Use auditory redundancy by rephrasing the key information. For example, Starfish are invertebrates, which mean they do not have a backbone. Most starfish have five arms that stick out from their bodies. Invertebrates do not have a backbone or a spinal column. Use auditory redundancy by having the student repeat the information after you. Use auditory redundancy like repetition, restating, and rephrasing to refresh the verbal information. Provide multiple representations of the same concept or topic, ensuring that the child uses more than one sensory modality in learning the concept. For example, you model the concept (seeing), explain the concept (hearing), and then the student draws a diagram (doing and seeing). Enhance comprehension of complex auditory information by using both a topdown (showing the big picture and filling-in the details) and a bottom-up (showing the individual components and then putting those elements together) approaches. Start with either one and then reinforce the information with the other approach.

Provide quickly (five-to-ten minutes) auditory training tasks as part of your remedial aid routine. Regularly, do exercises such as: 1. You say a string of words, omitting a different word each time. The student must tell the missing word.
2.

You say a string of random letters or numbers, asking the student to repeat the letters or numbers in the same way (order) you said them. Add or leave any letter or number and ask, What did I leave out? and What did I add? Make it longer, for example, you start with a string of three letters and increase to ten letters, and/or harder (add or delete more than one letter or number at a time). Pronounce a string of random letters or numbers. Ask questions such as, What letter was second? What letter was last? What letter you heard after p? What letter you heard before f? Alternatively, What was the first number?

3.

Have the child listen to mysteries (stories) to identify the information that is missing to solve the mystery. Ask a few questions for the child to think about as he listens to a lecture or a story. This narrows the amount of information for the child to listen and pay attention. To decrease inattention, tell the student that you will ask her a question, or you are going to ask her to summarize the information. Ask the question in advance, so that the child knows what to listen for. Refine listening skills in your classroom even further by calling on any student to tell the class what the childs partner just said, rather than own account. Avoid asking run-on, multiple questions. The educational literature indicates that students respond to questions more appropriately when teachers allow five-to-ten seconds of thinking time before the child answers. When you are testing listening comprehension, ask short questions and make sure that you give extra time for responding. To check comprehension, avoid asking questions such as, Is that clear? or Did you understand that? This kind of questioning only requires a yes or no

answer that is not going to clarify the childs understanding. Instead, ask for a verbal account (summary) of what was said. Break the oral story or verbal narrative into smaller parts and ask the child one or two questions, or ask for a brief summary of what you just said. Do oral paragraphs restatements; that is, for each paragraph, the student tells both the most important person and the most important event in the paragraph. To increase the childs understanding, rephrase your questions. Too much information may interfere with comprehension. Simplify a longer question by deleting information that it is not necessary to grasp meaning. For example, simplify a question such as, Why is it important for the monarch butterfly to fly back north after the milkweed plants have grown and not before? to, Why is it important for the monarchs to fly back north after the milkweed plants have grown? Simplify one longer question into two-to-three smaller questions. Use the smaller questions to build up one answer that is more complete. Continuing with the monarchs example, you can lead the student to focus on the right information with questions such as: 1. What would happen if the monarchs fly back north before the milkweeds have grown? (They cannot lay their eggs.) 2. What happens after the milkweed plants have grown? (The monarchs lay their eggs and then they die. The caterpillars feed on milkweed leaves.) 3. So, why is it important for the monarchs to fly back after the milkweed plants have grown? (So that they can lay their eggs before dying. This starts the next generation of monarchs.) Alternative Teaching Techniques to Increase Understanding of Oral Directions To increase understanding, present your directions in a variety of ways, e.g. verbal, written, demonstrating, and/or with pictures. When you give oral directions, write key words, phrases, or a list of steps on the chalkboard. Avoid giving multiple commands; that is, telling the child to do too many things at once.

