Elements of Active Listening
- Goal: Learn the elements of active listening.
- Task: In pairs - Partner A Briefly describe to Partner B a situation you have found yourself in at school where there was some type of dispute or disagreement (i.e. with a student over a grade, with a parent over a miscommunication). Both partners will use this guide to determine which elements of active listening were used emotional labeling, open-ended questions, minimal encouragers, reflecting and mirroring, "I" messages, para-phrasing, summarize, effective pauses and silence
Repeat. Partner A should again describe their situation. This time, Partner B should purposefully use two elements of active listening.
- Reflection: When and how might you use these elements in the classroom? In everyday life?
- Variation: Explicit Teaching - Learn the elements of active listening with a personal scenario; Implicit Teaching - Practice the elements of active listening with subject content (i.e. As a review activity, actively listen to your partner explain a concept.); Role play: participants are crisis managers