Listening Step 1

Listening: The receiving, retaining and processing of information or ideas.

Step 1: I listen to others and can remember short instructions.

Outcomes

To achieve Step 1, learners will demonstrate that they can listen to and recall a short series of instructions.

This starts to focus on the retention of information as they are listening.

Learners need to be able to:

Why recalling instructions matters
How to concentrate and focus
How to store and recall simple instructions

Introduction

Instructions mean being told what you need to do.
There are lots of different instructions we follow in life and sport, such as to learn how to score a penalty or how to get somewhere if you don't want to get lost.
We need to listen to them carefully to make sure we follow all the steps. If we do so then we will be successful at the task.

Skill Starter

Bean Game

Whilst moving around the room, the group must listen to instructions from the coach and make a corresponding bean-related movement to show they have listened and understood:

· Baked bean – get into a ball on the floor

· Green bean – lay on the floor and stretch out vertically

· Runner bean – jog around the room

· Kidney bean – stand still and put hands on kidneys (waist)

· Has been – repeat previous action

10 mins

Group activity

Active

Teach & Apply

Sometimes people struggle to listen to instructions because they think they already know what to do or they are distracted by things around them.
To help them remember instructions, learners should:
- Stop anything that might be a distraction.
- Focus on the speaker by looking at them.
- Repeat the instructions in their head several times.

To help things to stick in our long-term memories we can:
- Think about whether the instructions are similar to any we already know – for example, how we play different games.
- Imagine ourselves completing the task by following instructions.

Optional Activity

Multi-coloured Mastermind

Learners get into pairs. Each pair is given post-it notes and a set of 4 coloured spot markers which they should lay on the floor in a square. One learner will be the ‘Voice’ whilst the other will be the ‘Brain’. The Voice should come up with a colour sequence, e.g. red, blue, red, green, and write it on a post-it. The voice then reads out the sequence to the Brain, who must remember it and stand on the spot markers in the correct order.

Once the Brain completes a sequence of 4 colours, one colour is added by the Voice and the instructions are read out again for the Brain to remember and complete. This continues until the Brain has made their third mistake, at which point the learners swap roles and restart.

Group discussion: “What strategies can we use to be successful?”

15 mins

Paired activity

Active

Reflection & Assessment

Embed these strategies across your teaching and coaching to help learners apply what they’ve learnt.

Suggest to learners that they repeat instructions to themselves verbally or in the mind to help them to remember.

Use these ideas for ways of assessing this skill step to help you check learners’ understanding and confidence.

Do learners become more focused when hearing instructions and improve their memory of these instructions as they progress?
Ask these reflective questions:
- When do you have to remember instructions?
- Why is it important that you do so accurately?
- What could you do to better listen to instructions?