Have the student write one keyword for each step. Reinforce the directions that you give orally with visual input. Point to the section on the visual (e.g. book, picture, chart, overhead projector, or chalkboard) where the child can see the relevant information. Use shorter sentences, including only the pertinent information. Gesture in the direction (point to) of the key objects or places that are part of your instructions. In order to increase understanding, rephrase your directions. Simplify the understanding of instructions or new concepts by replacing complex vocabulary with easier vocabulary. For example, you can write on the chalkboard or tell the child, Illustrate means to make a drawing, Interlock= join closely, or Elastic is like a rubber band. Simplify directions or new concepts by rephrasing using synonyms. To provide extra auditory support, use reauditorization, that is, ask the child to repeat the instructions orally. Have the student paraphrase the directions so that you can clarify. After you give the directions, ask, How many things do you need to do? To help the child in correctly sequencing the directions, use ordinal numbers (first, second, third) with pauses in-between numbers. Hold up one finger, two fingers, and then three fingers to reinforce visually the sequence. Have the child count the number of steps, telling you how many steps, and then repeat each step as he holds up one finger; one step to finger. Make sure that you give the directions in the same order the child must carry them out. Use your voice for emphasis, increasing the volume on ordinal numbers and other key words or phrases. Give the directions right before the assignment or activity. Have the child visualize herself carrying out the directions. Tell the child to close her eyes as she listens. With her eyes closed, the child pictures herself doing the things required in the directions.

Although the student may be able to repeat the directions verbatim, in some cases, you need to show the child exactly what to do in a systematic or step-by-step fashion. Train the student to say, I understand _____, but I am confused with _____. Develop a previously established signal (e.g. clapping hands or switching the lights off and on) that you use every time you are about to give verbal directions. Gain the childs attention first (e.g. calling her name or touching the child on the shoulder), and only then give your directions. To help develop auditory memory, use planned delays. Have the student wait for a signal or a cue word (e.g. Start, Now, or Go) to carry out the directions. Deliver instructions in smaller parts, one at a time, with pauses between the parts. Give one-step or direction to perform at a time. Allow the student to complete the step before adding a new one. Example, Get your math book. (Student does.) Turn to page 157. (Student does.) Do problems six through twelve. Help the student hear and see complex auditory directions by putting them into simpler flowcharts or diagrams. Divide complex directions into parts or sections of no more than three steps each. Enhance the childs ability to carry out multiple steps auditory directions by increasing the number of key elements for the child to pay attention at a time. For example,
1. 2. 3. 4.

Color the triangle Color the smallest triangle Color the first triangle yellow Color the largest triangle with blue stripes.

Give training in carrying out multistep auditory directions. Start with one command and then add to it. For example, 1. Give Mark a ruler. 2. Give Mark a ruler and give Casey a sharpener.
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Give Mark a ruler, give Casey a sharpener, and then give me a pencil.

Give ample training in carrying out conditional directions. Examples:

1. If the light is off, clap twice. 2. If seventeen plus six, is less than twenty-eight, draw a square on your paper. 3. If Mexico is in Europe, fold your paper in half. Use redundant preparatory statements, for example, Next, we are going to learn about the parts of a tree. We will read pages 22 and 23, study the diagram on page 23, and then, complete the matching exercise at the bottom of page 23. So, next, we will read about the parts of a tree, study the diagram, and then do a matching exercise.

About the Author Carmen Y. Reyes, The Psycho-Educational Teacher, has more than twenty years of experience as a self-contained special education teacher, resource room teacher, and educational diagnostician. Carmen has taught at all grade levels, from kindergarten to post secondary. Carmen is an expert in the application of behavior management strategies, and in teaching students with learning or behavior problems. Her classroom background, in New York City and her native Puerto Rico, includes ten years teaching emotionally disturbed/behaviorally disordered children and four years teaching students with a learning disability or low cognitive functioning. Carmen has a bachelors degree in psychology (University of Puerto Rico) and a masters degree in special education with a specialization in emotional disorders (Long Island University, Brooklyn: NY). She also has extensive graduate training in psychology (30+ credits). Carmen is the author of 60+ books and articles in psycho-education, and in alternative teaching techniques for low-achieving students. To read the complete collection of articles, download free skill-building eguides, and download free lesson plans, visit Carmens blog, The Psycho-Educational Teacher.

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