Let's talk about listening!! I know that's something that my students struggle with, and I don't think it's unique to EBs. Here are some things you can do to facilitate effective listening and listening skills in your students.
- When giving verbal instructions, provide written ones as well. This will help EBs who may not catch spoken directions, and also provide a connection between words that you are saying and words that they are reading.
- As you explain how to do something, model it if possible. That will help EBs understand better what you are saying because they can see it as well.
- Model good listening skills with your students: actually listening instead of just thinking of your response, letting students finish instead of cutting them off, giving a student who is talking your full attention, etc.
- Explicitly talk about the qualities of a good listener. You could also share research results or show a video about the importance of listening.
- Tell students what they are listening for before you talk. Give them a goal.
- Share your expectations for how to listen, e.g. head up, eyes on you, pencil in hand, etc.
- After explaining something, immediately follow up with accountability. Have a student summarize what you said, answer a question, or model what they are supposed to do.
- Be as brief as possible! (Something I could work on...)
- To the extent possible, don't repeat yourself. Students will need time to adjust to this, but stick to it, and they'll get that you mean it! One way to facilitate this is to make sure that you have students' attention before you speak. They will soon learn to listen more attentively and problem-solve independently (like asking a classmate) if they didn't hear. You can also simply point to the written directions if you utilize them as well.
- This is more for native English speakers than EBs; they will sometimes need things repeated. But you could do that individually at students' desks if needed or to the whole class if you have many in one class.
- Be aware of the demographics and environment of each individual class. One may have a lot more EBs/students with disabilities, in which you may need to focus more on listening strategies. Another class may have many rowdy students who talk over each other, so you'll have to talk about respect and the importance of listening. If you have a class with many high-level students, you could try the no-repeating strategy. It just depends on each individual class!
Pick one of these strategies and let me know how it goes! I'm usually pretty good at providing instructions in writing, but I am guilty of repeating myself probably too many times. I'm going to try to cut down on that this week by making sure I have my class' attention before I speak!